Going Home - Chapter 24

Dinner was pretty busy, to the point where I was even put to work putting plates of finished food together and packing to-go containers for orders. I marveled again how Rosita managed to do all this by herself most days. Julie had only needed work some of the time and hadn’t wanted to work every night, so she only came in when Rosita really needed someone to cover for her or something big was happening. Every other night it was just Rosita doing what felt like too much work for me and her, let alone by herself.

The rush died off a little early and the rest of the night was pretty slow, except for Orville stopping in for dinner. It was strange being on the other side of the counter and he made a few jokes about Rosita trying to steal me away from the sheriff’s department. Since it was slow, we sat down with him and chatted while he ate. It turned out that since our dinner the previous weekend, Rosita and Sarah had already talked a few times, which was great, since having just one person as a social outlet isn’t usually great for anyone.

Orville was basically the last person we saw all night, so we had the entire place cleaned and ready to close as soon as the clock hit nine. We dropped her car off at her house, which wasn’t far from the restaurant, and then rode together in my cruiser to my parents’ house.

I’d called my mom earlier in the evening to let her know what was happening, and Mom had thought Rosita’s offer was a good idea. Tessa had woken up around one, and the two of them had talked through the afternoon. She said that Tessa was still really reserved, but she seemed like a sweet girl who’d gotten in over her head with a man who’d charmed her.

The downstairs lights were on when we got there. Mom answered the door and led us into the kitchen, where Tessa was sitting at the table. I peeked into the den and saw Dad lying in his chair asleep … or at least pretending to be asleep, so he didn’t get involved.

“Hi, Tessa. How are you feeling?” I said, sitting at the table across from her.

She looked like hell. Her right eye was bruised and swollen shut and the area around her nose had turned a light purple shade, although the swelling was less than on her cheek and eye.

“I’m okay. Just … tired,” she said.

She didn’t sound as meek as the night before, but she still spoke softly. Since she'd slept all day, there was a good chance she meant a lot more than being just physically tired, which was understandable.

“I know you talked to my mother a bit this afternoon, but we haven’t spoken since last night and I wanted to make sure you were settling in alright.”

“What happened to Lonnie?”

“He’s in jail. We transferred him up to Summersville.”

“Will he get out on bail?”

She was scared and I knew she wanted me to say no, that he was going to stay in jail, but the last thing this girl needed was someone else lying to her.

“Probably. I don’t know how high it will be or if he’ll be able to pay it, but yeah, he’ll almost certainly get bail.”

“So, he isn’t going to prison?”

“He’ll do time. I looked at his record, and there’s other stuff like this on it. I know a lot of times the attacker gets off because it’s a ‘he said, she said’ kind of thing, but I don’t think he’ll get off this time. Both the station attendant and I saw the attack, so he can’t claim it was something else. With his record, he’ll do time. I don’t know for how long, and it won’t be until after he goes to court, which could take a few months. Until then, the best thing you can do is stay away from him. Stay with people you know. It will make it harder for him to do something if you’re not alone.”

“I don’t really know anyone here,” she said.

“Sure you do,” Mom said, sitting down next to her and patting her hand. “You know me. You know Henry. And this is Henry’s girlfriend Rosita. They actually came to make you an offer.”

“An offer?” Tessa asked hesitantly, looking to Rosita and me.

“I run a restaurant on Oak Street, and until a week ago I had a girl who’d come in and help me. We’re pretty busy, and I’ve had to put Henry to work some nights, which isn’t great, ’cause he’s terrible in the kitchen.”

"Isn’t that the truth,” Mom said.

“Hey, I do okay,” I said, mock offended.

“He told me about your situation and how you didn’t really have much in the way of resources or people to help you out, so I was thinking this might be the perfect match. I need help in the restaurant, and you’d be able to earn money and figure out what you want to do next. It would give you some options, and I know getting a job around here can be hard.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know where I could stay,” Tessa said.

“You can stay here with us as long as you need to. Once you start working, we can help you find a place to stay if you want to be out on your own.”

“Mom knows everyone in town. I guarantee you she’ll find a place.”

“I haven’t ever worked in a restaurant before.”

“Do you know how to cook?”

“Yes. My mom taught me some, and I did all the cooking for Lonnie and me.”

“Then you’ll be miles better than Henry. Trust me, it’s not really all that hard.”

“You guys don’t have to do this …”

“We want to,” Rosita said. “Like I said, I really could use the help. So, if anything, you’ll be doing me a favor.”

“And I love the company. I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet today, but Donald isn’t the world’s best conversationalist.”

Tessa and my mom laughed. I actually know that Dad talked to Mom all the time about stuff, but with someone new in the house, Dad would have almost certainly clammed up. He grew up in a world where it wasn’t okay for men to show much in the way of emotions, so he was always a bit cold and standoffish when anyone but immediate family was around.

“I just … you guys are all being so nice to me, and you don’t even know me.”

“Mom spent the day with you and has given you the thumbs up. That’s all we need to know.”

“Okay …” she started to say and then stopped as Dad appeared in the kitchen doorway.

We all looked up, since it was unexpected, but it was Mom who noticed something was wrong first.

“Donald?” she said, her voice concerned.

Dad looked terrible. He was sweating and his skin had gone almost ashen. He was leaning against the door frame and opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but instead gave two struggling breaths and collapsed.

“Donald!” Mom said, getting up to run to his side.

“Dad!” I yelled, running to the other side.

Mom gripped his hand and started saying his name over and over. I reached down and felt for a pulse. I took several tries to even find one, and when I did it was incredibly weak, seeming to come and go. He’d also stopped breathing, which meant he wasn’t getting enough blood.

“Rosita, go to my cruiser and get my medical bag and the defibrillator from the trunk,” I said as I tossed her my keys. I placed my hands above his chest and started CPR.

I was focused on my count, switching between chest compressions and breathing for him, to the point I didn’t even know that Rosita was back next to me.

“Henry,” she said, getting my attention.

“Do you know CPR?” I asked.

Rosita and Mom both shook their heads, but Tessa said, “I do.”

“Come take over for me for a minute,” I said, even as I continued doing chest compressions.

Tessa was smaller than me, but she clearly had trained on this more than once, since her compressions were really good. She used almost her entire body weight for each one, which was what someone her size would have to do to be effective on a man my dad’s size.

Seeing she had it in hand, I pulled the sticky pads off and placed them on each side of his chest. After attaching the paddles, I watched the small screen on the device as it powered up and waited for the screen to show a ready message.

“Okay, back off. No one touch him for a second,” I said when the small light next to the screen turned green.

I’d almost reflexively said ‘clear’ like you always see on TV, but Mom had been holding his hand, and I wanted to make sure no one else got shocked or anything when it went off.

Once everyone was away, I pushed a button and there was a small sound. I could see his chest move a bit, but it wasn’t the full-body jolt that they do on TV. Nothing happened, which was scary, since these were supposed to get the heart going on a normal rhythm again. I looked at the screen just as the light went green again. Pushing the button, I administered another shock.

This time, thankfully, something did happen. It wasn’t dramatic, but I could see Dad visibly take a gasp of air. He didn’t suddenly come awake, but when I checked I could feel a pulse. It was weak, but steady, which was something.

“Should we call an ambulance?” Rosita asked, standing behind Mom.

“No. This time of night, they’re going to be all the way in Summersville, and they’ll have to drive all the way back.”

“They could give him drugs or something though, right?”

“Yeah, but we can get there sooner than they can get to us, and at least then he’ll be at a hospital and won’t have to ride an hour back. Tessa, would you ride with me in the back of my cruiser? We’ll keep the defibrillator attached, so we can use it again if he needs another shock, but I want you back there with him just in case, so you can give him CPR if that thing runs out of battery.”

“Okay,” she said.

To her credit, she didn’t sound scared or meek like she had since the assault. If anything, she sounded clear-headed and focused.

“I’m going to run the lights on the cruiser the whole way and push hard. I can’t go too fast because of curves, and it’ll be a little dangerous, but I should be able to cut fifteen minutes or so off the travel time. Rosita, can you drive Mom? There isn’t room for all of us and if something happens, I’d prefer y'all to be following behind us.”

“Sure.”

“Good. Tessa, carry the defibrillator and keep it close enough that the leads don’t pull out,” I said as I reached down and scooped up Dad.

I hadn’t been around him much the last several weeks and he’d been wearing baggy clothes, so I hadn’t noticed he’d been losing weight until that moment. A year ago, I would have struggled to carry his full weight, and now he felt a hundred pounds lighter.

We hustled outside with Tessa right at my elbow, carrying the defibrillator in front of her. When we got to the car, I had her open the back door and slide it onto the floor of the cruiser while I slid Dad in. Thankfully our vehicles were good-sized SUVs instead of sedans like they issued in New York City or Tessa would have had serious trouble sitting with him while he was stretched out on the back seat. She buckled him in as best she could and kind of half crouched on the edge of the seat, one knee on the floorboard, looking down at the defibrillator. It didn’t look comfortable and was going to be hell on her legs, but she didn’t complain, her hand on Dad’s neck feeling his pulse and her eyes on the defibrillator screen to see if it indicated he needed another shock.

“Hold on,” I said so she could brace herself and pulled out of the driveway fast, tearing north on the county road.

Tessa was a trooper throughout the whole trip. Every few minutes I’d ask how he was doing, which had to get old fast, but she answered each time clearly and without complaint. She also had to hold on for dear life, gripping onto the back of the passenger seat and pressing against the ceiling, every time I took a curve fast enough to almost flip the SUV. I knew I was driving recklessly, but I also knew that with a heart attack, every minute counted. Twice during the drive, she had to send more shocks from the defibrillator to get his heart started again.

As we got near Summersville, I radioed the hospital to let them know I was coming in with a heart attack victim, that we’d driven in from Buxton, and that he’d needed multiple shocks to restart his heart. I waited until I could radio in because it would let me skip the normal phone lines, and calls on emergency frequencies got priority, which would help Dad jump to the front of the line. His being my father made this a little unethical, but I didn’t particularly care.

We had to slow down once we started hitting traffic, even though I had my lights and siren going the whole way, but we still made it in record time. It was just under forty minutes from the moment we pulled out of the driveway to when I screeched to a halt at the ambulance drop-off, finally cutting off the siren.

As soon as I slammed the cruiser into park I was out of the vehicle and running towards the sliding doors to get someone with a gurney. Thankfully, between my radio calls and the racket I made driving up, nurses and orderlies were already on their way out before I even made it into the hospital.

I mostly stayed out of the way as they maneuvered Dad onto the stretcher and rushed him into the hospital. I had just helped Tessa out of the car when a nurse who’d helped move Dad broke off from the rest and came up to me.

“We’ll get her taken care of, too.”

I’d described Dad’s condition and what we’d had to do so far as they loaded him onto the stretcher, but heart attacks can happen in a lot of ways, and I hadn’t described the rest of his situation yet. Clearly, she thought Tessa must have been involved in whatever had happened to Dad, because of the state of her face. We were barely twenty-four hours from her assault, and the bruises had entered their worst-looking stage.

“Ohh, I just helped with CPR. I don’t need …”

“Yes, she does. She was assaulted a day ago, and other than some brief help getting her nose set, she hasn’t seen a doctor.”

“I can’t …” she started to say, but I interrupted her again.

“You can, Tessa. I really appreciate you helping me with Dad, but they’ve got him. I’d feel better if they took a look at you and made sure nothing was seriously damaged. Don’t worry about anything else, we’ll take care of it. Please.”

I threw the last part in because I saw her look like she was about to say no again, and I really did want her to get checked out. She finally relented and went with the nurse into the hospital and I moved my cruiser, since I was blocking the emergency drop-off.

I’d hoped to go in and find where they took Dad, but the admin staff handed me a stack of paperwork for him instead. If I was wearing my uniform, I could have probably talked my way back, but that would have meant leaving all of this for Mom to deal with, and I knew she wasn’t going to be in any state for that.

I was proven right when she came through the regular entrance of the emergency room with Rosita fifteen minutes later, looking like a complete wreck.

“How is he?” she asked as soon as they saw me.

“They took him back. We got here about twenty minutes ago.”

“Did they say anything?”

“Let’s go check,” I said.

I’d already checked four times, and each time they told me he was with doctors and I couldn’t see him. I hadn’t pushed, because I wanted to be out here when Mom showed up, and there wasn’t much I could do back there but get underfoot anyway.

“Ma’am,” I said at the window to get the nurse’s attention. “I wanted to check on my dad again.”

I could see I was getting on her nerves, but I think she also noticed the state my mother was in, because instead of the brush-off answer she’d given me last time, she actually looked something up on her computer before answering.

“They’re getting him prepped for emergency surgery. The doctor should be out in a few minutes to talk to you.”

“Surgery! How bad is it? Do they know …” Mom was dropping into full-on panic, the words jumbling together as she tried to get all of her questions out in one go.

Interrupting her before she could work herself up anymore, I said, “Let’s wait for the doctor. He’ll be able to explain it.”

She nodded weakly, letting me lead her back to her seat.

“Rosita, they took Tessa back to look at her injuries. Would you see if they’ll let you sit with her, so she isn’t alone?”

“Sure,” Rosita said, going back to talk to the nurse.

I thought it was fifty-fifty whether they’d let Rosita go back, since she wasn’t related to Tessa, but she must have been convincing, because after a few minutes the nurse pointed through the double doors to the rest of the hospital, giving her instructions where to go.

I had my arm around Mom, talking to her gently as we waited. I wasn’t really saying anything but ‘he’ll be okay’ and ‘these are good doctors,’ since I really didn’t know any more than she did. If anything, I was actually more scared by what I did know. Since heart attacks are one of the major causes of death in the US, I’d ended up answering a whole lot of calls in New York City, which is why I recognized the signs of a heart attack right away back at the house. On most of the calls, the person had managed to make it into the ambulance okay and was stabilized enough to get them to a hospital. Unfortunately, many of those, I later found out, died at the hospital from damage to their heart during the attack. I knew that Dad’s chances weren’t good, especially with how long it took us to get him to the hospital in the first place. The defibrillator helped keep him alive, but we didn’t have the drugs an ambulance crew would have been able to administer.

On the way to the hospital, I’d belatedly thought of Doc Thompson, who might have had those drugs available, but it sounded like they were going to have to take him into surgery, which was something our local doctor wasn’t outfitted to do.

It was almost forty minutes before a doctor finally came out, with Mom freaking out most of the time. I kept doing my best to calm her down, but existing in limbo for this long was starting to take a toll on her.

“Mrs. Brewer?” he asked my mom.

“Yes? Is Donald okay? Can I see him?”

“We’ve managed to stabilize your husband for the moment, but he’s had some serious damage to his heart, and it’s having trouble pumping enough blood to keep it flowing properly. That has caused the artery that connects to that valve to be close to collapsing, further limiting the blood flow.”

“You can fix it though, right?” I asked.

“To a degree. We are going to put in a stent, that will hold the artery coming out of the damaged section open and allow more blood flow. This won’t counter the lower blood flow caused by the damaged valve, but it will at least improve the flow of the blood that is pumping. Once he recovers from this surgery, he should be stable enough to move to Charleston or a larger hospital in Virginia where they have the specialists capable of performing a valve replacement.”

“Is this surgery dangerous?” Mom asked.

“All surgeries are dangerous. This is, however, one of the more common cardiac surgeries and it doesn’t involve cutting into the chest cavity itself. Instead, we access the artery in a less sensitive area and then guide the stent into the collapsed area and inflate it like a balloon. I don’t want to delude you. This is still surgery and still comes with risk, but I don’t think he can survive without it.”

“And if it’s successful, and we get him the valve replacement you mentioned, he’ll be okay?”

“Most likely. It will come with major lifestyle changes, but if both surgeries are successful, then yes, he should. First though, we need to get this stent in place so he can make it to a hospital capable of doing the valve replacement. They should have him ready, so I have to get back in there. I’ll come back out when the procedure is over, and let you know.”

The doctor gave Mom a gentle pat on the shoulder and then went back through the double doors, into the hospital.

“See. They have a plan.”

“It’s surgery though,” Mom said, not done being worried.

“You heard what he said. It’s one of the more common surgeries for heart attacks. That means they’ve done this a bunch of times.”

Mom still didn’t seem convinced, which might be caused by the fact that I hadn’t really convinced myself either. I was mostly just trying to calm her down, but I was more worried about the valve damage. Terri hadn’t worked on the cardiac floor, but she’d seen a lot of heart attacks, and back when we’d still talked, she’d shared some stories of cases she’d seen when she was working in the ICU.

Thankfully, both of our minds were taken off of worrying about Dad when Rosita and Tessa finally reappeared.

“That took a while,” I said.

We’d been at the hospital for over an hour, which at this time of night was something. There was only one other person in the waiting room, and no one had come in since we got here, which meant they weren’t all that busy.

“They wanted to have someone come down and look at my nose,” Tessa said, pointing at the metal splint and new gauze on her nose. “They said the way it was reset could sometimes cause sinus issues, but after looking at it, the doctor who checked it said it was okay. He did say the way the doctor put it back in place that night was going to cause it to be kind of crooked. He gave me a shot right next to my nose that made it all go numb, and then redid it so it would be more or less straight.”

I assumed either the shot or the realignment explained the nasally sound of her voice. Her nose hadn’t been the thing I’d been most concerned about, however.

“How about the eye?”

“They said there wasn’t any sign of anything broken and once the swelling went down, it would look like normal.”

“Good.”

“How’s your father?” Rosita asked.

“They’re putting in a stent to try and increase blood flow from his heart. They said there’s valve damage, but the stent should help enough to let him travel to a larger hospital with a team able to do a valve replacement.”

“Ohh,” she said.

“It’s getting really late and you need to open the restaurant tomorrow. I really appreciate you bringing Mom and staying with us this long, but why don’t you head home and try and get some rest, and maybe drop Tessa off at Mom and Dad’s house.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you in the morning with an update.”

“What about work? You’re supposed to have the morning shift.”

“I’ll call Orville and let him know what’s going on.”

“Okay,” she said, giving me a long hug.

She squeezed me tight and we both held on for a long time. I really needed her there, but I also needed to try and distance myself a bit so I could stay strong for Mom. The last thing we needed was for both of us to break down.

“Tessa,” Mom said, the southern mother in her finally overcoming her terror. “Thank you so much for riding with Henry and Donald and helping him. You don’t know what that means to us.”

She just nodded, a little overwhelmed.

“Will you be okay back at my parents’ house or …?”

“She can come stay with me, if she wants,” Rosita broke in, picking up what I was thinking.

I’d actually hoped she would suggest something like that. Partly because there was the thought that Lonnie could show up at any time, and I wouldn’t put it past a guy like that to kick down my parents’ door, and partly it was that we didn’t really know Tessa all that well. She hadn’t given any indication that we couldn’t trust her, but I’d seen people getting screwed over by friends and neighbors enough times in New York City that I couldn’t help but have a suspicious mind.

“Sure, that’d be okay.”

“Good. Maybe you two can discuss that job offer. And Tessa, thanks. I mean it. You were a huge help, tonight.”

She just kind of shrugged and let Rosita lead her out. The distraction had been enough to let Mom calm down. She was still worried, but she’d managed to get over the panic she’d worked herself into. It was probably going to be a long night, and it didn’t do her any good to be that worked up for that long.

Once I was sure she was okay, I stepped outside and called Orville. He was on tonight, so at least I hadn’t messed up his sleep, but it meant pushing Al to work two-day shifts in a row, which he hadn’t done since I’d joined. I felt bad about how much havoc I was playing with their schedules, but Orville assured me it was okay, and told me to let him know if we needed anything.

We talked for a few more minutes before I let him go and headed back inside. Surprisingly the doctor, in scrubs this time with one of those shower cap things surgeons wear over his hair, was standing next to Mom, who looked pale.

“Is everything okay?”

“Ohh, Henry,” she said, falling into my arms and burying her head into my shoulder. “He’s gone. Your father’s gone.”

In my brain, I knew what those words meant, but it was the doctor’s expression that made it real. I’d had to wear that expression when telling someone bad news a few times, and I’d seen it on the faces of others delivering bad news. The uneasy, neutral expression that tried to be caring and supportive, while really saying: ‘I know this is sad, but please keep it together.’

“Oh, God,” was all I could think to say.

My dad was dead.