AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DOMINIC
Sonoran Acres called at nine o’clock on Friday morning to tell me Donna had broken her left hip. I’d just left Melanie’s and was in my truck anyway, so I made a detour and headed for the hospital. I texted Gio from the parking lot, then shot off another text to Melanie, telling her my grandmother had a medical emergency and I needed Melanie to open Espo 2 at eleven. She answered back immediately, asking if there was anything she could do to help. I told her I’d be in touch as soon as I knew more, but for the time being I needed her to manage Espo 2. Then I stuffed my phone in my pocket and headed for the emergency room doors.
The cranky nurse who’d scolded me the night I escorted Donna home late after the friends and family event had accompanied the ambulance.
“What the hell happened?” I growled, knowing I sounded like a bear but not caring because my heart had been in my throat ever since I got that call.
The woman didn’t bristle over my tone. Instead she gave me a sympathetic look and explained that Donna had left her room in the middle of the night and walked all the way to the kitchen on the other side of the building. Evidently she’d been trying to bake something; mixing bowls and a variety of ingredients cluttered the counter. The night janitor found her sprawled on the floor in a pile of white flour, her left leg bent at a wicked angle. When she couldn’t even sit in a wheelchair and confusedly called for Leo, the nurse phoned an ambulance.
“Leo’s my grandfather,” I told her. “He’s been dead for thirteen years.”
My mind flashed back to the long ago night when Leo Esposito died in the darkness, mere feet away from the restaurant he’d dedicated his life to. It was after two a.m., and I was drunk when I finally stumbled home to find Gio crying alone at our grandparents’ kitchen table.
“Where were you, Dom?” he’d wailed through his tears. “Where were you?” Then he jumped out of his chair and hugged me fiercely, because he was frightened and because he was heartbroken and because I was his big brother.
“I know,” the nurse nodded. The tag on her purple scrubs said her name was Gloria. I’d missed that detail the last time we met. “She kept crying his name in the ambulance, begging us to call him and let him know what had happened to her.”
I peered down the corridor. A woman pushed a sad-eyed, old man in a wheelchair. He didn’t even look up as they rolled past. A security guard watched the empty hall.
“Is she down there?” I asked. “Can I see her?”
“The doctor’s examining her right now. It’s almost certain she’ll need surgery, but she also banged her head against a metal cabinet when she slipped, so they need to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion before she goes under general anesthesia.”
I slumped against the wall. I understood the risks of a woman Donna’s age going through major surgery.
Gloria patted my arm in comfort, and I saw the kindness in her eyes. “I know how devoted you and your brother are to your grandmother,” she said. “We all love that dear lady too.”
Only seconds later the doctor emerged with a status report. The fracture on the left hip would indeed require surgery; however before proceeding, the medical team had decided to wait twenty-four hours and keep Donna under observation for a head injury. Upon arrival she’d been frightened and confused. She kept calling for my grandfather and her children. The doctor observed that she now seemed lucid. She understood where she was and what had happened. Now she only called for Gio and me.
Gio arrived breathless in the middle of all this, and Dr.Martin summarized what she’d already told me.
“We’re getting her admitted and moving her to a private room,” the doctor said. “But you’re welcome to go back there and see her now.”
“Thanks,” I said brusquely and hurried down the hall, my brother right on my heels.
My grandmother had always been a small woman, but in a hospital bed, she looked so frail and frightened I nearly wept. For all intents and purposes, Donna Esposito had been a mother to me and Gio since we were tiny. She was our hero. It crushed us to see her weak and in pain.
“Hi, Donna,” I said softly as we approached her side. “It’s us. It’s Dom and Gio.”
For a split second she gave us an odd, puzzled look. Then she burst into a radiant smile. “My boys,” she cried and raised her thin arms in search of an embrace. “My little boys. Well, not so little anymore, but still my boys.”
We took turns hugging her with care, relieved to find that she really did recognize us. An ugly purple bruise bloomed on her right temple.
“Are you in pain?” Gio asked as he held her hand.
“Yes.” She winced. “I’m so thirsty. Can one of you boys bring me a glass of water?”
Gio glanced at me. “Should we ask someone first?”
“Probably,” I said, looking at the IV that stretched from Donna’s wrist.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, and tenderly kissed her cheek.
I pulled a chair up to my grandmother’s bedside. She shivered, but I was afraid to pile more covers on top of her because of her broken hip.
She smiled at me and brushed a hand against my cheek. “You were always such good boys,” she said dreamily. “Leo never really forgave Marie for leaving you, but I couldn’t stay angry at her.” A cloud passed over her face. “I hate that she hurt you, though.”
