Fort Lupton (15 page)

“
Drink it,” Katy said.
“Now.”

The twin started drinking.

“
What about the other
one?” Edie whispered.

“
Do the same thing,” Katy
said. “I’ll get another one.”

Katy ran out of the room and appeared a
moment later with another bottle of breast milk. She held the
breast milk out to Edie.

“
It’s not warm,” Edie said
to Katy.

“
Aren’t you a fairy?” Katy
asked.

“
Oh,” Edie
said.

She put her finger to the bottle and the
milk warmed up. Emboldened by Katy, Edie turned around and held the
bottle to the second twin.

“
You have to be
firm.”

Anjelika’s Russian-accented voice came from
the doorway. Edie groaned to herself. Now everyone knew how lame
she was. She glanced at Katy’s grandmother. Anjelika smiled at
her.

“
It’s not you,” Anjelika
said. “It’s them. Mikhail and Megan drove my mother to
tears.”

“
Drink this,” Edie
said.

The baby looked at Edie. The next thing Edie
knew, the baby was drinking the bottle.

“
They’re hungry,” Anjelika
said. She put her hands on Katy’s shoulders. “They’d just rather
play than eat.”

“
She was being too nice,”
Katy said.

“
Oh, yes.” Anjelika smiled
at Edie. “They are good children, mostly. But they must know what
you require of them, up front. Otherwise, they get up to
mischief.”

“
Why?” Edie asked. “Rachel
and Mack, they . . .”

“
Who knows?” Anjelika
shrugged.

“
It’s Grandpa’s fault,”
Katy said in a conspiratorial voice.

“
Perses?” Edie
asked.

Anjelika nodded. Edie looked at the twins.
They had finished their bottles.

“
See!” Katy said. She
zoomed out of the nursery.

“
I’m going to burp you
now,” Edie said.

She reached in and picked up the closest
twin and then the other. She walked around the room with the
infants on her shoulders.

“
You’ll do just fine,”
Anjelika said.

“
You think so?” Edie
asked.

“
Look,” Anjelika
said.

The babies were asleep. Edie smiled. She set
them down to change their diapers. When she looked up, Anjelika was
gone. She had changed the twins and put them in new outfits when
she noticed they were looking at her. They smiled at Edie, and Edie
felt a well of love for these tiny babies. She smiled.

“
We’re going to sleep
now,” Edie said in her best commanding voice.

The babies were sound asleep on the changing
table. She ferried them to the crib. One feeding and one changing
down. Smiling at herself, she sat down in the armchair by the door
and fell asleep.

Tanner and Bladen woke up and looked for
Edie. Bladen looked at Tanner. They both grinned at each other.
Katy appeared in the doorway.

“
Go to sleep,” Katy
said.

They dropped back to sleep. Nodding to
herself, Katy left the room.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday morning — 11:15 a.m.

Charlie opened his eyes and scowled. He had
no idea where he was.

“
Hello?” Charlie
croaked.

Jill came into view. Charlie smiled at her
familiar face. Sandy’s girlfriends had been around so much when he
was growing up that they were like his older pseudo-sisters. He
couldn’t imagine it any other way.

“
Hi, Charlie,” Jill said.
“Honey had to go into Lipson for a while, and Sandy’s at the police
station with that Red Bear.”

“
Where am I?” Charlie
asked.

“
You just had another CT
scan,” Jill said. “You’re in the waiting area. They want to check
the scan before sending you to a room.”

“
A room?” Charlie
asked.

“
You’re leaving the ICU,”
Jill said. “If the scan’s clear.”

“
I don’t know what that
means, ‘scan’s clear,’” Charlie said. “Clear of what?”

“
Bleeding,” Jill said.
“Your liver has been bleeding from where it’s injured. John thought
it would settle down, but we’re checking to see if he’s
right.”

“
I
feel . . . better,” Charlie said. He glanced at
Jill. “Did you . . .?”

“
Did I what?” Jill
asked.

“
Give me a whammy?”
Charlie asked. “You know, like you did with Honey and Aden and
Sandy and Pete and Blane and . . .”

Jill cleared her throat, and Charlie
smiled.

“
What if I did?” Jill
asked.

“
Um . . .”
Charlie closed his eyes for a moment. “Thanks. I’d just say thanks.
I think I needed it.”

“
Well, if that happened,
then you’re welcome.” Jill smiled at Charlie.

Charlie tried to give her a dashing grin,
but he mostly groaned. Jill smiled.

“
Can I ask you a favor?”
Charlie asked.

“
Sure,” Jill
said.

“
Will you tell me what’s
wrong with me?” Charlie asked. “No one will say. I mean, maybe they
told Sandy, but not me.”

Jill looked away from him for a moment and
then looked back.

“
Okay,” Jill
said.

“
Okay?” Charlie
asked.

“
Your legs are broken as
are your arms,” Jill said. “You have some broken fingers and a
couple broken bones in your hands and one in your foot. You have a
few broken ribs. Your insides are . . . bruised.
They were in worse shape, but they’ve healed remarkably
well.”

Jill raised her eyebrows and cleared her
throat. Charlie smiled at her.

“
Why did I have more
surgery?” Charlie asked.

“
John did surgery because
you ripped a bunch of veins where they all come together in your
arm,” Jill said. “He said you shouldn’t have any more trouble, but
it may also be a problem.”

“
I’ll never play
basketball again,” Charlie said as a matter of fact.

“
Maybe,” Jill said.
“Personally, I think you’ll heal.”

“
Why? Why would you think
that?” Charlie’s voice rose with pain. “My life is
over.”

Jill took his hand.

“
You’re not going to try
to talk me out of it?” Charlie asked.

“
I’m not,” Jill
said.

“
Aren’t you supposed to?”
Charlie’s voice rose with pain and indignation.

“
Maybe,” Jill said. “What
would I say?”

“
That my life is my life,”
Charlie said. “No one is guaranteed a free ride. That I’m young and
healthy and have all the opportunities in the world and I’m loved
and . . .”

Charlie’s eyes flicked to Jill’s face. He
raised an eyebrow.

“
That was either brilliant
or lazy,” Charlie said.

“
Lazy.” Jill nodded.
Charlie laughed.

Jill leaned back away from Charlie. He
grabbed her hand. Jill leaned over him again.

“
What am I going to do?”
Charlie whispered. “I was getting caught up in school and working
and Tink and . . . everything. I can’t get up the
stairs at the Castle if I go back there. And my
brain . . . and . . .”

Jill kissed his cheek.

“
What am I going to do?”
Charlie whispered.

“
You’re going to do what
we all do,” Jill said. “You’ll just live one minute at a time.
We’ll help. Sandy’s traded hairstyling for help from a PT. The PT’s
going to start working with you as soon as you’re home.”

“
What about school?”
Charlie asked.

“
My mom’s still your
tutor,” Jill said. “She’s not about to let you slip.”

“
I can’t pay her,” Charlie
said.

Jill squeezed his hand.

“
What?” Charlie
asked.

“
You’ve already paid her,”
Jill said.

“
How?”

“
All those choices you’ve
made,” Jill said.

“
What?” Charlie
asked.

“
You’ve stayed sober,”
Jill said. “You’ve worked really hard in school. Your reading has
improved a lot. You decided to testify and helped Tink and the
other girls.”

“
So?”

“
That’s all my mom cares
about,” Jill said. “She’ll be here as soon as you get into your own
room.”

“
Oh,” Charlie said. “But
I’m sick.”

Jill smiled. Charlie grinned.

“
It’s not going to be
easy, Charlie,” Jill said. “But we’re all here to help in any way
we can.”

Charlie stared at the ceiling.

“
What’s been happening?”
Charlie asked.

“
You mean you want an
update?” Jill smiled.

When Charlie was a little boy, he used to
like it when the girlfriends gave him “updates” on their lives.

“
Just an update, not the
whole thing,” Charlie repeated what he used to say back then. “Just
the interesting parts.”

Jill smiled. She took a breath to start, and
Charlie interrupted her.

“
Well? I haven’t got all
day,” Charlie said, the way he used to.

“
I’ll get right to it,
then,” Jill said with a smile.

Charlie nodded.

“
Sissy’s excited and
nervous about going to New York,” Jill said.

“
Tink?” Charlie
asked.

“
Oh, poor, Tink,” Jill
said. “She’s devastated about what’s happened to you. She’s upset
about Blane. She’s been sleeping in your little closet at the
Castle just to be close to you.”

Charlie’s mouth was set in a grim line.

“
But Tink’s tough,” Jill
said. “She’s ready for you to come home and start getting better.
That’s what she says. She’s really ready to move forward in her
life.”

“
Without me?” Charlie
asked.

“
I don’t think so,” Jill
said.

“
Why?”

“
Because she’s been here
every chance she got,” Jill said. “She’s sleeping in your
bed.”

“
Oh.” Charlie cleared his
throat. Trying to change the topic, he asked, “How’s
Nash?”

“
Nash-like,” Jill
said.

“
Annoying and
great?”

“
Yes,” Jill said. “He’s
come up with a grand plan of how to get into the Science and Tech
school. He and Teddy think they have a chance. We’ll
see.”

“
I remember.” Charlie
nodded.

“
You haven’t actually been
here that long,” Jill said.

“
I haven’t?” Charlie
seemed genuinely surprised.

“
Just a few days,” Jill
said.

Charlie fell silent and stared at the
ceiling.

“
You okay, Charlie?” Jill
asked.

“
Just feels like a
lifetime,” Charlie said. “Like there was a before-time and then a
now-time, a before-Charlie and a now-Charlie.”

“
I bet,” Jill
said.

“
That means Noelle is
still obsessed with her new painting,” Charlie said.

“
Exactly right.” Jill
smiled.

“
Just hard to fathom,”
Charlie said.

Jill nodded. A radiology technician came
into the room, and Jill looked up.

“
The radiologist says we
have all we need,” the technician said.

“
And?” Jill
asked.

“
They’re getting a room
ready for him,” the technician said. “But you should
know . . .”

“
Yes?” Jill
asked.

“
They will only keep him
in a room for a couple days,” the technician said. “You’ll need to
find a long-term care facility.”

“
Why is that?” Jill
asked.

“
He’ll need care for a
long time,” the technician said.

“
Yes,” Jill said. “I guess
that’s true.”

“
I asked the nurse to get
you a list,” the technician said.

“
That’s not necessary,”
Jill said.

“
They won’t release him
without a care facility,” the technician said.

“
We’ll just bring him
home,” Jill said.

“
It’s a lot of work,” the
technician said. “He’s really better off in a facility.”

“
We’ll just split it up,”
Jill said. “There’s a lot of us.”

Jill glanced down and saw that Charlie was
crying.

“
Well, just let me or your
nurse know,” the technician said.

When the technician was gone, Jill leaned
over Charlie.

“
What is it?” Jill
asked.

“
I want to go home,”
Charlie said. “I want to go home so bad I can taste it.”

“
Then it’s all
settled.”

Jill sat back. After a few minutes, an
orderly came to take Charlie to his own room. When he got there,
the room already had flowers and balloons from people wishing him
well.

Another orderly came in. They carefully
moved Charlie into the bed. The nurse came in to get him hooked up
to all of the machines.

“
Did you
see . . .?” Jill whispered to the nurse.