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My mother was one of six kids, and I was not looking forward to this next part. I most especially wasn’t looking forward to the part where I had to tell my grandmother.
But I dialed the phone number anyway, and once again got voicemail.
I dialed again.
Still voicemail.
“Son of a bitch,” I murmured under my breath.
I went down the line and called my mother’s eldest brother first.
“’Lo?” Uncle Brogan answered, sounding alert and awake despite the earliness.
“Hey,” I cleared my throat. “This is Turner.”
“Hey, Turner. What’s wrong, baby girl?” Uncle Brogan asked, sensing the seriousness of the matter.
I looked down at my thighs and said the hardest words I’d ever had to say.
“My mother passed away about twenty minutes ago due to a suspected pulmonary embolism,” I said.
His inhalation of breath told me he’d heard, and that he didn’t want to believe me.
The tears threatened again, but I beat them back. I still had five more people, at least, to call.
“No,” he said, sounding shattered.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” I heard Brogan’s wife say.
I pinched my arm and tried to stop from crying, but it really was a lost cause.
“Oh, baby. Are you okay?” Uncle Brogan asked. “What hospital? I can come now.”
I shook my head, despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. “No, don’t.” I drew in a deep breath as my voice started to break. “There’s nothing that you can do here. I just…I just wanted you to know.”
He cleared his throat, too. “Do you want me to call Momma and Daddy?”
God yes, I did.
“Please?” I squeaked. “I don’t think I can get through it.”
He blew out a breath. “I can go tell them now. We’re at the deer lease with them for the weekend. I can go over there right now so they won’t be alone.”
“Oh, good,” I whispered. “Yes, please. If you don’t mind. I…I don’t think I can right now.”
“What about my brothers and sisters…do you want me to tell them?” he asked.
I looked down at my hand that was now clenched in a fist so tight that it was white and bloodless. “Yes.”
I didn’t want to tell any of them.
I didn’t even want to tell him. Because telling him meant that it was real.
“Did you get ahold of Bud yet?” Brogan asked. “Does your dad know?”
I nodded. “No and yes. I’m working on getting hold of Bud. Dad knows. He’s the one who called me.”
“Okay, baby girl,” Brogan murmured. “I’m going to call around after I talk to Momma and Daddy. You call me back if you think of anything you need. We’re here, okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said through a tight throat. “I know.”
Then he was gone, and I was broken all over again.
Castiel lifted me up with one arm and then pulled me into his lap, wrapping me up tightly in his arms as he spoke with someone on the other end of the line.
“Hooch,” he said into the phone. “Yes.” He paused. “Good Shepherd Medical Center, Kilgore, Texas,” he said. “Yes, ask for Pru. She can confirm.” He grunted. “Yes. Yes. No. Thank you. No, I don’t know his social security number. No, not what unit he’s in, either. I’m sorry.”
I opened my eyes as tears coursed down my face and watched my father, studying him as I listened to the man whose lap I was in talk to someone on the other end of the line.
He looked dazed, but at least he seemed to be holding it together.
“Yes, my number is nine-zero-three…” Castiel spouted off the number.
My dad suddenly stood up, and I looked from my dad to the doorway as Pru was left standing there with the doctor from earlier.
They both looked tired as hell.
Pru looked toward where Castiel and I were, and her eyes widened slightly as a small smile lit her mouth.
If I was in a different mood, I might’ve analyzed that look, but I wasn’t. I was in a state of denial and grief that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to dig my way out of again.
“Your wife was moved to another room,” Pru said. “She’s cleaned up and in room ten, just off the back of the ER. Do you want to go sit with her now?”
My dad nodded and walked away with Pru, while the doctor stayed behind and looked at us both.
“Do you have time to make a few decisions?” she asked.
I sat up and then went even further to a standing position. Or started to, but she stopped me.
“No, don’t get up. If you don’t mind, I’ll just come over here and sit right across from you so we can talk,” she said.
I settled back into place, and Castiel once again wrapped his arms around me.
“Your father told me that your mother recently had gastric bypass,” she said. “When was that?”
I told her the details of that, then went on to tell her about my mother’s other problems.
