Pie Town - Lynne Hinton [51]
Roger stood up and took the receiver from Alex and then placed it back on the holder attached to the wall.
“That was nice of her to call, wasn’t it?” The boy smiled.
Roger and Malene both looked at their grandson and then at each other. They were thinking the same thing. Alex was so pure, so innocent, unable to be or stay angry at anybody, even his mother who abandoned him. They both took in a breath and nodded to the boy.
“It was very nice of her to call.” Roger spoke for the two of them.
Malene turned back to finish slicing the tomatoes. She had nothing to add.
Part III
Chapter Eighteen
I cannot help myself, I am sad for the boy. I see the way he lingers in his glances across the faces of those he loves, across the landscape of the mountain and the silent distant plains. I hear the shallow way he breathes. I watch how he struggles to pretend nothing has changed, everything is fine, and he is not weakened. But I feel his strength ebb, his sleep deepen. I know because of my own steps of sickness that carried me up to the portals of heaven. He knows too, but he fights it. “I have so much to do,” he tells me. I smile and nod. “So did I,” I explain.
“Is that why you’re here?” he asked, surprising me, since I am always near. “Is that why you’ve been here? To carry me?”
I shake my head, but I am not completely truthful. I have come for him, but not just in death. I came for his birth too. I try to rationalize, but he only smiles. “It’s okay,” he finally says. “I’m just glad it’s you.”
He closes his eyes to sleep, to dream, to plan. I rest upon the delicate air between us. I float above but not beyond his call. His breath is tight and labored and shallow, his face flushed, his head bathed in sweat, and I fear he could slip away even now. I hesitate. I am not sure what I am to do.
It’s not as if there were no warnings about this relationship. I was told how difficult this pairing would be, but I could see no other way. As soon as I knew, as soon as his comings and goings were revealed, it had to be. I was his. He was mine. I promised that I could conquer any temptation to change the course of life. His life. I promised them I would not interfere. I would let the days unfold in the right timing, the right way. But now I understand the counsel.
Now, the cautious undertaking, the lack of assurance, the slow, endless making of a decision, the hesitant way I was granted my wish, I understand. And before I can listen to what my thoughts, and their counsel, are reminding me of, I leave the room to find help. I decide. The time cannot be now.
Chapter Nineteen
I don’t understand how you knew something was wrong,” Malene said to her father as he drove the Buick, following close behind the ambulance.
“I can’t explain it,” he said, watching the road, driving faster than he should have been. He shook his head. “It was a dream. Woke me up and I just knew.”
Malene looked away from Oris and stared out the windshield. “Mom,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper.
Oris didn’t respond. He kept watching the road ahead of him and the ambulance, trying to keep up. “Put your seat belt on,” he said.
Malene buckled the belt around her. “It looks like pneumonia again.” She rested her elbow on the armrest and dropped her head in her hand. “His little lungs are so scarred. I just don’t know.” She shook her head. “This came on so fast. He was doing great at his birthday party. He’s felt good for this whole week. I saw no signs that he was getting sick. I even thought his legs were getting stronger and that he was so much better. He was planning to start back to school with everybody else. We were going shopping to buy some new clothes with his birthday money. How did this happen? How did I miss it?”
“He’ll be fine,” Oris assured his daughter. He reached over and patted her on the leg. “He’s a fighter, and he knows this battlefield as well as he knows the roads of Pie Town. He’ll be fine,” Oris repeated, trying to convince himself as much as Malene. “Alice wouldn’t have come to me and told me if she wasn