TWO OF A KIND

Two of a Kind


SHE ...

Her breath was labored, aching. She couldn’t play on the swing set and monkey bars like the other kids. She wanted to know why.

“Rheumatic heart disease happens when the heart valves are damaged by a process that begins with a strep throat from streptococcal infection. It usually occurs in children five to fifteen years old. The resulting rheumatic heart disease can last for life.”

Her father explained this to his daughter in simpler terms for the first time when she was seven. Now she knew, but she didn’t understand.

HE ...

He hit baseballs harder and further than anyone. He could see the stitches spin; spot the ‘Spalding Official’ written on its sweet spot. When he cut his bat through the strike zone, the ball ricocheted off the metal like a rocket. Everyone knew he’d be a star in high school, yet he was only eight. Then, on Fourth of July while messing around with fireworks, gunpowder flashed in his eyes, stealing his vision.

Four years later, he was taken to the Mayo Clinic, where a world-renowned ophthalmologist performed a nine-hour operation. By the time he was a teenager, his sight returned.

No young man on Earth could’ve been more grateful. Though he could no longer play baseball the way he dreamed, in Yankee Stadium, belting home runs in pinstripes, he was nonetheless as joyful as any person you could imagine. At holidays, he organized school drives to help the needy, and always talked with old people, making them feel worthwhile, alive.

He was a good kid. “The best,” his junior high principal beamed.

SHE ...

By 13, her heart progressively weakened, the stays in the hospital lengthened, and she had run out of options. Without a donor and an operation, she wouldn’t survive the month.

Her parents loved her so. She never once complained about her condition. The fact she was cheated and not allowed to live a normal life like all her friends never made her frown. Adults who met her were overwhelmed by her soul, her strength, and her inspiration. She noticed their eyes when they talked to her, how they glistened, but she never knew exactly why. She just thought all adults were that way.

The days were precious, dwindling. She knew from her body’s deterioration, she hadn’t much time. No one was telling her so, but she saw it on every face entering her hospital room. They fluffed her pillows, brought her magazines and videos, candy and CDs. They brought her everything but the Truth and, most importantly, Hope.

Then, the miracle happened: a heart was found--a strong, healthy, vibrant one. It matched her to a ‘T’. For all her bad fortune, she couldn’t have got luckier.

The transplant went like a pit crew changing a tire. The organ bonded to her system and she was out of the hospital faster than anyone predicted. Her family never forgot how blessed they were, and she grew up into the most remarkable girl inside and out.

HE ...

In high school, he was class president and voted ‘most visionary.’ The ironic accolade made him and his family laugh. Next, he was off to college, where he wanted to major in business and somehow end up in his childhood passion: working in baseball, maybe a front office exec.

For summer vacation, after his senior year, he and some buddies went to Cancun. He’d never had such a grand time. And on the last night, as he strolled the beach, he heard crying.

THEY ...

“Are you all-right?” he asked.

The girl turned in the moonlight and smiled up at him. “Oh, yes. I’m just happy, is all.”

He couldn’t respond. He’d never seen such obvious beauty, but it burst from beneath her skin even more so than a camera would capture. “I understand. We shouldn’t always waste our tears on pain.”

She pulled back her stunning hair and smiled wider. “Exactly!”
His knees buckled. She was inside him now and he knew she always would be.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked.

“Please.” Then she patted the sand.

He was beside her, floating. “I’m down here for graduation.”

“Me, too,” she said with a sweet laugh. “May I tell you something?”

“Sure.” He’d had a few girlfriends, but the roaring inside him made the ocean seem trivial.

“Do you sense something here? I mean, I know it sounds crazy, some cheesy Hollywood screenplay, but I dunno, as soon as you spoke I could see from your eyes that . . . that–”

“We were connected or something?” He finished her thought.

“Exactly!” She laughed.

COLLEGE ...

As strange as coincidence can be, they ended up at Boston College together, both enrolled without ever knowing the other one before that night in Cancun.

They dated, stayed up late every night talking about everything couples always profess they want to talk about–their dreams, futures, fears, families, inner most motivations–and before the first semester ended, they knew they would never be apart.

They were the envy of all that saw them. Their friends marveled at their kinship, their caring, and zero pretense. When people arbitrarily toss out the term ‘the perfect couple,’ they have no idea it was these two.

MARRIAGE ...

After graduating four years later, they got married and moved into a tiny apartment. She got pregnant and, though it wasn’t planned, they were having that baby. He had just got a job with the Yankees’ Elmira minor league team. She attended grad school to teach high school English. Nothing could stop them now.

When the baby came a year later, they–impossibly–were even happier.

But then one day, as he drove to work, his head began to ache as if two ice picks were inserted into his temples. His vision blurred and he had to pull over to the side of the freeway. Panicked, he phoned for a cab and went to the hospital.

It wasn’t good news. His eyesight was in jeopardy. Two months after becoming a dad, he would soon never see his child again.

THE LINK ...

“Where are we going?” she asked, after they dropped off the baby with her parents.

“Just keep driving,” he said. “We have to go somewhere.”

“Where?”

“Just someplace I’ve never mentioned. The only thing I think I’ve never told you.”

“I thought you said you’ve never kept anything from me?” She looked at him with love, saw him squint with worry while trying to hide it from her.

“I know,” he said, apologetically. “This is the only thing, and soon it won’t be. We are almost there. Take a right at the next light.”

Suddenly, she got the shivers. Maybe it was from his recent tragic news, but it was also something else that she couldn’t explain.

“Pull in here,” he said, gesturing.

“Here?” she asked, surprised.

“Yep.” Then he nodded. “Go until I tell you to stop.”

A moment later, they parked and got out. She had never been in a place like this before and it made her uncomfortable.

“It’s just right up here. I need to see it while I still can.” He took her hand and led her to the spot he’d visited many times since childhood. “Here it is. The reason I could see for the last ten years. He gave me his eyes.”

He pointed at the gravestone that said: Mark Givens, 1978-1991.

She let out a gasp, and then began to weep.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her tight. “It’s all-right, honey. It’s okay. I’ve had my sight for more time than I deserved. He gave me his gift and it allowed me to find you. Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. Don’t you see? It was a good thing. Everything will be fine. We have each other now.”

Finally, she settled down, her sobs giving way to speech. “You don’t understand. This is the name of the boy who gave me his heart, too.”

Covered in goose bumps, he blinked away his own tears and held her like he never had before.

THE END