Mary’s thoughts went into overdrive. “I’m assuming they searched your house. We should go check it out. Tell us where you keep your password, and we’ll go right away.”
“How does that work? Do they break in? Do they leave the door open?” Simon rubbed his face. “I’d call the neighbors but they’re on vacation. It’s that time of year.”
“It’s okay, we’re on it.” Mary touched his arm. “Your password is where?”
“I always keep it in the same place. You know my home office, on the first floor? Desk drawers on the left, the top one. It’s hidden in a Phillies schedule.”
Suddenly Feet looked up, his eyes welling again. “Mare, you want me to sign this power-of-attorney in case they take Simon away? Do you really think they’re gonna take him to jail?”
Mary touched his arm. “Feet, don’t get upset. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“But you brought the papers. You want me to sign the papers. Bennie does and so does Simon. That means you all think he’s going to jail. The cops think he did it. His company thinks he did it. They think he killed his boss because he got fired.” Feet held the papers in the air, his lips starting to tremble. “They’re going to take my son away? They’re going to put him in jail for a murder he didn’t do? He didn’t do it!”
“Feet, no,” Mary said, trying to calm him.
“Dad, it’s okay.” Simon got up and went around Feet’s other side. “It’s just a formality. That’s what I was saying to you this morning. It’s like insurance. You get car insurance, it doesn’t mean you’re going to crash. It’s just in case.”
Just then, Bennie’s phone started ringing, and she checked the screen, looking at Mary. “It’s Nate.”
“Who’s Nate?” Simon asked, next to Feet.
“He’s the president of Dumbarton Industries, the parent company.”
“You mean he’s the big boss?” Feet’s lined face flushed with emotion. “The capo di tutto capi?”
“Excuse me.” Bennie rose, answering the call, “Nate, what is it?”
Suddenly Feet jumped out of his seat. The POA papers fluttered from his hand, and he lunged toward Bennie. “Gimme that phone!”
“Dad!” Simon shouted, going after him.
“Feet?” Mary called out, as Bennie whirled around in surprise and Feet grabbed the phone from her hand.
“You’re the big mahaf, you bastard?” he shouted into the phone. “You never shoulda fired my son! He did a great job and he would never murder nobody! You’re not gonna take him away! I won’t let you! Mary and Bennie won’t let you! My granddaughter needs her father—”
“Dad, stop!” Simon grabbed him, holding him around the shoulders. Mary arrived at Feet’s other side and was about to take his arm when suddenly Feet let out an agonized cry, dropped the phone, and crumpled to the floor, clutching his chest.
Mary screamed. “He’s having a heart attack!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Bennie experienced what happened next as an awful blur. Mary screamed, loudspeakers barked. Simon knelt on the lounge floor, cradling his father, whose lined face had gone ashen. Nurses and doctors came running, racing into the lounge, performing CPR. A crash cart arrived, more personnel swarmed, and they brought the old man to life just as a stretcher arrived with even more personnel. Trained aides lifted him onto a gurney with an expert 1-2-3 count, taking his vitals all the while, then whisked him down the hallway to the emergency department of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, which was just next door in the medical complex. A stricken Simon hurried behind the group, calling instructions to Mary to stay behind with Rachel.
Bennie remained on the periphery during the commotion, then accompanied Mary as they walked back to Rachel’s room. They didn’t talk because Mary was busy texting her father and mother to tell them to call her, and after they’d reached Rachel’s room and ascertained that the child was sound asleep, Mary stood outside the room, kept an eye on Rachel, and called a slew of relatives and friends, informing them as calmly as possible of what happened and answering all their questions.
Bennie was amazed to see how calm Mary was in an emergency, and couldn’t help but feel that the tables had turned, with Mary taking charge of the situation and Bennie standing numbly aside, her emotions churning within her chest. She remained outside the child’s hospital room, struggling to control herself, looking through the window at the little girl.
She had never been in a children’s hospital and couldn’t get used to the incongruity of the Mylar balloons and plush animals next to the IV stalks and the blood pressure monitors. And little Rachel looked so frail, her bald head so like a baby bird’s, with sparse flyaway hairs and dark circles under her eyes, even though her eyelids were closed. Her dimpled hand rested on her chest, showing a plastic IV port that sported a Monarch butterfly sticker.
Bennie kept replaying in her mind what had happened in the lounge, feeling a wave of guilt for having brought the power-of-attorney forms. She didn’t know what she had been thinking. Well, she did, which was worse. She had thought she was being helpful, but she had failed miserably. She’d grabbed the papers just as she’d left the office, thinking that she had made a heads-up play, but she’d been horribly wrong.
Bennie watched Rachel’s chest rise and fall, her thoughts turning. She didn’t know Feet and had no idea of his emotional state. She didn’t know how old he was or even why he was called Feet. She avoided using the nickname because it seemed so goofy, even disrespectful. Or maybe it was because she felt like such an outsider to Mary’s South Philly community. Somehow, she didn’t deserve to use the nicknames of people she hardly knew.
Bennie shook her head, only vaguely aware that she was doing so. Beyond Rachel’s bed was a window that overlooked the atrium, and there were even more happy Mylar balloons, mobiles, and a massive staircase of families moving up and down, living their lives in a hospital while their child went through some of the hardest ordeals the planet had to offer. And Bennie stood on the other side of the glass, wondering how she could not have realized what a mistake she had made.
Bennie felt tears come to her eyes, but kept her head turned from Mary as she blinked them away. She should have realized that showing Feet the papers and confronting him with the fact that his son was about to be arrested for murder could have provoked a heart attack. Especially since his grandchild was mortally ill. Worse, he had just learned that she had lost her marrow donor.