Parker Lowell
"Hello?" Her voice sounded frantic from the other end. I could hear her quick-paced breathing and I saw in my mind's eye how white her knuckles must have been, gripping the phone.
"Gi-ina?" I said, my voice quiet and grave.
"Parker?" she said.
"Yeah, it's me," I said. I let out a small cough and sighed, feeling my stomach start to churn again, only hoping that I could keep it down this time.
In the course of the two hours I had been there, the doctors probably had to handle me more than they had had to handle Taylor. I was freaked out and it showed. By the third time I ran to the bathroom to throw up from nervousness, one of the nurses (a female one at that) followed me in. She talked to me quietly and comfortingly although I couldn't tell you what it was she said to me the whole time. She led me out of the bathroom when I was done and sat with me for a long time before deciding to get a doctor to give me something to help calm me down. I don't know if it calmed me down much or not on the inside, but it definitely made me too tired to react to those fears.
"Where the hell are you??" she said. Her voice cracked as it did when she got upset.
"The hospital," I said.
"Why are you at the hospital? Is Lyle there with you?" she asked.
"Lyle isn't here," I said, the memory of the backpack and the jacket lying on the couch with no owner to bring them home there at the same time flashed across my mind briefly but I just dismissed it as an unimportant detail. Lyle was a forgetful person. "I'm here because," I gulped, how was I supposed to explain this? "I'm here because when...when I came home today," I started, glancing down at my shirt. I had to pause seeing the spatters of blood on it. I started gagging again.
"Parker?" Gina said. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine," I said, catching my breath. "It's Taylor. When I came home today...He's hurt," I said, giving up on telling the story because I knew I'd never be able to get it out.
"Hurt? Hurt how?" she said.
"There was blood everywhere," I said instead of answering her question, though at the time, I thought I was. I was beginning to cry now.
"Hurt how? Parker? Parker, tell me," she said.
"His arm," I said, rubbing my own arm as if I had been the one hurt.
She sighed, giving up. "Is he all right?"
"I don't know," I said. "They haven't told me anything yet."
"How long have you been there?" she asked.
"Two hours, maybe," I said. It felt like eternity.
"And they haven't told you anything?" she said.
"They haven't said one word," I said, pathetically hiccuping.
"Okay, look, I'll be there in a little bit, okay?" she said.
It took me a minute to answer.
"All right," I said.
"All right. Bye," she said. "See you in a few."
"Yeah, okay," I said before hanging up the phone.
I walked back over to the plastic chair I had been in and out of for the past two hours. The nurse who had taken care of me in the bathroom still sat in the chair next to it.
"That your mama?" she asked as I sat back down with a sigh.
"Yeah," I told her.
"I assume she's coming?"
"Yeah," I said again. "I guess you're relieved of duty." It was my first attempt at humor since I had come home. I didn't smile at the joke though. But she did.
"Yeah, I guess so," she said, jokingly elbowing me. "Look, um..."
"Parker," I said, sticking out my right hand half-heartedly.
"Rochelle," she replied, taking my hand in hers. Instead of shaking it, she just held it, giving it a warm squeeze. I appreciated that. I waited for her to go on. She didn't.
"Were you going to say something?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh, no," she said. "I just wanted to find out your name and thought it was too rude to ask you."
I half-smiled.
"Do you know what's going on with my brother?" I asked her, turning my attention to her friendly chocolate colored face.
She tried to smile but she didn't quite make it.
"No," she said honestly. "Don't worry, Parker. I know it seems like it's taking forever, but it just takes the doctors a while to get done what they need to get done before they can get back to the family. I'm sure he's fine."
I nodded, flexing my fingers a little. I hadn't been able to get the feel of Taylor's faint pulse off of my fingers.
We stayed silent for a long time, our attention turned toward the screen of the television where the national news was playing. I began to wonder if the local news would cover Taylor's story. I knew it'd be a disaster if they did.
"That your mama?" Rochell asked, elbowing me again and pointing toward the entrance of the waiting room, where Gina was coming in.
"Yeah," I said, standing. I turned toward Rochelle, who was looking up at me. "Thanks...a lot."
"Honey, that's what I'm here for," she said.
We smiled simultaneously at each other before I turned to walk over to Gina. When she saw me, her eyes widened and she ran right to me, where we embraced. I probably would've cried on her shoulder had I not been all cried out at that point.
"Are you all right?" she asked, breaking our hug to hold me at arms length and look me in the eye.
"Yeah," I said, nodding. "They haven't told me anything yet though." I felt like we were just having a condensed version of our phone conversation.
She sighed.
"I called the Hansons," she said.
"You did?"
"Yeah. They said they were catching the next flight up. God only knows how many planes fly from Tulsa to Rochester in the course of a week though," she said.
"Let's go sit down," I said.
When we turned around, I noticed that Rochelle was gone. I looked around the waiting room for her but didn't find her friendly brown eyes or pink lipstick smile anywhere. In fact, not to sound creepy or anything, but after our exchange in the waiting room of the hospital, I never saw Rochelle again.
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Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Six