The Case of the Foolish Heart 

	Perry Mason was alone in the office after hours.  He’d insisted Della Street go home at six even though she fully expected to stay for the duration as she usually did.  She’d argued that he wouldn’t eat a bite if she didn’t stay so he let her order supper for him before she left.  It sat untouched on the desk, now four hours cold and unappetizing.  Just the idea of food didn’t appeal to him.  The case wasn’t going well and he was getting much too close to a situation that might explode in his face.  He couldn’t get what Kaitlyn had said to him earlier in the office out of his head, “I love my father.”  Of course she did, but did she know who he really was?   Perry couldn’t get the words out of his head as he ran a large hand across the time worn face and down the beard.  What if she really knew?  What would happen if it all came out?  Mason sighed, head weary and heart sore.   Twenty-five years ago he thought he knew the right thing to do.  Twenty-five years ago it was a reasonable solution to a potentially disastrous situation.  After all, Laura was happy, Max was happy, Della was unaware, and Mason, well Mason just stepped back and let nature and time take its course.  Now if things had to come out, it would mean the end to so many worlds.  He should have insisted years ago, demanded the right to know for sure whether he was Kaitlyn’s biological father.  He would not have made any legal claims to her, she could have remained Max and Laura’s to dote on and adore but he could have explained, prepared, handled things so that it wouldn’t be a bombshell.  He could have told Della then and hoped she would understand something he didn’t even know himself.  After all, it was all because of a stupid flu…

THEN (1967)
	
	Perry Mason’s head, back, and legs ached.  He was weak as a kitten and could barely keep his eyes open.  Miserable from the summer flu he had he kept hoping a miracle would happen and he could just go back to L.A.  Della always knew how to make him feel better when he was sick.  Now she was in L. A. taking care of Pud while Paul Drake, sr. took radiation treatments for lung cancer and he was stuck half a world away in Georgetown on a commission that was destined to go absolutely nowhere.  The knock at the hotel door brought his head up and he answered weakly, “Come in.”
	Laura Parrish stuck her head around the door, “You sound awful.”
	“I feel awful,” he replied and let his head drop back down on the sofa pillow.  “Do I have a big head?”
	She chuckled as she came over to look at him, “Now Senator Kennedy didn’t mean what he said literally…”
	“No, I mean my head feels like it’s the size of a watermelon, has it gotten bigger?” he asked.  
	“No,” she insisted but had to admit he looked really sick.  “Have you been to the doctor?”
	“Just the flu,” he insisted and waved away the idea. 
	“Maybe, but there are a lot of things going around this time of year.  Let me take you to see the doctor,” she said. 
	“Too much trouble,” he insisted, beginning to see double.  He didn’t mind though, she was very pretty.
	“Well, I’ve been a major pain lately,” she recalled, “Besides, I’d hate to have to lose the only ally I have on my side of the debate.”  
	“Maybe just an aspirin,” he suggested.  
	“Maybe how about we call the hotel doctor,” she decided and went over to make a call.  
	
	“He’s gonna be really sick for a day or two, but after that he should be fine, weak but fine.  Keep him in bed and give him plenty of fluids, better keep the solid foods to a minimum.  His throat is very swollen and he could choke.  If he shows signs of getting worse call me immediately,” the hotel physician informed and handed Laura a list of things.  
	“Of course,” she replied and looked the list over.  It was the usual for invalids.  
	After showing the doctor out she came back to sit on the edge of Mason’s bed, “Good thing it’s the weekend so you can be sick without affecting the commission.”
	“Uh-huh,” he managed after the medication he’d taken started to go to work.  He was so sleepy, “Della, make sure the office is locked up.”
	Laura gave him a questioning look, “Della?  Perry it’s me, Laura Parrish.”
	Mason reached out, took her hand, tried to pull her close, “Della, I’ve missed you. It’s been nearly a month…”
	She struggled to get out of his grip.  He was clearly having a delusional episode from the medication or the fever or both.  Laura started to panic when the more she struggled the harder he gripped.  He was much too big for her to manage alone and her mind raced to try to figure out how to get out of the situation.  “Perry, I’ve missed you too, but I’ve got to lock the door.  You know I can’t leave the office open,” she tried recalling what he had first muttered.  He nodded, let go of her, and she got as close to the door and as far from him as possible.  She was afraid he might try to follow her but he was too weak to get off the bed.  Grabbing his room key from the table and slipping out into the hall, she hurried down to her room.  What should she do?  She went down to her room and just as she was about to leave the phone rang.  She picked it up, “Hello?”
	“Laura?” 
	She took a breath, “Max?” 
	“Yeah.  Can I come up?” 
	“Uh…” she asked trying to decide what she should do.  She so wanted to see Max but she had a responsibility to Perry as well.  “Max, I’ve got a problem.  Perry is sick, really sick, can you meet me at his room.  I don’t feel comfortable leaving him alone for very long.  He’s pretty out of it.”
	“Sure,” Max Parrish said.  
	“He’s in room 415.  I’ll wait at the door.” 
	Maybe between her and Max they could make sure Perry Mason got better.  

	After two days, Perry Mason felt like he’d been through an old wringer washer and been hung out to dry.  His pajamas were soaked through, he felt like he’d sucked up half a sewer, and if they drilled for oil in his scalp he could supply the state of Iowa with gasoline.  A little unsteadily, he sat up, swung his legs over the bed, and held on for dear life.  The world was still spinning but it wasn’t as fast as before.  Where was Della?  Oh yeah, she was in L.A. and he was in D.C.  But he could have sworn…  Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he stood and headed for the bathroom for a long, well needed break.  After running a comb through his hair and splashing water on his face, he brushed his teeth, and felt half a world better.  Now he just needed a shower.  His robe was hanging on the back of the door and he started the water running.  
	He almost, almost felt alive again when he got out and walked back into his room in the robe.  He was about to get dressed when Laura’s voice made him freeze.  She breezed in the room easily, “Hey, you’re up and around.” 
	She came over and gave him a peck on the cheek.  “You look twenty times better too.”
	Mason was a bit taken aback at her very intimate display.  She was dressed but it was very casual.  Wasn’t it Monday?  “Don’t you think you need more than pajamas for the commission meeting?”
	“Meeting, Perry this is Sunday.  No meeting today.  You know I should be mad at you,” she declared as she leaned against the dresser. 
	“Why?” he asked.  
	“Because you kept insisting on calling me Della the whole time.  You know you’re a very affectionate man.  Who is she anyway?” 
	“Della?  She’s my secretary.  You’ve heard me talk about her,” Perry answered unsure why he would call her Della. 
	“Oh…” Laura said.  “So she’s the woman in your life.  I knew there had to be one.  The way you kept on, well, it’s quite obvious what she means to you.”
	“Kept on?” Mason asked almost afraid to ask.  
	“You know what I mean,” she said coyly and winked as she blew him a kiss.  “I’ll bet she can’t resist you anymore than I can.”
	“Huh?” he asked but she just kissed him lightly on the lips, “Never mind.”  
Mason’s mind was spinning desperately.  What had he done?  He couldn’t remember.  He’d been sick, really sick, but he’d had one hell of a dream.  Della was with him in the hotel room and they’d…  “You said I kept calling you Della?”
“Uh-huh, like I said, she’s a very lucky woman,” Laura answered
with a smile.  Mason panicked.   Surely he’d just talked about Della not… but the dream.  He cleared his throat, “Laura…uh, I need to get dressed.”
	“Oh, sure. Do you need any help?”
	Mason shook his head stiffly, “No, I can take care of myself.”
	“Okay, well, I’ll be in my room,” she said and left him alone.  
	
NOW 

	Mason shut his eyes and for the millionth time in his life tried to remember what happened clearly.  He knew something happened between him and Laura that weekend.  He knew that two months later she was back with Max and pregnant and happier than she’d ever been.  He knew that and he also knew that when he went home to L.A. with all the doubts that plagued him Della Street had rushed into his arms and practically smothered him with kisses.  She’d missed him so and when he tried to talk to her about what he thought happened, every time he tried to talk to her, he never could figure out what to say.  It always sounded so foolish to say: “I think I slept with a beautiful woman in D.C., but I can’t remember because I thought I was sleeping with you.”  A psychiatrist would have a field day with that.  But Della had watched their best friend whither with radiation treatments until he was barely alive by the time Perry got back that summer.  Paul Drake died a week later and she was so devastated by that loss—she had loved Paul so deeply as a friend and a brother in arms—that Perry didn’t dare add to her pain and grief by confessing something he couldn’t remember clearly.  So he shoved it way back in his mind, didn’t even connect the dots right off when Laura called to tell him she was pregnant.  It wasn’t until Della and he were talking about him being sick in Georgetown that he did a fast calculation and came up astonished.  He was honored when Laura and Max asked him to be Kaitlyn’s godfather and official unofficial uncle.  He recalled the wink Laura gave him and he knew she knew, had to know and it was all right. She’d even joked once that Kaitlyn had been conceived in his hotel room.  Laura and Max had a baby they adored, Perry could keep tabs on them and be a doting but distant uncle, and Della, oh Della, could be kept blissfully unaware of his idiocy.  
	“You still concentrate too hard,” a voice said from the doorway to his office.  
	Mason looked up to see Laura Parrish standing there, the last few days dimming the brightness in her eyes but not her smile.  
	“Just getting this whole mess straightened out,” he replied.  
	Laura nodded, “Kaitlyn told me she came today and gave you what for.  She loves her father so much Perry, but I want you to promise me something.”
	“What?”
	“No matter what you have to do to Max, save Kaitlyn.  I know he didn’t embezzle funds, he didn’t murder Lon, neither did Kaitlyn, but don’t spare hurting Max’s reputation if it means helping Kay.  She’s more important than any of us,” Laura insisted.  
	Perry knew Laura was sincere, “She always has been.  From conception she’s always been more important.”
	Laura Parrish thought that an odd statement, “You should know.  If it weren’t for you…”
	Mason smacked his fist into his palm, “Yes, if it weren’t for me.  You wouldn’t have Kaitlyn at all.  She’s mine after all.”
	Laura had started to lean against the desk and faltered nearly falling in the process, “What?”
	“Those years ago, in Georgetown, the weekend I was sick with the flu.  It was then she was conceived.”  
	“Well yes, but what do you mean she’s yours?” Laura asked.  
	Perry was dumbfounded, “What do you mean what do I mean?  It’s quite obvious.  We had sex, she was conceived, she’s mine.”
	Laura Parrish was in another world.  She just kept shaking her head, “No, no, no… Perry, you’ve got it all wrong.  Have you thought that all this time?  No, you were sick, so sick you were nearly delirious with the fever and the medicine.  You kept calling me Della, even tried to pull me into bed, but I managed to get away and when I went down to my room Max called.  He wanted to talk, get back together.  I told him to meet me in your room and he did.  While you were passed out we talked, and we made up, and we made Kaitlyn.  That’s why I’ve always said if it weren’t for you we’d not have her.  I didn’t mean, I never meant that you were literally the reason we had her.  My God, why didn’t you just ask or say something all these years?”
	Mason was astonished, “Because it meant destroying so many people.  I looked at what she gave to you two and it’s nothing but joy and love.  It’s the same joy and love I see every day in Della Street’s eyes.  I didn’t want to chance seeing that die in anyone.  So, I kept quiet.  Now it seems I’ve only kept foolish counsel.  It was all a moot point.  It never occurred so Kaitlyn’s never been mine all this time.”  
	Laura could see the look of disappointment in the set of his shoulders.  His smile was relieved however.  She leaned forward, “I’ve always felt Kaitlyn was blessed with two fathers.  You’ve treated her that way for her entire life.  She doesn’t know any different.  I don’t want her to know any different.  Don’t let the truth effect how you feel.”
	Mason took Laura’s hand, squeezed it tightly, “She’ll never know the difference.”
	“Why don’t you go home?  You can’t do anything else tonight,” Laura suggested.  
	Perry nodded his mind clear but his heart heavy.  “Yes I can.  And thank you.”
	
	Perry Mason slipped the key into the slot of Della Street’s apartment door.  It was only 10:30.  She should still be up.  It was the shank of the evening after all.  A light was on, the television was playing, and sure enough his vision of loveliness was asleep in the chair, the reading glasses slipped down her nose and the satin pajamas were askew.  She stayed that way while he poured himself a drink and her one as well, and then came and sat across from her, picked the remote up and turned off the TV.  The sudden lack of sound made her rouse and she blinked twice before nearly screaming, “Perry!?”
	He smiled, leaned forward to brush the hair from her eyes and pick up the book that fell off her lap when she popped up, “You’re so beautiful when you’re asleep.  I just had to watch.”
	She straightened up in the chair, blew the rest of the stray hair out of her eyes, and said, “So you just open the door and in you walk.”
	“Well, I made a drink first.  Want one?”
	“No,” she answered.  “What are you doing here?  You were going to work late at the office.  You got a breakthrough on the case?”
	“I had a breakthrough but not on the case.  Della I’ve been the biggest fool of one hundred kinds of fools for so long…  How do you stand me?”
	She shrugged, “I dunno, somedays are better than others.”  She became serious, “What is it?”
	“I just found out that something that I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles in front of God almighty and the United States Supreme Court was true was just a figment of my imagination,” he said.  “Thank God.”
	“What on Earth could it be?” Della asked completely startled by his tone of utter relief.
	He warred with himself, decided to blurt it out and get it over with, “I was certain Kaitlyn was my daughter.” 
	Della started to say something but sound didn’t come out of her mouth.  She shook her head and it worked, “What?”
	“I was certain Kaitlyn was my daughter.”
	“But, you said it was a figment… how could, oh Perry just give it to me straight I’m too tired to try to figure it out,” she begged and took her reading glasses off to toss on the table. 
	Perry suddenly wanted to hold her, touch her so she’d know he wasn’t making it all up, and moved to sit next to her on the couch.  He pulled her close to him so she tucked her head under his chin and then he began at the beginning, “Back in ’67, summer, remember?”
	“Uh-huh, you went to Georgetown and I stayed to nurse Paul,” she recalled with a catch in her voice.  
	“I met Laura and Max, I told you about that at the wedding.  Remember I was sick one weekend?  I thought something happened while I was sick.  Something I had no recollection of, something I had no control over, and something I had no way to explain to anyone let alone myself or you.  So, I just never explained.  I just let it sit in my head.  Well, about an hour ago I found out that I had no recollection of that weekend because there was nothing to recollect.  I never had sex with Laura Parrish because I was half out of this world.  All these years she’s always said the reason she and Max had Kaitlyn was because of me.  What I assumed was I had literally given them Kaitlyn.  What she meant was she and Max got back together while I was passed out in the bedroom.  Kaitlyn was conceived in my hotel room, but I wasn’t the father.”  He hugged Della closer, “I’m not her father Della.”  
	Della Street considered Perry’s words, could hear his heartbeat in the background.  She sighed, “Are you sorry?”
	Mason caught his breath.  She didn’t miss a trick.  He kissed the top of her head, “I suppose some part of me has always been very proud of her, a continuation of myself so to speak.  There were even times…  Della if it’d been true, and we’d known all that time ago.  Would it have changed us?”
	Della stirred so she could look him in the eye, “Of course it would, but if you mean would I still love you?  Would I have accepted Kaitlyn as your daughter, treated her as my own?  You know I would have, without reservation.” 
	Mason squinted at her in the low light, leaned down to kiss her, “Della Street you are… what are you, an angel, some supernatural being sent to keep watch over me, some perfect creature I don’t deserve?”
	Della shook her head, “Nothing so grand.  I’m just a woman so deeply in love with you that I can’t help but love anything connected to you—even if it is just a figment of your imagination.” 
	Mason pulled her closer, “I had some strange notion that you wanted to treat Kaitlyn like a daughter, even when you had no clue who I thought she was to me.” 
	“I’d still like to think of her like a daughter,” Della admitted.  “That is, if you want to keep thinking of her that way.” 
	Perry Mason chuckled, he was exhausted.  His mind was at rest, his heart was at ease, and now he just wanted to sleep beside Della Street.  He said, “Isn’t it time for you to tell me it’s time we go to bed?”
	Della smiled slyly as she looked up at him, “Yeah, it’s time we go to bed…”   
	
P.S.	

	Perry Mason couldn’t sleep.  He’d shared Della’s bed all night and even though he normally was more at peace there than anywhere else he couldn’t sleep.  He kept wondering when the other shoe would fall.  She’d been the utter sea of calm when he’d told her his deepest secret—even if it wasn’t a secret at all.  Why wasn’t she mad at him?  After all, he admitted he had slept with another woman…well he thought he had.  With a grunt he tried to shift but Della’s arm rested across his chest and he didn’t want to wake her up.  Not yet, but if he did maybe she’d go ahead and get it all over with.  He was so plagued with the notion of the reaction she didn’t have that he finally couldn’t stand it anymore and gently moved her arm off his chest so he could get up and go out to the living room.  It was pre-dawn, the dark just beginning to change into clear blue skies.  He decided to make coffee while he watched the sun come up so went puttering about quietly in Della’s kitchen.  An hour later she came out tossled but beautiful and he tensed.  She yawned, “morning,” before giving him a kiss.  
	“Morning,” he answered and waited.  
Della poured a cup of coffee and took a sip, “Mmm, you are so good to me.  Thanks, I needed that.”
“My pleasure,” he replied quizzically and watched as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and looked about for the paper that was neatly folded next to her place at the table.  Her reading glasses were still on the end table where she’d tossed them the night before and she went to retrieve them.  Perry was dumbfounded.  Nothing, she’d said nothing.  Maybe she was waiting for him to say something, that wasn’t like Della though.  Still…  
As she walked back in she said, “Gonna be nice today, almost 70.  That’ll be a nice change from the damp.”
“Damp?  Is that all you have to say?” Mason asked finally unable to handle it anymore.
She shrugged, “That’s all it says in the paper.  Maybe the weather forecast on television has more, go ahead and turn it on.”
“No, no, no.  About last night…” he said.
“Last night… oh, I had the craziest dream,” she said with a serious look.  “You came and told me Kaitlyn Parrish was your daughter.  Can you believe it?  I really get my head messed up with the cases when I take those sleeping pills…”
“Della,” Mason said almost more afraid to say it now than he was last night, “I did come to you last night and tell you Kaitlyn was my daughter. But it’s not true, none of it.”
Della Street looked up at him over a half raised cup of coffee and a carefully guarded expression, “What?”
Perry reached out to try to take her hand but she wasn’t too forthcoming.  He tapped the table and she reluctantly gave it to him.  He said, “I found out last night that all these years I’ve assumed Kaitlyn was my daughter but she’s really not.  It was when I was sick that weekend in Georgetown, remember me telling you about how sick I was?  Well, Laura stayed and took care of me but I thought it was you.  I mean, I dreamt you were with me in Georgetown and we made love at the hotel.”
“While you were sick?” Della asked, confused.   
“No, I mean, I wasn’t sick in the dream.  Well, maybe I was… I don’t remember that well.  I just remember I dreamt you were there and we were together.  Then when I ‘woke up’ Laura said that I kept calling her Della and I was very affectionate.  I couldn’t remember anything beyond the dream that was so real, I was so lonely without you, and Laura… she missed Max a great deal.  So, I assumed and I never demanded an explanation and I’ve been an ass for the last twenty five years.”  
Della Street blinked, “You told me all this last night?”
“Yes.”
“How did I take it?” she asked. 
“Very calmly, in fact you had no problem with it,” Mason said hoping she’d continue in that line of thought.  
“Oh, well that’s nice.  You tell me that for twenty five years now you’ve ‘believed’ a girl is your daughter from some mystery illness sex exploit and this is the first time I’ve heard about it?  In fact, I’ve never even met this so called fever child until her wedding?  Perry, this is insane.  Why, why have you waited till now to tell me something that isn’t even true?  Why didn’t you just not tell me at all and I wouldn’t even care?”
Mason was boxed in.  His statement sounded lame, “I guess because I was so relieved it wasn’t true that I had to come clean?” 
“You mean like when you do something really stupid and even though no one else has seen you do it, you have to describe it in detail to everyone you know?” Della asked.  
“Kinda,” he said and had an expression on his face that she could only say reminded her of a little kid who got caught.  “Are you mad at me?”
“Mad?  No, upset, maybe a little, but not because of what you’ve told me or what was true and what wasn’t.  If I’m upset it’s because you didn’t have the faith in me twenty-five years ago to handle the situation.”
“I told you last night it was because I didn’t want to pile any more grief on you.  Paul was dying and you took over looking after Pud and I wasn’t absolutely positive about it…”
“But you just said you were positive?  What made you think she was yours?”
“The timing for one thing, something Laura joked about once about how Kaitlyn was conceived in my hotel room, and the dream.  It was so real. I actually believed you were with me.   And if I acted out the dream with Laura…” he reasoned. 
“Then Kaitlyn could possibly be your daughter. But Perry, why didn’t you just ask Laura at the time?”
“Because,” he answered a little loudly in frustration.  He was getting tired of repeating the whole thing, “After weighing all the choices and facts I decided it would be best for everyone to just keep quiet.  I mean, I was fifty years old, she was 25 if she was a day.  I didn’t love her, she didn’t love me.  What would I have done with a little kid?  What would I have done without you?”  
There was the crux of the whole problem.  Della reached across the table with her other hand to take hold of his, “Do you really think I would have just left you?  I’m not saying if it had been true that I would have been 100% happy but if you’d have explained it to me, like you’ve done now, I think I could have figured out a way to deal with it and with her.  But Perry, all these years you’ve lived with a lie, a burden, and I haven’t shared that with you.  I think this is the first time we’ve not shared the load and that’s what bothers me more than anything.  We’ve been together for so long that sometimes we forget we really need each other.  You know, just because we’ve never formally exchanged vows doesn’t mean we don’t abide by them.”
“Anytime you want to make them official, you just say the word,” Mason said, his blue eyes pleading.
Della smiled wistfully, “I think I’m a little old to be a blushing bride.  But whenever we go to weddings and they come to the vows I always find myself inserting my name for the bride’s.” 
Mason picked her hand up and kissed it, “I should have known I wasn’t the only one.”  
“So, if it’s all right with you,” Della began with a loving tone, “when we finally get back to Kaitlyn and Gary’s wedding, I’d like to renew my vows to the father of the bride…”