A Five-Minute Life

Delia sniffed, shouldered her purse and leveled her gaze at me. “Stay away from my sister unless you want to find another job. I can’t imagine your stutter would make that easy.”

Rita’s eyes widened and Alonzo cast his gaze to the ground. Silence fell as Delia’s short-heeled footsteps clopped down the hallway and vanished.

“I’m sorry, Jim,” Rita said. “She’s upset because she’s protective of Thea. I’ll talk to her.”

“Don’t,” Alonzo said. “We should just do what she wants.”

“I’ve got three other residents to deal with since Nurse Fay quit,” Rita said. “Unless Jim takes her, Miss Hughes misses her FAE. I’ll explain it to Delia. She may be a grouch, but ultimately she only wants what’s best for her sister.”

Alonzo frowned. “I suppose,” he said. “But Jim shouldn’t take Miss Hughes for FAE until you get the okay from Delia. The last thing we need is for her to get Dr. Poole involved.”

Dr. Poole was Blue Ridge’s director of operations whose favorite pastime was firing personnel to save money.

Rita patted my arm. “Sorry for the… unpleasantness, Jim. What Delia said—”

“It is what it is,” I said, my blood burning.

Alonzo was about to say something when Joaquin appeared at the end of the hallway.

“Hey, boss, got a second?”

“Coming.” He gave me a curious glance, then walked away.

Congratulations. Doris cackled. Now they all know you have a stutter and Delia is probably going to get your ass fired.

She was right. If I wasn’t careful, if I didn’t leave Thea’s case to the professionals, I’d have to start over somewhere else.

And never see Thea again.

That afternoon, as I cleaned up the empty rec room, I found a new drawing on Thea’s shelf. I glanced at the door before picking up the paper. Marc Antony stood at the prow of a warship, clad in silver armor under a burning sun of orange and red. His sword in the air, his expression stoic and calm. Every detail crafted out of word chains.

She’s not just good. She’s a genius.

As I read the word chains making up a side of one ship, my heart stopped.

Rue true blue bluest sky eye my smile rile rain pain pain pain

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

The lyrics to “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Distilled down to their essence. The way the song would sound in Thea’s looping mind.

I gave the page a quarter turn, following the words up the ship’s mast.

Wish kiss kind eyes my mist mystical miracle lyrical lyrically utterly utter mutter stutter strum sting sing sing sing

Slowly, calmly, I folded the drawing and stuffed it in my back pocket. This one was mine.

Thea was down in the dark, but I was down there with her.

Chapter 10

Jim

“Jim, this is Brett Dodson,” Alonzo said. “Our newest hire.”

“Good to meet you,” Brett said, giving my hand a shake. He was stocky with dark hair and icy blue eyes that went over my shoulder, straight to Thea.

“I have to attend to some matters upstairs,” Alonzo said. “Jim, can you show Brett around? I haven’t had a chance to go over the resident files with him, so no interaction yet. Capisce?”