Love's Awakening by Stuart Kelly Page B

past hour not to look overlong at her. She had laughed a lot with Sebastian, and by default, with Oliver too. Her eyes shone in a way Oliver had not noticed until Celia visited him at Azizi. Celia looked at him differently these days. Oliver existed for her now. Before the kiss, Celia had not been interested in Oliver as a man, as anyone more than her husband’s son.
    Oliver hoped he had not opened a can of worms with the kiss. Bad enough that he had to pine after Celia. He did not want Celia pining for him, too. Why did the kiss have to be so good? So incredible, so perfect? It means nothing, just that the both of us are really good kissers.
    “Hey, Oliver,” Celia said. “It’s good to see you again.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. I forgot to tell you this. Remember what you said about cows? Their eyes? I’ve been looking at pictures of cows. You’re right, their eyes are calming.”
    “Told you so,” Oliver said with a grin. “I’m never wrong.”
    Celia laughed. “Me either. Never, never wrong.”
    It would be so easy for Oliver to put his hand on Celia’s knee, lean over and kiss her. Shit . Oliver’s brain felt like a crinkly old map. Handled and folded so many times it was faded and useless. He needed to stop overthinking the situation. Needed to stop lusting after his father’s wife.
    “Nothing happened at my apartment,” Oliver said. “Understand?”
    Celia licked her lips. “You mean the…the thing in your kitchen?”
    “It didn’t happen.”
    Celia crumpled her Snickers wrapper. It had lain untouched for the past hour. “Okay,” she said slowly. “It didn’t happen.”
    “Right. Didn’t happen.” An affair would wreck him and Celia, and she deserved better.
    Crinkle crinkle crinkle went Celia’s hand with the wrapper, and Oliver pressed his hand over Celia’s, steadying it.
    “Does Sebastian have a penis?” Celia asked.
    “Nah. Some FTMs do, but the surgery isn’t quite there yet, especially to retain sensation. Maybe later.”
    “He…Sebastian told me the name your father chose. The female name. Karen Alice.”
    Oliver turned the name over in his mouth and in his head. Karen Alice. Karen Alice. David Patrick Hall becomes Karen Alice Hall. “It’s nice,” he said at last.
    “I suppose.”
    Celia made no move to separate their hands, and neither did Oliver.

Chapter Ten
    Celia had nothing against parades, and as far as they went, the St. Patrick’s Day parades were tops. They were not as showy or as glittery as the Thanksgiving and Christmas parades and did not take themselves seriously. People cheered loudly for Democratic and Republican politicians alike.
    The parade of doctors about two months after the car crash reminded Celia of a parade staple, the clowns who fit into tiny cars, doctor-clowns with long faces and exaggerated frowns. The grave doctor-clowns showed Celia and the rest of the family brain scan after brain scan and explained that David’s brain stem was fine—but there was no cortical activity. Nothing was happening in David’s brain. Nothing could happen. The doctors liked to talk, their voices low, somber and all-knowing.
    David was in what doctors suspected was a vegetative state. He was operating solely because of his automatic body functions. Only a feeding tube kept him alive.
    The doctors blathered lots of information and handed over stacks of papers filled with “facts” and statistics. Shirley found her own doctors. They said the same things.
    Celia memorized the basics:
    — Most persistent vegetative state patients have no perception of external stimuli and cannot respond to such stimuli.
    — Any movement or seeming response to external stimuli is purely coincidental. Don’t look for patterns. They’re not there.
    — PVS patients have normal sleep-wake cycles. They are capable of moving their limbs, although only as a reflex. They can open their eyes and smile. It may seem like they are tracking objects or people with their eyes. Don’t delude