"The catch was good, but suddenly our engine died and we weren't able to fix it. How's Ma?" he asked quickly, knowing she would be concerned.
"She's very worried, Cary. Uncle Jacob keeps calling from the hospital."
"Let's get up to the house," he said.
Roy said he would take care of everything and we hurried back. Cary looked exhausted. His hands were full of grease, and there were streaks of it across his face, which was darker, even red at the crests of his cheeks.
"I'll wash up and go right to the hospital," he said, taking such long, deep strides over the sand May and I had trouble keeping up with him.
"You have to have some supper first, Cary. Just call him."
He nodded, but he looked more concerned about his father than he was about the problems with the boat.
"He's going to blame it on me," he muttered, "but I didn't do anything different. We had oil pressure problems."
"I'm sure he'll understand. May said something like this happened before anyway, right?"
"Right," he said, but he didn't sound confident.
Aunt Sara was at sixes and sevens by the time we arrived. She had practically worn the skin off her fingers wringing her hands with worry. Cary quickly explained what had happened, and she told him to call Uncle Jacob.
"You guys just eat," he said after he had the conversation with his father and hung up. "I've got to wash up and run up to the hospital."
"But Cary--"
"It's okay," he said. "He wants to know the details. I'll eat something later. Go on. Don't wait."
"But--"
He charged up the stairs before I could protest any more. I looked at Aunt Sara. She shook her head and went about serving our dinner.
"Be back as soon as I can," Cary called from the front door less than ten minutes later.
"I don't know why you can't get something to eat first," I called back, but he was already out
the door. I looked at Aunt Sara. She was troubled, but silent. "Uncle Jacob's being pretty selfish, Aunt Sara. Cary's had a miserable day. He's tired and hungry. You should have made him eat."
"I can't worry Jacob now," she cried in defense. "He's still recuperating."
I choked back my angry words and drank them down with water. If Uncle Jacob had been an ogre before, I thought, he would be a bigger monster now, for he was sure to take advantage of his own illness at every opportunity.
It was nearly three hours later before Cary returned. Aunt Sara had been trying to do needlepoint, but her eyes lifted every time she heard a creak in the house or the sound of an automobile outside.
"I should have gone too," she muttered.
When Cary entered, she threw down her needlepoint and jumped up to greet him at the living room door.
"He's fine," Cary said quickly. He looked more exhausted than I had ever seen him, and I saw that the fatigue didn't come from his day's labor so much as from the emotional tension he had just experienced. "I think he might even be released in a day or so."
"Really? Oh, that would be wonderful," Aunt Sara cried, clapping her hands together. She quickly signed the news to May, whose face lit up with a smile.
It occurred to me that no matter how I saw Uncle Jacob or what I thought of him, he was still Aunt Sara's husband and May's father. They loved him, and in his own way, he surely loved them. I had no right to be critical of him, I thought, especially now when he was recuperating from one of the worst illness anyone could have.
"But one of his doctors stopped me in the hallway," Cary continued, "and made it perfectly clear that Dad can't go back to the way he was, not for some time. If he doesn't rest, eat right, and exercise, he could have a relapse."
"Oh dear. Did they make that clear to Jacob?" Aunt Sara asked, her hands flitting about, nervously tugging on her dress and brushing at her hair.
"Too clear," Cary said, shifting his gaze to me. I understood this was a major reason why his visit was so long and difficult. "He's furious about it. Says they don't know what they're talking about, that it's work that makes a man strong, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. He vowed he won't be anyone's cripple and the doctors threatened to keep him in the hospital. You'll have to tell him, Ma. You'll have to put your foot down too," Cary said.