Just one more hour until I leave for the airport.
Seven hours until I land in Seattle.
Eight hours until I see Henry.
I pause my last-minute packing to peer at my flight reservations for the hundredth time, my chest filled with only excitement by the prospect of being back there. Miles put me in first class to Seattle. Henry will pick me up in his jet and we’ll fly to the private airstrip. From there, it’s just a quick ferry ride and I’ll be at Wolf Cove again.
It’s going to be weird. I’m no longer an employee there and that means that everyone’s going to know about Henry and me.
Jed trudged around like a sour child all day yesterday, but he hasn’t said a word in protest. Neither has Mama, oddly enough. She sniffed a little at dinner last night, acting hurt, waiting for me to console her. When I didn’t fall for it, she reluctantly agreed with Daddy that I deserved to get away for a few days. That I’d been working hard and I had every right to go.
It was rather odd, but I’m guessing Reverend Enderbey had a hand in that because I heard her on the phone with him. He’s still trying to convince her that time will change things. That I’ll break up with Henry like Jed broke up with Cammie, and we’ll find ourselves back together. I don’t know when they’ll finally accept that—
A loud crash sounds downstairs.
I take the steps two at a time. “Mama? Daddy?” When I get to the kitchen, I let out a scream. Mama is sprawled out in the middle of the kitchen floor, gasping for air, her hand on her chest over her heart.
“I need an ambulance!” My dad demands into the phone receiver. He was sitting in his wheelchair having his breakfast. Luckily, the phone was within reach.
“Mama!” I dive to the floor.
“It hurts!” she manages to get out through gasps.
“Daddy, I think she’s having a heart attack!” It wouldn’t be surprising. Both Great-Grandma Pearl and Grandma Maggie died of heart attacks, though Mama’s young yet.
“Does your left arm hurt?”
Her eyes widen. “Yes!” She grabs her arm and moans.
Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening. She’s only thirty-nine years old. “Okay, hold on, Mama! The ambulance is coming!”
She paws for my hand, grasping it tightly until the paramedics arrive. “Stay with me, Abigail. I’m scared.”
“Of course!” Tears sting my eyes. “I would never leave you.”
Celeste Enderbey arrives just as they’re wheeling Mama into the ambulance. She must have heard the sirens wailing. “What do they think it is?”
“They don’t know. Her heart rate is all over the place.”
Celeste squeezes my arm. “You go ahead, I’ll stay here with Roger.”
I wedge myself in the corner as the paramedics hook Mama up to all kinds of machines, managing to keep hold of her hand the entire time.
The ambulance races toward the hospital and I pray.
Everything else is forgotten.
~ ~ ~
“Indigestion?”
I stare at the doctor, waiting for him to correct what I thought he just said, because I must have heard wrong.
“Honestly? I don’t know what else could have caused the pain. I’ve gone through the tests several times. Everything has come back clean. Even her heart is fine. Surprising, to be blunt. All I could see was some irritation in her esophagus, common to acid reflux.”
“I’ve been sitting in this hospital for twenty-eight hours because of gas? I missed my flight to Seattle because my mother ate pizza?”
He gives me a sympathetic smile. “With her family history and her weight, we had to run the tests to make sure. And her heart rate was irregular when she came in.”
“Yes, of course. I’m glad you did. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound….” Ungrateful, selfish, horrible. I shake my head, still surprised. “Is it normal that gas would knock you on your back like that?” Mama was literally lying on the floor, clutching her chest.
“Well… people’s pain thresholds are different. Combine that with the high levels of anxiety your mother says she’s been experiencing and maybe?” His expression isn’t convincing. “I’m going to talk to her about making some serious changes to her diet while we finish up with the paperwork, and then I can release her. You’re welcome to go in and see her.”
“Thanks.” I watch him stroll away.
And wonder, would Mama have faked a heart attack just to keep me from going to Alaska to see Henry?
No. She’s stubborn and resourceful, but that’s downright crazy.
Still….
I eye her door for a long moment, deciding if it’s smart that I go in there right now, with this doubt brewing.
I walk past it toward the cafeteria.
~ ~ ~
“Well, that’s just great that it turned out to be nothing. Isn’t that just great?” Celeste turns in her seat to smile wide at me.
“Yes. Great.” My voice lacks enthusiasm, but I can’t help it. I turn to watch the roads drift by, quietly playing out the whole thing again. Her face didn’t turn red, she wasn’t sweating. And…. I frown as it all comes back to me. Her arm didn’t seem to hurt until after I mentioned it, and then it was suddenly so painful.
Seriously, did Mama just fake a heart attack to keep me from seeing Henry?
No. I’m horrible for thinking that.
Horrible.
“Thank goodness my Abigail was here to take care of me.” Mama reaches over. “The doctor seems very concerned about my heart. He said I need to be extra careful for the next few months, to make sure I don’t aggravate it any more, what with my family history. Gosh, between me and Roger, I don’t think this poor girl is going to get a moment’s rest.”
I replay the conversation in my head. I’m pretty sure the doctor said her heart looked fine and that she needed to lose weight and not eat pizza.
She babbles on with Celeste and the Reverend, her gaze shifting to me every once in a while, just long enough to smile and pat my knee. Though each time, those smiles grow more wary.
Reverend Enderbey pulls into the gas station just outside of town. “I just need to top us up. I’m afraid we won’t make it back.”
“I’ll do it!” I hop out of the car before he even has time to unfasten his seat belt, struggling to unclench my jaw as I jam the gas nozzle into the Oldsmobile. If she was trying to keep me from seeing Henry, she has succeeded. Even if I fly to Seattle now, by the time I get to Alaska, it’ll be night, and Henry is leaving for Beijing in the morning. Honestly, I considered it. I even went as far as to try and book another flight while I sat in the cafeteria, waiting for Mama to be discharged and the Enderbeys to pick us up. But nothing was available.
I won’t see Henry for weeks. Months, possibly.
I’m fighting tears when a car pulls up beside us.
“Hey, Abigail!”
I look over to see Jenny climbing out of the driver side, adjusting her skirt. Veronica and Beth are also with her, surprise, surprise. “Hey, Jenny.” I can’t keep the melancholy from my voice.
Veronica nods to Jenny once, a silent communication.
Jenny turns back to me. “We’re going out tonight. Do you want to come?”
I’ve never gone out with any of them. It doesn’t take a genius to see what’s going on here. They figure they can get close to me and then have an in with Henry. And right now, all I want to do is curl up in my bed and cry anyway.
From inside the car, Mama clears her throat loudly. She doesn’t approve of me going anywhere. Of course.
“My mother just got out of the hospital. I should probably stay home.”
Jenny’s eyes flitter to the back window. “I hope she’s okay.”
My defiant streak flares. “Yeah, she’s fine. Just bad gas,” I say, loudly enough for Mama to hear.
“Oh.” Jenny presses her lips together, trying not to laugh. She lowers her voice to say, “If you change your mind, we’re leaving out from my place at nine.”
“Okay, thanks.” I glance at my watch. It’s two o’clock. I should be tangled in Henry’s sheets right now. Instead, I’m pumping gas and letting Mama win. How long will I last at home before I make my suspicions known?
With each passing minute, going out with three girls I don’t even like is sounding better and better.
~ ~ ~
“Why would you say such a thing!”
I push through the screen door and into the kitchen. Daddy and Jed are sitting at the table, bewildered looks on their faces.
“What in heaven’s name is going on now?” Daddy’s spoonful of soup is halfway to his mouth.
“I’m fresh off the heels of a heart attack and she’s mocking me!” Mama cries, huffing and puffing as she tries to catch up.
“You didn’t have a heart attack. You had gas!”
“Well… I thought it was a heart attack,” she mutters with indignation.
“Did you? Did you really?”
Her mouth drops open. “You heard the paramedics. My heart was going haywire. What are you insinuating?”
“Abigail!”
I turn to see the harsh disappointment in my dad’s eyes and mine immediately begin to burn with tears. I take the stairs two at a time, running all the way to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me, somehow managing to kick the trash can over in the process as I crumple to the floor in a fit of sobs.
Guilt weighs heavily on me.
I can’t believe I’ve actually convinced myself that Mama would fake a heart attack. What is happening to me? I never would have done that before. I just wanted to see Henry so badly. Is this what Daddy was talking about, when he said he didn’t want me to turn into someone I couldn’t be proud of?
I need to apologize to them.
Pulling a tissue from the box, I blow my nose a few times, then set to cleaning up the mess I just made.
Five small foil wrappers catch my attention. I pick one up to read the small writing on one side. And frown. Caffeine pills?
Who’s been taking caffeine pills? And five of them. I emptied the trash for collection yesterday morning, so someone took five caffeine pills between yesterday morning and—
Realization dawns on me. I march downstairs, wiping my tears from my cheeks with the back of my hands, an odd sense of vindication taking over.
I hold up the pill packaging in front of Jed but I’m looking at Mama. “Do you know anything about this?”
“What are those? Caffeine pills? Heck, no,” Jed says.
But I’m not even listening to him because the look on Mama’s face says it all. She tries to smooth it over, but it’s not fast enough for me. Not even for Daddy.
He frowns as he looks from Mama to me, to the pill packaging, and back again.
“Someone took five of these yesterday morning after I emptied the trash. Do you know something about that, Mama?”
Mama’s eyes dart to the freshly brewed cup of coffee in her hand, that the doctor specifically asked her to cut out. “No. I like my caffeine in a cup. Must have been… someone else.”
“The only other person here was Celeste, Bernadette. Why would she take those? And why would she do it in our upstairs bathroom?” Daddy’s been married to her a long time. Long enough to see through her bullshit, too.
She swallows, feigning indifference. Something she’s not good at doing, because there isn’t anything she doesn’t have a strong opinion on and, if she suspected Celeste was popping pills like this, she’d already be on the phone. “I couldn’t tell you.”
“You took them yesterday morning to spike your heart rate, just so you could keep me from going to Alaska to see Henry.”
She opens her mouth and I know denial is coming.
“That wasn’t a question.” I toss the wrappers onto the table. “If you ever try to interfere with me seeing Henry again, I will tell every last person in this town what you did.”
“Good Lord, Bernadette. If anyone needs their head examined, it’s you! Do you know how dangerous this is? You could have killed yourself!”
I leave them to argue because I’m done. I march right back upstairs, intent on getting out of here. Maybe not to Alaska, but at least to wherever Jenny is planning on going. Anything is better than staying here.
