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She shakes her head. “You gotta get me out of here.”
Pops butts in. “Young lady, you aren’t going anywhere without an MRI. I need to take a good look at you before that son of mine takes you anywhere. Do you understand me?”
She nods her head, but she doesn’t take her eyes off me. Pops shines a light in her eyes and mutters that it doesn’t appear as if she’s had a concussion.
I cup her chin in my hand. “Jane. Listen to me. I said I wasn’t going to leave you, and by that I mean I’m not going to make you go anywhere you don’t want to go. If you don’t want to go anywhere with your uncle, then you don’t go anywhere with your uncle. You stay with me as long as you want.”
I talk calmly to her until the whole process is over.
The hardest part is watching her go through the MRI. In fact it nearly breaks my heart, watching her legs tremble, not being able to make eye contact with her in that big machine.
Later, Pops shows us the MRI results and explains in as simple terms as he can that she looks clear of any injuries and doesnt have any tumors.
“There’s nothing wrong other than you’ve lost your memory. The only thing I can determine is you may have experienced some kind of mental or emotional trauma that has caused what’s known as transient global amnesia. The lack of circulation to the area that controls memory caused you to fall into some kind of a fugue state that compelled you to wander off,” Pops says.
He prescribes some anti-anxiety medication.
“Aren’t you retired?” Jane croaks out, clearly exhausted from the day’s events.
Pops ignores the question. “It will help you relax enough that some memories could come back. And should help you sleep soundly.”
I watch Jane’s face as she listens intently to Pops, and I continue to squeeze her hand. In that moment, I know I don’t want her going through any difficulty like this without my hand to hold. And when I’m old and gray and receiving bad news from the doctor, I want no other person to be there for me than Jane.
It feels like the most natural thing in the world.
Chapter Nine
Jane
“I’m taking you home, Jane,” Shep says, and I get a small thrill of anticipation.
But Levi won’t hear of it.
“First of all, you don’t know the way out of here to avoid your uncle. I’m taking you home to my place. I already texted the chef to bump up dinner and set another place at the table. And thirdly, y’all are staying at my house tonight.”
“Excuse me?” Shep asks.
“For all you know, she could be a married woman,” Pops argues.
“Pops. She ain’t married, look at her left hand.”
“That doesn’t mean a damn thing and you know it.”
For some reason, Shep and Levi are exchanging a knowing look with each other.
“Look, I would know if I was married,” I say. “I would just, you know, feel…married.”
Levi ignores my salient point and leads us out down to the parking garage via an elevator that has to be accessed with a key.
On the way down, I feel a strange tension in the air that seems to be about something beyond me.
“I thought you were retired?” I repeat to Levi.
“I am.”
Shep explains, “He also donates all of his book royalties to the indigent fund to make sure no patient is ever turned away from the hospital. He has privileges here as long as he wants.”
We reach the parking garage in silence, where an SUV is waiting for us.
