Handling the funeral, family & friends keep you from Sarah for several days.

You took advantage of the privacy of the hospital room to get a few moments alone with Sarah before she went home with Robert. She was clearly nervous at the idea of having to masquerade as Charlotte, so you put your arms around her in reassurance.

"Don't worry, it will be fine. Rob will guide you through everything. And I can't imagine that anyone would guess that you're not who you appear to be. You'lll be okay, and I'll be over as often as I can," you told her gently.

She hugged you and then gave you a soft but insistent kiss. You hesitated momentarily, feeling rather strange to embrace and kiss this lovely young blonde. Then you gave in, reminding yourself who this really was. You were glad to hold Sarah close to you but the sensations were all wrong - in a weird way you almost felt like you were cheating on her with another woman. You pushed those thoughts aside, telling yourself that of course it would take a little time to get used to the changes.

After several minutes she pulled away. "Well, I guess I had better go on. I'm afraid if I put this off any longer, I'll chicken out," she said.

"Good luck, honey," you told her as she walked to the door.

She turned back and answered "Good luck to you, dear. I know it won't be easy facing our family and friends, pretending that I'm dead. So call me whenever you need to talk, okay?"

"Yes, okay," you said with a smile. "I love you."

"Love you too," she responded. "Bye." She took a deep breath and opened the door. She stepped into the hall where Robert was waiting to meet her.

He nodded to you. "Don't worry, Jim. I'll take care of her. Keep in touch." And they walked out of the hospital.

You stood there awhile longer, lost in thought. The whole situation still seemed so unreal - you couldn't quite believe everything that had happened. But you had things to do before you could reunite with your wife so, steeling yourself, you headed home.

The next week was painful for you. Both your and Sarah's family came to help you, and you hated lying to them. Even more, with them grieving and you planning the funeral arrangements, you did start to feel like Sarah had in fact died. You found some solace in your calls to her, but even then you had to be very circumspect, only being able to talk openly with her when you could get some time alone - and that was not often, with the house full of family and friends.

Enventually the funeral came and you suffered through the ceremony and burial. Your friends went back about their lives and, after another couple weeks, the last of your family left as well. You got them to leave with the excuse of having to go back to work. Unfortunately, that was true, and you would soon also have to start traveling again for your job.

So as soon the house was empty, you jumped at the chance to go visit Sarah. Robert lived in the next town over, so you quickly made the hour drive, deciding to surprise Sarah without calling.

You arrived at the address, parked and walked up to the front door to ring the bell. After a few seconds the door opened and you were facing Sarah.

She gave you a look of surprise. "Jim! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I thought I'd surprise you," you said, leaning forward to embrace her. She quickly stepped back to avoid you.

You were shocked and started to say "Sar..!", but she interrupted you with a sharp whisper. "Shh! I'm 'Charlotte'. 'My' mom is here - she came to visit as soon as she heard about my hospital stay. So keep it simple. You're a friend Rob met while I was ill, okay?"

"Okay..." you nodded, a little thrown off by all this.

"Jim!" she said loudly. "How good to see you. Rob will be so happy you stopped by. Please, come in."

You followed her inside to the living room. Rob was there with an attactive older woman. You guessed she had to be a couple years older than you (maybe 47 or 48) if she was Charlotte's mom but she just looked very good for her age, easily passing for 10 years younger. You could clearly see the resemblance between her and Charlotte.

"Jim! Great to see you!" Rob said, walking over to shake your hand. "This is Charlotte's mother, Nancy," he said, introducting you to the woman. "Nancy, this is Jim...James Baker. I met him at the hospital. He was a huge help to me during Charlotte's surgery - very supportive."

"Oh!" she said, standing to greet you. "I'm so sorry about your wife. Robert told me about her accident."

For a moment you were at a loss for words. You hadn't expected to have to carry on the subterfuge here. But you quickly recovered and rolled with it.

You ended up staying for dinner. It was fun but a little awkward for you. It seemed like Rob and Sarah had got relatively comfortable with the pretense, having had a couple weeks of practice - a trial by fire, even, since Nancy had been there. But it was definitely odd for you. You had to repeatedly remind yourself to call Sarah 'Charlotte'. Fortunately Nancy didn't catch your near-flubs and hesitant behavior, probably ascribing any strangeness on your part to your grief over your wife. She herself was quite pleasant - intelligent, pretty, and an excellent conversationalist. You almost got the impression that she was restraining herself from flirting with you, but you figured you were just reading into things.

Finally you excused yourself, explaining that you had a bit of a drive back and needed to get up early for a flight. Nancy told you to come back soon - not that needed any encouragement, having missed Sarah deeply. But you were disappointed to not get any private time to really talk with Sarah. Still, it was nice to at least be in her company for the evening.

You hoped it wouldn't be that long before you saw her again.