Chapter 29

When a person is confined to a hospital, they usually enjoy guests dropping by to check on them. I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t think my father was overjoyed at having Squiggy, his new flame and Mule drop by.

This could do serious damage to his reputation, after all. Somebody might think they were his friends and that just wouldn’t work.

“I think you could find somebody better to have as friends,” Dad said.

Squiggy and his entourage had just left, escorted by the security guy. Mom was tagging along, wanting to make sure they actually left.

I did not think a response was needed, so I disregarded his comment. There could only be one person outside wanting to talk with me. If Squiggy thought the person looked “purdy rough”, it had to be Manny.

There was something I needed to ask my father before going in search of Manny.

“How can you expect me to drop everything and come down here to run your newspaper?”

The wall had grabbed his attention again.

“Do you think I want to do this?” he said. “I’ve done everything I could to keep the paper going.”

“Was it worth it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just to keep the paper going, you’ve jeopardized everything,” I said. “What’s Mom going to do when the bank forecloses?”

“I’m hoping that doesn’t happen.”

I shook my head. He was like an ostrich burying his head in the ground. Dad hoped that when he pulled his head out, and I’m not all that sure his head wasn’t buried somewhere else, all the financial troubles would disappear.

But then again, there was a good chance my father would be gone by then. Once that happened, it would fall in my lap. I would have to tell my mother she would have to leave a house that they had owned for some fifty years.

“I’ll be back,” I said and stormed out of the room. After reaching the door, I stopped and turned around. He was watching me. Prior to this, he had managed to hold his composure. Now, he was failing. I never saw the man so distressed. I wanted to tell him what I thought about him and how he had ruined everything, but I couldn’t.

I opened the door and walked out in the lobby. There were black skid marks on the tile running up and down the corridor. Squiggy and Mule had also scratched and dented the wall in several places. Most of the doors were closed, but there were a few open with people inside. Many of them were alone. I passed by one room with an old woman shuffling across the room with a walker. She appeared to be over ninety, all wrinkles with a bad case of bed hair.

She raised her hand to me and I returned the gesture. There wasn’t much left of the woman but skin and bones. The hospital gown seemed to have swallowed her. She was wearing socks that were big and baggy.

“God bless you,” she said. Her voice was soft, barely audible.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll need it.”

She made a u-turn and headed back toward the bed.

In the next room, a young man was sitting in a chair by the bed. The television was turned to one of the real estate infomercials, promising to show us how to get extremely wealthy by taking advantage of people in financial trouble by buying their houses at a bargain.

He was paying no attention to the television. His head was buried in his hands and I heard what sounded like sobbing. There was an older man in the bed, one who had not missed many meals in his lifetime.

A nurse walked toward me. She was small, wearing one of those nursing outfits that looked like pajamas. I wondered why they didn’t wear the white suits with the funny hats anymore. The nurse was walking with a brisk pace. She smiled at me, but it seemed to be hollow.

I wanted to leave this place and go back to Tulsa. This was more than I could handle. But I knew that wasn’t possible.

Manny wasn’t waiting for me once I got outside. I should have expected that. He had disappeared again, along with Squiggy and his pals. I had not seen Mule sleeping on a bed in the hall so hopefully they got him out of here.

I went back in the hospital and walked the lonely halls. It was quiet now. All I could hear was the shuffling of my feet on the cold tile.

When I returned, the door to my father’s room was closed. I could have sworn that it was open when I left. I stopped at the door, wishing I didn’t have to go in. But I had no choice. I opened the door and walked inside. There were two nurses and what appeared to be a doctor surrounding his bed.

They were doing something with my father. They seemed to be in a big hurry, whatever it was. The nurses were messing with the gauges while the doctor was flashing a light in my father’s eyes. Leaning against the far wall was Manny. He had his hands in his pocket, tears streaming down both cheeks.

Mom was sitting in the chair. She had a tissue up to her eyes, daubing the tears away with one hand, reaching for my father with the other. I wished that I knew what all these instruments were. The one that had been pinging and bouncing earlier was now a straight line.

“What’s happening?” I said.

The doctor and nurses ignored me. Manny reached over and took my mother’s hand and held it. Her mouth was open like she wanted to scream, but no noise came out.

I walked over next to my brother. They were ignoring me, like I wasn’t even here.

“What’s wrong?” I said with a little more urgency.

Manny looked at me, but didn’t answer. The anger that was on his face earlier was gone. Mom was starting to wail now. It started out a low howl but was quickly increasing in strength. The doctor glanced over at her, obviously wishing she would quit.

The doctor and nurses shouldn’t even be in here. Dad was fine when I left. They just needed to give him a shot and everything would be fine. The door flew open and another doctor and nurse entered. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

Mom was practically screaming now. I had never heard a noise like this from her before and didn’t want to hear it again.

I edged past Manny and moved to the opposite side of my mother.

“It’s okay, Mom,” I said, leaned down and put my hand on her leg. “The doctors will fix him.”

She started stomping her feet and waving her arms. I backed away. She was scaring me. Manny leaned down and put his arms around her.

The two doctors moved away from the bed and talked quietly. This was wrong. They should be working on my father, not talking with each other. The nurses were not moving at the same pace.

I looked at my father. He seemed to be sleeping. The sad look that was there when I left the room was gone. Mom was jerking back and forth in the chair. One of the doctors was looking at her. The other doctor had picked up a clipboard and was writing on it. He said something to the other doctor, who looked at his watch and answered.

One of the nurses was staring at my mother. She was young and looked scared. Another nurse was looking at the doctor. He nodded at her. She left the room and took the other nurses with her. The other doctor left with them.

The last doctor to enter the room slowly walked toward us. Mom was running out of energy. She was still stomping and jerking back and forth, but had slowed down. As the doctor approached, she stopped and looked at him.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hunt,” he said. “We lost him.”

This couldn’t be happening. He was fine when I left. There had to be a mistake. My father couldn’t be dead. He would wake up any second and everything would be back to normal. I wasn’t through talking with him. He had never explained so many things that I needed to hear.

I got up and walked over to my father. I put my hand on his arm and slightly shook him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he needed to wake up.

“Dad, you gotta wake up!” I said. “C’mon now. Get up!”

I was growing more persistent. He didn’t seem to be hearing me. There was movement coming into the room, but I didn’t pay any attention to them.

My eyes were starting to water, for some reason. I felt a hand on my back but I ignored it. Right now, I had to wake my father up.

“Wake up, Daddy!” I said, wondering why I called him that. He hadn’t been “Daddy” since I was a little kid. That was how I used to wake him when it was time to eat breakfast.

Somebody had their arm around me and was trying to pull me back. I shrugged it away and continued to shake him.

“Mikey,” somebody said from behind me. I recognized that voice. I turned around and saw Sandy. She was crying now, too. I saw two of my mother’s friends along with her preacher. They were talking to Mom and hugging her. “Let’s go.”

“I can’t,” I said. “I have to wake him up.”

“He’s not going to wake up.” She took my arm and pulled on it.

“Yeah, he is. Just watch and…”

The doctor had placed his hand on my shoulder.

“He’s gone,” the doctor said. Well, that was a bunch of crap. How could my father be gone? He was right here and…then I realized what he meant.

“He’s dead?” I said. Sandy nodded and put her arms around me, like she was trying to squeeze out the hurt.

“I’m afraid so,” the doctor replied.

I looked at my mother. Her preacher was leaning down next to her, saying something. She was nodding slowly.

“But I never got to tell him goodbye,” I argued.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said.

“When I left, everything was okay,” I stressed. “What happened?”

“It was his heart.”

“You’re wrong!” Manny said as he headed out of the room. “He didn’t have a heart.”

Chapter 30