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“I wonder if this is why you haven’t had much appetite lately.”
“Probably. I caught the wordnauseain her little speech, too, and I did have that, but it was under control when I laid off coffee and alcohol.”
The radiologist came in later to tell Jake he was all set for his first radiation treatment at the beginning of the next week.
“Go home, relax, and have a nice weekend,” he said. “I’ll see you here on Tuesday morning at nine. Monday is a holiday. The oncologist you met today will be there, as well.”
After an hour of paper signing and instruction, he was discharged. Ryan parked out in front in Jack’s Lexus, the smoothest-riding car any of them had, and Pam insisted Jake get in front.
“You get to come to the party tomorrow,” Ryan said, chuckling. “I know that’s why you were so eager to get out.”
“Right. My last hurrah.”
They tried reassuring him, but Pam knew that she needed to let Jake express himself. Still feeling emotionally numb, she didn’t respond, letting Ryan address it with encouragement and platitudes.
“If I’m really staying with you this weekend, I need to stop by my place and get my things.”
So they made the stop. They went inside with Jake and carried his computer and a bag of clothes and his toiletries, like he was going away for the weekend, not the rest of his life.
They returned to the house on Sea View just as a custom van pulled next to them in the driveway.
“Jesus, it’s the grandmothers,” Ryan said.
“Ry, pull into the garage,” Pam instructed.
“I’m fine, you guys,” Jake said.
“Trust me. You don’t want those two breathing down your neck,” Ryan said, pushing the door opener.
The car came to a stop, and Pam quickly got out.
“Close the door. Hocus will know what to do,” Pam said.
After Pam left and they were safe with the door closed, Ryan got Jake’s things out of the back.
“Are you in the mood to socialize, or do you want to go back to her bedroom?”
“I’m hungry, actually,” Jake said. “Pam said Hocus fried fish.”
Out in the driveway, Marie’s daughter, Miranda, got out and hugged Pam.
“Aunt Pam, rescue me from these goofballs, please,” the little girl said, looking at her with pleading eyes.
“You go inside and find Aunt Lisa,” Pam said, snickering as she bent down to hug Miranda. “She’ll get you something to eat.”
Next, Nelda Fabian, Pam’s mother, and Bernice Smith, Jack’s mother, climbed out of the van with the help of their new manfriends, Ted and Buddy Duggen, two old rednecks from the backwoods of Delaware.
“Pam, you know our friends,” Nelda said, grinning. “Buddy’s mine.” She elongatedmine, making it two syllables.
“Howdy,” Buddy said, tipping his dirty baseball cap in Pam’s direction. She wasn’t sure, but it appeared he’d licked his lips, exposing a missing front tooth, and she took a step back away from him, flaring her nostrils.
“And you know Ted,” Bernice said proudly, looking fabulous in white linen with a yellow patent-leather bag and sandals. “Ted, you remember my daughter-in-law, Pamela.”
“Nice to see you again,” Ted said. The only thing missing from his countenance was a piece of hay between his yellow teeth. “Didn’t know Bernie’s daughter was so young lookin’.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Ted, get our bags and take them inside. Do we get our old rooms?”
Appalled, Pam didn’t know what to make of it. She was used to the former boyfriends of both women being gentlemen with some class. These two looked like they’d been picked up at a chicken farm.
