“He’ll be okay.”
Even in her distressed state, she knew he was saying what she wanted to hear. When she landed in Texas, her father might already be dead.
Gherring squeezed her hand before departing the plane. As the engines roared, her mind swirled. Her mind was so clogged with terrifying images of her father in a mangled car, that she couldn’t process her earlier scene with Steven Gherring.
He had kissed her? Had that really happened? What did it mean?
I can’t think about it. Not now. Not until I know Dad is going to be okay.
Later, she could deal with other things. Like Steven Gherring and the kiss that should never have happened.
When the plane finally landed and Anne checked her messages, she heard Emily’s shaky voice. “Mom, come as soon as you can. Charlie’s here. Grandpa’s alive. He’s in critical condition.”
The taxi ride seemed interminable. But she dared not ask the driver to hurry. Every time he changed lanes or used the brake she caught her breath, especially since the roads were wet. She called Emily from the car and both girls were waiting in the lobby for her when she arrived.
“You’re here,” cried Charlie, muffled from their group hug. “Everything’s gonna be okay, now.”
“That’s how I feel too,” said Emily. “Everybody was talking to me like I was a grownup, and I just wanted to cry like a little girl. I’m so glad you’re home.”
Anne wept and hugged her girls and peppered them with kisses. “Take me up there.”
She was shocked to see her dad, bandaged and bruised, with tubes coming out of him and surrounded by flashing electrical gadgets. When Tom and his parents were killed in the car accident fifteen years previously, they’d been pronounced dead at the scene. She hadn’t experienced seeing her loved ones, unrecognizable, in the alien-like hospital environment.
She bent over to place a tender kiss on his head in an unbandaged spot. Arriving to check his vital signs, the nurse informed Anne of his condition.
“We’re keeping him unconscious right now. He came through the surgery pretty well for a sixty-eight-year-old. It’s fortunate he was so healthy—his heart is strong. He has a broken arm, compound fracture. We’ve already set it. He also has some broken ribs and a punctured lung. We have some low-pressure oxygen to help keep the lung inflated while it heals. His spleen was ruptured, but the doctors only had to remove part of it. He lost a lot of blood, and he’s not out of the woods yet. But he has a good chance of surviving.”
She patted Anne on the arm. “You look terrible, dear. It could have been much worse. A number of people died in that accident.”
“There were other people? Do you know what happened?”
“As I understand it, there were at least ten cars involved. It had just started to rain and the bridge immediately iced up. Those cars were going seventy miles an hour when they hit the ice. They never had a chance. Most of the ambulances came here, but I understand some went to other hospitals. So I don’t know exactly how many people were injured.”
“I was so worried about Dad I didn’t even think about other cars being involved.”
“Understandable. But I think you can relax a little. He’s a fighter, and it takes a real fighter to battle back from something like this. It’s already past visiting hours, so I’m afraid you’ll need to come back tomorrow. We have your contact information, right? We’ll take good care of him and call you if there’re any changes. Tomorrow or the next day, he may get to move to a regular room. Then you can stay with him as long as you like.” She smiled as she ushered them out.
Anne breathed a sigh of relief as they walked toward the elevator. But she saw Emily and Charlie exchange a worried look. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Mom,” said Charlie, with huge tears falling from her golden eyes. “Gandalf was in the car.”
Emily was driving to the veterinary office while Anne, in the passenger’s seat, was jumping at every move the car made. It was like reliving a nightmare. She’d refused to drive for a month after the accident that killed Tom.
“Mom, you’ve got to relax a little,” Emily complained. “You’re making me nervous, and I need to concentrate.”
“Sorry, sorry… I’m trying.”
Some Good Samaritan drove Gandalf over there,” Emily said. “I got a call on my cell because my number was associated with his ID chip.”
“And what did the message say?” asked Anne.
“The message said to call because they had Gandalf. But when I contacted them, and the nurse said they were going to do surgery. He’d lost a lot of blood from internal bleeding, but they couldn’t do surgery until they’d gotten my permission.” Her lip quivered. “He may have died because it took so long for me to call them back.”
“Oh honey, no! It was an accident, and you were busy keeping Grandpa alive. It’s not your fault.”
Charlie was crying. “Stop talking about him like he’s already dead. We don’t know for sure.”
“But he’s so old. He wouldn’t be strong enough to recover,” said Emily.