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I secured the knot and rushed to her side, wanting to hug her. But I knew that wouldn’t help, and there was no time. We both took off running to my car. It was like an oven inside, but we toughed it out and took off towards the hospital with the windows rolled down while we waited for the AC to kick in.
We were halfway there when I got a call from Derek. I almost didn’t answer, but then I noticed he was calling from the cell he kept for his work at the fire station.
“Keith? Are you with Lana?” he asked.
I could tell by his tone that he wasn’t just asking to give me a hard time. Something was wrong.
“Yeah. Why? What’s going on?”
Lana reached across and snatched the phone out of my hand. “Derek? What is it? Have you heard anything from Claire or Chris?”
She put the phone on speaker and waited.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much,” he sighed. “I was calling to see if you knew what was going on. They got a call at the station for Claire’s address a few hours ago.”
“Oh my god,” Lana muttered under her breath.
“But I wasn’t on duty yet, so I don’t know what happened or what’s up,” he added.
“Oh my god,” she said again, nearly bursting into tears. “Was there a fire while Claire was home all alone!?”
“Stay calm, Lana. I’m sure everything’s fine.”
“No! I’m not going to stay calm! That’s all everyone’s been telling me all day! I did my best to stay calm, and now this. Listen, we’re on our way to the hospital. I know Claire is there, but I don’t know anything else. I can’t get a hold of Chris. I…I…”
I took the phone from her and turned off the speaker. “Derek, it’s me. Call us if you find anything out before you hear from us again, okay? I’ll call you once we get to the hospital and see what’s going on there.”
By the time I hung up, Lana’s face was buried in her hands.
“This is all my fault,” she sobbed. “I’m supposed to be taking care of her, and instead, I was…”
“Hey, you didn’t do anything wrong, Lana. You understand? We don’t even know what’s going on yet. Let’s just take this one step at a time.”
I reached my hand out to rub her knee, trying to calm her down. She wrapped her hand around mine and squeezed it tight. For all the time I had known her, I had never seen her so worried.
It felt like it took an eternity to get to the hospital, even though I was driving as fast as I could. When we finally arrived, Lana rushed to the nurse’s station to find out where Claire was.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” she asked the nurse in desperation.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Are you a family member of the patient?”
“Yes, I’m her sister,” Lana insisted.
The woman’s brow furrowed as she looked over the chart, searching for some kind of confirmation of who Lana was.
“Forget it,” she huffed, storming off towards the elevators to find Claire.
We were silent on the elevator, but I squeezed Lana’s hand tight in mine, trying my best to assure her that everything would be okay. It had to be. Lana and Claire were good people, and they had been through enough already. I wanted to believe the universe could be fair sometimes…that they’d catch a break at some point.
Finally, we found Claire’s room. A gush of relief washed over both of us when we walked in and saw her sitting up in bed, smiling and laughing with a nurse who was in to check on her.
“Claire, oh my god,” Lana sobbed, rushing to her side. “What the hell happened!?”
Claire sank down in the hospital bed, looking embarrassed. “I feel like an idiot,” she groaned. “I was in the kitchen making lunch, and I dropped a spoon. I tried to pick it up and fell out of my wheelchair. I don’t know what happened, but I pinched a nerve or something. Whatever I hit was bad enough that I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t reach my phone.”
Lana paced the room, dragging a hand across her eyes. “This is all my fault. I should have been there.”
“No, it’s all my fault,” Claire argued. “I should have been wearing my phone around my neck on that lanyard you bought…just like you’re always telling me. You did your part, Lana. I’m the one who didn’t listen to you.”
