by S. L. Naeole
“Well, what do you know—you have an off button, too,” I said slyly.
His hand went to his lip and his eyes lifted in shock at my attack. “Touché,” he said softly.
PAROLED
“I’m not going to say I told you so, but—aw, I told you so, Grace. You knew I was right.”
Graham was sitting next to me with his hands on the steering wheel of Robert’s Charger, his face smug with satisfaction, and I fought the urge to deck him…barely.
“I’m glad, of course, because when you’re in a better mood, he’s in a better mood. And-” he waved his hands around the interior of the car “-I get to drive this!”
“Graham, there are some times when the only thing redeeming about you is the fact that you can drive,” I said under my breath as I stared out of the window. “How much longer until we get to the hospital?”
“You’re acting like you don’t know.”
I sat up and jammed my finger at the speedometer, the dial stuck on a surprisingly low number. “And you’re acting like you don’t know where the gas pedal is. I know what this car is capable of, Graham. I know that it’s possible to go over twenty five miles an hour.”
“Look, Robert said I could drive his car because he knew that the Buick wouldn’t make it around the block much less to the hospital, but he also said to take care of her, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“And when he said to ‘take care of her’, you didn’t think for one minute that he could have meant me?”
He looked at me, a sort of bewildered look on his face. “You’re kidding, right? Look, I get that Robert’s an angel and everything, but deep down he’s still a guy, Grace. If not, he’d have bought a Saab or a Volvo or something. This, this baby right here is all guy, and guys never, ever call their cars anything other than a she.”
“Sometimes, Graham, you can be so obtuse.”
“Thank you.”
Thankfully, he applied a bit more pressure to the gas pedal and we sped up to a healthy thirty-five miles-per-hour, though we were still woefully slower than everyone else around us—why wouldn’t we be? We were on the highway!
I knew why I wanted him to hurry, though. I couldn’t’ quite explain to him what had transpired between Robert and I to affect us working things out. There was too much that he already knew that could put him in danger—he didn’t need to know that his girlfriend’s brother had to kill his best friend or else die himself.
“So, have you heard from Stacy?”
My head shook in response. “I spoke to the doctor who’s treating her at home yesterday to see about talking to her parents about easing up on her restrictions, but it’s too soon to know whether or not he did.”
“I don’t understand her parents. She’s dying, for God’s sake. Can’t they see that if they keep her locked up like a freaking poodle that she’s just going to die that much faster?” Graham’s anger matched my own, but aside from breaking her out of her own home, there wasn’t much else we could do.
The hospital was far busier when we walked in than it was the night before, the lobby full of people wearing concerned expressions on their faces, worried looks dashing between one person and another. It was a chaotic scene, really.
“What’s going on?” My question was directed to no one in particular and the look on Graham’s face told me that he knew nothing, too.
“There was a fire at the Indian Mound Shopping Center,” a man carrying a rolled up newspaper said as he passed by. “Two stores and the theater went up in smoke—there are at least fifty people injured.”
“Oh my God,” my low voice managed to exclaim while I watched him walk away. “That’s why Robert’s not here.”
“What do you mean, that’s why Robert’s not here? I thought he quit.”
Graham’s question caught me off guard and I couldn’t do anything but stare at him with my mouth gaping open in shock. The news that Robert had quit his job was a total surprise.
“Grace, what’s he going to do there? He can’t heal them—he said so himself that you’re the only person he can make better, so why would he go there?”
“He’s an angel, Graham. Where else would he go if not where a lot of people have been hurt?” It wasn’t a lie, not entirely. But it wasn’t the truth, either. It was one of those half-truths that I had learned angels got away with telling, and I realized then that I had been spending far too much time with them if I could come up with something like that so quickly, and say it with such ease that Graham didn’t even blink.
“So is that what’s going to happen when Lark gets back—she’s just going to up and go to a train wreck or earthquake or something?”
“Who knows? It all depends on her call, I suppose.”
“Do you know what it is? Has Robert hinted anything?”
I felt my head swing from side to side in response. “She’s going to tell you before me, that’s a given, so I suggest you just be patient and wait.”
He grunted in disappointment, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket in frustration. “I hate waiting.”
I smiled, knowing exactly how he felt. We hurried into an open elevator and rode it to the third floor maternity ward, the sounds of crying babies and soon-to-be mothers in pain taking Graham by surprise.
“Oh, I’m never having kids,” he vowed as he removed his hands from his pockets and covered his ears. “This has to rank up there with chest waxing.”
“You need chest hair first, Graham.” Laughing, I took him to Janice’s room, knocking softly before opening the door and walking in. Janice lay on her bed with Dad passed out in a chair beside her. In a plastic bassinet lay a sleeping Matthew.
“Hey, Janice,” I whispered when she saw me.
“Grace! I was hoping you’d come. Hello, Graham, nice to see you!”
Graham nodded and eyed the unmoving Matthew. “Is that the baby?” he asked softly, his face wary.
“Yes. I just put him down after a very painful feeding experience, but I think I’ll get the hang of this breastfeeding thing soon.”
The face he made at the word “breastfeeding” was classic—his nose and forehead wrinkled in disgust and his mouth turned down, his lips popping out in horror at the mere idea, the picture that probably formed in his head only cementing his opinion that seeing such a thing was now wholly unappetizing. I snorted, amused by the reaction.
“So how are you feeling?” I asked as I bent down to examine my new baby brother more closely—the last time I had seen him, he was covered in blood and goop. Now that he was cleaner, I could see that his hair was a lighter shade of brown than my own, more closely resembling Dad’s, and he had very plump, pink cheeks with a matching pink pout.
“I’m doing okay, stitches are doing fine and I’ll probably be allowed to go home the day after tomorrow.”
“You’ve got stitches?” Graham looked at Janice’s face and winced when she pointed at her abdomen.
“It’s okay, Graham. The stitches look a lot better than the staples they used to use.”
When his face turned green, Janice and I began to laugh, startling both Dad and the baby who began a soft wail. Dad rubbed his eyes and blinked several times to see what was going on.
“Hey kiddo, Graham, you’re finally here!” He stood up and stretched, rolling his neck around to ease out the stiffness he had gained from sleeping in the chair. “I miss my bed,” he grumbled before walking towards me and wrapping his arms around me in a fatherly hug.
“You’ll be home the day after tomorrow,” I said happily, returning his embrace. “And then you’ll never get to sleep.”
“Don’t I know it,” he laughed as he let me go and then clapped Graham on the shoulder. “So, how are you doing, Graham? I talk to you more than I talk to Grace, but I have no idea what’s been going on with you guys—I suppose I should get used to that, what with you two going off to college in a few months. Tell me what’s going on with the house. It’s still in one piece, right?”
“Yes, it’s in one piece,” Graham reassured him. “I’m actually planning on moving back into my house when you come home. My parents are selling it so Grace and I have spent some time cleaning it up, but it still needs a lot of work before it’s presentable. Besides, with finals coming up, I think it’d be easier to study in a house without a newborn.” He looked at the still crying Matthew, mild distaste quite obvious on his face.
Dad missed nothing and he nodded knowingly. “I completely understand. I only wish it were so easy for Grace.”
“Aw, Dad, I’ll be okay. I can always just shut my door,” I told him. I bent over the bassinet and then looked over at Janice. “Is it okay if I pick him up?”
She nodded with a broad smile spreading across her face. “You might as well get it all in now. When my sister arrives, I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything but feed him.”
I felt disapproval jerk throughout my body as the news of Janice’s sister Katie coming to stay with us hit me. “Is she coming to visit or stay?” The tone of my voice was flat, and I could tell by Janice’s reaction that her answer wasn’t going to please me at all.
“She’s going to stay for a month to help me out with the baby while I’m healing from the c-section.”
I immediately knew that I wouldn’t be going home after all, and as I picked Matthew up, his warm, tiny body resting in my arms offering me a comfort I didn’t realize I needed, I looked at Janice and smiled. “She can sleep in my room. I’ll go and stay at Stacy’s house.”
“What?” Dad and Janice both said at the same time, while Graham nearly choked on his own reaction.
“Well, Graham doesn’t mind sleeping on the sofa, but I don’t think your sister would enjoy that too much, so she can sleep on my bed and I’ll just stay at Stacy’s.”
Another half-truth slipping out of my mouth far too easily, and I hated myself for it, hated the way that dad and Janice swallowed it up so quickly and without complaint or question.
“Well, you’ll at least be there when we come home, right?” Dad asked, his hand stroking Matthew’s head, while the other cupped my chin. “I’m a father of two now, which means I have twice the worry.”
“Yeah, I’ll even make dinner,” I said softly. When he bent to kiss to my hair, I felt my eyes begin to burn and I knew that I needed to focus on something else before the waterworks began. Dad didn’t need to see me begin crying, and I didn’t need to tell anymore lies to get out of telling the truth.
“That’s sweet, Grace,” Janice said with an appreciative sigh. “I’m afraid Katie isn’t exactly a good cook. If I were to be completely honest, the woman could probably make Robert’s mother look like a gourmet chef.”
Graham choked on that, and Dad raised a thoughtful eyebrow in my direction. “How is Robert, anyway? The two of you are usually joined at the hip—did I just say that without wanting to strangle him?”
I chuckled at the shocked and confused expression that began to spread on his face. “Yes, Dad, you did, and he’s…busy.”
“Oh. Well, be sure he’s there when we get home. And tell him to bring his mother and Lark. I want the house to be completely full when we get there so that when there’s only Katie left, it’ll feel emptier.”
“James!” Janice’s mouth was open in mock shock, and I fought against a giggle.
“I’ll try, but I think Lark and Ameila are both busy that night, Dad,” I said to him as I brought Matthew up to my shoulder, patting him on his back to try and ease the sudden fussiness that had come over him.
“I think he might be hungry, Grace. Hand him over to me,” Janice said, reaching her arms out towards me.
I handed the baby to her and watched, awed as she unsnapped the top of her gown and brought the baby to her chest. Realizing that this was an intensely intimate moment, I turned around, pulling Graham around with me.
“Was she doing what I think she was doing?” he whispered harshly.
“Yes, and you were staring,” I whispered back, slugging his arm in the process. “You perv.”
“Ow!”
A knock on the door brought Dad walking past us to answer it. His murmured words were indistinguishable, and a large bouquet of flowers and an even larger balloon blocked the face of the person who had just come in.
“Grace, Graham, look who’s come to visit!”
He stood back, holding his arm out to lead the way towards us.
“Stacy!” I heard myself shout.
She grinned at me, a goofy, thankful, highly excited grin that said more than words could just how relieved she was to be somewhere other than in her room. “I’ve brought the essential baby welcoming hospital kit; flowers, balloons, a layette, and something other than hospital food.”
She held up the bag of take out and I could almost hear Janice’s mouth watering as she said loudly from behind us, “Thank you!”
“Is she busy?” Stacy asked, waving over my shoulder.
“She’s feeding the baby right now,” Dad explained, taking the items from her hands. “Why don’t you three go walking around for about a half-an-hour. That’ll give her enough time to feed Matthew and change him.”
We all nodded and left the room, glad for the ability to talk without having to explain too much to dad and Janice. The hallway was filled with people heading to and from the nursery and other rooms, so we headed downstairs to the cafeteria.
As expected, it was practically empty.
“What is it about the word ‘cafeteria’ that makes people think of regurgitation?” Stacy asked with a smirk.
“I think it’s because it has the same number of syllables,” I replied.
Graham harrumphed and shook his head. “While you two discuss vomiting and English fundamentals, I’m going to order myself a cheeseburger and fries.”
As he walked away, Stacy couldn’t help but smile. “He’ll eat anything anywhere, won’t he?”
“Pretty much,” I concurred.
We laughed as we watched Graham place his order, pointing at a few things from the a la carte menu, throwing his hands in the air when he found something that piqued his interest. His head bobbed up and down when the woman behind the counter asked him a question, and when she clapped, he broke into a little dance.
“So, listen,” Stacy began, turning her attention away from Graham and looking at me. “I wanted to thank you for speaking to Dr. Bro. I don’t know what he said to my parents, but they were very…apologetic. It was almost like they had the fear of death put into them or something.”
I felt a twitch in my lips as I fought the smile that wanted to creep onto my face. “It was nothing, Stacy. I’m just glad that you’re finally out! So did you drive?”
She shook her head and grimaced a bit as she looked at her nails. “Sean dropped me off. He and I have been spending a lot of time talking—it’s probably the only real good thing to have come of all of this imprisonment—and we’ve come to a kind of understanding about things.”
“An understanding?”
“Yeah. I’m going to live these last few months of my life the way that I want and he won’t insult my friends anymore. And I won’t come back and haunt him after I die.”
“Well, that’s a great understanding,” I laughed.
“It’s conditional, of course, and he still has to apologize to you for calling you a half-breed. He feels like a total jerk for that, Grace, but he’s got that stupid pride thing going on and wouldn’t admit to it until I promised that I’d curse him with premature balding if he didn’t get over it.”
“Aw Stacy, you didn’t have to do that. Trust me, I’m more accepting of him calling me a half-breed than-” I stopped, unsure whether or not to tell her about the note.
“Than what, Grace?”
No. I couldn’t keep this from her, too. My guilt had pretty much feasted on me for what had happened the last time, and I didn’t want to go through that again. I told her about the note that Robert had left for me in the bathroom. Stacy listened i
ntently and then her mouth formed a grim line as she folded her arms across her chest, upset and angry about what she had heard and that I had kept yet another thing from her.
“I’m going to forget about the fact that you took forever to fill me in on this. I’ll need a few minutes to do that, but I’ll get over it. What bothers me the most is that this happened when Robert and Lark were right there. How is that possible?”
“I know that Robert can write things, draw things without even being in the room. I’ve seen him do it. I guess that it’s not exactly a unique ability since neither he nor Lark ever questioned how it was done but rather who had done it,” I explained.
“So you think that whoever wrote that was outside? But wouldn’t they know? Wouldn’t they sense it?”
I shrugged, unsure of what the answer was. “I only know that since then, nothing else has happened; Robert’s been hyper-vigilant about making sure that I’m safe.”
“And how’s that going? Are you at least treating him a little better?”
“Oh, she’s treating him pretty nicely. She was in his room when I came to pick her up,” Graham answered her, placing a tray of food on the table in front of us. “I think she slept there last night.”
A knowing smile formed on Stacy’s lips, and she nodded to Graham, who had a smug look on his face that complimented her. “It’s about time. I was thinking you might hold out until I was on my deathbed or something—which would have been completely romantic, but totally un-Grace-like—but now is good.”
“Yeah, good news all around, I guess. You’ve been paroled, Grace’s done being stubborn—at least for now, anyway—and Janice’s given birth. Now all we need is for Lark to come back and everything will be perfect,” Graham said quickly before shoving a greasy cheeseburger into his mouth.
“I don’t know about perfect, Graham. I’m allowed out of the house, but only for a few hours a day, and only during the day. I’ve yet to convince my parents to let me go to prom,” Stacy said, her fingers snatching a fry from his tray and quickly dispatching it into her mouth before he could stop her.
