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“No, I’m not sure who that maniac was,” Sandra said, nostrils flared. “It’s Oscar, her former driver, I’m talking about.”
On Tuesday morning, Nelda, Bernice, Ted and Buddy left Babylon and headed back to Rehoboth.
“That was some party,” Ted said. “The food was kinda boring, and the music sucked, but it was nice seeing how rich people live.”
Bernice’s cell phone beeped. She fumbled with it but got to her messages.
“Oh boy. I think we’d better consider calling it quits, Ted,” Bernice said. “Oscar is headed back to Delaware this week.”
“Yeah, I figured my time was up. It’s okay though, because I need to get back to the farm full time.”
“What about you, Buddy?” Nelda asked. “I hope you don’t have to leave. I don’t have anyone coming back to me.”
“Nope, I don’t have to leave. I gotta work Monday thru Friday, just like a regular job. I’ll be home at night if you’ll still have me.”
“So that’s settled,” Ted said. “I’m going to miss the goods, though.”
“Oh god, that’s so gross,” Bernice said, but she laughed out loud. “We had fun while it lasted.”
In the radiation/oncology department at Babylon Medical Center, Jake Stevens sat on an orange vinyl chair, wearing a hospital gown and nothing else but underpants, socks and shoes. Leaning forward with elbows on his knees, he looked around the room, wondering how he fit in with the group, wondering what kind of cancer they had. Several of the people were bald, including a few women, and others wore hats or turbans. He assumed they were getting chemotherapy concurrently, adding to his list of questions to the radiologist if he was going to lose his hair, too. He wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing, subjecting himself to radiation, because it didn’t appear to change his life expectancy much. But he had decided after spending time with Dawn McGrew that he was going to fight it.
A year after Jake’s wife had died, nurse Dawn came into his life. But he wasn’t ready for her. It was just too soon. After a month, she confessed she was in love with him, so he broke it off, and not in a good way.
“You ghosted me,” she said when they’d gotten together Sunday night. “That was the worst. Why’d you call me out of the blue?”
“Truthfully, I want to be with someone who loves me.”
Pam didn’t love him. She’d accepted his diagnosis, almost being cavalier about it. After all, what was another dead guy in her life.
“Well, I still love you,” she said. “I tried not to, believe me. Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Because I’m dying.”
Dawn gasped. “I don’t believe it. What happened?” She knew he had AIDS and fully expected that whatever was wrong with him had something to do with that.
“I have lung cancer. Probably from being on a sub in the Navy.”
After telling her what he knew about his condition, which so far wasn’t much, he admitted he wanted her to quit her job and move in with him. She lived and worked in Brooklyn, and it would be too far for them to get reacquainted and start a life together.
“If I’ve got a year, I want to spend it with you.”
“But you don’t love me, Jake. You made that clear.”
“Look, I decide to love you. I know what I want now. I want you. I want a serious relationship. I want someone to live with me. I want to die at home. If you still love me, will you be that person?”
It sounded ridiculous, and she was angry, angry that now after wasting all the time they could have been together, he waited until he was going to die to call her. They sat across from each other, and he told her what he wanted out of the last days he had on earth. He wanted simplicity; he wanted to be loved.
“I’ve been involved with a woman here in town, she’s older than I am and has been through a lot, lost two husbands, and it’s like, oh well, another dead man.”
“She did not say that!”
“No, not in so many words. But she kept saying she was numb.” He took her hand and looked into her eyes. “Are you numb?”
Aware that they were in a public place, she didn’t want to start howling. The news was crushing, she felt sick, and she shook her head, tears near the surface. “I’m not numb. I’m sick.”
“Are you off work tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
