Sweeter Than W(h)ine

by Nancy Goldberg Levine

  Rafe frowned when she used one of Jay’s favorite expressions, so she looked at the book he’d given her. “I’ve been wanting to read this. How did you know I liked Babe Carter mysteries?”

  “It seemed like something you’d enjoy since the heroine’s a lawyer who runs her business from a taxi and the hero’s her cab driver.”

  “You’re right,” Dina said, wanting to start reading right there, but not anxious to get rid of Rafe, who was actually starting to grow on her…a little. She moved on to the next gift, a package of twelve blank CDs. “How did you…”

  Rafe shrugged. “That was a no-brainer.” He looked at the bedside table, where Dina had her CD player and CDs arranged as best she could at her “home away from home.”

  “Does this mean you don’t have an IPod either?”

  “I like gadgets, but I don’t need an IPod right now. I have a lot of CDs, and I’d hate to think I wasted all that money buying them. I’ll hang onto them as long as I can.”

  Dina sent him a smile; she knew exactly what he meant. “Lorrie Galloway says her friends always want her to get an IPod, but she won’t since she invested so much money in her CD collection.”

  “Lorrie Galloway?” Rafe said, with a low chuckle. “You actually didn’t mention her brother?”

  Dina laughed, then spoke with mock severity. “I don’t talk about him all the time. What have you got against Lorrie’s brother anyway?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that you’re always dropping his name.”

  “What? You don’t want me to mention the name of Jay Galloway? Is that part of your doctor’s orders?”

  She heard the hesitation in his voice. Gotcha, she thought. “No, but…”

  “Jay Galloway says he doesn’t like IPods either. People can download stuff for free, and that cuts in on the CD profits. Jay Galloway says I got him hooked on the flavored Tootsie Rolls I bought him for Christmas. He went to Shortencute’s Market, and bought himself another three bags. Jay Galloway says…”

  Rafe crossed the room in a couple of strides, walked into the bathroom and came back with a pristine white wash cloth. He started waving it. “Okay, okay. I don’t have anything against the guy. Mention him as much as you want. It’s just that you’ve got him up on a pedestal, and I don’t want you to be disappointed if he does something wrong and falls off.”

  “He’s a good friend, and he helped me out a lot this year. Not only does he take me wherever I need to without having to use a GPS, he makes me laugh when I get too down. And that happens a lot. I know he’s got faults, but everybody does. I think I can handle it if he falls off the pedestal. It’s already happened a few times, y’know.”

  “That’s good,” Rafe said, smiling at her. He had a nice smile. He’d also brought her drawings of turkeys from the local newspaper, and eight Chanukah presents.

  She was about to unwrap present number five when Rafe said, “Why don’t we go down the hall and you can open the rest of these out there? You could try to walk there with the walker…”

  “I don’t know,” Dina said, fear gripping her a little as she thought about the walk to the lounge area near the nurses’ station. A couple of years ago, she could have made that trek easily; tonight every step was hard. She didn’t need the oxygen now, but…

  “I’ll be right there with you.” He gathered the rest of the presents, and placed them back into the brown paper bag. “Are you up for it?”

  “Okay,” Dina said.

  Raphael called for an aide, and Dina was happy when Alec appeared. “They made you work on NewYear’s Eve?” she said, when the elfin gentleman arrived.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I didn’t have anything to do anyway.”

  He and Raphael helped her from the bed and she tried to steady herself counting slowly. “One, two…three,” she murmured, managing to get up without too much pain for the moment.

  “Thanks, Alec,” he said, and the aide disappeared. “Now just take your time. I’ll be right behind you with the wheelchair if you need it.”

  Dina stared at the velour bathrobe that was on the bed. Raphael seemed to sense that she wanted him to help her put it on. She tried but her shoulders ached.

  “Here,” he said, helping her into it. Some muscles hurt like crazy; some didn’t. She managed to get the sky blue robe on and, with the walker, she made her way out of the room and down the hall until she and Rafe reached the lounge area. She gazed longingly at the piano. It seemed like such a long time since she’d played on the old upright at home; the one that had belonged to her mom.

  “Do you want to…”

  Dina nodded. She went from the walker to the wheelchair. Thanks to Ruthie Gordon, she was able to accomplish that feat without too much of a problem. She saw some sheet music neatly arranged on a table next to the piano and reached for it. Christmas music, she thought. She loved Christmas songs, but she liked to make up her own words. She found the music for “Silver Bells,” and started playing it, singing softly (if one could call what she was doing “singing”). Nope, she thought. That wasn’t singing.

  ***

  Rafe lost himself in Dina’s piano playing, and found that he liked her sense of humor. She was actually funny, he thought. He guessed she had to be, though, with the kind of job she had. Being a grief counselor didn’t sound like much fun, but it seemed like she’d surrounded herself with fun people like her parents and Jay and Lorrie Galloway. He heard her soft, off-key singing and noticed that she’d made up her own words to “Silver Bells.” Had she actually changed it to “Silver Dreidels?”

  She had.

  Sending her a smile when she finished the song, Rafe said, “I have a request.”

  “I know. You want me to sing ‘Far, Far Away?’”

  “No. I’d like you to play ‘White Christmas.’ It was my dad’s favorite song, and he always joked about the Jewish guy, Irving Berlin, writing a Christmas song.” He thought about his father, Moe. As a kid, Rafe thought his dad had been named after Moe from the Three Stooges. It turned out his real name was Maurice, but everyone called him Moe. Although his dad had died twelve years ago, it still hurt to think about him. Rafe blocked out memories, or anything that would make him appear weak in front of Dina. Then he wondered why this was important. She was his patient and she might have a quirky sense of humor like he did and be kind of cute, but…

  She’d started to play the song. Her hands practically danced across the keys. She really played well; he was impressed. She brought life to the baby grand piano that stood in the lounge. When she started singing about dreaming of a World Series, he laughed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, after the second song. “I haven’t played for a while, and my arms and shoulders are starting to hurt. Do you mind if we go back?”

  “Of course not,” Rafe said. “You haven’t opened the rest of your gifts anyway, and we haven’t toasted the new year. Do you want to use the walker, or the wheelchair?”

  “Wheelchair,” she murmured. Rafe hoped that soon, she wouldn’t need the wheelchair anymore. He probably wouldn’t be around to see it. Once she got home, she wasn’t likely to come back here. Unless a patient lived nearby, they didn’t come back to visit. He chided himself a moment later. What did it matter if she came back or not? He wasn’t interested in her, at least not romantically.

  He helped her into the wheelchair and wheeled her back to her room. She called for Alec, and he and Rafe settled her back into the bed. Raphael put the rest of her presents on the bedside table. Dina unwrapped present six, two bars of nice-smelling soap in a small box with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it.

  “Oh, this smells so good,” she said. “I can’t wait to use it.”

  “The soaps in these places aren’t usually so nice. My sister-in-law likes that kind of thing, so I thought you might.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  Present seven was some bath and shower gel in chocolate mint flavor. “This is nice, too,”

  “My sister-in-law likes th
at brand, too,” he said. He walked to the sink and got two plastic cups, then checked her mini-fridge for some ice. He found it, put it into the two glasses, and walked back to the bedside. Then he waited for her to open the last gift, a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

  “It’s perfect!” she said, with a sweet, open smile. “May I make the first toast?”

  “Be my guest,” Rafe said, and then laughed at their formality.

  “Here’s to you, Rob,” she looked upward, toward heaven. “I love you, and I always will. And here’s to my parents, and Krysta and Jay. And you, Doc.” She drank from her cup, and Rafe drank from his.

  “And here’s to you, Dina, and to a much better year next year.”

  They both took another drink and emptied their glasses. A nurses’ aide walked in to take her vitals, and give her a breathing treatment.

  “I’ll take that as my cue to leave,” Rafe said. “I had fun.” He did.

  “I did, too,” Dina said. He was standing close to her and, for some reason, he wanted to kiss her. He knew he couldn’t, especially not with a colleague standing close by. He couldn’t help but wonder, though, what kissing this woman would be like.

  ***

  After Rafe left, Dina took her breathing treatment and watched TV. While she watched, she thought about the good doctor, and how she liked making new friends. That’s all he was, too. A friend. For her, there would never be anyone else except Rob. Sure, before he’d passed away he’d told her to make a new life, and start over, but there was no one who could ever measure up.

  Instead she thought of her friends, Krysta and Jay, and how she’d met each of them. She’d met Krysta at Cranwell College, a small college located in Walnut Hills, with a beautiful view of the Ohio River. Dina had needed a ride home and posted an ad, and Krysta, who’d lived nearby, had been the answer. Jay had started driving her parents around when her dad’s eyesight had gotten too bad for him to drive himself. Then he’d started taking Dina to work when her changed bus schedule and pain in her knee had gotten to be too much for her.

  She was tired, but she wanted to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square at the stroke of midnight. She turned off the television, and kept herself busy by reading Babe Carter’s book, and listening to Jay and the band’s latest CD. She pretended she was right there at the Point. When midnight came, she used the walker to get herself to the door of her room. “Hap-py New…” She stopped. The place was so quiet that she didn’t see the point in yelling about a happy new year. No doubt everybody in this place except the nurses and aides were sleeping already.

  She hoped Rafe’s toast would come true, and that she would have a better year this year. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be part of it.

  Chapter Three

  The first few weeks of January went by. Rafe enjoyed seeing Dina, and the progress she made. Sometimes he’d come in and she’d be watching a judge show on television. Today when he came in, she was watching “Singin’ in the Rain.” She tried to sing “Good Morning,” but her voice was still a little raspy from her bout with pneumonia.

  “You’re in a good mood,” he said, sending her a smile. “I hear you’re going home tomorrow.”

  “I am.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “I’m glad, but I’m nervous,” she said. “I want to go home, but I’m afraid something will go wrong. I can’t wait to see Jay Galloway, though, y’know?”

  Rafe tried not to get upset when she mentioned her friend’s name…again. He knew that she knew how much that bugged him, so she said his name every chance she got. Not only that, she used some of his favorite expressions like “y’know.” He didn’t understand why it bothered him. He’d already decided he had no romantic interest in Dina, so he couldn’t be jealous of that shrimp. He also couldn’t figure out why he was so upset that she’d be released the next day. They had fun talking and laughing, but they were friends. That was all.

  “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Nothing can go wrong on the cab ride home because that shining star of drivers, Jay Galloway, will be taking you.”

  “That’s true,” Dina said, with a laugh. “He should be in the cab drivers Hall of Fame. Anyway, I’m not worried about the ride home. It’s what happens afterward. My mom and dad are staying over the first night, and I know I’ll have therapy and nurses coming to the house to work with me, but…”

  “I understand. I still think you’ll be fine.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I’m right,” Rafe assured her. He was reluctant to leave, but he had to visit his next patient. “You have the number here if you need anything. I’ll try to stop by tomorrow before you leave, but I might not make it. It’s been nice knowing you, Dina.”

  “It’s been nice knowing you,” she said, and then laughed again. “We sound so formal, don’t we?”

  Rafe realized that she was right. Of course, he didn’t want to be too informal. He had lots of friends around Wellstone Village, but if he kissed her or some other nonsense, they might start gossiping. “We do.”

  “We’ve become friends since I’ve been here, and I will call if I need anything.”

  “Good. Well, goodbye, Dina.”

  “So long. Maybe when I start feeling better, you can come to hear me play the piano on my weekend job.”

  He remembered hearing her talk about playing the piano at Nutsie Nan’s Café, in Roselawn, on the weekends. “I’d like that, so I hope you get better fast.” As he left her room, he started making plans. He could certainly find a way to get to Roselawn to hear her play. It wasn’t that far away from his house in Wyoming. Sure, they were just friends, but he had enjoyed listening to her make music on the Wellstone Village piano.

  Dina was up early the next morning. As she’d told Rafe, she was both excited and nervous. By that afternoon, she’d be home and reunited with her kitty, Schmoopie. She had to admit that she’d miss the tall, dark and handsome doctor. As she’d told him, though, they were friends. That was fine with her. She could always use another friend.

  After breakfast and goodbyes to the nurses and aides, Dina’s parents arrived. Ruthie, her physical therapist, wheeled her down to the library, where Jay was waiting outside with his familiar red cab. “Now don’t forget what I told you when you get to your condo. When you walk in, ask your cab driver to grab your pants.”

  Dina couldn’t help chuckling over this. Ruthie had given her that advice yesterday, and she’d said she’d better ask her mom to do that, not Jay. Ruthie thought it would be good in case she started to fall because she was worried about her parents’ age. She and Jay had been friends for almost five years, but they weren’t that close.

  “Can she sit in front?” Ruthie asked, as soon as she wheeled Dina outside with her parents following behind.

  “Nope,” Jay said. “She’s been riding with me for almost five years and she always sits in the back.”

  He’s right, Dina thought, guessing he just wanted to be master of his domain in the front seat. She also knew he kept candy in the glove compartment, and wouldn’t want her to be tempted. He stood there watching every move she made with Ruthie as she tried to get into the cab and maneuver the walker at the same time. She knew he was trying to memorize all the steps in case she ever did fall, and needed his help. She said her goodbyes and thank you to Ruthie, then settled into the back seat while her parents went inside to get some last-minute instructions.

  “Hey, you!” Jay said, shaking her hand and not letting go. Neither of them said a word for a few minutes. Nothing seemed quite real to Dina, but she finally broke the silence.

  “Jay,” Dina said, taking in every inch of her friend’s slight frame, from his black leather cowboy boots to the top of his Cincinnati Red Wolves baseball cap. He’d been busy during the holidays, so she hadn’t seen him for almost a month. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you…how glad I am to see anybody. I’m so thrilled to be sitting here in this cab and on my way home.”


  “It’s like being let out of prison, isn’t it?”

  “It wasn’t that bad. They had really good food, which I’m sure isn’t the case in jail. The coffee was better at Hanover Hospital, though.”

  “Yes. Their coffee was good.”

  Her parents got into the back of the cab with her. Dina leaned back in the leather seats and inhaled the scent of coconut from the air freshener that Jay had hanging on the mirror. He started driving toward home. Home, Dina thought, now actually looking forward to going back. As Jay drove past McDonald’s, Dina said, “I haven’t been there in such a long time. I can’t wait ’til I can go again.”

  “We’ll get egg biscuits,” her mom said. “or pancakes. Maybe we’ll even take you with us, Jay.”

  “Cool,” Jay said, driving past Shortencute’s Market. Surprisingly, Dina actually looked forward to going to the grocery store again. Right before her operation, the pain had been so bad that she hadn’t even been able to do that; she’d had to ask her parents to get groceries for her. She was amazed at how much she looked forward to doing mundane things like grocery shopping and laundry. Since she’d come close to losing her life, though, she even found the idea of doing things like that exciting. If everyday tasks thrilled her this much, she could only imagine what would happen the first time she played the piano at Nutsie Nan’s Café again.

  Dina was tired, but she tried to stay awake and focus on every mile of the ride; every shred of conversation. It might have been a cold, dreary day, but to Dina, the sun was shining and the temperature was balmy.

  They passed a donut shop that was one of Dina’s favorites. “I guess I won’t be going there anymore. They’re supposed to be building one of those near my condo, too.”

  “You could always get donuts for me,” Jay said.

  “Or I can cut the donuts in half like I did when they served dessert at the Village.”

  “I like my idea better.”

  “Okay, but I’m not really sure if they’ll put a donut shop on that vacant property. Somebody told me it might be a strip mall.”