Point of Attraction (35 page)

“Mrs. Gainsworth, I want to
apologize.”

“I’m still Georgie, and what could you
possibly need to apologize for?”

Lucy looked over her head to Steven
then back down at her. “For my actions Saturday night. You saw it,
I’m sure, but... I’m also sure you reasoned my actions as something
completely different.”

Pressing her eyes shut, Lucy rubbed her
forehead to bear whatever demons tortured her, and took in a deep
breath. “Ten years ago, my family turned their backs on my big
brother, Frank, when he told them he was... gay. They told him to
leave, to never contact them again, that...” She choked back a cry
and swallowed hard. “That as far as they were concerned, he was
dead.”

Georgie was at a loss as to what to say
to help. Thinking back, trying to remember when she first realized
Cassie was gay. She couldn’t recall the exact moment. It simply
came to be. And when Cassie brought home April, it seemed natural.
She was still Cassie, her dear friend, her family. Knowing she was
gay didn’t change that. When Nick came home and met April, he
merely smiled and turned to Cassie to say, “Never thought you’d
find someone to put up with you.”

That’s what families did... wasn’t it?
Loved and accepted you? Be there for you when no one else
will.

“Frank was my big brother,” Lucy went
on, “always there for me, but when the time came... I failed him. I
had no backbone. I didn’t want to go against my parents. So I
turned away from him and lost ten years of having my brother.”
Tears began to roll down her cheeks. “And now... I’m losing him...
to AIDS. When I saw how your family loved Cassie and April, I
realized just how stupid I was, how my parents in their ignorance
had thrown away a wonderful son.”

Lucy wiped away the tears, and looked
to Steven. He answered her call, kissed her on the forehead, and
came back behind the wheelchair.

“One day,” Lucy said, “maybe I can earn
back that first welcome I received from you all.”

“You don’t even have to knock on the
door when you come in,” Georgie said. “Is that the research you
want to get into?”

Lucy nodded and turned when the
elevator door pinged open and Lucy walked in. “Frank is in the AIDS
Ward.”

As the door closed with Lucy leaning
against the elevator’s far wall, Georgie was touched by the young
woman’s sadness. Without a word, Steven wheeled Georgie toward the
ICU.

“That’s where you’ve been,” Georgie
said.

“Yeah. Even seeing how Cassie and April
are part of our lives, she was still afraid of how I would react.
So, I’ve been with her. Her parents haven’t forgiven Frank and now
won’t speak to Lucy for being here with him.”

“Well,” Georgie said, reaching back and
patting his arm, “she has you and all of us. Make sure you let her
know that.”

As they neared the door marked
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, Georgie’s heart began to race, her lungs
demanding air as memories rushed in on her of the moment she
entered the ER on October 25th. Only this time there was no blood
stained gauze and wipes on the floor. Instead of cold silence, the
monitors beeped methodically, their little lights dancing across
their screen. Nearing Mason’s bed she could see his chest slowly
rise and fall in steady rhythm. She reached for his hand. It felt
dry but warm and she caressed it softly. Holding her breath to bear
the pain, Georgie leaned forward to bring his hand up and kissed
it. The breath in her chest caught and she audibly
winced.

“Okay, back we go,” Steven
said.

“No. Go get his chart for me and tell
me what it says.”

“Mom, do you know what kind of
trouble...”

“Just do it!” And the ache went deep.
“Please,” she added, while biting back the stab at her
ribs.

He looked about as though expecting
security to come bounding in, then went out the door and quickly
came back. He flipped up the metal lid of the chart and read. “He’s
holding his own. Blood pressure’s good.” He snapped the lid down.
“All we need is time and hope no clots form and loosen. He’s
healthy, fit. That’s all I can give you, Mom.”

“Okay,” she said, and squeezed Mason’s
fingers. She gasped when his thumb pushed against her, weak though
the movement was.

“Can’t ask for a better sign than
that,” Steven whispered in her ear. “Come on. Let’s get this chart
back where it belongs, and you back in your room.”

“Okay.” She gave Mason’s hand an extra
squeeze and whispered to him, “I’ll be waiting. You’re not leaving
me up in the air with BADGE 747. Have to know how it
ends.”

When they returned to her room, April
was sitting in the chair. Her eyes were red, and Georgie didn’t
know what to say, or ask. She couldn’t remember ever seeing April
cry. She wasn’t crying now, but she had been.

“I can’t help her,” she said, and
Georgie now knew it was about Cassie. “She won’t go home. She’s
afraid to leave you. But I know it’s deeper than that. If she goes
home, she’ll have to admit Nick is gone. I’m worried about
her.”

“Just be there,” Georgie said. Taking
in a breath for strength, Georgie shoved aside her resolve to keep
her hopes about Nick to herself, and decided to spill out her
thoughts, at least about the phone call. If nothing else, it would
help Cassie and the rest of them in that denial. That soft
murmuring voice in what could have been just a dream was her own
fantasy, but the phone call was a thread tying them all to hope.
“Where’s Cassie now?”

“Back in maternity, keeping an eye on
the baby she delivered earlier.”

“Get her on the phone.” When April
looked up, Georgie added, “Tell her I need to speak with her. Go
on. Call her.”

“Mom, you need to get in bed,” Steven
said.

“Then help me get in there, Doctor
Son-of-Mine.”

By the time Cassie came in, April was
calm and almost her old confident self. It was not so with their
Cassie. Her face was shadowed with grief, eyes red and puffy, and
immediately burst into tears. Georgie clenched her teeth to help
bear the thrust of pain from Cassie’s embrace, but said nothing,
and just comforted her friend.

“Cassie, I want to tell you
something,” Georgie finally said, easing a hand over the red hair,
then nudged Cassie’s chin with a fingertip to lift her head. “But
you have to take it with a grain of salt, as they say, though I
firmly believe it because I
have to
believe it. Okay?”

Cassie straightened and leaned into
April.

“Right before Tonie snatched the phone
from me, I know... firmly in my heart, that I was talking to
Nick.”

“What?” Steven asked, as Cassie added,
“But... Roberts said...”

“I know.” Georgie closed
her eyes trying to recall why she was so certain it had been Nick.
It wasn’t so much the voice, she thought, since there was so much
static interruption, but... “That’s it!” she burst out realizing
what it was. Of course! “He said,
Georgie...
then
Girl
. Who else calls me Georgie
Girl?”

“But Roberts said they found the helmet
in the river... and...”

“Did they find... you know...” Georgie
would even say the word.

Cassie shook her head, her lips tightly
holding back any sound struggling to come out.

“In my heart, I feel somehow,” Georgie
said, “somehow he is okay. And that is what I am going
with.”

April gave Cassie a small hug and
pressed her cheek to the top of the red hair. “Listen to her, Cass.
Never mind what anyone else says. You and Georgie know that Bad
Penny better than anyone.” After a quick firm rub to Cassie’s back,
April let her hand drop away with a heavy sigh.

Cassie wiped away the tears while her
smile led the way for a laugh. “When I see that lunatic again, I am
going to sooo wring his scrawny little neck, let me tell
you.”

The door opened and Georgie looked
over. “Paula!” She gave a quick look out her window and saw the
night losing its battle with the coming day. “You should be home
resting.”

“Doctor Eckert said I was fine, didn’t
she, Ryan?”

Ryan nodded. “How you doing, Mrs.
G?”

Georgie smiled at him that she was
fine.

“But what was that I heard about the
Bad Penny?” Paula asked, looking at her then Steven who smiled.
“Did he scare us all for nothing? Mom, I swear...”

The words faded as Georgie found
herself hugged tightly, but she would not complain. She had her
family and she was certain Mason would recover. He had to. Somehow,
Nick would let them know if he was okay.

A young teen wearing a
striped apron and a nametag with the name Bambi on it came in as
bubbly as only a young teen called
Bambi
can be. “Mrs.
Gainsworth?”

“Yes.”

“This was left at the front desk for
you,” she said, and handed Georgie a manila envelope.

“Who left it?” Georgie
asked.

“Dunno. They just told me to bring it
to you.”

As the young girl pranced out of the
room, Georgie saw her bat her lashes at Steven as she passed by
him. He politely pretended not to see, and Georgie held back a
smile.

Everyone looked, but said nothing as
Georgie slipped a finger beneath the flap, looked inside. Tilted it
upside down to spill out its contents. For a moment, Georgie just
stared at the post card then held it up. It was one of those
Hollywood View postcards. On its front was a photo of the
traditional intro to The Twilight Zone TV series. On the reverse
side was a dirty old penny glued over the card’s little tale of the
Twilight Zone with a Hollywood address. Where the Send-To Address
should be was a little paste-on Harley-Davidson with a child’s
ink-print of the well known Uncle Sam pointing that finger on top
the Harley’s seat.

“Salesman from the Twilight Zone,”
Cassie murmured.

“The Bad Penny,” Paula added with a
hint of a laugh.

“And an Uncle on the Harley,” Steven
put in with that ever-present awe she and Sam saw in him when it
came to his Uncle Nick.

Georgie shook the card at them. “All on
the postcard he never sends.”

Little Bambi came bouncing
back in. “Mr. Montgomery is asking for a
George
, but his chart says to
contact Georgina Gainsworth.”

“That would be me,” Georgie
said.

No life is an unwoven thread, Georgie
thought. No indeed.

THE END