Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (47 page)

“
She’s lucky she was
already in a hospital,” the doctor said. “She was at
Children’s…”

“
Our little sister is in
the eating disorders clinic there,” Charlie said.

“
So you’re not here by
yourself.” The doctor looked relieved. “I’m glad. Sandra is going
to be with us for a while.”

“
Would you mind checking to
see if her appendix burst?” Jill asked.

The doctor blinked at Jill. Jill gave him a
bright smile.

“
Appendix?” he asked.
“I…”

“
It runs in our family,”
Charlie said.

The doctor looked at Charlie and Jill.
Without another word, he spun in place and jogged back into the
emergency room.

“
So…” Tanesha said. “Does
it?”

“
Does what?” Charlie
asked.

“
Does appendicitis run in
your family?” Heather asked.

“
How would I know?” Charlie
said. “I just said that so he would look.”

“
Thanks Charlie,” Jill
said.

Heather hugged him.

“
Why did you say that?”
Tanesha asked.

“
Last night, Aden said
Sandy needed Jill’s touch,” Charlie said. “I remembered when I was
a kid Sandy used to say Jill could heal anything. Can
you?”

“
Some things,” Jill said.
“Not this. She didn’t want me to heal her. She wants you and Sissy
to be well. But I can’t help you with what you need. Only you
can.”

Charlie wilted under Jill, Heather and
Tanesha’s gaze. They turned to see the doctor jogging toward
them.

“
Her appendix has burst,”
the doctor said. “We’re taking her into emergency surgery. I’ll
update you when I know anything more.”

He nodded to them and ran back into the
emergency room.

“
Where’s Aden?” Charlie
asked.

“
He can’t get away,” Jill
said.

“
Because of his ankle
bracelet,” Heather said. “He’s so close to being done, they didn’t
want to give him the time. I guess most people screw up in the last
couple of days on the ankle bracelet. He’s with the Noelle and
Nash.”

Charlie gave Heather a puzzled look.

“
Blane told me,” Heather
smiled.

Charlie nodded as if he understood. Tanesha
pointed toward a row of chairs and they went to sit down. Charlie
sat down on the end. He sat for a moment then punched his leg.

“
What?” Tanesha
asked.

“
This wasn’t supposed to
happen,” Charlie said. “I didn’t go out. I didn’t go out. I didn’t
go out.”

He began to cry. Jill got up to sit next to
him. She rubbed his back. Tanesha reached over to hold his hand.
Heather bent down in front of him.

“
We don’t know what you’re
talking about,” Heather said.

“
Delphie said…” Charlie
swatted at his face with his hands. “She said if I left, Sandy and
the baby would die. But I didn’t leave and Sandy and the baby are
going to die!”

“
Don’t give up hope,”
Tanesha said. “Sandy is very strong, resilient.”

“
But… Aden can’t be here
and Noelle and Nash… Just me…”

“
Seems like just you did a
pretty good job of getting Sandy help,” Jill said.

“
Think of it this way,”
Heather said. “If you’d left the Castle, Sandy would have spent all
day looking for you.”

“
Delphie said I would die,”
Charlie said through his tears.

“
If you died it would be
worse,” Tanesha said. “Sandy would have lost her shit completely.
She’d be far away from any hospital.”

“
That’s right,” Jill said.
“Sandy was lucky to be in a group with you and Sissy. I bet that
saved her life. You’ll see. Tanesha’s right. Don’t give up
hope.”

“
We never give up hope,”
Heather said. “And we’ve been through a lot of shit.”

“
Lots of shit,” Tanesha
repeated.

Jill nodded. Through watery eyes, Charlie
looked at Jill, Heather and Tanesha. Wiping his eyes, he
nodded.

“
Sorry,” he
said.

“
Why?” Tanesha asked.
“We’ve seen you cry before.”

“
When?” Charlie
asked.

“
Remember!” Heather
laughed. “You broke your leg. You kept saying your face was crying
but not you. You were too manly to cry.”

Tanesha and Jill laughed.

“
That’s what’s happening
here,” Charlie said.

They laughed.

“
What happens now?” Charlie
asked.

“
We wait,” Jill said.
“Tanesha has a gift for finding great junk food from hospital
machines. We’ll send her off in a little while.”

“
That’s all? We
wait?”

“
We hope and we wait,”
Heather said.

“
Again,” Tanesha
said.

“
Again,” Jill
said.

Not liking the sound of their ‘again’
pronouncements, Charlie excused himself to use the bathroom. When
he came back, they were laughing and talking. This was how he
always remembered them. No matter what was happening, Sandy and her
friends always laughed. He sat down in their midst to listen for a
while.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday night — 8:35 P.M.

In the Castle driveway, Tanesha woke
Charlie, hugged him, and shoed him out of the car. Rubbing his
eyes, Charlie waved to her until she backed out onto Race Street.
With a sigh, he walked into the Castle. Today had been a long,
exhausting, heartbreaking day. He slipped into the side door.
Making his way to their apartment, he turned into the living room
and stopped short.

Aden was walking away from him. He opened
his mouth to say something when Aden turned. Aden was carrying a
pajama clad Noelle in his arms. Noelle’s face was pressed into his
shoulder. When Aden stopped walking, Noelle looked up at him, and
turned to look at Charlie. Noelle’s face bore the wounds made from
hours of crying.

“
Charlie!” Noelle
said.

Hidden by the couch, Nash popped to his
feet. Aden, Noelle, and Nash stared at him. Embarrassed, he looked
down. He felt more than saw Nash come over to hug him.

“
We’ve been waiting for
you,” Nash said.

“
What happened to…?”
Charlie gestured to Noelle.

“
We’re upset about Sandy,”
Aden said.

Charlie looked up to see that they were
standing around him. He nodded. Aden gestured to the couch and
Charlie went to sit down. He watched Aden and Noelle whisper to
each other.

“
She’s just like that,”
Nash said in his ear.

“
Soft?” Charlie
asked.

“
You’ll get used to it,”
Nash said.

“
How is Sandy?” Aden
asked.

“
Did you get to see her?”
Noelle asked.

“
I called you from the
hospital…” Charlie started.

“
She wants you to tell us
in person,” Nash said.

Charlie nodded.

“
Tell us the whole story,”
Noelle said. “How did you know she was sick?”

“
She wasn’t herself,”
Charlie said. “I noticed it when she picked me up from rehab. She
threw up… or I think she threw up in the bathroom before we got
back in the car. She just looked a little green. We went to Sissy’s
group and I guess it’s some kind of beat down denial group or
something. It didn’t go very well.”

“
Like the hot seat?” Noelle
asked.

“
Not that bad,” Charlie
flushed. Noelle had remembered his story and his pain. “The group
leader asked Sandy something and she didn’t respond. I figured she
was sick. So I got us out of the group. Sissy found a nurse and
Sandy passed out. They zoomed us to the Emergency Room at that
hospital and took her to the grown up hospital.”

“
What did you do?” Noelle
asked.

“
I wasn’t allowed to go
with her in the ambulance because I’m so young,” Charlie said.
“Sissy was really upset. I stayed with Sis until she was feeling
better and then ran over to the other hospital.”

“
Ran?” Aden
asked.

“
Yeah, that didn’t go so
well,” Charlie said. “I got there just as a doctor was looking for
me. The girlfriends…”

“
The girlfriends?” Nash
asked.

“
That’s what I call them,”
Charlie said. “Jill, Heather, and Tanesha arrived just then and
kinda took over. The doctor told us Sandy’s appendix burst and they
did surgery. We waited and waited. Finally, they came out and said
they had cleaned up everything and they thought she would be all
right.”

“
And the baby?” Aden
asked.

“
She’s fine,” Charlie
said.

“
He,” Nash said.

“
She,” Charlie said. “I saw
the ultrasound. They did one while I was in there. She’s a
she.”

The kids looked at Aden. He shrugged.

“
But she’s all right?” Aden
asked.

“
I guess it was a big
question,” Charlie said. “Lots of poison from the thing…whatever
it’s called. But they said the baby… she’s tough. Like Sandy.
That’s what I said. They called a baby doctor who said the baby is
small. Like Sandy.”

“
That’s what you said?”
Nash asked.

“
That’s what the lady
doctor said. Called the baby a ‘little lady’,” Charlie said. “Sandy
has to rest until the baby is due. Now. The girlfriends will make
her do it so she’ll probably do it.”

“
Did you get to talk to
Sandy?” Noelle asked. Her eyes welled up with tears. “I wanted to
talk to her to make sure she’s all right.”

“
We couldn’t use a cell
phone to call you,” Charlie said. “Some dumb rule. Sandy made a
video for you guys on Jill’s camera.”

Tears still spilling on her face, Noelle
cheered. She scooched closer to Charlie so she could see. Charlie
fumbled with the camera until Aden took it away from him. Aden set
it up. They watched Sandy with their four heads pressed together
over the tiny screen. Heather had done Sandy’s make up and Jill had
done her hair. The little bit of theater helped Sandy seem less
life threateningly sick. Even Charlie felt better after watching
the video.

And Sandy was Sandy. She smiled her big
smile, told them she was all right. She promised to try to get home
as soon as possible. Then she was all Mom. She reminded Noelle to
bring her art supplies case for art class after school. She
encouraged Nash to do well on his test tomorrow. She ended by
telling them all to get to bed.

They watched the short video three times
before Noelle declared they should, in fact, go to bed. Nash and
Charlie followed Noelle up to the apartment. Charlie waited until
Aden helped the kids to bed before telling him that Sandy made a
video for him. Touched, Aden nodded. Aden helped Charlie through
teeth brushing and finally into bed. Charlie had just snuggled down
with Cleo the cat when he heard Aden turn on the video. Like his
children, Aden watched it three or four times. Charlie was sure
Aden was going to bed when he appeared in the doorway of his closet
room.

“
I wanted to say thanks,”
Aden said. “It was brave of you to get Sandy out of that group. And
really thoughtful of you to make the video.”

“
How did you
know…?”

“
Sandy told me on the
phone,” Aden said. “She said you insisted. I wanted to thank you.
Noelle’s… She’s…”

“
Fragile,” Charlie said.
“Special.”

“
Right,” Aden said. “She’s
lost so much – her real mother, her home, me… Sandy stepped into
that mess and became her anchor. With Sandy sick, Noelle’s adrift
again. She needs that kind of visual confirmation to feel all
right. She’ll probably watch the video five or six times before
school. How did you know?”

“
I didn’t,” Charlie said.
“I just knew what I’d want if I was at home and they were
there.”

“
Must have been awful for
you,” Aden said.

Charlie shrugged.

“
Get some sleep,” Aden
said. “I have to go in early but I’ll be back to get you guys up.
Do you mind going with MJ again?”

“
Nope,” Charlie
said.

Aden nodded. Charlie lay back on his bed
when Aden appeared in his doorway again.

“
I’m really glad you’re
here,” Aden said.

He was gone before Charlie could respond.
Closing his eyes, Charlie was really glad he was there too.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and
NINETEEN

Frightened
souls

Thursday early morning — 3:22 A.M.

“
But why can’t I sleep with
Mommy?” Katy asked.

Wrapped in a soft cotton blanket, Katy
snuggled down on Jacob’s lap. She had no intention of moving. She’d
asked the question just to hear him talk. Katy had been fine all
evening. When Jill returned from the hospital, she had fed Katy tea
and the teething crackers she loved. After a bite to eat, Katy fell
asleep on Jill’s lap in the rocking chair. Katy started throwing up
an hour later. When Katy started throwing up, Jacob convinced Jill
to go back to sleep in their room and brought Katy out here. Jacob
and Katy were sitting together at the kitchen table.