Chapter 5
ZONA HAD FINISHED PARTYING WITH CARY and Audrey and had settled in bed with Fix Your Finances, when the call came in.
“I’m at the hospital,” Louise informed her.
Zona sat up so suddenly the book went flying. “The hospital? What? Where?”
“I’m at Little Company of Mary in San Pedro,” Louise clarified.
“What happened? Did you have a heart attack?” Please, God, don’t let it be that.
“No,” Louise said irritably.
She didn’t exactly sound feeble, so not at death’s door. That was good.
“What did happen? You should be on your way to Hawaii.”
Louise sniffed. “I know I should. I fell. I broke my leg,” she added, her voice teary. “They took me right off the ship and carted me here to the emergency room and I’ve been here forever.”
“I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“That makes two of us. They’re putting this temporary cast on me and then, after the swelling goes down, I have to get a bigger and uglier one.
It looks like I’m going to be stuck in it for the whole summer.
I can’t believe this is happening,” Louise added miserably.
“Anyway, I’m going to need a ride home sooner than I thought. Can you come and get me?”
“Of course. I’m on my way.”
“Thanks, darling,” Louise said.
Louise was normally a cheerful woman. At the moment, she sounded like she’d been drained of all happiness. The bad luck vampire strikes again.
Zona did a quick mental search for some words of comfort. All she could come up with was “It’ll be okay, Mom.”
“It will,” Louise said, resigned. “It could have been worse. I could have broken my back, fallen overboard, drowned in the pool. I need chocolate,” she finished. It was followed by a tiny sob.
“I’m on it. Be there soon,” Zona promised.
She texted Bree.
Gram broke her leg.
What???
She’s in the hospital in San Pedro. I’m going to get her now.
Coming with don’t leave, came the reply.
Zona didn’t turn down the offer. Having Bree along for moral support for both her mother and herself sounded like a good idea.
She quickly ran to Stater Brothers grocery store and picked up a bag of Godiva dark caramel chocolates for Louise.
Chocolates were small consolation for missing a cruise and spending the summer in a cast, but they were better than nothing.
By the time she got back to the house, Bree was there and waiting in her car. She joined Zona in hers and off they went.
“How did Gram break her leg?” Bree asked.
“She fell. That’s all I know.”
“You don’t even know how she fell?”
“No. All I know is instead of being on the cruise ship she’s in the emergency room in a cast.”
“Oof. Poor Gram. She was so excited about her cruise.”
There was nothing to add to that, so Zona kept quiet.
An hour later they were standing next to Louise’s emergency room bed, keeping her company while she waited for someone to come discharge her.
The diagnosis: tibial plateau and condylar fracture.
Complicated terms for stuck in a cast. It would be sponge baths—doctor’s preference—and then an even more cumbersome cast and shower assists with proper precautions.
Help with meals during the day. Help with dressing?
Possibly. How were they going to manage with Zona working?
“I have to pick up crutches on the way out,” Louise said. “My consolation prize,” she added bitterly.
“I’m sorry, Gram,” said Bree.
Louise sighed heavily. “I was sure having fun. Till I wasn’t.”
“So, what happened?” Zona asked.
“I tripped,” Louise said with a frown.
“Slippery floors? You could sue the cruise line,” offered Bree.
Louise shook her head. “I didn’t slip on anything. We were doing the Cupid Shuffle, and I tripped and fell over a deck chair.”
Bree began to laugh, and Zona gave her a motherly glare. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just so weird. Like something out of a movie.”
“Oh, it was a movie moment all right,” Louise said bitterly. “I’m probably all over social media by now, the star of my own comedy. Except it wasn’t funny,” she finished, her voice wobbly.
Zona saw the tears in her mother’s eyes and hurt for her. She took Louise’s hand. “I’m so sorry this happened, Mom.”
“It’s what I get for showing off,” Louise said. Then she added with a half smile, “I had the moves.”
“I bet you did,” said Zona.
The smile fell away. “But look at me now. Here I am stuck in a cast. How am I going to do anything?” She laid her head back on the pillow and shut her eyes. “I feel old.”
Zona and Bree exchanged looks. This wasn’t the Louise they knew and loved.
She never cried, rarely complained. Even when Zona’s father had died Louise had worked hard to keep a positive attitude, being thankful for the years she and her husband had enjoyed together, thankful that he was no longer in pain.
It was as if the real Louise had escaped and left this sad shell of a woman behind.
Keeping her spirits up was going to be a challenge. Louise was not one to sit around. There would be no line dancing for her, no garage sale bargain hunting, no walking Darling around the neighborhood and visiting with the neighbors. She wouldn’t be cooking or cleaning in the near future, either.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you back to feeling young,” Zona assured her mother.
Louise sighed again, and a tear trickled down her cheek. “You’re already dealing with so much and now you’ve got me to deal with as well.”
“We’ll be fine,” Zona said even as she wondered yet again how she was going to take care of her mother and keep working.
She wasn’t going to, that was the bottom line. She’d have to get in some help.
“We can hire someone to help,” Louise said as if reading her mind. “I’m sure my Medicare will cover it. If not, my other insurance will.”
Zona hoped Louise was right. She didn’t have the money to pay someone.
She pulled the bag of chocolates out of her purse. “We brought you sustenance.”
Louise smiled for the first time since they’d arrived. “Every cloud has a silver lining.”
Zona hadn’t found hers, but she kept her mouth shut.
Eventually, Louise was released, and issued crutches, and between Zona, Bree, and the orderly who had wheeled Louise out of the hospital, they got her into Zona’s car.
“I guess I won’t be driving anytime soon. It would have to be my right leg,” Louise said miserably.
“I’m not sure you would have been driving even if you broke your left leg,” Zona said. “That cast is a monster, and I don’t see how you could get in and out of the car.” It had been hard enough getting her into the passenger seat of Zona’s compact.
Louise said nothing to that, just shut her eyes and leaned her head back against the seat’s headrest.
Zona sneaked a peek in her direction. Louise’s humor and energy were the magic show that hid her age.
She was the bubbly counterpart to the Great and Terrible Oz from The Wizard of Oz.
Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain.
But exhaustion and discouragement had pulled aside the curtain, forcing Zona to look.
Her mother was growing old. Not ancient, but old enough for a daughter reality check. She wouldn’t have Louise forever.
It was a chilling thought. Her mother had always been her biggest fan, bragging to everyone and anyone when Zona got the role of Miriam the Librarian in her high school’s musical production of The Music Man, framing Zona’s college degree, assuring her that her Bachelor of Arts degree was just the beginning of great things.
It hadn’t been. Zona hadn’t done anything great. Had never climbed the corporate ladder to the top. Never became a singing sensation, never written the bestselling novel Louise had predicted she’d write, and she’d failed at business. And marriage. Twice. You couldn’t forget that.
Louise had been there to catch her. “This is not your fault. You’re better off without him and better times lie ahead,” Louise had said after things blew up with Luke.
Then, when the better times became the worst of times and Gary ruined their life together and ruined Zona’s credit, Louise again said, “You’re better off without him and better times lie ahead.
” She’d opened her arms and her home. She was always there, helping Zona move toward those better times, Zona’s own personal safety net, and Zona couldn’t imagine life without her.
Yet at some point every daughter had to learn to work without a net. And at some point, that daughter became the net for her mother. That was where they were, for the moment, anyway.
The good news was, Louise had broken her leg and not her neck. Or a hip. She’d recover. Get back her spunk. And she wasn’t that old. They would have lots of years together. Zona needed to remember that and stay out of negative territory.
If she weren’t so tired and miserable, Louise would have shared one of her favorite sayings, “Things have a way of working out.”
Zona said it for her.
Louise opened one eye and glared at her.
“Who knows? The universe might have been saving you from falling overboard or something,” put in Bree from the back seat.
“The universe does not care about humans,” Louise snapped. “The universe just exists. Honestly, where do people get these ridiculous ideas?”
“Whatever,” Bree said, ending the philosophical discussion. “The point is Mom’s right.”
Mark this moment on the calendar. Heaven knew, Zona hadn’t been right about much of anything when Bree was a teenager. She couldn’t help smiling.
She turned to the pop classics music station, hoping it would cheer Louise up. Gloria Gaynor came on, singing, “I Will Survive.”
“You guys should make that your theme song,” said Bree.
“Yes, we should,” said Zona.
Louise just grunted.
Next came “Footloose.” Oops.
“Can we turn that off?” Louise snapped.
“Sure,” said Zona, and they drove the rest of the way home in silence.
Back at the house, Darling was excited to see Mommy and about knocked Louise off balance, which made Zona’s heart stop.