Page 45 of Strum Me

“Emily’s had some bad news from home and she needs to go right away.”

“What bad news?” There’s an immediate sense of concern for her in his voice, and he looks at her, her hand still clasped in mine.

“Someone in her family’s been in an accident and they’re in the hospital and she has to be there. Now,” I say, knowing he’ll understand.

“Who?”

“Her son.”

He pauses for a moment. The way I’ve seen him do a thousand times before when he’s making the chaos make sense and how he can control it.

“Go.” The relief is instant. I’m going to owe him big time after this. “The car will be here for you in a few minutes. Go outside and wait. I’ll call you with further details on how to get to London. Just go.”

“Thank you.” I nod to him and he knows how much I mean it.

He grabs my bicep and directs me toward the exit behind the CD stacks. “Go out the back entrance.”

We start to move toward the door.

“Emily?” Dennis calls out to her, and we stop as he runs up to us.

“I hope everything works out,” he offers.

She smiles at him gratefully and lets him squeeze her arm.

“Come on, let’s go.”

***

“Do you want some water?” I hand the bottle to her but she just shakes her head. “Juice?”

She shakes her head again.

“Wine? Champagne? Valium?”

“No. No. Maybe?” She gives me a little smile and I breathe a little easier.

We’re in the elevator going down to the surgical ward at King’s College Hospital from the roof’s helipad. She didn’t say a word in the car on the way to the helicopter in Cambridge, and it was too noisy on the flight to talk anyway. But I want to keep her engaged, scared she’ll disappear into herself again.

“So, what did your mother say?”

“Not much, she’s a bit of a wreck, not the greatest in a crisis. I guess I get that from her.” We move in closer as the elevator opens to let some patients on.

“We’ll be there soon. Then you’ll know everything for yourself. You can talk directly with the doctors,” I whisper, slinging my arm over her slim shoulders.

“He’s…he’s probably so scared.” Her bottom lip quivers and I realize, for all the panic, she actually hasn’t cried yet. “He’s…he’s just so little. He should have had his mother there when he went into surgery.”

“You’ll be there when he gets up.” I try to comfort her, my arm rubbing up and down her back.

“But I should’ve been there before. This wouldn’t have happened!” Her voice rises.

“What did happen? Do you want to tell me?”

“He…he was staying with my mother. She’s been taking care of him while I’m away on this assignment. He loves the postman so I guess he was waiting for the postman to come in his truck. He rode out to meet him on his bike, but the postman didn’t see him, and he backed into him. Backed into my little boy!” She looks at me with horror in her eyes, picturing the scene. “And now…”

“And now, we’ll wait to see what happens and get him whatever he needs to get better. But we’re not going to worry, because that’s not going to get us anywhere. Okay?”

She doesn’t respond, just stands there wringing her hands, and I reach over and take them in mine.