Love for Scale (23 page)

* * *

The ten-minute ride to the hospital was the longest drive Rachel had ever taken. Sitting in the back seat, she and Aaron held hands; literally the first time in over a decade she had touched her brother. Aaron didn’t say anything, just looked out the window, but Rachel could feel his stress in the way his fingers squeezed her own every minute or so, searching for comfort. Pearl sat in the front passenger seat, reduced to soft sobbing. It was telling that she was beyond words.

Finn pulled up to the emergency entrance, promising to meet up with them once he parked the car. Aaron let go of Rachel’s hand and jumped out of the car to help his mother. Rachel got out and followed them in through the sliding glass doors.

Rachel had been in the emergency room before but only as an escort to her best friend. After a night of drinking on a café patio, Sheri had, upon leaving the bathroom, run into a glass door, shattering her nose. But that had been a long time ago, and the girls were carefree then, seeing their visit to the hospital as just part of the adventure.

Rachel didn’t feel that way now. There was no sense of adventure involved when you are there to see your father after a car accident. She nodded toward the chairs arranged around the waiting room. “Sit down. I’ll go see,” she said to Aaron and her mother.

Approaching the counter, Rachel could see beyond to the triage area. She didn’t see her father, but wasn’t surprised; he was probably brought in on a stretcher and taken to one of the rooms beyond. She had seen countless medical dramas on TV, she knew how it worked.

She waited until the nurse behind the desk looked up. “Hi, I’m here for Harry Stern? We got a call that he was in a car accident.” She bit her lip, afraid of what the nurse was going to say.

“Okay, just one second.” The woman smiled at Rachel as she got up and disappeared into a room.

This can’t be good, why would she go into another room?
Rachel’s heart pounded in her chest, its banging against her ribs almost audible.

Her mind was whirling:
Please, God, don’t let him be dead. I’m not ready to be without him. I didn’t tell him how much I love him, what he means to me. What am I going to do without my Dad? The one guy who gets my jokes, gets me…my constant champion? And what about Ma? If he goes, what will happen to her?

Rachel glanced back to where her mother sat, fidgeting her hands and staring back at her, waiting anxiously for news.

Of course Mom has friends and her job at the library, but how could she go on? How would she handle being in that house…

And then it occurred to Rachel: how could she move out now? How could she leave if her father died, leaving her mother all by herself?

She couldn’t. Staying was the only option. A good daughter wouldn’t abandon her mother in her hour of need.

The nurse returned. “Just have a seat, the doctor’s going to come out and talk to you.”

There was no reading the nurse’s expression. Rachel had to accept that they would just have to wait for the doctor. She turned and walked back toward her mother and Aaron just as Finn came through the sliding doors. He strode right up to Rachel, his brow heavy with concern.

“Any news yet?” he asked.

Rachel shook her head. “They said the doctor’s coming out.”

Finn looked toward the working area of the emergency center. After a few seconds he shook his head and took a seat next to Rachel.

After only a few moments, a thin man in scrubs emerged from the triage area and approached them. “Mrs. Stern?”

Pearl nodded.

The man stuck his hand out. “I’m Dr. Lee. Why don’t you all come with me?”

Pearl took the doctor’s hand and stood before following him down the hall. Rachel and Aaron followed, leaving Finn behind to sit in the waiting room. Dr. Lee led them through two closed doors, past triage and into a ‘quiet room.’

Dr. Lee pointed at the chairs. “Please, have a seat.”

“Is he dead?” Pearl asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Dr. Lee smiled. “No, Mrs. Stern, your husband is very much alive, I’m happy to say.”

As one, the three members of the Stern family exhaled.

The look on Dr. Lee’s face changed from smiling to serious. “I
do
need to tell you that he had a mild heart attack. That’s what caused the accident. But other than being pretty banged up, he should be okay.”

“Was anyone else hurt?” Rachel asked.

Dr. Lee shook his head. “There is a very big maple tree that isn’t expected to make it, but that’s it. A single car crash.”

“Oy,
danken got
!” Pearl dabbed at her eyes with her Kleenex.

“Excuse me?” Dr. Lee asked.

Rachel rolled her eyes. “‘Thank God’ in Yiddish.”

Dr. Lee smiled, his eyes almost disappearing. “Ah. Clearly I’m not up on my Yiddish.”

Rachel managed to smile. “Can we see him?”

“Sure, in a moment. But he’s going to have to stay a few days. We’re waiting for a bed to open up upstairs.”

Pearl nodded.

“Now just be prepared,” Dr. Lee said. “He looks pretty beat up, but most of it is superficial. The airbag hit him pretty hard. He cracked a few ribs and will have a lot of bruising, but all in all, he’s pretty lucky.”

Still nodding, Pearl looked up at the doctor. “Thank you so much, Doctor. I’d like to see him, if I may.”

Dr. Lee rose from the table. “Certainly. Come with me.”

“Doctor?” Pearl asked.

Dr. Lee turned back toward Pearl, his eyebrows raised.

“The fact that you don’t have a wedding band on, is that for work purposes or are you single?”

“Ma!” Rachel elbowed her mother.

The doctor blushed. “I’m actually engaged.”

Pearl shrugged, “I wasn’t asking for you, Rachel. You’ve already got your own lovely doctor out in the waiting room. I was asking for Sheri, I thought she might…”

“Sheri’s got a boyfriend. Come on, let’s go see Dad.” She pushed her mother forward, rolling her eyes, but suddenly heartened that if her mother was playing matchmaker, she had to be feeling better.

Once they found out where Harry was, Rachel slipped out to the waiting room to give Finn an update. As she approached him, she was hit with a sudden wave of guilt. His parents
hadn’t
survived
their
accident, was it insensitive of her to be so happy her own father had?

Her thoughts were erased when he stood. “I can tell by the smile on your face that everything must be okay.”

She nodded. “He had a minor heart attack and hit a tree. They say he’s banged up but will be okay.” Rachel took a deep breath.

“That’s really great, I’m so happy to hear it,” Finn said.

“We’re going to go see him, now. Want to come? I’m sure they won’t mind.”

Finn shook his head. “It’s okay, it should just be you and your family. I’ll hang here.”

“Why don’t you go? I don’t know how long we’ll be. We can take a cab home.” Rachel didn’t think it was fair to make Finn wait for them. Her stomach grumbled. “You’re probably hungry, too.”

“I’ll wait. And if I get hungry, the food here is legendary.” Finn winked. “Just go be with your dad, I’ll be here, Rachel.”

Rachel smiled. As an afterthought, she moved forward and put her arms out. Finn stepped into her hug. She felt his strong hands on her back, holding her close. It had been a long time since anyone had hugged her like that. It felt good, like a big steaming bowl of her mother’s matzo ball soup on a cold day in winter, though slightly less…parental.

When the hug was over, she took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. “Thanks for being so great,” she said.

Finn smiled down at her. “Thanks for letting me.”

* * *

Dr. Lee hadn’t been kidding when he said Harry was banged up. When Pearl, Rachel and Aaron walked into the room, they collectively gasped at the condition of their husband and father.

His hair was greasy and caked with blood, although the dirty hair was the least of his worries. He had three big cuts on his face: a long one across his forehead, one which bisected his left cheek diagonally and a smaller one on his chin. His eyes, reduced to narrow slits, rested among circles of purple and red swollen flesh. Standing as the focal point of his injuries, there was a big gauzy bandage taped over the bridge of his nose. God knew what injuries lay beneath the heavy hospital blanket which had been pulled up to his chin.

But to Rachel, her dad had never looked better; he was alive.

Pearl clutched at the bed rails, her knuckles turning white as she looked down at her husband.

Harry turned slightly toward his family. “I forgot the wine,” he mumbled, his lips hardly moving.

Laughing and crying at the same time, Pearl shook her head. “It’s okay
, bubbelah
. It’s okay.” She held out her hand, was going to touch his face, but hesitated. There was nowhere to touch that wouldn’t be sore. Her hand drifted back to the steel rail.

Rachel turned away. She didn’t want her dad to see her cry. Although she wasn’t sure just how much he could see from behind his swollen eyelids. Trying to be strong, she looked at the medical chart, the scribbles and checkmarks meaning nothing to her layperson’s eyes.

Suddenly Aaron stepped forward to the bed, his shoulders rounded, chest heaving with sobs. “I’m so sorry I’ve been such a
schmuck
. I love you, Dad.”

Rachel’s tears fell even faster at her brother’s apology.

“It’s okay, son. You’re not that much of a
schmuck
,” Harry said, sounding like he had a pound of gauze wrapped around his tongue. “Rach? Rachel?” he blinked, searching.

Rachel turned back toward her father and stepped closer to the bed so he could see her. He lifted his hand, reaching out. “I’m so sorry I ruined your special dinner. Did you tell her, honey?”

The lump in her throat wasn’t going to allow Rachel to speak. She shook her head but then realized he might not be able to see. “No,” she croaked. “But it doesn’t matter, Dad, I’m not going to do it.” Not now.

“Do what?” Pearl asked.

“Pearl?” Harry said.

“Yes,
bubbelah
?” Pearl stepped closer.

“Your daughter is moving out.”

Pearl gasped and turned to stare at Rachel.

Rachel avoided her mother’s glare. “Dad, this isn’t the time or place…”

Harry closed his eyes. “Shhh. Pearl. Rachel’s moving out. It’s final.”

As she swallowed past the stubborn knot in her esophagus, Rachel thought her heart might burst from the pure love that welled inside her. Her dad had never let her down. And now, even battered and in pain, lying on a hospital bed, he had done it again: been her champion.

She gently lifted her father’s hand and bringing it to her face, placed it against her cheek. “I love you, Daddy,” she said.

“I love you too, Rachel,” Harry said as a single tear squeezed through his swollen lids, falling down the side of his face into his hair. “I love all of you, so very much. You all know that, don’t you? Make sure you tell Jeff.”

Only seconds after Harry professed his love to his family, he promptly fell into a deep, drug-induced sleep. Dr. Lee appeared in the doorway shortly after to check in and told them Harry would be in the hospital for at least four days or perhaps up to a week.

Refusing to leave her husband’s side, Pearl shooed Rachel and Aaron out, telling them to go home and get some rest and something to eat. No reason why
someone
shouldn’t get to eat the dinner she had made.

On their way out, Rachel promised as she kissed her mother goodbye that she would call her Bubby and Jeff in Seattle with the news.

“We’re going to talk about this moving out business later,” Pearl whispered into Rachel’s ear. 

Rachel had no doubt they would, feeling like she’d just been given the kiss of death by a mob boss.

Chapter 31

By the time Finn pulled back into Rachel’s driveway, Rachel was not only starving, but also exhausted to the core.

She turned to Finn. “Why don’t you come in and have some dinner, you must be hungry.”

Finn shook his head. “No, It’s okay, you look tired and you should be alone with your family.”

Rachel nodded toward the back seat. “You mean him?” she snorted. “Believe me, you won’t be interrupting a family moment.”

“You’ve got to eat anyway…” Aaron offered from the back seat, sounding suspiciously like Pearl.

In response, Finn put the car into park and took his keys from the ignition.

* * *

“Hello?” a woman answered the phone at Jeff’s home.

Thrown by the sound of a woman’s voice, Rachel stammered, “Uh I’m looking for Jeff Stern. This is his sister, Rachel.”

“Oh, hi Rachel, it’s Christine. I’ll just get him for you.”

Rachel turned to Aaron, who was holding the fridge door open, unable to accept that there was no edible beef in the Stern house, and mouthed the word,
Christine
.

Aaron shrugged and rolled his eyes.

“Hey, Rach,” came Jeff’s voice into the phone. “Everything okay?”

“Well…not really. Dad was in a car accident—he had a heart attack—but they say he’ll be okay. He’s in the hospital for a few days.”

“Holy shit. What happened? Was anyone else in the car? Is Mom okay?”

Rachel shook her head even though her brother couldn’t see her. “No, he was alone and no other cars were involved either. He’s really banged up, but he’ll be okay. Aaron’s here; we left Mom at the hospital.”

“I’ll be there tomorrow.”

“I don’t know if you need to come, Jeff. It’s a long way...”

Jeff didn’t seem to hear her. “Tell Mom I’ll be there tomorrow.”

When Jeff decided something, there was no changing his mind; he was Pearl’s son, through and through. Rachel didn’t bother to argue. “I’ll tell her. Call me with the details and one of us will get you from the airport.” She looked over at Aaron, who nodded.

“Thanks, Rach. I’ll let you know,” Jeff said before he hung up the phone.

Rachel turned to Aaron and Finn. “Well, it looks like we’re going to have an impromptu Stern family reunion.” She stifled a yawn. “God, I’m zonked but starved. Anyone up for some dinner?”