Page 82 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

This time, I accepted her hug gratefully. We held on for a long time, until Ollie stood up and smacked us with his front paws to join in.

Chapter Nineteen

It was finals week. I had only one test Thursday night; Comp Two from six to eight thirty, and I sat at my desk in front of my students proctoring, thinking about the evening before as they worked. About half of them had laptops, but so many students didn’t have access to a computer that we usually gave tests on paper in person. Heads were bent over desks, and the scratch of pencils filled the room.

Ollie and I had gone into Lisa’s house after our crash makeup session and we’d ordered Thai, which all three of us ate in the dining room. After that, we split a bottle of wine and sat together in the living room, cuddled on one side of the sofa, Ollie taking up the other two cushions. There was so much to talk about, so much to say. We talked about Lisa’s sister and places we’d vacationed and my appointment with Catherine. We talked until we fell asleep in one another’s arms, and I finally left at six in the morning when Ollie barked at the garbage truck. It had been heavenly.

I watched the clock on the side wall. It was off by three hours and twenty-six minutes, but if I did the math, I could figure out what time it was. Seven passed, then seven thirty. I knew I should be correcting my papers from my other sections, but the memories were so lovely. I’d missed Lisa so much and it was like we’d just jumped back into the relationship right where we’d left off, no animosity. I was so grateful for that.

That was when my phone rang. It was set to silent, but it jumped so I grabbed it right away. I didn’t feel too badly because Beverly’s phone had gone off out loud earlier during the test, playing the opening of Tyler the Creator’s “Sticky” as its ringtone. I stood up the moment I saw the readout. Dad.

Not Mom, but Dad. At that point, I would have dropped my teeth if it was Mom, but my father never, ever called. I thought about saying I’d be right back, but the three people who actually looked up didn’t seem to care, so I just slipped outside into the hall. “Dad? What’s up?”

“Well, I’m thinking that you might want to come home early.”

We hadn’t spoken about me coming for Christmas at all. My pulse picked up. “What is going on?”

“Well, your mother fell on the sidewalk and is in the hospital.”

“What?” His voice was completely even, just as it always was. It did nothing to calm me. “Is she okay? Did she break a leg or something?”

“Well,” he started again, but stopped. There was silence. “She hit her head and is in a coma.”

“What?” I ran my hand through my hair, thoughts swirling around my head so fast they made me dizzy. “How long ago was this?”

“Oh, about two hours ago. I thought you’d want to know.”

Yes, I’d fucking want to know. I wanted to know a lot of things, like how something like this could happen when she just fell on the sidewalk. I wanted to call Kevin, but I tried to retain my cool and checked the time. “I have forty more minutes of a test, but I can get someone else to cover it.”

“You don’t need to hurry,” Dad said. “She’s in a coma.”

What the fuck? “Dad,” I warned him. “I can be there in five hours.”

“Well, don’t speed.”

“Dad.”

“Any more than usual, I guess.” He chuckled. I wanted to hit something. My mother was in the hospital and something, anything, was funny?

Once off the phone, I snuck back into the classroom and gazed at the students. Several were still working, but four got up and collected their things as soon as they saw I’d returned. They each handed me their test, and Calvin wished me a merry Christmas. I smiled at him gratefully, but knew I was in for a really shitty one.

I sat there stewing, Googling head injury and coma for a while, then, when only three people were left, texted my brother. What the fuck is going on? Dad called to say Mom is in the hospital???

Nothing, not even the little ellipsis. I stared at it forever, but nothing. If he was at the hospital with Dad, what else did he have to do than answer my text? I thought about calling Missy, but I assumed she would probably be home with the kids rather than at the hospital and might not know anything more than I did.

Talia took every last second with her test, scribbling now and then, erasing, scribbling again. I finally stood up at eight thirty. “Are you finished?”

“As finished as I’m going to be, I guess.” She sighed and gathered her coat and backpack. “Thank you, Dr. Travis. I really enjoyed this class and I hope I get you again before I’m out of here!”

I smiled. I usually corrected people who called me doctor, but I let it go. “Have a good holiday, Talia.”

“You too.”

I packed everyone’s tests away in my bag, then locked my door, ran down the hall, and took the stairs stupid fast. I wished I wasn’t parked in the second lot, and for the first time ever, I wished I wasn’t four hours from Saulsbury.

Once at home, I was like a tornado. I let Ollie out, then realized it was too late to drop him off to be boarded, if I’d even be able to get a spot. Still grabbing clothes and throwing anything I thought I could possibly need in a suitcase, I called Lisa’s number, switched it to speaker, and stuffed the phone in my bra so I could keep it with me while I was moving.

She answered almost right away. “Hey, what’s up?” She sounded surprised and sort of bewildered; I always texted instead of calling.