I folded the piece of paper over and placed it in my coat pocket. Standing, I held out my hand. Chave rose as well and shook, giving my palm a reassuring squeeze.
“Everything will work out for you both, I’m sure. You need anything, day or night, don’t hesitate to call me.”
I told him I would and left the dim office, giving the receptionist a quick tip of my head before stepping outside.
So there it was. An adversary neither of us ever dreamed of facing. An enemy from within that couldn’t be stabbed, shot, or overpowered physically. But we could still fight it. There was hope. Always hope.
I climbed into the truck as the first drops of rain cascaded down from the burgeoning clouds that had expanded from horizon to horizon. A small tree branch clattered across the pickup’s hood and skittered away down the sidewalk as several people caught in the gale hurried with hands held above their heads or tugging at coat collars.
I drew out my phone and pulled up the clinic’s number before putting the truck in gear, windshield wipers sliding swaths of rain aside as I steered into the lane leading out of town. A voice answered after two rings and I asked for Megan Teller’s extension. The line was silent while I was transferred and I leaned forward, turning on the defrost to dispel the fog obscuring the windshield. I made a right turn and then I was on Route One heading north away from the city.
“This is Megan.”
I was planning on leaving a message telling Megan to see if she could schedule an MRI that day or as soon as possible, so when she answered I was surprised and delighted.
“Megan, it’s Jason Kingsley.”
“Jason, hi! How are you?”
“Good, good. Say, I was wondering if you’d be able to talk to Del’s doctor and see if you could schedule her for an MRI. She’s been having some…issues lately and we’re a little worried to be honest. I’ve got a referral too if you need one.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that. I was actually going to call her this week to see how the pregnancy was going.”
A cold pick of ice slid slowly through my stomach at the tone of her voice.
“Well, the pregnancy’s going fine. I mean, you were there at the ultrasound she had, right?”
The resounding silence on the line made the tightening fist in my chest clench harder. Please, God, no, no, no.
“Jason, I don’t know what to say. I thought Del was going to another hospital. She hasn’t had an appointment here since last year.”
~
I’d never covered the miles between town and our home as fast as I did that day. Not even when I was seventeen, racing my best friend Benny through the curves at night. Given the fact that I was calling our house and Del’s cell phone in succession the entire trip; it’s an absolute miracle that I didn’t kill anyone on that twisty road.
A low hum thrummed below the straining of the truck’s engine, and I realized I was making the noise myself, deep down in my chest where I hadn’t known it was possible for a person to create sound. I took the last turn off the main road too fast and the rear end of the pickup slewed to the side, raking gravel in a fan that flew off into the ditch and rattled against a lone mailbox at the end of the road. Then our drive was on my right, its path splitting when the view opened to the sea. To the left was Harold’s house, dark and quiet in the rain, and on the right was ours, bright and shining.
The frenzied animal in my chest calmed only a fraction at seeing the lights. They might mean Del was okay, maybe even up making a late breakfast for herself, but they did nothing to explain the fact that she’d lied to me about both of her checkups at Megan’s clinic. Why? But that was the question of the hour, wasn’t it? Why was any of this happening to us?
I slid the truck to a stop a couple feet from our walk and didn’t bother to shut it off. The rain hammered my back and head, its cold touch like dead, probing fingers. I yanked the door open and was yelling her name before I cleared the entry.