Page 98 of Her Defiant Warrior

“No, Ma. I told you, it’s me, Mateo.”

Now he could see her emotional pain as her lip trembled. “I remember. Luis died.”

“Yeah, Ma. He did. It tore us up, remember?”

He watched as she tried to lift up her hand.

“What, Ma? What are you trying to do?”

“I want to touch your face, my son.”

He wasn’t sure if she wanted to touch him, or if she was thinking he was Luis. But he bent forward, picked up her hand, and brought it to his cheek.

“Thank you for coming.”

He cleared his throat, trying to hold back all of his pain and anger. “Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

“This is a hard way to die. I didn’t want you to have to watch me suffer. I know my warrior son, you would want to fix this, and you can’t.”

She did know who she was talking to. She only ever referred to him as her warrior.

“I might have wanted to fix this, Ma, but I would have set that aside. More than anything I would have wanted to share this with you. Maybe if you weren’t feeling well, I could have finally beaten you at Truco.”

She started to laugh, and it turned into a cough. He hated that. He looked over at the door. Where in the hell was that nurse?

When his mother stopped coughing, she gave a hoarse laugh. “Even on my worst day, you couldn’t have beat me at Truco.” For just a moment he saw a sparkle in her eye. He’d have to go find a deck of Spanish playing cards so he could bring them in tomorrow.

“Challenge accepted,” he teased.

Her eyes drifted shut and she whimpered.

“Sorry, Mr. Aranda, can you move out of the way?” the nurse asked as she bustled in.

Mateo realized he and the recliner were blocking her way to the IV. He stood up and then moved the recliner back to the corner. He watched carefully as she fiddled with the drip.

“There, that should help,” she reassured him. “But she’s probably going to sleep for the rest of the day and on into the night.”

“I want to just sit here a little longer, if that’s okay.”

The nurse nodded. “Of course.” She glanced at Ma and lowered her voice. “I want to tell you. She’s talked about you a lot, Luis. She bragged about the scholarship you got and how you were a straight-A student in high school.”

Mateo sighed. “That’s my older brother. He died in a car accident seven years ago.”

“Oh.” He could see she was embarrassed, but she tried to cover. “That must be the reason she talks so much about him. A lot of patients near the end talk about their loved ones that they’ve lost.”

He nodded. There was no point telling her that Luis had always been the apple of her eye.

“Where are you staying?”

“In a little hotel down the street. It has a fridge and a hotplate, so I’m covered. I’m in the Navy so my Lieutenant gave me time to stay with her.”

She stood a little straighter. “Thank you for your service.”

He nodded. He never had any idea how else to respond. She left and he sat back down. He moved the chair closer again and picked up his mother’s hand.

“Mateo?”

“Yes, Mom, I’m here.”