36

Crabapple Cove, Maine
Christmas 1984

"Sidney, you've got to talk to Elizabeth," pleaded Margaret.

"She refuses to come downstairs and join us," said Peg.

"Elizabeth and the kids have been staying here since Thanksgiving, and she wakes up every night screaming," explained Hawkeye.

"Peg, B.J. how are you two doing?

"Better, but if it weren't for Elizabeth and the kids I don't know how we would make it, they are our strength," said Peg.

"We just take it one day at a time. We no longer grieve, but we now celebrate his life," B.J. told Sidney.

We would be better if Elizabeth was back to her old bubbly self."

"I'll go talk to her."

"Thank you Sidney," the four said in unison.

Dr. Sidney Freedman walked up the stairs and down the long hallway to Elizabeth Hunnicutt's childhood bedroom. As he approached the door he could hear a muffled cry coming from her room.

"Elizabeth, may I come in?"

"Sure Uncle Sidney, come on in."

He walked in and noticed Elizabeth's eyes were swollen and puffy, and that there was an empty bottle of bourbon on the floor.

"Bourbon I see."

"So."

"Why the need for bourbon?"

"You know, Ben proposed to me on Christmas Eve."

"I know I'll never forget how happy you were that night. How are you sleeping?"

"On my side."

"Your Father tells me you've been having nightmares."

"Does he?"

"He also tells me you wake up screaming at night."

"Yea."

"You know you Father drank bourbon in Korea."

"No he didn't, he drinks martinis, when he drinks: which is rare."

"I think you Pierces have a tendency to turn to bourbon when things get tough."

"Oh that's nice to know."

"Care to tell me what happened that night?"

"Nope."

"You can do this."

"Do what?"

"Isolating yourself from all those who care and turning to alcohol for refuge."

"Fine do you want to know what happened?"

"If you want to tell me."

"We were driving to Boston from New York after my movie's premier in New York. We wanted to drive so we could show everyone my new car. It was beautiful, candy apple red with tan leather seats and a tan convertible top, and of course I got it fully loaded. I was too nervous to drive it that far considering I'd only had it about a week, so Ben offered to drive. Neither of us had anything to drink that night knowing we would have to drive. We left the kids in Maine with Mom and Dad for the a two days while we were in New York at the premier, and then we would meet them in Boston after the premier. It was a beautiful night the stars lit up the sky, and it had just turned midnight as we entered Boston. We weren't too far from the Uncle Charles and Aunt Isabella's when it happened. The light was green and then we proceeded through. I looked to my right and saw a blue car coming from us, and it wasn't stopping at the light, it was going faster, and I said to Ben, "Move! Go! Get out of the way!" and he said to me that the car had stalled. I kept thinking this a brand new car how could it stall? The blue car kept getting closer and finally when he got the car in gear we had moved out of the car's way so we thought, but the car turned the corner too fast and I remember letting out a panicked scream. The next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital bed finding out that he was dead. I lost a baby that night too. I was two months pregnant and we wanted to wait to tell everyone that night when we got there. No one knew except Ben and I, I lost so much that night," at this point she was crying hysterically and the she looked at Sidney with the same look in her eyes that her father had in his when Sidney had him recall the incident on the bus over thirty years ago and said, "Why did you make me remember that?"

"The worst part is over."

"I sure hope so."

"I'm not telling you to stop grieving him but you need to celebrate his life rather than mourn his death. Everyone misses you."

"They do?"

"Of course, they do they love you."

"I'd like to go downstairs."

"That's a good sign."

"Thank you, Uncle Sidney."

"Your welcome."

"I'll never stop loving him nor will I ever forget him," she said. Then she bent over and picked up the empty bottle of bourbon, held it up and said, "And this, I want no more of it, I've got to keep on living. I have children and too many people who care about me."

"You sure do."

"Yea I sure do."

"Are you ready to go and join the party."

"Yea, my children need their mother, my parents need their daughter, and B.J. and Peg need their son's wife, and I need them and I need to be happy, that's what Ben would of wanted."

Sidney and Elizabeth walked downstairs to join everyone. It was the first time Elizabeth smiled in over a year. Dr. Sidney Freedman always seemed to help people overcome, he helped Hawk overcome the horror he saw and Elizabeth come to terms with her greatest loss.