Unfinished Business - Barbara Seranella (22 page)

"Why do you like weddings so much?"
Caroline asked.

"Well," Asia said, pausing in her work to
turn and address Caroline. Her brown eyes glowed with enthusiasm.
"When you get married you get to have a big party with all your
friends."

"With a cake," Mace said.

"Uh huh," Asia said, nodding. "And
everyone brings you presents and it's not even your birthday."

"Oh, I see," Caroline said. "So you
like the party."

"
What about the groom?" Mace asked. "You
have one picked out?"

"Oh no," Asia said solemnly. "I'm much
too young for the responsibility of a husband."

He ruffled her hair as he passed, loving the way she
wrinkled her nose in annoyance.

"Lay off," she said, swiping at his hand.

"What?" he asked, dropping his jaw in mock
astonishment.

"Don't mess up my curlies," she said,
lowering her voice to sound more menacing.

He picked up the pair of scissors she was using. "I'm
going to cut those curlies off."

"No, no!" Asia screamed. The dogs jumped to
their feet and barked.

"All right, all right," Caroline yelled as
the noise level increased.

Mace laughed. "I'm going to get you," he
warned and waved the scissors over his head. Asia's shrill screams
masked his own unexpected grunt of pain. He lowered the scissors and
grabbed at his shoulder with his free hand.

Asia screamed again. Samantha jumped up and nipped
his arm. Mace looked at the dog in amazement.

"Good dog, Sammy," Asia said.

"Serves you right," Caroline said wryly.

"I don't believe it. First my dog turns on me,
now my own wife. What's next?" He massaged his cramping chest
and shoulder muscles, trying to make the gesture appear casual.

Caroline pushed a beer into his hands. "Go watch
TV or something. I'll call you when dinner is ready."

He went into the living room and sat in his father's
old recliner. He didn't turn the television on, preferring instead to
listen to the happy noises coming from the kitchen. It had been a
trying week, doing the legwork of two men, this thing with Munch.
Rumors of more budget cuts were circulating at the station. Just
yesterday he had heard that the brass was going to eliminate
take-home vehicles. Fuck, he thought. What next? Would they he
expected to pay for their own gas?

There was a clatter of flatware and then Caroline's
calm, low voice telling Asia where to place the forks and spoons. He
sipped his beer, hoping it would calm his stomach. Caroline joined
him after about ten minutes.

"Rub my shoulders, will you, honey?" he
asked.

Caroline gripped either side of his collarbone and
began moving her thumbs over his muscles.

"No," he said, moving her hands more to the
top of his shoulder joints. "Up here. It burns."

"Both sides?" she asked.

"Yeah, and then down my arms."

"How long has this been going on?" she
asked. Something in her tone alerted Asia, who looked up from her
scrapbook.

"The last couple days," he said.

Caroline came around to the front of him and looked
at his face. "Your color is terrible. Is your stomach still
upset?"

"A little. But I don't think I have a fever."

"And yet you're sweating. I think we should go
to the hospital."

"The hospital? " He sat up. "I got a
little burning in my arm and you think I need the Emergency Room?"
He stood up and crossed the room. "You know what they're going
to want to do, don't you?" He started to throw his hands up in
the air for emphasis, but then remembered the pain he'd felt in the
kitchen.

"They're gonna want to run a bunch of tests."
He glared at her, daring her to deny this.

Asia stood in the doorway absorbing every word.

Caroline just looked at him with that stubborn
calmness of hers and said, "I'll shut off the oven."

"
You're going to get everyone all worked up over
nothing," he said. "You know that, don't you?" Hot
saliva filled his mouth. For a moment he wondered if he was going to
puke.

"Asia," Caroline said, "go get your
coat, honey."

"Oh, shit, Caroline. You're going to drag the
kid down there, too?"

"Put your shoes on," she said.

"This is crazy," he told her, sliding his
feet into his loafers. "It's probably just some Asian flu bug."

"Hey" Asia said, "I don't have no flu
bug."

"Any flu bug," Caroline said, "and he
didn't mean Asian you, he meant Asian as in place."

"Oh," she said.

"Or it's food poisoning," Mace continued.
"That can be nasty. Make a guy feel off for days. That's
probably it." Asia was already by the front door. Caroline gave
each of the dogs a biscuit and told them to be good. Mace pulled on
his coat, wincing as his arms lifted to find the sleeves.

He reached for the keys but Caroline grabbed them
first.

"I'll drive," she said.

He didn't argue, which surprised them both. The truth
was he really did feel like shit.

They all climbed into Caroline's Monte Carlo. Asia
got in the backseat and strapped herself in. "What's happening?"
she asked, wide-eyed and on the verge of tears.

"I think Mace should see a doctor,"
Caroline explained as she started the car. "And the only ones
that are open right now are at the hospital."

"Is this an emergency?" Asia asked.

To St. John's surprise Caroline replied, "Yes."

Didn't she know you weren't supposed to scare kids?
Saliva filled his mouth again. He rested his head against the window
glass and tried to collect his strength.

Their destination was Marina Mercy Hospital on
Lincoln, only several miles from their house on the canals. By the
time they reached the first stoplight, he had remembered what his dad
always used to say about how the hospitals themselves made you sick.
He forced a smile and said in his most innocently surprised voice,
"Huh. You know what? I think I'm feeling better."

Caroline didn't look at him. As soon as the light
changed she gunned it across the intersection.

He wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead. "Look,"
he said. "There's a nice coffee shop up here. Let's go get a
piece of pie, some coffee. We can talk this over."

"Can we?" Asia asked.

"No," Caroline said. "We're going to
the hospital."

"Pull over," he said. "Right now. I
mean it. God damn it." He meant to put more volume in his voice,
but his stomach was churning butter. "This is a waste of time."

"If I were you," Caroline said, "I
wouldn't get myself all riled up. You're just making it worse."

"Oh, yeah? What is it you think is wrong with
me?"

She reached over and grabbed his hand. Her fingertips
were cold. "I think you're having a heart attack." She let
go of his hand to maneuver the car into the Emergency Room parking
lot. Her words hit him as only the truth could. "But I'm only
forty-two," he said.

Caroline shut off the car and came around to help him
out.

"Maybe they'll go easy on you seeing as how this
is a first offense."

"You're a bitch," he said.

"I know," she answered softly.

He gripped her hand.

"C'mon, kiddo," she said to Asia.

Asia climbed out of the car and grabbed Caroline's
other hand. Her thumb was in her mouth. Together the three of them
progressed through the sliding doors and up to the counter.

"Can I help you?" the nurse asked from her
chair.

"Yes," Caroline said. "I think my
husband is having a heart attack."

Asia was very quiet. Her large eyes searched the
adult faces above her. Mace winked at her, tried not to wince while
she was looking.

The nurse came around the counter and had Mace sit.
She put a blood pressure cuff on his arm and her stethoscope to his
chest.

"I've got our insurance card," Caroline
said, thumbing through her wallet.

But the nurse wasn't interested. She rushed past
Caroline and grabbed a wheelchair. "Get in," she told Mace.
"How long have you been experiencing these symptoms?"

"A couple days," he said. "It's the
flu, right?"

"The one from Asia the place," Asia
volunteered.

The nurse turned to Caroline. "Wait out here,
ma'am. Someone will be out to talk to you in a minute."

"ls it his heart?" Caroline asked.

"Oh, yeah," the nurse said. "But don't
worry."

His last words to his wife
before they wheeled him to the examination area were, "Don't
tell anyone."

* * *

Caroline located the bank of pay phones with her
eyes. She had no intention of keeping this to herself. Mace would
just have to understand. This was happening to her, too.

"Is Mace going to die?" Asia asked.

"No. He's going to be all right," Caroline
said. She picked dimes and quarters out of her coin purse, and put
them in her pocket.

"Can I call my mom?" Asia asked.

"Let's wait until we know more," Caroline
said. She sifted through the stack of magazines on the low table in
front of them until she found a children's magazine. "Come here,
kiddo." She lifted Asia onto her lap and opened the magazine to
an article about static electricity. "Here," she said, "you
read to me."

While Asia stumbled over the text, Caroline waited
for the nurse to return from the hallway leading to the examination
rooms. On the entire drive to the hospital she had been certain she
was acting appropriately. Now, as she sat here in the blaze of the
hospital waiting room lights, she wondered why she wasn't more upset.
Because we're here, she told herself, and he's too damn cantankerous
to let anything be seriously wrong. There was no sense in getting
worked up until the facts were in. For now, all she could do was wait
here for the next task, which would probably entail filling out a
bunch of paperwork.

A different woman emerged from the double doors where
they had wheeled Mace through. She was wearing green surgical scrubs
and was carrying a clipboard. "St. John?" she called out.
Caroline put aside the magazine and slid Asia to her feet.

"Yes?" She stood, gathering her purse and
Asia's coat.

The woman in the green scrubs walked over to them.
There was a white plastic name tag pinned over her left pocket that
identified her as Gomez, R.N. "Are you the family?" she
asked.

"Yes. I'm his wife."

"You can come in and wait with him," she
said.

Caroline and Asia were led to a one-bed examination
room. Mace was lying on a bed, attached to several monitors. Oxygen
was fed to him by a nasal cannula. The plastic tubing ran to a wall
valve with a floating ball indicator. It hovered at six liters a
minute. She didn't know how good or bad that was.

Mace's eyes were wet and bright with fear. Caroline
realized she had never seen him afraid before. She tried to smile
encouragingly but the sight of his emotion was too much. He moved his
body to one side and she sat at the end of his bed. Asia leaned into
her legs.

This is really happening, Caroline realized. She lay
down beside him, buried her face in the sheets bunched over his
stomach, and allowed herself to cry. He found her hand and gripped it
tightly. "We've given him an EKG," Gomez explained in a
loud, careful voice. "The ER doctor has read the results and
sent for the cardiologist. She's on her way. We're still waiting for
results of the blood work."

Caroline sat up, waiting for the words "He's
going to be fine. "

Instead Gomez handed her a tissue and said, "We
know he's had a heart attack. The blood test will measure his levels
of creatine phosphokinase. CPK is an enzyme in the muscle cells that
leaks into the bloodstream when the muscle is damaged. This happens
when there's been a heart attack."

"I thought you were certain of that,"
Caroline said, wondering how many times Nurse Gomez was going to
repeat the words heart attack. It was as if she were trying to make a
point or something.

"We still need to do the test. What we're trying
to determine now is if the heart attack is still going on."

"And then what?"

"Your cardiologist will determine the best
course of treatment. There are drugs we can administer that will
attack clots. And if those don't give us results, an angiogram is
possibly in order."

A second woman, dressed in white and carrying a metal
clipboard, came into the room and conferred with the woman in scrubs.
Gomez looked over the chart and then made a notation.

"
Wait a minute," Mace said, sitting up in
agitation. "What's this test?"

Caroline studied the monitors above him, wishing she
knew what they all meant.