Jolene
“Welcome to The Southern Sizzler! My name is Anna. How y’all folks doin’ tonight?”
“Well, Miss Anna,” my daddy spoke up, “I get the pleasure of takin’ my two favorite girls out to supper tonight, so I couldn’t be better. How are you?”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world does not deserve my daddy.
“I’m wonderful!” Anna beamed. “Thank you for askin’! Can I get y’all somethin’ to drink?”
We all ordered a Miller Lite. “Be back in a jiff,” Anna promised.
Mama turned to me. “How was your day, sugar? What did you do?”
“I worked with daddy on the farm for most of the day,” I started, “then, I met up with Cassie in the afternoon.”
They both stopped buttering their roll.
“How did that go?” Dad asked, giving me his undivided attention. I shrugged in what I was hoped was a nonchalant fashion. “She told me how long the affair had been goin’ on, and she asked for a truce for Dak’s sake.”
Mama rolled her eyes, but daddy’s interest was piqued. “How long did it go on?”
I sighed. “Three years.”
Daddy dropped his knife. Mama’s mouth hung open in disbelief.
Same, y’all, same.
Anna approached the table with a tray that held our drinks.
“Anna,” Dad began, “Shug, I’m gonna need a Jack on the rocks.”
From somewhere inside my purse, my phone started to ring.
Nope, not today, Satan.
I ignored it until it stopped.
“So, what else did you find out, Lee Lee?” Mama asked me.
Where do I even begin?
“So, she said the first –,” I was interrupted by my phone ringing once again.
“See who it is. Might be important,” Daddy told me. I fumbled in my purse until I found my phone.
Two missed calls from the fire chief?
“Who was it, honey?” Mama asked me.
“Chief Hennessy,” I told her, puzzled at why he would be calling me.
“Call him back.”
Before I could dial his number, he was calling me again.
“Lena, you need to come to the hospital. There was a warehouse fire. He’s…he’s in bad shape, Lee Lee.”
My heart dipped down into my stomach.
A warehouse fire…
“Okay, I’m comin’ right now.”
“See you soon.”
I hung up my phone.
“What’s the matter, sweetie?” Mama asked.
“Dakota…,” I choked out. “Warehouse fire. Chief said he’s in bad shape. I gotta go.”
I ran out of the restaurant without waiting for their response.
The chief’s words played on a loop in my head as I frantically drove towards the hospital.
“He’s in bad shape, Lee Lee.”
Traffic was light for this time of night, making it a quick, easy trip.
Why didn’t I talk to him this mornin’ when he needed a friend? Why wasn’t I there for him the way he’s been there for me?
The hospital parking lot was full of emergency vehicles, more than I’d ever seen in one place.
Oh my God.
After peeling into the nearest available space, I jumped out of my car without even bothering to grab my keys.
I sprinted across the parking lot, bypassing a cluster of deputies near the front door. After making it through the rotating door, I stormed the check-in desk in the lobby.
“Hi, my name is Felder and I’m lookin’ for –”
“Lee Lee,” Chief Hennessy interrupted.
I whirled around.
“Chief, where is he?” I cried out, my voice quaking with the promise of tears. He put his arm around me. “I’ll take you, honey.”
He led me down a hallway to a door labeled Trauma 3.
“Go on in, punkin. I’m right behind you.”
With trembling hands, I twisted open the doorknob.
There he lay in a tiny emergency room bed, an oxygen tube situated firmly against his nose. His cheek was cut open with a fresh pair of stitches, and almost every inch of his visible skin was covered with soot. He looked fragile and terrible, like you’d break him with one touch, but the most noticeable thing about him was that he wasn’t Dakota, at all.
Jace…
“Wait, it’s Jace?”
Chief Hennessy looked as if he didn’t understand the question. “Yes, that’s Jace…,” he explained gently.
I can see who it is… where the fuck is, Dakota?
“Dak…,” I asked him. “Where is Dak?”
Realization brimmed in his eyes as he understood what I’d been thinking.
“He’s on a different floor. I’ll take you.”
Leaving Jace’s room, we passed by the nurses’ station where a gaggle of deputies were standing by.
“What happened, Chief?” I asked hesitantly, unsure if I wanted to know.
Pressing the button on the old elevator, he turned to me with tears in his eyes. “A bunch of damn kids started a fire at the old papermill. DK – Dak, to you, and Jace were on search and rescue. Dakota had to be helped out of the warehouse but when we saw that Jace was missing, he called mayday and went back in after him.”
Holy fuck.
As we stepped off the elevator, he volunteered more as we walked down the old corridor.
“I screamed to Dak to keep him from goin’ back in. He didn’t have his oxygen or mask. I hollered until I couldn’t see him anymore, but you know how that boy is…” he trailed off.
“Everybody is goin’ home,” I quoted Dak’s mantra.
The chief nodded with tears in his eyes.
“This is Dak’s room.”
The sign on his door said ICU 8 – Clayton.
Intensive care…
A nurse came rushing down the hall. “Chief Hennessy, we are monitoring him closely so please make sure we limit visitation to immediate family and the guys from the station,” she looked pointedly at me.
Bitch, I will rip this door off the goddamn hinges.
The chief felt me tense up beneath his arm and understood that I was about to choose violence.
“Lena is family,” he explained calmly. “We won’t visit him long.”
He pulled open the heavy door and held it there, allowing me to walk in the room first.
Dakota was lying there shirtless, with a brace on his left arm. He had stitches and gauze, just above his left eye, and some bandages covering a part of his neck. His tattooed chest seemed to be the least damaged of all, pumping up and down as it should, but as I noticed the hose that was attached to his mouth, I realized it wasn’t pumping up and down on its own.
“He’s on a ventilator.” Chief Hennessy explained. “It’s takin’ over breathing for him for a bit so he can rest. They’ve also mentioned doing a medically induced coma due to the degree of smoke inhalation and burns inside of his lungs.”
As I stared in disbelief, a lump formed in the back of my throat.
“I’ll give y’all a minute, Lee Lee, but remember, he needs to rest.”
I nodded tearfully. “Thanks, Chief.”
“He obviously can’t speak but he might be able to hear you so give him a good ass chewin’ for me, will ya?” he asked right before leaving the room.
I walked a little closer to his bedside, hating how small he looked in the giant ass bed.
“Okay, you’ve made your point. You’re great at your job,” I teased him softly as I picked up his large, dirty hand.
The tube down his throat looked more hazardous than helpful. “I feel like this would be the perfect time to use that thing you say about how you look cuter with something in your mouth so I’m goin’ to need you to wake up so I can say it to you.”
The ventilator whooshed, the quiet sound screaming at me louder than anything I’d ever heard.
Squeezing his hand, I started to cry. “I changed my mind about the hot tub… but you can’t get in there with all this shit on so you gotta get better, okay?”
I silently begged for him to open his eyes, for him to give me any sign that he was actually alive.
“Chief said you saved some kids and then ran back in after Jace… if I’ve never told you before…”
And in case I never get the chance to again.
“I’m proud of you. I’m proud to call you my friend.”
There was a gentle knock at the door and a middle-aged man stuck his head inside. “Hi, I’m Dr Bowers,” he stepped inside. “Are you his spouse?”
“No,” I sighed. “But I can call her.”
After promising Dakota I’d be back with some whiskey, I kissed his head before leaving the room.
Chief Hennessy was waiting for me down the hall.
“The doctor asked me if I was his wife,” I informed him. “I told him I would call her.”
Neither of us said a word as we rode the elevator downstairs because neither of us knew what to say.
We were back on the first floor, easing our way towards the trauma unit, when he finally figured out what to say. “I make it my business to mind my own business… but are you sure he would want you to call Cassie?
I mean, yes, but also maybe, no?
“I don’t know,” I admitted. He nodded. “I called Jake. He’s on the way.”
“Okay.”
We rounded the nurse’s station.
“Listen, Lena, I know it’s not the best timing, but you are Jace’s power of attorney. The doctor would like to speak with you.”
“I don’t want to be his power of attorney,” I spoke firmly.
“I know, but I think he has to change it. I can’t change it for him,” he sympathized.
That man has been cheatin’ on me for three years. If y’all let me make decisions for him, I’m gonna wind up doin’ that man like Helen did Charles.
“Okay.”
He escorted me back to Jace’s hospital room where a young woman wearing a white coat, was waiting near the door.
“Hi, Mrs. Reynolds, I’m Dr. Jurgens,” she explained, extending her hand.
Not Mrs. Reynolds.
“Hi,” I responded, shaking her hand, “my name is Felder.”
“My apologies. Ok, so just a quick update on Jace,” she began. “He didn’t sustain much damage from smoke inhalation since he kept his mask on, but he does have a few broken ribs, lacerations, and a fractured collarbone. We will likely keep him for observation for the next two days to run a few more tests, but I’m confident he will make a full recovery”
Next to me, Chief Hennessy breathed a sigh of relief.
“I appreciate it, Dr. Jurgens,” I thanked her. She smiled warmly. “He’s awake in there now, asking for you.”
“I’ll go check on him,” I assured her.
With a nod, she headed off towards the nurse’s station.
The fire chief spoke up, “You go on in, Lena. I’ll go wait on Jake.”
His eyes look so tired.
I nodded.
As I turned the door handle, I had an epiphany.
“Hey, Chief?” I called out to him. He turned around.
“Is the rest of the team okay?”
He clasped his hands together in front of his chest. “Yes, thank the Lord.”
Hallelujah.
I held my breath as I entered Jace’s room.
“Hey, Lenie,” he managed.
“You look like shit.”
Be nice, Lena.
He laughed at my words, wincing at the pain in his ribs.
“You should see the other guy,” he joked.
Stop tryin’ to be normal.
I pulled a chair up to the side of his bed.
“You need to change your power of attorney to your mama.”
His face fell. “I trust your decision-making skills more than I trust hers.”
That’s a mistake.
“You don’t need to trust my decision makin’,” I told him flatly. “If there was a machine keepin’ you alive right now, I just might unplug it to charge my phone.”
“I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Three years, Jace. You looked at me every day for three years and lied to me.”
He stared down at his hands. “You’ll never know how much I regret it.” He looked up with tears running down his cheeks.
“I didn’t deserve that. Neither did Dak.”
His eyes lit up as he remembered why he was here. “Where is Dakota?”
“In ICU on a vent.”
He broke down in tears. “He’s in there because of me. He pulled me out of the building.”
I nodded. “He’s good at his job.”
“Most people would have just left me there. That’s what I would have wanted to do if the situation were reversed.”
I stood up from the uncomfortable hospital chair.
“I guess you are lucky that Dakota is a better man than you,” I poured salt in his wounds. “Feel better soon.”
Without another word, I turned and left his room.