"Yes, ma'am."
Later that night, cradled next to me, she lets out a soft sigh as she falls asleep. This is good, being with Lily. It feels comfortable. But the feeling of being comfortable – happy, even – is a foreign one to me. I've never had that before and it makes me uneasy. It's basic physics – what goes up must come down. If things are good now, they can't possibly last.
"Listen. It's okay. I'm at the hospital with her now," I say into the phone. On the other end, Lily's voice is high-pitched.
"Why didn't she call me?" Lily squeals.
"Is that Lily?" Opal asks from the hospital bed. "Tell her I can hear her screaming into the phone from way over here and this is exactly why I didn't call her – because I didn't want to lose my hearing. I'm an old woman and my hearing is one of the few things I have left!"
"I heard that," Lily yells. "I'm almost to the store. I'm putting a closed sign on the front door of the bakery and I'm coming to the hospital."
"I already put up a sign," I say calmly. Lily has been high-strung the past couple of days. She says it's just because she's nervous about sending off her daughter for the first time, but I'm almost positive it's because she's nervous about her parents coming here to pick up Chloe. . . and meet me.
"Why didn't Opal call us last night?" Lily continues in her high-pitched voice. "I'm in the car on the way from dropping Chloe at school. Is she okay? I mean, how did she break a hip? What on Earth happened?"
I glare at Opal, who waves at me and shakes her head. "I don't need a lecture from Miss Play-It-Safe."
I snort. I'll let Opal tell Lily this story herself. Lily will wrangle it out of her when she gets here anyway.
And she does. Lily barges into the hospital room, heading straight to Opal without so much as a glance at me. "Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me last night? How did you get here?"
"Chill the hell out," Opal says. "In fact, I think one of these doctors here might be able to give you a sedative. Or a tranquilizer. Do they have horse tranquilizers here?"
"I don't need a sedative. How did you break a hip? You're in better shape than I am." Lily looks back and forth between me and Opal.
I shake my head and look at Opal. "Don't look at me. I'll let Opal field the questions."
"Oh, Lord, you're going to find out anyway. I broke it in the shower."
Lily gives us an expectant look. "Okay." She pauses, her hands on her hips as she looks at us. "What are you not telling me? Spill it."
Opal rolls her eyes. "I wasn't alone."
"You weren't alone? What does that even mean?" Lily starts, then a flush spreads to her cheeks. "Oh. Ohhhhh."
I cover my mouth to keep from laughing.
"Look, Miss Prude, don't even give me a lecture about the dangers of sex in the shower or tell me how slippery lubricant can be."
I snort as Lily's jaw drops, and then I really can't stop laughing. "Yeah, Lily."
"Oh my God, Opal!" Lily looks horrified. "You what? In the shower?"
"It's important in your old age to learn new skills. Keeps the brain agile."
"It's important to do brain teasers and games, not have sex in the shower!" Lily looks at me with wide eyes, her face burgundy now, which only makes me laugh harder.
"Well, to be fair, it was a game," Opal protests.
"Oh, God, stop!" Lily exclaims. "Where's your… boyfriend?"
"My booty call?" Opal asks. "I told him to leave. He called the paramedics last night! Honestly, it's only a broken hip. He could have driven me to the hospital himself, and that's what I told him, but instead he called an ambulance. My next door neighbor Martha – nosy as hell, always has been – was standing there in her bathrobe watching as I was taken out of the house at midnight with lights flashing! This is a whole lot of fuss about nothing."
"It's not nothing! You broke your hip, Opal!"
Opal rolls her eyes and sighs. "Stop fussing. My daughter is driving up from Grand Junction and you are both forbidden from telling her exactly how it happened. All she needs to know is that I slipped getting out of the shower, although Lord knows that now she's going to think I need help, like I'm some kind of invalid. You hear me? Forbidden."
I mock-button my lips, but I can hardly keep a straight face. "Mum's the word."
"What's the treatment plan?" Lily asks. "Are you scheduled for surgery?"
Opal waves her hand dismissively at me. "They're going to take me up for surgery in an hour and put a pin in my hip. I finally saved up for that trip to Paris I've always wanted to take, and now I'll have a damn pin in my hip and be setting off those metal detectors at the airport. Then one of those TSA agents will have to frisk me." She pauses for a beat. "On second thought, maybe that pin in the hip is a good idea after all."
"Are you sure she's not senile?" Lily asks me loudly.