Folly Beach - Dorothea Benton Frank [101]
“What? I can’t do that, John. What if something happens?”
“Just leave your number with the nurses’ station and they’ll call you but the doctor seemed to think Miss Daisy was pretty stable, didn’t he?”
“I think so. As long as she stays sedated, I guess. I’ll ask them to put my number on Aunt Daisy’s chart. I’m actually next of kin.”
Ella returned and we decided to leave. It was seven then and time to go home, take a bath, and try to nap. But before I did all of that I knew I had to call Patti and my children and tell them what was going on. So they cleared our table while I ran back up to the ICU to leave my number and then we went outside trying to remember where we had parked the car the night before. The drive was quiet on the ride back to the beach.
First, John dropped off Ella and walked her inside just to be sure everything was safe. Then he came back outside to me.
“Do you know how beautiful you are; even when you’ve been up all night?”
“You know, Professor Risley, this is more than a crush.”
“Yes, Miss Cate. I’m aware.”
I let myself out of the car at the Porgy House and thought two things at once. One, every bone in my body was as stiff as a board and two, here I was, at my age and with probable arthritis in every joint I had and I was falling in love like a young woman. It made me so nervous to admit that to myself but I wouldn’t have to tell anyone else until I was ready. This was the beauty of middle age. You knew instinctively when to keep your mouth shut.
I went inside and called Patti.
“Hey!” she said. “What are you doing up so early?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” I said and told her the whole story.
Patti was very upset. She made me stop and repeat what I had said several times to be sure she understood the facts. Her voice kept cracking and I thought she would start crying but she held herself together.
“Is she going to be all right?” Patti felt the same way that I did about Aunt Daisy.
“I sure hope so. I mean, the doctor seems to think she’ll be fine but she’s got a breathing tube, a heart monitor, an IV, and she’s heavily sedated. So to look at her, well, it’s a pretty frightening sight to see, lemme tell you.”
“You know what? I’m coming down tonight. I’ll call you back with my flights.”
“Okay.”
“Jeez, Cate, you gotta ask yourself what would you have done if John wasn’t there?”
“I don’t know. You’re right. I mean, she could’ve fallen on the bathroom floor and broken her hip.”
“I’ll bet she was pissed that y’all saw her naked.”
“Listen, she didn’t even look that bad, thank God, and she probably won’t remember anyway. She’s a pretty sick woman right now.”
“You’re in love with this John fellow, aren’t you?”
“Head over heels.”
So much for playing my cards close to my chest.
Next, I called Russ’s cell phone and left a message. Then, realizing he was already in school, I texted him, too. Aunt Daisy’s in the ICU @ MUSC. Call me. He called me back right away.
“Mom! What happened?”
“Remember the night y’all came over to tell Aunt Daisy the big news? Well, later on she started feeling bad and Ella said . . .”
I brought him up to date and he was just as surprised as I was to hear that she had tetanus.
“Man! Of all the crazy things to catch. I’m getting a shot this week. Can we go see her?”
“Of course! I’m going back later on this afternoon to take Ella. Ella wants to hold a vigil and I’m not going to let her try to do that all by herself or she’ll be in the hospital next for exhaustion.”
“No! Of course not. Oh, man, wait till Alice hears this. Did you call Sara?”
“Well, it’s five thirty in the morning in Los Angeles. I should probably wait awhile. But look, I don’t think there’s a reason to panic. I really do believe that Aunt Daisy is going to recover and be fine. It just might take a while, that’s all. Oh, and Aunt Patti is coming in tonight.”
“What? Mom? Is Aunt Daisy in worse shape than you’re telling me? Is that why Aunt Patti is coming?”
“What? Oh, no! She was coming down anyway. She simply moved her trip up. Honest.”
“Well, good then, good! It will be great to see her.