At Seddon Station

by Sheila Horgan

  She was headed to the kitchen when something to the right caught her eye. What the hell?

  She ran for her. Forgot to even put down the Sin.

  “Adeline? Hun, are you alright?”

  What a stupid thing to say. Obviously, the woman wasn’t all right. She hadn’t answered the door or the phone, and here she was sprawled out on the floor with just her foot visible in the hallway.

  Anna put the Sin on the floor and felt for a pulse.

  When touched, Adeline startled. She started to sit up.

  “Just wait a minute.” Anna kept Adeline from moving. “Did you fall?”

  “No, this is just silly. I’ve been forgetting to eat. I felt a little light-headed and decided it better to find my way to the floor gracefully. Once there, I took a moment to close my eyes.”

  “You passed out?”

  “I most certainly did not. I felt a little flush. I took it upon myself to gently find the floor. I’m fine. What are you doing here?”

  “I brought dessert. I wanted to talk to you about the Carolyn issue. When you didn’t answer the phone or your door, I decided to use my key and stick the dessert in the fridge. I saw your foot and just about fainted myself. Are you sure you are okay?”

  “I’m fine. A bit annoyed with myself for allowing this to happen.”

  “How about we bring you over to the doctor, just to make sure?”

  “Don’t be silly. I’m fine. I simply forgot to eat.”

  “For how long?”

  “I believe my last meal was with you and Carolyn.”

  “Oh, hun, that was more than twenty-four hours ago. And when did you eat before that?”

  “I can’t recall.”

  “So, that little bit you moved around your plate and didn’t really consume is all you’ve had to eat in recent memory?”

  “I’ve been busy, Anna.” Adeline’s voice was flat.

  “True. Let me fix you something right now.”

  “Don’t be silly, Anna. I’m fine. I refuse…” Adeline started to get up. Anna was quick to help.

  Before Adeline could finish her sentence, Anna cut her off. She was firm. “This is not a negotiation. I do not work for you. I am your friend. I am going to do one of two things. Either I fix you a good meal and you eat it, every bite, or we go to the doctor and have you checked out.”

  Adeline smiled. Then she acquiesced.

  The girls made their way to the kitchen. Anna remembered to grab the Sin she’d brought with her from the bakery. When she’d stopped at the bakery to pick up dessert, she had no idea just how helpful it would be.

  “Would you like to invite Carolyn to dinner? It will take me a little time to get things going. I’ll just take a look around the kitchen and see what there is to be had.”

  “I’ll call Carolyn. Please do not mention this little episode to her.”

  “If you promise not to let it happen again, I promise not to tell Carolyn.”

  “I promise.” Adeline shook her head, but smiled.

  “Me, too.” Anna walked over and gave Adeline a hug. “You are important to us, you know. You. Not all you do. Just you.”

  “Thank you. Let me go make that call.”

  Carolyn arrived as Adeline was putting the finishing touches on the table.

  Anna had decided on a good old-fashioned cure. Steak. High protein. She’d fixed baked potatoes and rolls she’d found in the freezer. With a couple of veggies on the side and a nice salad, she figured if Adeline kept her promise of actually eating the food, it would go a long way to making her feel better.

  While pouring the wine, Anna asked for a pact. “We’ve all been so involved in problems, how about tonight we speak of none of it. Tonight, we share happy thoughts and plans for good things in the future.”

  Both the girls smiled brightly.

  “A lovely idea, Anna. I’ve been so involved in mergers and acquisitions, selloffs, and training, I can’t remember the last time I had a purely pleasurable evening.”

  “I could call my brother-in-law over. I’m sure he’d be happy to help.” Anna laughed at the look on Adeline’s face.

  “No disrespect to your brother-in-law, but I think not.”

  The girls spent a lovely evening reminiscing about past adventures and thinking about the upcoming cruise. Although they had originally only toyed with the idea of adding Cara and her sister Teagan to the guest list, the more they talked about it, the more they thought it a good idea. Cara had been through so much in the last few months.

  Anna didn’t mention the main reason she’d even suggested the idea of inviting Cara and Teagan to join them on the cruise: They were young, and Cara was as protective of Adeline and Carolyn as she would be her own mother. She would see to it they rested and got their health back.

  The girls ate their full dinner, played cards for the better part of an hour, and followed that with Sin. Over Sin, they discussed Cara and A.J.’s upcoming nuptials. The details hadn’t been discussed with everyone yet, but Carolyn had a few facts. They intended to marry in their backyard. Cara’s sister Teagan was having the wedding dress made by her favorite designer who had come all the way over from Europe. A.J. had decided to wear his grandfather’s wedding ring, and he’d had Cara’s made.

  Of course Carolyn was invited, being A.J.’s grandmother. Cara had invited her boss, Adeline. Anna was surprised she had been included, as well.

  Adeline smiled. “Cara considers you part of the family, Anna. She has told me so.”

  “They’re a lovely group. They have a way about them. Something very unique.”

  “Old-fashioned.”

  “Cara told me not long ago her sister Teagan is constantly teasing her about being boring. Perhaps on our cruise, we can change Teagan’s opinion.”

  The girls laughed.

  Adeline suggested the other two stay the night at her loft, reminding them she had plenty of room. Carolyn declined, explaining she was planning to drop by A.J.’s house to get an update on the wedding plans. Anna said she had a few things to do back at her house but would check in again in the morning.

  It was a little after two, according to her beside clock, when Carolyn heard a terrible thump from the other side of the condo.

  She got up to investigate, flipping on lights as she went down the hallway.

  She heard it again.

  It was coming from the wall behind her kitchen. The wall she shared with her neighbors. The ones with the mouthy granddaughter. She stood perfectly still and listened, sending up a little prayer the girl had not hurt her grandparents.

  Moments later, she heard someone pounding on her door.

  She quickly checked the peephole.

  It was the granddaughter.

  Without thought, Carolyn flung the door wide.

  “I need help. Grandpa fell down on his way to the bathroom. I tried to help him, but he just crashed down again.”

  Carolyn followed the girl back to the neighboring condo.

  Her neighbors had the place filled with stuff. Most of it seemed to be junk. She paid it no mind as she followed the granddaughter down the hallway. There was her elder neighbor, spread out on the floor. He seemed to be completely out of it.

  “Where’s your grandmother?”

  “She’s in bed. She took some pills, and she didn’t wake up when Grandpa fell.”

  Carolyn got a terrible feeling. She’d heard the thud all the way at the other end of her condo. It had sounded like someone hit the wall they shared. How could this man falling in the hallway have caused that sound, and how on earth did it not wake up his wife?

  “Did you call 911?”

  “Last time I did, Grandma got mad. She said their insurance didn’t cover all of it, and they got stuck with a huge bill. She’s been mad at me for months.”

  “You go down and wait at the elevator. Keep it on the first floor. I’ll stay here. I’ll call them right now.”

  Carolyn wanted the girl out of the condo.

  If the grandfa
ther came to, she wanted to speak to him without the influence of the child.

  The granddaughter did as she was told.

  Carolyn called 911. She described the problem and waited.

  Help arrived quickly. Police and firemen. They tended to the fallen neighbor and then woke up his wife.

  “Does it seem a little odd to you?” Carolyn whispered to a cute young man when he walked out of the bedroom. “I heard the fall from the far end of my condo, and she never woke up.”

  “What are you trying to say?” His brows met in the middle.

  “I’m just concerned maybe they aren’t taking their medications correctly. They’ve both been ill and had problems. I think maybe someone should check on that.”

  “I’ll let them know at the hospital. We’re transporting both. She wanted to ride in the ambulance. We’re bringing him in to check on his hip. There’s a good possibility he broke it in the fall, and that’s why he was unable to get up when the granddaughter tried to assist him.”

  “Good. That makes me feel much better. I worry about them.”

  “We’ll take good care of them, ma’am. I’m not sure, but there’s a real good chance they are both spending the night in care.”

  It took a while, but they got him on the gurney and her bundled up for the ride to the hospital. Carolyn thought about giving them her number, but decided since the granddaughter knew they were being transported, she could deal with it this time. She felt guilty, but she had enough on her plate right now. She’d tried to help these neighbors a number of times, and they just refused to do anything about that granddaughter of theirs.

  Once the police and fire units left, and the other neighbors went back to their condos, Belinda approached Carolyn. “Thanks for helping me tonight. I didn’t know what else to do. I try so hard to help them, but they just won’t listen to me. I’m yelling at them all the time. It never helps.”

  “People don’t listen when they’re yelled at, sweetie.”

  “I know, but they can’t hear me when I talk, and then I get so frustrated. I can’t get them to do anything my way.”

  “Maybe you need to do some things their way.”

  “Yeah, but their way doesn’t work. I want to put a whiteboard in the kitchen. When either of them takes a pill, mark it on the whiteboard, right? They won’t do it that way. Grandma says she turns the container upside-down, and she knows what she’s taken. But she’s got all these containers, and some are right side up and some are upside down, and I’ve seen her take a pill and then place the bottle back on the counter exactly the same way she took it off. I’ve looked her medicines up on the computer. These are serious medications. If she takes them wrong, she’s gonna kill herself. Grandpa is worse than Grandma.”

  “Have you talked to their doctor?”

  “I’ve talked to everybody. The doctors. The nurses. The social worker that helped when the nursing home got involved. I’ve talked to my parents. My aunts and uncles. Nothing works.”

  “What does your family say?”

  “That they’re full-grown adults, and if they don’t want a whiteboard, then I should shut up and let them do it their way. They say I’ve got free rent, and all I have to do is clean the house, so I should be grateful, not complaining. But I’m scared they’re going to do something terrible. Look at Grandpa. He fell. He wouldn’t let me call an ambulance when he couldn’t get up, and when I tried to help him his feet slid out from under us, and I almost landed on top of him. Then he just passed out. I thought I’d killed him. I can’t do this anymore.”

  Carolyn felt terrible. Here this child was doing her best to help her frail grandparents, and she—and others—had jumped to the wrong conclusion. She invited Belinda back to her condo for a cup of tea while she tried to calm the child.

  Belinda cried. “I don’t know what to do. I know I shouldn’t yell. But they can’t hear me when I just talk to them, or they ignore me, and I yell. Then I yell because they still won’t respond. Then I get all worked up.”

  “Have you talked to them about it?”

  “My grandpa is just getting meaner and meaner. He tells me I never do anything, and I’m lucky they let me stay there because without them, I’d be homeless. I know I’m lucky to have a nice place to live, but I’m doing their stuff all the time. Everybody forgets that. I could afford my own place now. Like yesterday. Grandma called me at work. She said she needed me to pick up her pills on the way home. No problem. Then she called me because she wants to invite her sister to come visit, and she wants me to clear all my stuff out of my room and find a couch at a friend’s place while her sister visits. Okay, I can do that—I’ll just stay at my boyfriend’s place. Then she gets all pissed off at me because she doesn’t want me staying with him. ‘It’s not right because you aren’t married.’ Then she calls back again and gets mad because I didn’t pick up. I’m gonna lose my job if I answer every time she calls, because she calls all the damn time.”

  Her frustration was palpable.

  “Grandpa was on the phone talking to my uncle, complaining about me again. He says I eat their food. I eat there, but I buy my own groceries. And most of theirs. They think they can still buy groceries for two people for a hundred dollars a month. Really? Then they always want this or that, and I have to run back down to the store. They might buy the basics, but I’m adding to their basics every meal.”

  “Have you talked to them about it, maybe shown them a receipt or two?”

  “Of course I have. They say I’m wrong, or that it’s me throwing money away. I’m a bad shopper. I don’t know what I’m talking about. I try to explain it. I got a special notebook and wrote down every penny I spent for a month. I sat them down at the table. Real calm. I wasn’t upset or anything. I just wanted to show them.”

  “What happened?”

  “Grandma started crying and said I was exaggerating and just wanted them to feel bad, and Grandpa threw my notebook across the room and told me if I was going to make my grandma cry, I was a piece of shit and I had to leave.”

  Carolyn couldn’t say a word.

  “Literally. That’s what he said to me. Maybe that’s what I should do. Just move out. They aren’t my problem. My parents and aunts and uncles should be responsible, not me, right? They aren’t my parents.”

  “Have you talked to your parents? I mean, about them being responsible instead of you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “They said if I wanted to move out, to move out. They’d check on my grandparents, but I know they won’t. I know if I move out, something is going to happen, and it’s going to be bad. Really bad. Like tonight. If I wasn’t there, Grandpa would still be on the floor, and Grandma might sleep until noon tomorrow, and then what? Would Grandpa still be alive at noon tomorrow? Would Grandma get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, trip over him, and then they’re both on the floor with no help? I can’t do that. I love my grandparents.” She thought for a moment. “But don’t I have the right to have a life, too? Shouldn’t I be able to do what all my cousins are doing? Why’s this all on me?”

  When Belinda had calmed down enough to do so, she started at the beginning and explained everything to Carolyn. She’d been a good student, graduated with honors from high school, had her choice of colleges, and then she screwed up. She’d gone for the guy she thought was the love of her life instead of the scholarship. They’d been happy for a while. She was working for a law firm and was working her way up. Thinking about law school or maybe just a paralegal certification, when things went bad.

  Really bad.

  The love of her life turned on her. Started getting jealous all the time. Started shoving her around. She didn’t stick around long enough to get hit. She left in the middle of the night when he was out at a bar with friends, and stayed on her parents’ couch for three nights. On night four, they told her she needed to find more permanent accommodations. She’d told them if they’d just let her stay for sixty days, she’
d have the money for her own apartment, but they said no. She’d chosen to move out when she did, and they didn’t have a revolving door on their house.

  Carolyn knew there was probably more to the story, but let the girl continue.

  She said she’d moved from couch to couch for a couple of weeks, but then her grandmother offered to let her stay in the extra room, just for a few weeks, until she saved up the money to get a safe place.

  A few weeks became a few months, and now it had been close to three years. She had her certification. She did that on her own. They didn’t require it at work, but she wanted to move ahead and was still considering law school. She had enough money in the bank to move anywhere she wanted. She could even buy a house. The problem was she wasn’t sure she could live with herself if she walked away and something happened to her grandparents.

  She explained that her boyfriend was a really good guy. A lawyer. He had a lot of patience and was very understanding, but he was just about to give up on her. They’d be out somewhere, and she’d have to run home because her grandma couldn’t get her grandfather out of bed, or sometimes it was just a totally ridiculous story to make her come running home. She thought they just wanted to see how far they could push her. Control her. Test her. It was exhausting, and since they really didn’t appreciate her or anything she did for them, and the family was less than supportive, why was she doing all this?

  Carolyn had no answers, and she told Belinda just that.

  “I don’t know how to fix this, Belinda. I promise you, I will try to get you some help. Some answers. Something. But it might take a while. Why don’t we do things one step at a time? First, you go home and get some sleep. You don’t have to worry about your grandparents tonight. They’re safe in the hospital.”

  “I need to go over there and check on them. Make sure they get settled. They might just release my grandmother—if they even do anything with her. If I’m not there, then what?”

  “Why don’t you call your parents? Tell them what’s happening and inform them that you’re not going to the hospital, and it’s time for them to do so.”

  “I don’t think that’ll work.”