Page 207 of The Encore’s Crown

By the fifth day, Ma is breathing more on her own. The ventilator still supports her, but it no longer does all the work. Her throat has healed enough that they begin talking about removing the tube once she is awake enough to protect her airway. Sometimes her fingers twitch. Her face tightens when they suction the tube. Once, when Rithy speaks close to her ear, her head turns weakly toward him.

The nurse calls it encouraging. Rithy and I spend the next six hours trying to make her do it again.

That afternoon, exhaustion finally catches him. He stretches out in the only chair capable of reclining and falls asleep with his mouth open, one hand still resting against the edge of Ma’s mattress. Natalia sits across my lap in the other chair, turned sideways so she can fit against my chest. Her fingers move lazily through the hair at my temple.

“You need a shower,” she whispers.

“So do you.”

She presses her nose against mine. “You’re very rude to the woman keeping you alive.”

“I thought the soup was doing that.”

“The soup has been working under my direct instructions.”

Her mouth brushes mine, soft enough not to wake up all the things under the surface that we don't have time for anymore. Then she kisses the tip of my nose.

Something moves in the bed. At first, I think it’s another reflex. A small twitch beneath the blanket. The kind we’ve spent days assigning meaning to because the alternative is admitting we have no control over anything. Then Ma’s fingers curl.

They close around Rithy’s hand.

I forget how to move.

“Natalia.”

She turns. Ma’s brow pulls tight. Her head moves against the pillow, and a faint sound catches around the tube in her throat. I lift Natalia off my lap and set her gently on her feet as I surge out of the chair.

“Ma?”

Rithy jerks awake.

“What?”

“Ma.” I lean over the bed and take her other hand. “Ma, it’s Kiri. Can you hear me?”

Her eyelids flutter.

Chapter 71

Awake

Kiri

Her eyelids flutter again, then open to narrow slits. For a moment, her eyes move without finding anything. Unfocused and clouded. Her brow furrows around the tube taped across her mouth, and panic flashes through them.

“Ma.” I lean closer until there’s no chance she can miss me. “It’s me. You’re in the hospital. You’re safe.”

Her gaze drifts toward my voice, then settles on my face. Every part of me comes apart.

“She understood you,” Rithy says. His voice shoots high enough that he barely sounds like himself. “Ma? Ma, look at me.”

Her eyes move slowly toward him. Rithy makes a strangled sound between a laugh and a sob. He grips her hand with both of his and bends over it.

“Yeah, that’s right. Your favorite son is here.”

I smack the back of his shoulder without taking my eyes off her. Her fingers tighten weakly around his.

“Oh, fuck.” Rithy starts crying openly.