She turned away from the counter and faced the corridor. Linda was very familiar with the corridor, and she refused to let the memories of that day overwhelm her. Instead, she squared her shoulders, made sure she wasn’t holding her grandchildren’s hands too tightly, and walked down the corridor that had plagued her nightmares for five years.
It is just a corridor.She told herself that with every step. Just walls. Just a floor. Just fluorescent lights and the soft hum of distant equipment and the faint rolling sound of a cart somewhere up ahead.Just a corridor in a building.
Linda rounded the corner at the end and saw the waiting room. And then she saw Tom.
He was sitting in one of the plastic chairs near the window, his shoulders a little hunched, his hands resting loosely on his knees, looking ten years older than she’d remembered him. He was watching the double doors that led back to the operating theatres.
Linda’s heart lurched.
This was the man who had walked her down the aisle thirty-nine years ago because her own father had been gone for over thirty years by then. The man who had held both her babies on the days they had been born, gentle and reverent. The man who had quietly, faithfully made sure her mother had been happy for thelast twenty years of her life, and who had sat with Linda for three nights straight after her mother had gone, saying very little, just being there.
Here he was again. Sitting quietly and patiently in this hospital, alone, for hours. As he heard footsteps, Tom looked up.
His eyes found hers across the waiting room, and for a long suspended moment, they just looked at each other. Tom’s face slowly transformed into one of relief. He stood and held out his arms.
Linda and the kids walked straight into them.
She didn’t say anything. He didn’t either. The kids folded in around them both, Sophia pressing her face into Tom’s side and Jake wrapping his small arms around as much of all three of them as he could reach, and for a long moment, the four of them stood there in the corner of a fluorescent-lit waiting room and just held each other.
Linda felt Tom take a long, ragged breath against her hair.
She knew what he was breathing through. He hadn’t been back to this building in five years either. When Linda finally pulled back, she had to wipe her eyes with the heel of her hand. Tom did too, though he tried to hide it by turning his face slightly toward the window. The kids were unembarrassed and openly tearful. Sophia kept one arm around Tom’s waist as the four of them moved toward the chairs.
“Hello, Grandpa,” Sophia whispered up at him.
“Hello, my big girl,” Tom said, his voice gravelly. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Hello, Jake, my boy.”
“Hi, Grandpa,” Jake said, hugging Tom around the middle.
“Sit down, sweetheart,” Tom told Linda, gesturing to the chair beside his. “Come on. All of you. Sit down.”
Linda sat. Sophia and Jake settled into the chairs on her other side, leaning into each other. Linda reached over and took Tom’s hand without quite knowing she was doing it.
“How is he?” Linda asked.
“He’s still in there,” Tom answered quietly. “I’m still waiting for information. There’s been nothing since the last update when you were on the road.”
“I’m sure it won’t be much longer,” Linda assured him.
“He’s been in there for hours,” Tom said, running a hand through his hair.
They fell into a comfortable silence. Linda glanced around and looked at her wristwatch.
“Have you eaten?” Linda asked, turning toward Tom.
“Not since breakfast,” Tom admitted.
“Tom.” Linda squeezed his hand. “You have to eat something. There must be a vending machine or a cafeteria somewhere.”
“There’s a vending machine down the hall,” Tom said. “I’ll get something in a bit. I didn’t want to leave the room in case the doctor came through.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Linda said immediately. “What do you want? A sandwich? Crackers?”
“Anything’s fine,” Tom said. “Actually, let me get it.” He stood and stretched. “I need to walk for a bit.”
“All right.” Linda managed a small, watery smile.
Before Tom could leave, footsteps resounded down the hall, and they turned to see Maggie sweep in.
