Two Sisters Times Two Read online

6

  By the weekend Brooke was awake and surprisingly resilient in her private step-down room, sitting up in bed and bossing around nurses and family members alike—“Got to get my money’s worth for all this is costing the insurance company!” The sepsis was under control. Her lungs were at full capacity and her kidneys eighty percent and improving. She was still weak and needed help getting to and from the bathroom. And speaking of going to the bathroom, she hadn’t had a bowel movement since before the crisis—“But don’t any of you dare say I’m full of crap.” But the doctors weren’t overly concerned about this “normal” reaction (“Easy for them to say!”) to extended anesthesia.

  Everyone was mainly ecstatic to see her bounce back so quickly from her brush with death. Brooke was nonchalant about the incident—“I don’t know what y’all were so concerned about. I just took a long nap.”—but also seemed to find renewed energy and vivacity in the attention and the increased family intimacy. When several others remarked on Leah’s faithful overnights, Brooke beamed as she made light of the attention, “Returning the favor from all my nights watching over her growing up.” Leah could only nod in silent acknowledgment and pleasure.

  “The boys” did leave late in the week, freeing some bedrooms in Brooke and Dave’s large house. Penni arrived Friday night, claiming her old room, and was sitting in with Brooke and Leah in the spacious hospital room when Jodie made her surprise entrance, having caught an earlier flight and taken a cab straight from the airport. Leah was surprised (she’d planned to pick Jodie up at the airport later that afternoon) and so were Penni and Brooke (Leah had not told anyone of Jodie’s planned visit, fearing she might back out at the last minute). Their stunned reaction was fortuitous as it helped mask Jodie’s quick frown at the sight of her sister and short-lived glare in Leah’s direction.

  But Brooke took all the initial awkwardness onto her narrow shoulders. “The prodigal daughter returns.”

  Leah truly thought Jodie might bolt, disappearing as quickly as she appeared; and she stood to head her off if she made good on that impulse.

  But after a moment’s hesitation in the doorway, Jodie glued a grin on her face and strode to the bed. “Glad to see you too, Mom.” She leaned over and brushed her lips lightly against her mother’s cheek then started to stand upright.

  But Brooke threw her arms around her eldest daughter and pulled her face to her chest and held it there. “Why don’t you know I love you?”

  Jodie held her silence for long seconds. It was unclear if it was by choice or due to her mouth being pressed into her mother’s small breasts.

  “Why?” Brooke repeated.

  Leah walked around the bed to stand beside her eldest niece. “She just got off the plane, Brooke.”

  “That means she can’t talk?”

  “And you’re suffocating her.” Leah started to pry apart her sister’s clenched arms wrapped around Jodie’s neck.

  “Do I have to die to hear it?” She released her grip.

  Jodie stood upright, tears streaming down her face. “I know you love me, Mom. I hope you know I love you.”

  Leah and Penni both teared-up at that unlikely admission.

  Only Brooke remained dry-eyed. “Since we can’t be beside the ocean, I guess y’all decided to bring the ocean here.”

  Leah laughed through her tears. “Saltwater either way.”

  Jodie said, “I heard you were in a coma.”

  Brooke laughed. “Missed your chance.”

  “Damn.”

  Brooke shook her head with a stunned expression. “You were there,” she exclaimed, looking at Jodie.

  “Where?”

  “In my coma.”

  “I was there, Brooke,” Leah said. “Jodie was in California.”

  “No, she was there, inside my unconscious.”

  “No doubt doing something bad,” Jodie volunteered.

  “No. Calling to me.”

  “What was she saying?” Leah asked, trying to link Brooke’s imagined memory to a real sound or action.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Was it good or bad?” Penni asked.

  “It gave me peace.”

  “Now I know you were dreaming,” Jodie said.

  “Was I?” Brooke said, genuinely stymied for the first time since coming out of the coma.

  Leah looked from Brooke to Jodie to Penni then whispered as if to herself, “Give me some of those drugs.”

  Jodie said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  That freed them all to laugh, a sound both reassuring and haunting, given the setting.