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After talking to Simon, I practiced mindful breathing for about five minutes before I rang Mom.
“Oh, love! How good to hear from you. Where are you?” Her voice sounded wispy, as though speaking took a great effort.
“On my way to the hospital.”
“Wonderful! Can you do something for me on your way here?”
“Of course.”
“Stop at the house and pick up my pj’s and some clean undies. And could you go past the bakery and bring me an olive focaccia. The food here is appalling.”
“Sure. Anything else?”
Then she proceeded to give me a longish list, things for both her and D2. She didn’t expect to be in long but wanted a few creature comforts in the meantime. D2 would definitely be in for a few days yet but the doctors assured her he should make a good recovery.
“I can do all that. I’ll get there soon.”
“Thanks, love, I’m so glad you’re here. You have no idea.”
She made a loud kissing sound as I disconnected, and I stared at the cell phone in astonishment. To put it mildly, my mother wasn’t the demonstrative sort. The only time I could remember her being vaguely loving was the last time the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. I was a kid at the time. She rushed around kissing and hugging everyone, including me. It wasn’t that she was cold or mean or anything. It’s just that her normal demeanor was reserved and cautious, even with people she knew well.
It must have been one bad blow to the head to make her so loving.
When I looked at the list of what she wanted me to collect, I realized it would likely be close to noon before I got to the hospital. Maybe I’d get back to the house in the afternoon for a nap. I was tired and the tense words with Simon only added to my stress. At least I had a car and driver, eliminating the bother of parking everywhere I went. I lowered the privacy screen and told Wayne everything I needed to do.
“How about I drop you at the house and do the shopping while you pack kit bags for your mom and granddad?” he offered.
“That would be a godsend,” I said, grateful that Simon had sent him. He knew Wayne would look after me in ways that couldn’t be programmed or necessarily bought anywhere else. I sank back into the luxury leather seat and enjoyed the ride home.
Mom and I had moved into D2’s house when I was twelve. My grandmother died long before I came along, and D2 had lived by himself right up until the time Mom got a big rent increase. That year, D2 built himself a suite in the basement and gave us the upstairs. He said we were all family anyway and it made no sense for one man to live in such a big place by himself.
Before then, Mom and I had lived in an apartment closer to the garage that D2 and she co-owned. Mom had never lived more than a couple of miles from where she grew up and couldn’t understand why I wanted to move to the coast to go to university. She never quite forgave me for leaving, and I wondered vaguely if she was using the accident to drag me back now to the place she called home. Was this a ruse to keep Simon and me apart? I shook myself for my unworthy thoughts. Mom needed me. D2 needed me. That was all that mattered.
When I stepped out of the air-conditioned limousine, the humidity hit me like a wet wool blanket, thick and oily. Breathing was like swallowing golf balls. I hated this part of Montreal summers and hurried inside, looking around only long enough to see that D2 was still enjoying his garden. The lawn was cut, the flowerbeds were weeded. I bet he spent an entire day getting it ready for Mom’s return. At least I didn’t have to worry about yard work right away.
The moment the front door closed behind me, D2’s two cats started howling from his suite. Why hadn’t Mom phoned someone to come and take care of them? Inside D2’s apartment, his two black and white tuxedo cats attempted to trip me by wrapping themselves in figure eights around my legs.
The air conditioner hummed softly, keeping the indoor temperature cool and dry. A trace of D2’s Old Spice aftershave scented the room. The water bowl was half full, so I topped it up before feeding the cats. As soon as I set their tinned food in front of them, they wrapped their tails around their sleek bodies and ate ravenously. The litter tray, in the laundry area of the basement, was fine. D2, who loved tidiness and order, had bought a self-cleaning system years ago. How he managed to run a business with my mother, who was prone to untidiness mystified me.
I found his suitcase and toiletries bag easily. When I shut the door to go upstairs to Mom’s, the cats were still bent over their food bowls.
D2 might have left any time in the past week; the neatness of his home gave no clues. Mom’s place looked like she’d walked out seconds before. A half empty pot of coffee sat on the warming plate, a scum line marking where it had evaporated in Mom’s absence. At least she’d remembered to turn it off. Newspapers sprawled across the kitchen table. In the living room, her crossword puzzle books and well-thumbed ofPopular Mechanicshad spilled off the heap on the coffee table and lay on the floor gathering dust.Her flip flops lay helter-skelter in front of her chair, as if she’d just kicked them off. In her untidy bedroom, it took considerable time to find and fill her backpack.
When I emerged from the house, Wayne was sitting in the limousine, engine going. He leapt out of the car and helped me with the two bags. Tucked in the back seat was a cardboard tray with two insulated coffee cups and a bag of bakery goods. There was a third coffee cup for me in the drink holder.
“Wayne, you’re an angel,” I said, fastening my seat belt.
“Don’t tell anyone, I have a reputation to maintain.”
With that we fell into friendly silence, and I took out my phone. There was only one message, from Simon.Layla has checked and tells me things are looking good for your Mom and D2. V happy for everyone. Pls give them my regards. Wednesday: add poor cell phone reception to the list of things to be addressed in our serious discussion. S.
‘Serious discussion’ was Simon-speak for a spanking. I shivered momentarily at the week’s escalating agenda and then worked on putting it out of my mind. For the moment I had to concentrate on the needs of my family. It was odd there were no messages from Mom, given how needy she’d been yesterday and this morning. She was probably resting.
At the hospital, Wayne helped me organize my load. I had my purse and Mom’s backpack hooked over my shoulders, D2’s suitcase wheeling behind me, and the coffee and pastries in my right hand. Mom was well enough to text and phone, so I headed to D2’s ward first. He was in a semi -private room but there was an empty bed where he should have been. His roommate told me that he’d been taken for some tests and would be back in an hour or so.
The roommate’s speech was slightly slurred when he said, “He had an ischemic stroke like me, but look how well I’m doing.” The man’s eyes shone with happiness, and he seemed unaware of his fuzzy diction.
“Em gon hum today,” he said, which I understood to mean, “I’m going home today.”
