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They didn’t say anything for a while, and Sally ran through the ideas in her head. It was kind of funny that Peter had said the same thing that Lana had said earlier. Still, there was no solution in sight.
Peter shifted a little, and immediately Sally straightened.
“Are you okay?”
“Are you going to ask that every time I move?” he said, one side of his mouth working up.
“If I have to. I mean, are you hurting?”
“A little. As long as I have it settled just so, it only throbs. The doc said eight weeks in a cast, and I can handle that.”
“It’ll probably make for restless sleep.”
“Maybe. They’ve got some pretty good drugs in here though. I might be okay.”
“They’ve loosened your tongue a bit, I think,” she teased.
“No. I don’t think I said anything to you tonight that I didn’t want to say. I just... Maybe the drugs gave me a little bit of bravery that I should have had anyway.”
She didn’t answer that, because she wasn’t sure how.
“The X-ray showed that my ribs were clear. But they were bruised. I can feel them, and it hurts to take a deep breath. It also hurts to laugh, but I’m not going to quit laughing just because of a little pain.”
“What about your head?”
“Concussion for sure, but I think they’re going to tell me to just take it easy, which I have to do anyway because of the broken leg.”
“I see.”
He opened an eye. “The doctor asked me if I had anyone at home to take care of me. I told him I lived by myself... But I thought I could hire a nurse.” He smiled, and Sally had to return his grin.
“I do have some nursing experience.”
“I know.”
“But...”
“Norma Jean.”
Sally nodded.
“You know, I talked to Miles some. He’s quiet, although he’s a good man. He’s good with animals, and he has his dog, Chester, trained really well. From the little bit I talked to him, Chester was able to get the bull’s attention off me. He told me I owed Chester my life.”
“Seems like if Miles was the one who trained the dog, Miles deserves a little bit of gratitude.”
“That’s what I said. But at the time, I wasn’t really up to talking a whole lot.”
“I feel like you need to rest now.”
“If I rest, are you going to stay?” He turned his head to the side and looked at her. “That’s not fair. It’s late. You need to go home and get some rest.”
“No. I’ll stay. I... I want to.” It was true. She did. She didn’t really know why though. There wasn’t anything for her to do. And she wasn’t his mom, like he had suggested, and she wasn’t his daughter either. She...wasn’t anything to him. She didn’t really have the right to stay. Plus, what she said about Norma Jean was true. She wasn’t going to pursue Peter, or allow there to be anything there, until Norma Jean had decided she didn’t want him.
With another person, that wouldn’t take long with Peter not showing any interest, but with Norma Jean, it was quite possible that she would spend the next five years trying to catch Peter’s eye. Norma Jean could be like a dog with a bone once she had her eye on something.
She had risen from her difficult beginnings and become a successful and almost normal adult by having grit and determination and perseverance.
Really, Norma Jean had a lot of great characteristics. She was just human like everyone else and had flaws. Sometimes those flaws were hard to swallow, but they weren’t any worse or any better than anybody else’s flaws.
