Nancy waved a hand at me to quiet while looking down Charlie’s throat with a light. She replaced the oxygen mask and closed her eyes and placed her hand in the center of Charlie’s chest. I watched as his chest rose and fell slowly, her hand with it. She opened her eyes after several of his breaths, then nodded with a deep exhale. Clearly, she had been holding her own breath. “He’ll be okay.”
I was standing there hugging myself. If I had nails to bite, I would have bitten them off by now. “How do you know? The doctor said–, and from his tone, hedidn’t sound like he had hope,” I sobbed out, having a hard time breathing myself, at that moment.
She came over to me and cupped my face, her thumb swiping under my eye, collecting a tear I hadn’t noticed. “Because I just do. I promise. He will wake soon. He just needed a long strong dose of oxygen and rest.” She smiled, before adding, “And those doctors are all hogwash. They don’t know an asshole from a mouth most days. It’s us nurses that do the work around here. We see and hear all. We know before they do.” She brought my head down and left a kiss in the center.
“Now. Like before,” she winked. “I’ll keep people out for you, and will warn if anyone is coming.
She walked to the split in the curtain, but as she was going through I stopped her, “Nancy.” She turned with an openness about her. “Thank you.”
“I am glad you both are doing well together,” then she walked away.
I bolted for the side of the bed, not needing further permission, taking his hand in mine. Kissing it over and over in a patterned beat. Like a morse code, hoping he would feel it and come back to me faster.
An hour later, his fingers twitched in my hand, and his eyes opened, coming home to me.
Epilogue One
Charlie
Five Weeks Later: End of July
“Stewie!” I waved my hand over my head to get his attention. He was talking to some guy with heat in their eyes, and we didn’t have time for that today.
We were slammed.
Me starting at The Underground actually brought in more clientele than they had originally. Who knew by putting a skinny young guy behind the bar that legally couldn’t even drink would act like a hormonal scent signal to all the men and their friends in the community. Stewie just hired another man to help on the nights we were really busy and when I needed a night off.
“What’s going on, Darlin’? I was about to get carted away,” Stewie said in a minor complaint, southern judgment edging his tone.
“No. Not tonight,” putting my foot down. Sam was right when he said this was more than a bartendingjob. It came with the responsibility to control Stewie. Well, as much as anyone could control Stewie. “Also, I’m out of Jim Beam and Gilbey.” I handed over the two empty bottles, which Stewie took from me. He likes to keep inventory, but also, we have to be sly when discarding the liquor and beer bottles, and cans since the bar shouldn’t be here.
I looked down the bar, taking in not only my new job, but my new home. Jimmy was at the end of the bar with the boys, Donald, Mickie, and Jacob. He was smiling and having fun. It looked good on him. He wasn’t the person I met all those weeks ago. He was so closed off and hidden. David said I woke him up from a deep slumber, like Snow White. I think being here helped too. Jimmy doesn’t come down every night. He works early in the mornings at the library across the river on the North Side, so he was usually asleep when I got done and headed up to our new place. He really likes the job. It’s taken him some adjustment to the new pace, and the quieter environment, but he was surrounded by all the books he could ever dream of all day, every work day. Betty and him are still thick as thieves too.
We moved four days after the fire. It had gotten around pretty quickly that Jimmy and I were together as a couple, so we needed to leave before there was another uprising. Karen was loud being dragged off, but also Jimmy holding me in the open while I laid unconscious, kissing me in the open was all the confirmation the town needed. It was a miracle Jimmy wasn’t arrested that night before he could run off to meet me at the hospital.
By the time I was discharged, and got home, Tom and Betty had rounded up some troops and packed me and my dad’s place for us and what could be saved at Jimmy’s after the fire was put out. Then we usedthree cars and Will’s pick-up truck, moving all our belongings in multiple trips.
It took us a couple days to get sorted and organized in our new home, which we love. Betty helped with her womanly touch, since she needed something to do until the library was safe to work in again.
Which never happened.
She ended up getting moved to the North Side location with Jimmy. The Mount Washington location got postponed indefinitely while the cleanup and stabilization process on and in the mountain occurred. She’s been commuting there every morning, since she lives on the mountain, not wanting to leave since she started to see Tom.
Secretly.
For now, at least.
They seem happy when we are around them. Tom loves on her hard and follows her around like a puppy, doing what he’s told.
It’s cute.
I recovered from the fire and the toxic inhalation quickly, after spending two nights in the hospital. Karen was arrested and charged the night she tried to kill us. She is still being held in jail until her court date because she was deemed a danger to society, which is ironic considering what I was told about what happened and what she said.
I know that night, leaving the safety of my unit was stupid, looking back on it. But I needed a book to distract me from my thoughts, and the ones I had on me, I had already completed.
So, I went to Jimmy’s to get one.
When I was coming down the stairs, I heard a crash and whoosh noise. Karen apparently threw a Molotov Cocktail at the door by using one of Richard’sliquor bottles, originally meant for me and my dad’s unit.
