AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One of the girls. He didn’t know which one. There was something pulling him away, something so beautiful that he couldn’t focus much on what was going on below. The choir grew louder, and he turned his attention toward it and saw swirls of color that didn’t exist on earth. They were outside the spectrum.
Wow. That was something.Are you seeing this, Vidalia? Are you seeing this?
CHAPTERNINE
“Mama, what happened?”
“Maya,” Caleb said, “keep the kids in the kitchen, hon. Let me try to help.” Caleb knelt beside Bobby Joe, opposite Vidalia, but she only barely noticed him there, and his voice faded to a sort of deep hum.
Don’t take him from me, Lord. It’s too soon.
The front door opened and banged shut again. And then again every few heartbeats or so, and more voices joined the insect-like drone that was filling her head as she stared down at him.So pale. And thinner than I even realized. Look at his collarbones.
Noticing his collarbones made her notice that someone had opened his shirt, and she dragged her eyes off Bobby’s sweet face long enough to look to see who. Paramedics...efficient and confident, and asking her to move aside and let them work. Who knew how long they’d been asking? She’d only just noticed they were here. Numbly, she told herself to move out of the way, but her eyes locked on Bobby’s face again, and her hands tightened on the one they held, and for the life of her she just couldn’t back away.
“Bobby, don’t go,” she whispered. “Bobby, don’t you go.” His eyes were closed, his lips as soft as they’d been when he’d been kissing her only a few minutes ago. She looked at his nose, at his jaw, at his eyebrows, memorizing him in her heart.
“Mama, come on. Let them help him, Mama,” said two of her daughters at once. Their hands were on her shoulders.
Nodding, she laid Bobby’s hand on his chest, and tried to get up onto her feet, but she stumbled, and one of her strong sons in law caught her. She got her balance as Alex helped her a few steps away, and then she looked up and all her girls were standing there, wide, wet eyes so full of love for her that it broke the log jam, and she just burst into tears.
* * *
“Did someone call his sons?” she asked, knowing she’d asked before, but she couldn’t remember the answer. They were walking across the blacktop lot toward the glass doors of the hospital. Only a short distance away, the ambulance sat outside the emergency room doors, having beat them here, but not by much.
“They’re already here,” Selene said. “That’s Jason’s truck, next to where we parked.”
“Oh.” She nodded, wanting to go directly to the ER doors. Only her family all around her, herding her with them to the approved entrance, kept her from going. They got inside, and while some of them veered toward the nurses’ desk, she just kept walking, aiming in the direction of the ER. And Bobby.
Her family came behind her, every last one of them. She didn’t know who’d been the last minute babysitter, but someone must have come through.
Jason came out of nowhere and said, “Vidalia. Good. You’re here.”
“I’m here. Where is he? What have they said?”
“Nothing. Nothing, but as I was just about to tell my brothers...” he turned to look behind him, and Vidalia realized there was a waiting room behind there. He hadn’t come out of nowhere, he’d come out of there. Joey and Rob were standing within, pale and shocky looking. There were orange vinyl chairs mounted to the walls, and two rows down the middle, bolted to the floor. There were vending machines with junk food and junk drinks. The only healthy thing in the hospital waiting room was the bottled water, and she wasn’t so sure about that.
She nodded hello to each of the boys, when what she wanted to do was hug them. But they weren’t close enough for that, were they?
Her question was answered when Joey came and hugged her. “Vidalia, are you okay?”
Behind him, Rob looked her over worriedly. “They said he was with you when he collapsed.”
“And Jason was about to tell us something about that. He got as far as...‘Dad’s sick.’” This, Joey said with a look over her head toward his oldest brother, who had come back into the waiting room on the tide of her family.
Vidalia turned too, sinking into a chair because her knees were too watery to hold her up any longer. “I knew it. I knew something was wrong with him. What is it Jason?”
Jason stayed standing, though everyone else sat. “It’s a blood condition. He’s known for three months now.”
Joey and Rob looked at each other and then at Jason again.
Vidalia said, “He’s known what, exactly, for three months now, Jason?”
Jason lowered his head and swallowed hard. “That’s he’s dying.”
“God no,” she whispered.
“How long have you known?” Joey asked softly.
