Lady

"For a life, Chloe."

"OK, do me doggy style against the sofa and see if you can make me talk."

I lined her up as she wanted and gave it my very best shot. Chloe threw back her head and yelped with joy, and then started talking.

"I'm Chloe Kickett. I was the little deaf girl you pulled away from behind a reversing truck outside my house one day. I'd have been killed if you hadn't done that and risked your own life."

"But ... " I remembered what she was talking about, but I'd only been about nine then and the girl had been about the same age. The family had moved out of my street only a few months later, and the one thing I could recall for sure about Chloe was that she'd been as deaf as a post.

"I had an operation, I can hear fine now. And I heard you were having some problems. I wanted to help, I talked to Jodie. She said you two were definitely through but she still likes you. She gave me her key to your apartment. I came in yesterday when you were out and hid the vibrator. Then I came back today with a coat over me and left it in the hall as I came in."

It was like being hit between the yes by a baseball bat: it was the truth, I knew it, but it was stranger than anything I could have imagined. That somebody could have done so much for me because of something that had happened so long ago!

I came into her like a stallion but I was so emotionally shook up by what she'd told me I was damned near sobbing. It was like being a kid myself again and feeling there was somebody you could get up close too and talk to without any worries, without any need to hide any of your weaknesses.

Then I felt her arm around my neck.

"It's OK, Rand, we'll fix things up -- together."

And that was when I knew for sure that Lady Luck hadn't knocked on my door but had sneaked in anyway.