Chapter 24 Blaze
Bull and Janie were in the office at the hospital, talking with someone about the next step for Matchstick, while I sat in one of the plastic chairs outside the office.
It was surreal. I don’t know why, but I had the feeling I needed to talk to Matchstick last night.
Then I couldn’t get away. The old man had a death grip on my hand.
But it wasn’t just that. Something made me stay.
Molly left at the end of visitor hours, but I didn’t want to.
The nurses didn’t give me trouble about it.
They just handed me a blanket to put over my shoulders.
The night was eerie. Somewhere, machines were whirring and beeping, and Matchstick’s breathing slowed down. There were times when he stopped breathing for a minute and then he would take in a big gasp. I just sat there, waiting.
I spent the time thinking and talking with Matchstick.
Really talking, and telling him my innermost thoughts, mostly about Daisy.
I still don’t know why she’d rejected me.
This was the lifestyle that Matchstick introduced me to.
He was her father, so she knew what she was getting into.
I know Dad didn’t live it like this, but that was his choice.
It had become the choice of many of the brothers.
There were a lot less of us going out at night lately.
Most of the brothers preferred their ol’ladies, even if the kids hadn’t arrived yet. It was annoying.
Even more annoying was the way the boys talked about it.
They encouraged each other to stay home once they’d found their woman, but the way they did it was the most annoying thing.
Don’t make your girl do a Daisy; I don’t want my girl to do a Daisy; I’m not risking this woman–don’t need her doing a Daisy just cause I screwed up.
I sighed.
I did screw up, obviously. Somehow I had become the butt of the club jokes.
But I was just following club traditions.
I guess most of those have died out now, though.
We still had the club meetings, the rides out, the support for other clubs, and the other stuff that no one talked about.
But the fun stuff, the girls, that all died.
Some of the stories Matchstick told were wild.
It would have been amazing to grow up in the club he did.
Molly finally bustled into the hospital. I’d called her a few times during the night, and then when it happened. But she hadn’t picked up.
“Oh, hi Blaze, how are you? You never would have guessed what prank some kids tried to play on me. Someone rang and told me Matchstick had died during the night. Isn’t that horrible? Anyway, how was he last night?” She paused in her delusion and frowned. “Why are you out here? Who’s in with him?”
I sighed and stood up. My heart sank as I looked at my mother-in-law. She was dripping with jewelry as usual: bracelets, rings on every finger, and earrings pulling her lobes long. Her loyalty to her husband was evident in each piece. I reached down, grabbed her shoulders and sighed.
“I’m sorry Mol, it wasn’t a prank.”
Her hand lifted to her mouth, shaking.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no, no.”
I shook her gently. “Stop, Molly, don’t make a scene. You knew this was coming, we all did.”
“No! He’s not allowed to die! He promised me he wouldn’t die. It’s the one promise he wasn’t going to break.”
Molly gripped my arms and dug her nails into my skin. Fuck me, she was worse than those stupid cats up trees that they send us after in the brigade.
“It’s alright, Molly. We’re here to help.” The soft voice of Bull’s ol’lady, Janie took over. She took Molly’s hand and dislodged her claws one by one.
“Let’s go see him and say goodbye.” She gently dragged the crazy woman away.
Bull stopped next to me. “They’re going to take Matchstick’s body to the morgue until the funeral home can come and take it,” he grumbled.
“Can you take Molly home once Janie convinces her it’s real and helps her pack all his shit up?
I’ll get Janie to drive Molly’s car, and then I’ll pick her up after. ”
I nodded, there wasn’t anything else I could do.
“I’ll keep trying to see if I can contact Daisy, but she probably got her phone off if she was on night shift.” Bull rubbed a tired hand over his forehead. Wait, nightshift? Daisy works shift work. Hey, how does Bull know? I eyed the man as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sighed.
“It’s okay. Midwife got a hold of her. She was working. I’ll contact her after I sort out the kids. You’ll be fine here with Janie and Molly?”
“Yeah, hey, how do you know Daisy’s number?” The sound that came out of my mouth as I spoke was almost a whine, but in my defence, I’d had a long night. Bull put his phone away with a frown.
“I asked,” he said, patting his pocket before striding out to check on his ol’lady. I followed behind and helped the girls pack while Bull went home to the kids.
I packed Molly and the boxes of Matchstick’s stuff in the car.
Molly kept complaining about Matchstick dying.
It was getting on my nerves. She kept saying that he wasn’t supposed to leave her; what was she supposed to do now?
Where was she supposed to go? I rolled my eyes.
No one was going to kick her out of her house.
She was an ol’lady. She would do whatever the ol’ladies did. Besides, the club would look after her.
I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with her nonsense. She’d taken off and left me to watch the man die. But she was my mother-in-law. Maybe I could bring Dylan over. She liked Dylan. I let her know I was going to go and pick Dylan up and bring him over, and she smiled through her tears.
“That would be nice, Blaze; he will be my grandson anyway when Daisy reconciles with you after the funeral. It was her father’s wish to see you two together.” She sniffled. “And he didn’t stay around to see it happen.”
That’s right. Daisy would be coming back for the funeral.
I smiled. I’d get another chance with her.
This time, no jewelry. Maybe I’d try with the bike, and take her for a ride somewhere.
I’d definitely be asking for her number though.
I don’t know why she gave it to Bull and not me. I’m her husband after all.