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Bronson patted my hand and smiled down at me. "If there is anything we can do for you . . ."
"Thank you," I said. My lips began to tremble.
"Well," Mother suddenly said with a burst of energy, "perhaps after you are released from here you and Jimmy can consider joining us on that cruise."
"Sure they can," Philip chimed in. "I'll take care of things at the hotel if you guys want to get away. Don't worry about that."
"I don't think I'm in the mood to go on a cruise," I said quickly.
"Well, you have to get your mind off all this somehow, and a cruise is just fine for that, isn't it, Bronson?" Mother asked.
"I think we had better take things one step at a time," he said wisely.
"Well, now that we see you're all right," Mother said, ignoring the fact that I was lying prone because my body was full of aches, that I was pale and weak because I had lost blood and had a miscarriage, "we'll leave. I'm not one for staying in hospitals long. If I ever get very, very sick, they will just have to bring the medicines and machinery to me. Bronson?"
"Right. Feel better, Dawn," Bronson said, and he leaned down to kiss me on the cheek. Mother blew me a kiss, and then the two of them departed.
"I'd better go, too," Philip said. "I'll check on you in the morning." He kissed me and left.
Jimmy and I stared at each other for a moment. "What did you tell Christie?" I asked him.
He shook his head.
"She thought you were coming here to have the new baby already," he said. "That kid's something else," he added, and he started to laugh.
"Oh, Jimmy . . ." I couldn't stop the tears from gushing.
"Don't, Dawn." He was at my side quickly.
"But I should have been coming to the hospital for that one thing only," I cried.
"I know. You will. Someday soon you will," he promised. "Come on," he coaxed, "you and I have been through some hard times, and we've always managed to see the rainbow at the end of the storm. We'll find it again, as long as we have each other."
I smiled up at him. He was so handsome and strong now. I was lucky to have him.
"That's better; that's the Dawn I remember," he said. I closed my eyes.
"Getting tired again?" he asked.
I nodded.
"All right. I’ll let you sleep, but I’ll be close by," he assured me.
"Go home, Jimmy. I'll be all right. Get some rest your self," I told him.
"Now don't go being the boss again," he chastised. "You're off duty."
I didn't have the strength to argue. I closed my eyes and felt his lips on my lids and then on my lips. My eyelids fluttered open as he backed away. He waved, and I closed my eyes, locking his image within, an image that brought back memories.
We were somewhere, a long time ago. We had been dragged from one place to another so often, I couldn't remember exactly where we were, but I had been running, and I fell and scraped my knee badly. I hurried home to show Momma, but she was at work, and there was no one to comfort me, so I sat on the floor crying. Finally the door opened, and Jimmy came in. He rushed over to me and looked at my knee. Then he went into the bathroom and came out with a wet washcloth to clean it. He fixed a bandage for me, too. And then he lifted me up and took me to our sofa bed and made me comfortable.
So much of the time we lived like two orphans, and orphans have less time to be children. It's as if some strange adult, someone with a dark face, takes our hands and makes us run faster, pulls us along and then suddenly lets go and leaves us dangling, wandering, searching for our identities, hungering for a place to call home. I wondered if we would ever find it.
All I could do was hope that Jimmy was right. We had been through so many storms, and we had always managed to find a rainbow waiting.
Where was the rainbow waiting now?
PART TWO
