CHAPTER THREE AWAKE
CHAPTER
THREE
Awake
Cora came home to Aunt Teen’s feeling worn out and defeated.
The Snow Crop company had advertised that they were expanding their frozen-orange-juice business and urgently needed secretaries and distribution managers.
When she’d written to apply, she listed her secretarial experience with Sunshine State Insurance, and her client accounts and distribution experience with Green’s Whiskey.
They’d written back to say she looked like a great fit for the company and to please come in for a meeting.
She’d been hopeful, right up until she saw the shocked look on the receptionist’s face when she walked in.
Immediately, she knew she wasn’t getting that job.
The meeting lasted less than three minutes.
Long enough for oily voices to tell her that she wouldn’t be a good fit after all, and that all the positions had just been filled.
She thought bitterly of Mr Griffin telling her she’d easily find another job, with her top-rate skills and talents, and felt like screaming.
Cora unlocked Aunt Teen’s front door, wishing she were in her own home and could go to her own room and curl up in her own bed. She was grateful to have a place to stay, but yearned for a place to belong.
Swinging the door open, she found a slip of paper had been shoved underneath. Scrawled in pencil were the words, Lee hospital.
Her stomach dropped. Everyone knew Lee was at the hospital, so Lee hospital must mean something had happened to him at the hospital. Cold dread swept through her.
Lee hospital. Lee hospital. The words seared her eyes and stole her breath. She couldn’t lose him.
‘You got my note.’
Cora spun around to find a man behind her pointing to the paper.
‘What happened to Lee?’ She started to shake.
‘It says in the note.’
She clutched the paper like she might choke the truth out of it. ‘What happened?’
He scratched the back of his head. ‘Well, Teen called me because she knew I got a telephone put in a few months ago, so she called from the school, because Patsy phoned from the hospital.’
As he spoke, Cora recognized him as Aunt Teen’s neighbor.
‘And she wanted me to put you on the telephone, but you weren’t home, so I took a message.’ He pointed to the paper in her hand.
A panic was building inside her, and she struggled to breathe. ‘Is he okay?’ she demanded, her voice didn’t sound like her own.
‘I couldn’t rightly say. All I know is, I heard the ringing and dashed right in, and it was Teen wanting to talk to you, but when you weren’t in, she wanted me to let you know that Lee’s asking to see you at the hospital, so I wrote you a message.’
Cora felt like she might pass out. ‘Wait. He’s asking for me?’
‘Like I wrote in the note.’
She gasped out a sob of relief and clutched the paper to her chest. Lee hospital. She rushed to her car, tearing out onto the street and driving much too fast. When she got to the hospital, disheveled and panting, she raced to his room and burst through the door.
Lee lay propped up with pillows, eyes wide open. He turned his head toward the racket she made coming in and a wave of joy rushed from her in the form of an ugly, gulping sob.
His mouth tipped up into a faint smile that pulled her across the room to his side. She touched his face with both hands, needing to prove to herself this wasn’t a dream. Then she leaned in close and gently touched her forehead to his. His feather-soft breath caressed her face.
‘Hey,’ he croaked, and she wept, making horrible mewling noises. He started to cry too, and she knew for sure that this was real, because Lee crying was something she’d never imagined.
‘I’ll leave you two alone,’ Uncle Drew’s voice said, from the foot of the bed. She looked over and saw him making his way out of the door. Had he been there all along?
When he left, she climbed into the bed beside Lee, melding her body to his, and for the first time in such a long, long time, she was home.