The Same Stuff as Stars

“Bernie! That’s for emergencies only!”

“It was an emergency. I didn’t know your number. The lady was very nice, too.”

“I’ll write it down for you.”

“Too late. After you made me call the nurse, they took the phone away.” He stuck his lip out in a pout. “Now I can’t call you again.”

“Well, don’t worry We’re here now.” Angel reached out to touch his thin arm. “Say hello to Grandma.” Grandma was still standing in the doorway as though afraid to come closer.

“I was just going to, Angel. You don’t have to tell me everything, you know. Hi, Grandma,” he called out over the sound of the TV “My leg’s all busted.”

She took a baby step into the room. “Yeah.” She straightened up and came toward the bed. “Eh-yup. I knew there must be some explanation. Nobody would have thought you was pretty enough to hang up like a picture.” Bernie started to giggle but stopped himself. “I got hurt really bad,” he said. “They won’t even let Mama come visit me, I’m so bad off.”

“You just bad, period,” Grandma said.

“I am not.”

“Hoo, boy, don’t you try to fool me. I know you. Hand me that chair, Angel.” When Angel got the chair and put it close by the head of Bernie’s bed, Grandma plopped down in it. “So’s this TV any good?”

Mama. Angel’d almost forgotten in her relief on seeing Bernie. She hoped they’d let her into the ICU without a grownup, but anyhow, she had to try. “You guys behave, okay? I’ll be back in a minute.” She slipped out of the room without waiting for an answer.

“Excuse me. I need to see my mom,” she said to the bowed-over head at the nurses’ station. When the nurse lifted her head, Angel remembered her. “You took care of my uncle Ray,” she said. “Ray Morgan?”

“You’re the little Morgan girl, aren’t you?” The nurse shook her head. She got up and came around the circular desk. “Sometimes trouble comes piling in, doesn’t it, honey?” She put her arm around Angel and took her gently down to where Verna lay.

Maybe seeing Verna in Intensive Care wasn’t as big a shock as it had been when the star man had been lying there like someone out of a science-fiction horror movie. Though it seemed worse to see Verna with no makeup, her face swollen and bruised as if she’d been in a prizefight. She’d dyed her hair red sometime since summer, but it lay lank and greasy against the white pillow. Wires and tubes grew out of her body like strange colored vines. There were green ones coming out of her nose.

“Just a few minutes, okay, honey?” the nurse said. “We don’t want to wear her out.”

Angel nodded. She forced herself close to the bed. “Mama,” she said.

Verna turned toward the sound. It looked as though it took all the strength she could manage just to turn and open her swollen eyes, so there was none left for her voice. “Angel?”

“Yeah, it’s me. How you doing?”

“Not so good. You seen Bernie?”

“Yeah. Just now. He’s doing fine. He’s watching TV and talking to Grandma.”

“How—how did you know we—?”

“Bernie called. We came as soon as we could get a ride.”

“I’m sorry, Angel. About everything...”

“Don’t worry about it, Mama. I’m doing okay, and Bernie’s gonna be all right. You just think about getting better yourself.”

“I keep messing up, don’t I? You and Bernie would be better off if...”

“Me and Bernie need you, Mama. You don’t know how much I been missing you.”

“I didn’t want to leave you, Angel, but this guy I was with, well, he wasn’t crazy about having one kid, much less two.” She turned her head away. “I should have left Bernie with you. You’d have kept him safe.” Verna’s cracked lips parted into a half smile. “You always was a better mom than me.”

“You want some water?” There was a glass with a bent straw on the table near the bed. Angel got it and put the straw between Verna’s lips. Verna raised her head a few inches and took a sip.

“Thanks, baby,” she said, lying back, her eyes closed.

She’s going to give up! She thinks she can just let go and leave everything to me. Well, she can’t. Not this time. Angel put the glass down. She cleared her throat. “Mama, listen. We’ll take Bernie home as soon as they let him out. But you gotta promise to come, too—as soon as you can. We all want you to come.”