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“Okay, I believe you. Did the Reynards do something to you?” I was sitting there calling my in-laws the Reynards like they were strangers instead of my husband’s parents. Every thing was getting weirder by the minute. “Did they hurt you, baby?”
“No! Of course, there were times when they would get angry at me and throw it up in my face. Telling me I should be thankful they even took me in when they could’ve just left me there. They didn’t really mean any of those things, though. It was all said out of anger and frustration.”
I was missing something! “Baby, if you weren’t abused and nothing happened at the orphanage, then why are you so afraid to touch me?”
He hesitated, and there was no sound in the room for a few minutes. “Like I said, my real mother was a prostitute. Her name was Delilah. At least, that’s what she called herself.”
“Did Delilah hurt you?”
“Not physically!”
“Then what?”
“She used to leave me alone in this nasty, dank, ratinfested motel room for hours at a time. One time, she left me alone for several days. I lost count after the fifth one, and I was so scared she wasn’t ever coming back.”
He started sobbing uncontrollably. I pulled him back on the bed with me, whether he wanted me to or not. I pushed his head down on my chest, hoping my heartbeat would somehow comfort him for a change. “She would go out and sell her ass to support her heroin addiction. She spent all of her money on drugs and hardly ever bought me anything to eat. I was so skinny and frail, my ribs were showing and my cheeks were sunken in.
“I would have to watch her shoot the poison into her arms and legs, and sometimes, when she didn’t have anyplace else to take them, she would bring her tricks back to the motel with her. She would make me sit in a corner and watch when she was high and thought it was funny, or tell me to go sleep in the bathtub while they were there.”
“Oh, baby! I’m so sorry!” I just kept kissing his forehead over and over again because I didn’t know what else to do.
“Looking back on it now, I realize Delilah did me a favor by abandoning me outside that orphanage. I was real sick when the nuns found me. I had pneumonia and an extremely high fever. While I was upset my mother would leave me like that, she actually saved my life, because I was literally hours away from dying. The nuns rushed me to the emergency room, and they were able to pack me in ice and bring down the fever before I had a seiz
ure.”
He slid up more on the bed so that we were face-to-face and kissed me gently on the lips. “Besides, if she hadn’t left me there, Willard and Lorraine never could’ve adopted me, and I never would’ve found you!”
“Well, you did find me. Somehow, in this big old fucked-up world, we found each other.”
“Yes, we did, Boo!”
“This is meant to be, Jason, and we are going to get through all of this. Together!”
He grinned at me. “Like the lemon to the lime! Like the bumble to the bee!”
chapter
thirty-one
About an hour later, Marcella,Dr. Graham, and Momma all came traipsing back into the room. It couldn’t have possibly taken them that long to eat that nasty hospital food. I pictured them sitting around a table in the cafeteria, downing coffee like springwater and worrying about what the hell Jason and I were upstairs talking about. I was glad they took so long because it gave me a chance to calm Jason down some.
He was having trouble telling them all the things about his past, so I did it for him. It was like shock therapy, part two: they were all once again sitting there with their mouths hanging wide open. When I finished, I added my whole take on the situation, trying to add a little humor. “Pretty wild, huh? Two fucked-up-in-the-head people end up married with children? You think they’ll make a TV sitcom about us? The Crazy Bunch?”
“Zoe, that’s not funny!” Obviously, my mother was not in a humorous mood.
Dr. Graham decided he couldn’t possibly do anything to rectify the situation in the span of one day and left the room to call his office from the nurses’ station. Upon his return, he informed us he would be staying for an additional three days. Marcella was happier about his extended stay than anyone. She thought she was going to be left to sort out the entire mess alone.
“Dr. Graham, Jason’s tired, and so am I. Since you’re staying, could we possibly continue this tomorrow?” I looked at Jason, who was half asleep. “We’re both emotionally drained, and it would be great if we got a fresh start in the morning!”
Much to my surprise, he agreed. “I’m kind of emotionally drained myself. I think we all are, and besides, Marcella and I really need to put our heads together to figure out the best way to go about treatment.”
“Sounds like a winner, Doc!”
I bid Dr. Graham and Marcella adieu, and they went off to rack their brains. “Momma, please drive Jason home.”
Jason sat up, acting offended I would even make such a suggestion. “Zoe, I’m not leaving. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes, you are. You’re going to go home, kiss our kids goodnight for me, and take instant photos of them for me to add to my collection tomorrow.”
