Midnight Run (6 page)

Another girl was behind the counter, and he
vaguely remembered seeing her before when PB had been working. As
he approached the register, inspiration struck, and he smiled down
at the barista.

“How’s it going today, hon?”

She grinned up at him. “Better now that
you’re here. You’re becoming quite the regular.”

Kingston paused. “You could say that,” he
said, his eyes drifting away from her face as he tried to catch a
look at the back room behind the counter.

“So, what’ll it be?”

Dragging his eyes back to her, he smiled.
“Cup of coffee, to go. What’s your name?”

Her eyes got wide, and her smile nearly broke
her face. “Laurel. What’s yours?”

“Kingston,” he said, his gaze skimming over
the girl and looking behind her once more. “Um, do you like working
here?”

She leaned forward, and Kingston caught a
flash of a hot pink bra strap, and he swallowed nervously. “It’s
okay, I guess.” Her eyes traveled down his body before returning to
his face. “You make it loads better.”

Kingston took the cup of coffee she offered,
trying not to let the barista’s obvious interest distract him. “Do
you, er, like your coworkers?”

She rolled her eyes. “Who wants to talk about
them? I’d rather hear about you,” she offered suggestively, leaning
forward even more.

Kingston took a step back. “Nothing much to
tell,” he said, glancing behind the counter one last time before
retreating to the door with a wave. Laurel looked annoyed, but he
was too frustrated with himself to really notice.

Sipping his coffee as he walked, he shook his
head ruefully. “That totally backfired,” he grumbled to himself.
“Now she probably thinks I’m interested in her!” With a sigh, he
downed the rest of his coffee and headed back to work, promising
himself that he’d do his best to forget the mysterious barista.

Nora’s hands were shaking
as she punched in the number her dad had given her; neither of her
parents had a cell phone, something which she’d teased them about
mercilessly for years, but when a strange woman answered with the
words, “Mercy Hospital,” all thoughts of teasing fled.

“My dad called,” she stammered. “His name is
Richard Willson.”

“Hang on a minute.” Hold music filled the
line, and Nora jiggled her leg nervously. A couple walking into the
diner glanced at her before moving away quickly, and Nora slid down
the building to a spot in the shadows.

“Peanut, is that you?” Her dad’s voice was
scratchy, almost as if he’d been crying, and Nora felt her whole
body clench in fearful anticipation.

“Dad? What happened?”

“Your mom had a heart attack.”

Nora stared at the dark city street,
unseeing. “What?”

“She’s still in the ICU, but I’m hoping
she’ll be better soon. The doctors are running some tests; we
should know more in a few hours.”

“But, Dad, how? Mom won’t even touch fried
food!”

She could practically hear his shrug over the
phone. “Like I said, we don’t know much right now. Can you come
home?”

She paused, remembering suddenly that she was
supposed to start her new job in a few hours. “I’ll have to
see.”

“Peanut, I don’t want to worry you,” he
stopped for a moment. “But the sooner the better,” he finally
said.

Nora’s throat constricted.
It’s that
bad?
“I’ll catch the train into Philly first thing in the
morning.”

“I might not be able to drive out to pick you
up.”

Nora shook her head impatiently. “I’ll figure
something out.” Her voice started to break, but she pushed the
words out. “Dad? I love you. Tell Mom I love her, too.”

“We love you, too.”

Nora hung up the phone fighting back tears.
“Damn it!” Her words were loud on the deserted street, but Nora
didn’t care. Her brain still couldn’t quite grasp everything her
dad had said, but it was having an even harder time sifting through
what he
hadn’t
said. One thing was certain; if her dad was
pushing her to come home immediately, her mom was probably worse
off than he was letting on.

Quickly, Nora fired off a text to Todd
letting him know that she’d had a family emergency, and then she
poked her head inside the diner. Lynne looked up immediately and
frowned in concern, but Nora didn’t want to talk about it. “A
family thing,” she managed to say. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to
go.”

“Of course! Let us know if you need
anything.” The words should have sounded empty coming from a near
stranger, but Nora could tell that Lynne meant it.

“Thank you.” She hesitated. “I might not be
at the run for a few nights.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll see you
whenever you’re able to come out.”

Nora nodded, almost smiling. She wasn’t
really big on sharing the details of her personal life, but she had
a feeling that if she kept up with the running group, she and Lynne
could become friends.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind,
Nora hurried across town. When she got to her dark apartment, she
hesitated for a moment. Part of her wanted to wake Carl up; she was
feeling desperate for someone to talk to about the whole thing with
her mom, but since she barely knew anything, she decided to let him
sleep.
I can always call him from the train
, she reasoned,
tossing some clothes into her shoulder bag. She didn’t bother
checking online for tickets; trains ran every few hours from Grand
Central to the 30
^th
Street station in Philadelphia, and
she knew she’d be able to catch one, even at such short notice.

After leaving a sticky note for Carl, Nora
hailed a taxi a few blocks from their apartment, and the sun was
just coming up when she made it to the train station. Instead of
stopping to admire the beautiful architecture like she usually did,
Nora pushed through the crowd to a ticket kiosk, and in moments,
she had a ticket in hand for a train leaving in half an hour.

Settling back into her seat, Nora squeezed
her eyes shut and tried to will herself not to worry.
Mom’ll be
fine
, she promised herself.
Dad’s just scared, that’s
all.
But even though her mind desperately wanted to believe the
words, her heart wasn’t so sure.

***

Nora’s parents lived a little over an hour outside
of Philadelphia, but Mercy Hospital was in the center of the city,
so Nora didn’t even bother contacting her dad for a ride.
Shouldering her duffle bag, Nora dug out her bus pass from the back
of her wallet and navigated her way to the hospital. Part of her
hoped it would be a wasted trip, that she’d get there only to
discover her mom had already been discharged and was waiting for
her in the family’s slightly run-down farmhouse. When she got to
the tall, sterile building, Nora stood outside for a moment,
staring up at the mirrored windows and trying to steel herself to
go in and find out how her mom was doing.

She’d always hated hospitals, ever since her
three-day stay to have her tonsils removed when she was seven, and
she considered herself lucky that she hadn’t had any close friends
or family fall ill enough to require hospitalization…until now.

Taking a deep breath, Nora walked through the
automatic doors. Despite how early it still was, the hospital was
filled with nurses in scrubs moving quickly through the halls, and
patients and their loved ones waiting and wondering. While Nora
waited at the information desk, she glimpsed a couple of doctors
hurrying in one direction or another, and her stomach clenched. Did
one of them know what had happened to her mom? Maybe they were on
the way to look at her test results right now. Maybe they were
headed to a private room to give her father bad news.

“Yes?” A tired looking nurse in pink scrubs
motioned to Nora.

Nora swallowed. “My mom had a heart attack.
Is she—is she still here?”

“Name?”

“Nora Willson.”

The nurse raised an eyebrow. “Your name, or
the patient’s?”

Nora flushed. “Sorry. Her name is Marjorie
Willson.”

Turning to a computer, the nurse hit a few
keys, and Nora held her breath in tense silence. Finally, the nurse
nodded. “Third floor, room 305. You know where you’re going?”

Nora exhaled in relief. “I can find it.”

Pointing over her shoulder, the nurse
offered, “The elevators are back there. Next!”

Dismissed, Nora headed in the direction the
nurse had indicated, but when she pushed the button on the elevator
for the third floor, she noticed that her hand was shaking.
Get
a grip,
she told herself.
There’s no reason to
panic.

Feeling as if she were seven years old again,
Nora stepped off the elevator and glanced nervously down a hallway
that smelled like rubbing alcohol and sweat. Swallowing the lump in
her throat, she turned left, breathing shallowly. When she reached
the room her mom was in, Nora stood outside for a moment, slowly
counting to one hundred in her mind. Her nerves weren’t any better
when she got through, but she drew a deep breath and realized that
she had to quit stalling.

Pushing the door open silently, Nora crept
into the dimly lit room. She glanced at the woman on the hospital
bed in front of her and frowned; silver hair framed an unfamiliar
sleeping face.

“Mom? Dad?” Nora called softly, wondering if
she’d got the wrong room.

Her dad poked his head around the curtain
dividing the room. “Through here, sweetie.”

Tiptoeing past the other patient, Nora
inhaled sharply when she saw her mom. She was propped up in the bed
with tubing coming out of her arms and nose, and the woman in front
of Nora looked pale, frail, and dangerously ill. She gripped her
dad’s hand for a minute before moving closer to the bed.

“Mom?” She leaned over her, and her mom’s
hazel eyes fluttered open.

“Hi, sweetie,” she said, her usually strong
voice a breathy whisper.

Nora swallowed. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” Her mom smiled ruefully.
“How are you, peanut?”

“Fine,” Nora said, feeling like she’d stepped
into some surreal time warp. “I got a promotion at work,” she
offered, unsure of what to say.
What happened?
She wanted to
ask.
How did this happen to you? You’re too healthy for heart
issues.
But she didn’t know how to say it, so instead she stood
beside her mother’s hospital bed feeling like an idiot and talking
about her job.

“That’s wonderful news, sweetie!” Her dad
beamed at her. “Isn’t that wonderful, Marjorie?”

Nora’s mom’s eyes flickered for a moment.
“Wonderful,” she echoed softly.

Nora found her courage. “Mom, what
happened?”

“A heart attack,” her mom sighed. “The
doctors say it was pretty bad.”

Nora’s dad jumped in. “But you’re doing
great, Marjorie. They also said you should be going home soon.”

Her mom shook her head and closed her eyes.
“They said it was likely to happen again, Richard,” she said, her
voice regaining some of its old strength. She opened her eyes and
looked at Nora. “They want me to have surgery.”

Nora’s chest constricted, but she forced a
smile. “That’s good, then, right? That means they can fix
whatever’s wrong.”

Her mom shook her head. “I don’t know,” she
said faintly, sinking back against the pillows. “I’m not sure.”

“Nora, why don’t you come with me down to the
cafeteria? Your mother needs to rest, and you and I can grab some
breakfast and chat.” Her dad steered her toward the door of the
room, but Nora paused at the curtain and glanced back for a moment
at her mother. She was already asleep, her chest rising and falling
quickly with each breath. Nora’s eyes flickered to the wall of
monitors that were plugged into her mom, and she felt a sliver of
ice run down her back.

As soon as they were in the hallway, she
looked at her dad. “What was that all about?”

“She’s fine,” he insisted, not meeting her
eyes. “Just scared is all.”

“Daddy, I’m scared, too. Was it really a bad
one?”

He led the way back to the elevators. “The
doctors said surgery will fix her right up.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He leaned against the elevator wall and
rubbed his hand across his eyes. “Jesus, Nora. It was a heart
attack. No matter how bad it was, isn’t that bad enough?” His voice
broke on the last word, and Nora shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said instantly, choking up
on the words. “I’m just scared.”

The elevator doors opened as her father met
her eyes. “I’m scared, too, peanut.”

That admission was harder for Nora to hear
than even her mother’s labored breathing. She followed her dad into
the hospital cafeteria in silence, trying to sift through her
tattered emotions. She didn’t pay attention to what her dad
ordered, and soon she was sitting down on a hard plastic bench,
staring at a tray of food she had no desire to eat.

Her dad didn’t seem to be suffering from the
same lack of appetite; he ate quickly, without stopping to talk,
his eyes fixed on the food as he cleared most of his tray in
minutes, and then he stood up to get more coffee. Nora stared off
into space, barely aware that her dad had left the table. When he
sat back down, he leaned forward and looked at his daughter.

“I’m sorry, peanut. This is just all too
much.”

She nodded. “So…about the surgery…”

Her dad added another creamer to his coffee.
“It’s a bypass. Basically, the doctors want to replace one of the
valves in her heart.”

Nora shuddered. “Would it help?”

“It might.” He paused, his eyes drifting
around the room before come to rest on Nora. “But then again,
there’s no predicting if a surgery like that would keep her from
having another heart attack someday down the road.”