58.
Riley
Through my closed eyelids, I was aware of a soft yellow glow, and even though I wasn’t much of a believer, I thought, Am I in heaven? It wasn’t the worst thought imaginable and I kept my eyes shut for a long time, even as I recognized Jeannie’s voice coming from somewhere to my left.
“Riley?” she asked. “Are you awake?”
I remembered sailing through space in my car. The deer I hoped I’d missed. The horrible crunching, cracking sound of metal buckling around me. I remembered—or maybe dreamed?—the ambulance ride to an emergency room, strapped down so I couldn’t move and not caring at all what happened to me. It had felt good to not care. To turn over control to other people. I’d floated along with whatever they did to me, slipping in and out of consciousness. I remembered the agonizingly bright lights in the emergency room. The exquisite pain in my head. Jeannie had been at my side. And Danny? Had he been there, too?
Now I opened my eyes partway, squinting against the light.
Jeannie sat on a chair next to my bed. She leaned forward, holding my hand to her lips, and she smiled when I looked toward her. “There you are,” she said tenderly. “There are those beautiful brown eyes. Are you feeling a little better now?”
I looked down at my swollen left hand and the splints on my index and middle fingers. My head throbbed. “I’m a mess,” I said hoarsely.
She let go of my uninjured right hand to reach for the plastic tumbler on the nearby tray table.
“Water,” she said, holding the straw to my lips.
I sipped. The water was lukewarm but felt soothing in my throat.
“Am I still in the ER?” I asked as she placed the tumbler back on the table.
“No, you’re in a room. There’s another bed in here, but at least for now, it’s empty and you have the room to yourself.”
I tried to turn my head to look at the other bed, but a searing pain on the top of my scalp told me that wasn’t a good idea. Instead, I wiggled my toes. Stretched my legs. Took a deep breath. I needed to assess the damage I’d done to myself.
“I’m okay?” I’d meant it to come out as a statement, but it turned into a question.
“You’re going to be fine,” Jeannie said. “You broke two fingers and got a bump on your head. That’s all.”
I touched the bandage on the back of my head. “Stitches?” I asked. I couldn’t remember. They’d either knocked me out or I’d been unconscious.
“Ten,” she said. “You were unbelievably lucky, Riley. Your car, not so much.”
I knew I’d wrecked my car. I knew it the moment the tires left the road. “Am I in New Bern?” I asked.
“No, Goldsboro. That’s the closest town to where the accident happened, so they brought you here.”
I remembered the flash of tawny fur in my headlights. “I hope I didn’t hit the deer,” I said.
“Ah, so that was what caused it. That’s what they guessed.”
I figured they meant the EMTs or whoever the first responders had been who found me. Although my aborted drive to New Bern was still a hazy memory, the conversation I’d had with Celia in my apartment was coming back to me more clearly by the second. I shut my eyes again. If only that had been a dream.
“Do you need to sleep some more?” Jeannie asked. “They said they’ll wake you up every thirty minutes or so, but you can doze if you want.”
I shook my head, grimacing at the pain. “Is Danny here?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I was on my way to talk to him,” I said. “I have to tell him what Celia—”
“He knows,” Jeannie said. “We drove here together from New Bern, and I told him.”
“What did he say?”
“Not much.” She gave a little shrug. I knew Danny perplexed her. “He was quiet,” she said. “I don’t know him very well, so I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking. I do know he’s worried about you, though. He’s out in the waiting area right now. Are you up to seeing him?”
I started to nod, then caught myself. I wouldn’t move my head any more than was absolutely necessary. “Yes,” I said.
“And honey,” she said, taking my hand again, squeezing it a little. “I called Celia to tell her about the accident.”
“Celia? How did you…”
“Her number was in your phone. She and Lisa are on their way.”
“They are?” My voice sounded like a child’s. I felt an unexpected jolt of pure joy. In spite of the fact that Lisa was on a collision course with Danny, I wanted her here. I wanted her with me.
Jeannie started to get up, but I grabbed her wrist. “Call her Jade, Jeannie,” I said. “We need to call her Jade.”
* * *
I was alone in the room for a short time. I was able to reach the tumbler of water on my own and use the remote to raise the back of the bed until I was nearly sitting up, but every movement hurt. The hair around the bandage on the top of my head felt stiff—with blood, I guessed. I had the feeling I looked even worse than I felt.
The heavy door to the room opened and Danny walked toward me, shaking his head. “I’m so mad at you,” he said, but I could tell he was more relieved than angry. He wouldn’t talk to me that way if he thought I was going to die.
“I had to go see her,” I said.
He stood at the side of my bed, his hands in his jeans pockets. “You had to go warn her, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t do a very good job of it,” he said. “They haven’t canceled the concert. At least not yet, and it’s only a few hours away.”
“Have you talked to Harry?” I held my breath.
“You asked me to wait, and I waited. I planned to see him this morning, but I haven’t had the chance, since my little sister had an accident.” His smile was small, but it reached his eyes and I felt his love. “I still plan to see him as soon as I get back to New Bern, though,” he added.
I was sure he’d fantasized about tonight, watching Harry approach Lisa, either before or after—or, God forbid, during—the concert. Finally, after all these years, he’d see her get the punishment he thought she deserved.
“Danny…” I said, “I know Jeannie told you about…” My voice suddenly shut down and I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Yes, I know it all.” He took his hands from his pockets and wrapped them around the safety rail of my bed, and I wondered if he was thinking about the fact that he wasn’t my brother after all. “At least, I know the parts Lisa wants us to know,” he said, “but—”
“She didn’t want us to know any of it,” I said quickly. “It was Celia who told me everything.”
“And we know whose side Celia is on,” he said bluntly.
I frowned. “Are you saying you don’t believe her?” I asked. “What part of the story are you questioning?”
“It doesn’t matter if I buy it or not,” he said, his smile completely gone now. “The fact that the guy was a bastard isn’t the issue. He was still a human being and she slaughtered him.”
That was the undeniable truth. Maybe if it had been someone else’s mother at risk here, I would have been among the first to say she should stand trial and serve her time. But this was my mother at the center of the storm. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Please don’t take her away from me, Danny,” I pleaded.
He let go of the rail and walked over to the window. He looked outside for a moment, then turned to face me, his arms folded across his chest. “She never should have jumped bail,” he said. “She should have stayed and—”
“Blame her jumping bail on Daddy, if you have to blame someone,” I interrupted him. “She felt desperate, and she was so young.”
The door opened with the slightest of squeaks, and a young, blond-haired nurse came into the room and walked over to my bed. Danny waited silently while she took my blood pressure, shined a flashlight in my eyes, and asked me if I knew where I was.
“You’re doing awesome,” she said when she’d finished. Then she nodded toward the door. “Your friend Jade is waiting out there to see you,” she said. “Are you up for a little more company?”
I glanced at Danny. His face was like stone.
“Yes,” I said. “Please let her come in.”