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1
LANA
I felt ridiculous as I climbed out of my vintage blue Volkswagen van with a giant cluster of balloons cascading out behind me. They started flopping every which way in the wind, making it near impossible for me to get a handle on them well enough to grab my keys and bag and get the door shut without anything slipping from my fingers. By the time I was free, along with all eight helium balloons and my belongings, the strings were wrapped around me six or seven times. Everywhere I moved, the balloons moved too.
I stood there and sighed, my long blonde hair waving in the wind, the big metallic balloons bumping together all around me. A few people passing by on their way to the front sliding doors of the hospital snickered and pointed, confirming that I looked just as silly as I felt. But I figured making your best friend smile during one of the most challenging times of her life was worth being humiliated for.
With the balloons trailing behind me, I headed for the entrance to the hospital building I had come to know all too well over the past two months during my daily visits. I was able to walk in and out of it every day, and I still felt sick of the place. So I could only imagine how excited Claire was to finally get out of there and go home.
But when I walked through the front doors and laid eyes on her, sitting alone in the corner with her eyes dropped down, she looked far from excited.
“Hey, you. Why the long face? Today’s a happy occasion.”
She lit up as her eyes met mine. “Hey! What are you doing here!?” Her eyes darted over the balloons. “Did you rob a balloon store on your way here?”
“I sure did. I walked right in there and told them Claire Foster was officially free from hospital hell today and that I wasn’t leaving until I had every balloon they kept in stock.” I stopped and looked around, noting that her husband was nowhere in sight. “…Where’s Chris? Did he go to pull the car around or something?”
Her smile vanished, and she looked back down to her hands, nervously wringing them together in her lap. “No. He’s not here…yet.”
I glanced at the time on my phone. She was set to be discharged twenty minutes ago. I thought I’d just barely be catching them on their way out the door. “Huh. Well, okay. Not a problem.”
I tried to sound as optimistic as possible, but the truth was, I never liked Chris. I had always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt for Claire’s sake…but not showing up to take his own wife home from the hospital!? That was crossing a line.
“Have you talked to the doctors yet?” I asked.
She shook her head no.
“Okay. Don’t you worry. I’ll find them and get everything we need for your discharge, and then you’ll be homeward-bound in no time. But you’re going to have to take these darn balloons off my hands.”
I spun around to untangle them from my body and tied them to the arm of Claire’s wheelchair, then set off to find a doctor who could give us all the instructions and sign us out. My head was spinning as they went over all the medications, appointments, daily exercises, and everything else that would now be a part of Claire’s daily life on her road to recovery. But I was determined to figure out some way to keep up with it all.
Finally, with prescriptions and paperwork in hand, I pulled my van around to open up the back and show Claire the other surprise I had in store for her. I flung open the side and back doors to reveal the newly installed handicap seating, complete with a ramp and everything else we’d need to get to and from her doctor’s appointments, and anywhere else she wanted to go.
“Oh my gosh! Lana! You did all of this for me!?”
“I don’t know anyone else in a wheelchair,” I teased. “You ready to hit the road?”
She stared inside the backseat of the van and chewed her bottom lip with her brow furrowed. I could tell she was nervous. It was her first time back in a car since the accident after being life-flighted to the hospital. I put my hands on her shoulders and squeezed, leaning down to tell her, “Hey, it’s normal to be nervous. But you were driving and riding around in cars plenty of times before that night when nothing happened. People do it every day, and nothing happens. I’m going to be super careful and get you home safe, okay?”
She squeezed my hand in hers, then nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Lana.”
I could tell she was still uneasy, but we got her loaded up into the car and headed home. I went ten miles under the speed limit the whole way. Thankfully, my old van stood out like a sore thumb in Silver Point. Everyone knew me and Claire, and they knew she was set to go home from the hospital that day. So they could no doubt understand why I was being so cautious and could just give us a break.
The house had been done up just like my van—with all the ramps and bars and anything else Claire would need until she was walking and moving around like her old self again. I was eager to show it all to her. We were just going over the new handrails in the bathroom when we heard the front door swing open.
“Claire!? Lana!?” Chris’s voice called out to us, followed by the sound of his footsteps running down the hall.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the way he came barreling in, pretending to look so concerned and apologetic.
“Claire, baby. I’m so sorry. I lost track of time at work, but I got here as quick as I could.” He rushed over and cupped her face in his hands, kissing her all over her face.
To me, it was sickening. But Claire melted like putty in his hands, the same as she always had from the day those two met.
“Can I talk to you, Chris?” I barked, motioning for him to follow me out into the kitchen. “Want me to roll you into the sun room, Claire? Or would you rather practice pushing yourself around a bit?”
Her eyes narrowed over me. “Why? What are you two going to talk about?” She never did like it when I gave Chris a hard time, though as her best friend, I didn’t know how I could avoid it. We almost lost Claire for good, and here he was—still dropping the ball. How was I supposed to just let it go like it was nothing?
“I’m just going to go over everything the doctors said with him,” I assured her. “Then I’ll go fill your prescriptions.”
