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If he had passed out, based on how drunk he was, there’d be no waking him up. If that were the case, she had no idea how she would get him out of the car and up the stairs. The silence wore on, slowly but surely crossing into awkward territory, and Leah cleared her throat as she began fiddling with her scarf. The woman tilted her head, waiting, and it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps this lady wasn’t all there. The woman nodded, her broad, amused smile transitioning into a more demure one. Leah smiled in return, expecting the woman to be on her way, or at the very least, to say something else.
His hand slid up her thigh again, and Leah ignored it, focusing all her attention on undoing the buttons. He didn’t want her, and they weren’t anything to each other. She was just going to make sure he was comfortable, and then she was going to get the hell out of there. She didn’t want to be affected by him anymore, but she felt her heart drop at his words. By now she was using all her strength just to keep him steady as they stumbled down the hallway toward his door.
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The woman chuckled—a soft, sandpapery sound—before she nodded, and Leah pulled her brow together. Leah pursed her lips as her stomach churned. Instead, she gripped the top of his pants and yanked somewhat forcefully. They jerked over his hips, and she immediately pressed her lips into a hard line as she closed her eyes. Leah rubbed her hand over her forehead before she slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door, and she placed her hand on his lower back, rubbing soothing circles. She gritted her teeth together, trying to focus on getting them across the street.
He’d replay the images in his mind like a slideshow as he drove home, trying to commit their clarity to permanent memory. But it was like trying to hold water in his fist. Her eyes traveled to the half wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, where two small vases of daffodils sat.
Coming Home
In this car,” she said, gesturing to the car behind Leah. I may look to be past my prime, but I’m still sharp as a tack,” she said, pointing to the side of her head with a gloved hand. The bulky black gloves, like the coat, looked far too large to be hers.
Gram and the nurses had spent the last year keeping up a steady system of shaving him, cutting his hair, his fingernails. Leah lifted her eyes from the incongruous piece of jewelry to see the woman extending her hand.
Coming Home,
Not his breath in her hair, or his hands on her body, or those words on his lips. He dropped his head, resting his forehead on her shoulder as he fisted the side of her sweatshirt. “The other bar,” he mumbled, and Leah closed her eyes, sighing heavily. But with Bryan in front of him, everything was suddenly sharp. His impassive face provided the blank canvas for Danny to recreate image after image of his friend—happy, sad, confused, angry, amused—all crystal clear and perfect. Whenever he’d leave after a visit, Danny would always promise himself that this time, he wouldn’t forget.
She had no idea how she was going to hold him if he couldn’t walk, but as she took a step, thankfully he followed. Those words had soothed him so many times, but today they rolled off him like drops of rain down the window—fleeting and futile. Dr. Racine approached Gram’s side of the bed, placing his hand on her shoulder. “It won’t be too much longer now,” he said gently. Bryan’s face was thinner than Danny’s memories, something he’d gradually grown accustomed to, but today his jaw was covered in a light five-o’clock shadow.
The sharp whistle of a tea kettle brought her back to the present, and she blinked quickly, dropping her hand from the wall. Een for the white hair, cropped short around a deeply wrinkled, olive-toned face, Leah might have mistaken her for a child. She should have been numb to it by now, or at the very least, prepared for it.
She realized a beat too late that perhaps it wasn’t the best idea; she had no idea what kind of drunk he was, whether he would get angry or belligerent if she took his drink away. Danny didn’t move as the doctor and the nurse left the room. He didn’t move as Gram tucked the blanket around Bryan, as if she really had just sung him to sleep. He didn’t move as she leaned over and kissed his forehead before brushing his hair out of his eyes. The doctor slid a chair up to Bryan’s bedside opposite Gram, nodding at Danny before he walked to the other side of the room to consult with the nurse. “You’re okay, honey,” she said softly, and Leah forced a smile as she walked past her and into the house.
Leah walked through the kitchen and over to the table, unzipping her coat and hanging it on the back of one of the chairs. It felt like being transported back in time, and she placed her hand on the wall beside her, feeling completely disoriented. Leah dropped her head back slightly, blinking up at the sky. She still had errands to run, not to mention the hour drive back home. The look in the woman’s eyes mirrored the unadulterated kindness of her words, and Leah was suddenly consumed with the inapt desire to wrap her arms around this tiny stranger.
” Leah gasped as she whipped her head up, bringing one hand to her heart. Leah’s eyes roved over the fence that led to the side yard. It had definitely been repainted recently, and there were newel posts on either side of it now. Even the short driveway leading into the garage had been repaved. Up close like this, it looked more modern than she remembered.
She should have been happy that someone was taking good care of it. “Hey,” she said again, bringing her hand to his face and turning him toward her. It took his eyes a second to focus on her, and when they did, he smiled sadly. He reached up and took the end of her hair between his fingertips. “That’s helpful, Danny,” she sighed, looking around the car.
But she just stood there, staring at her with expectant eyes, as if Leah were the one who initiated contact with her. She sat up straight as something like panic fluttered in her chest. She’d barely gotten a chance to see it.
Coming Home(
But now that she was sitting there, so close she could practically reach out and touch it, she was completely overwhelmed by the desire to see it. Leah jumped as the rude squawk of a horn burst into her consciousness, and her eyes flew to the rearview mirror. The large black pickup riding her tail was apparently in no mood to accommodate her sentimental pace, and if she had to guess, she’d say the three cars lined up behind him weren’t either. She held her breath, waiting for him to continue, but he never did. He didn’t speak again for the remainder of the drive, and Leah kept her hand on his back, trying to soothe him. It wasn’t until she pulled up to the curb in front of his building that she realized she might have a huge problem on her hands.
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