“Mom,” he said again, sitting beside her on the bed, her eyes closely following his movements. “It’s Peter.”
When she didn’t respond, he added, “Your son.”
Claire heard footsteps hurrying down the hall and stepped back into the corridor. A very young nurse was rushing past, her hair shaken loose from beneath her cap. A name tag pinned to her breast said, STUDENT NURSE, and beneath it her name, PENNY.
“Excuse me,” Claire said to her. “Penny? I’m sorry to stop you but we need someone in here, fast.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “I only just started my rotation here,” she said. “Is it a real emergency?” Her cheeks turned pink beneath the freckles that blanketed her face.
“I think so,” Claire told her.
Penny looked frightened. “I only just started,” she said again.
“Could you run to get someone who can help?”
She nodded, relieved, and ran off in the direction of the nurses’ station.
Claire stepped back into the room where Peter was speaking softly to his mother.
“And here’s Claire,” he said. “My wife Claire.”
Birdy turned a slow steady gaze on Claire.
“You’re in the hospital,” Peter told her.
“I can see that,” she said, her voice a dry croak.
Peter smiled at that, a glimmer of his mother coming back.
Claire poured her a glass of water and held it to the old woman’s lips.
“Who’s David?” Peter asked when she’d finished sipping.
Birdy looked at him, surprised.
“What do you know about that?” she asked.
“You just called for him,” Peter said.
His mother smiled sadly. “So,” she said, “at the end of my life, I call for David.”
“No one said it’s the end of your life,” Claire said quickly.
“Darling,” Birdy said, resting her head back on the pillow and closing her eyes, “I’m saying it.”
She was quiet for a moment, then she said softly, “I dreamed of Lotte.”
Claire glanced at Peter, but he just shrugged.
“I dreamed I was at her farm, at one of her dinners, and Pamela was there and everyone looked so healthy. So happy. Even me,” she added.
Again Claire glanced at Peter.
“You’ve got a whole cast of characters who I don’t even know,” Peter said, stroking his mother’s hand.
Birdy sighed. “It was all so long ago,” she said wearily.
Penny poked her head in, her face redder and her eyes more frightened.
“Jeez,” she said, “everyone’s gone to the solarium to watch the inauguration. That’s where I was headed when you stopped me. They almost canceled it, you know. The inauguration. On account of the snow. I heard it’s only twenty-two degrees out there and with the wind and all it feels more like seven degrees.”
“Well, you need to forget about that and go find a doctor,” Peter said sharply.
“But I looked,” Penny insisted.
“Maybe you could go up to the solarium?” Claire suggested. “If they’re all there?”
The girl nodded. “I’ll do that,” she said, happy to leave the room.
Claire wondered how she would ever make it as a nurse.
“Why don’t you go with her?” Peter said to Claire. “That one might forget to come back.”
“All right,” Claire said.
She too was relieved to go. She would find a doctor, but she would also get to watch a tiny bit of the inauguration. Maybe she would even get to glimpse Jackie.
Walking quickly, she caught up with Penny at the elevator.
“What’s the emergency anyway?” Penny said when she recognized Claire beside her.
“My mother-in-law,” Claire said. “She had a severe heart attack last night and the doctor said she wouldn’t pull through. But now she’s talking to us. Gibberish, but just the same.”
Penny’s eyes glazed, as if she had no interest in the events at all.
The elevator arrived and after they stepped in and the doors slid shut, Penny said, “I’m only doing this to marry a doctor. All the sick people and stuff aren’t exactly my cup of tea.”
Surprised at the girl’s honesty, and her motivation, Claire couldn’t even think of a response.
“If you marry a doctor,” Penny continued, “your life is so easy. I bet I’ll have a built-in swimming pool and wall-to-wall carpeting and everything.”
“But life isn’t about things like that,” Claire said.
Now Penny looked surprised. “Oh, isn’t it? It doesn’t look like you did too bad for yourself. That husband of yours is kind of dreamy, and you’re both dressed like you’re not hurting for anything.”
“Yes, but I meant to say that you should fall in love for love’s sake, not—”
Penny interrupted her with a sharp laugh. “It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is a poor man, I say.”
The elevator stopped and the doors slowly opened. Claire immediately saw the solarium at the end of the hall, with a crowd of people spilling from it.
“How did you meet your husband?” Penny asked Claire.
“On an airplane. To Paris,” Claire said.
“Paris,” Penny said, impressed.