Perfectly Adequate(63)

WTF? What happened?

Is he going to live?

When? What happened?

OMFG are you serious?

Deets … we need ALL the deets.

He fell off a ledge on a trail.

Had to be airlifted.

Took two hours to get him out.

Really fucking steep cliff.

They’re taking him to surgery now at General.

I’m off in ten. I’m going straight there to find out more. I’ll update soon.

After reading all the texts from the group, I run straight to my parents’ bedroom and throw open the door.

They look up from their adjustable bed, illuminated by the TV screen. Grey’s Anatomy. Always Grey’s Anatomy.

“What’s wrong?” Mom asks.

“Dr. Hawkins is going into surgery. He was jogging. Fell off the steep ledge of the trail. Hailey sent out a group text. He was supposed to come see me tonight. I’ve been waiting for him. I don’t know what to do. Stay? Go? I’m not family. I know they won’t tell me anything. Hailey will give better updates to the group text. But his parents will be there. Oh my god … poor Roman. He’s with Julie, but still … she’ll take him to the hospital, right? Or maybe not. I mean, if it’s bad, it could scare him. He’s three. Oh god …” I blink and feel a lot of tears fall down my face all at once. “What if he doesn’t live?”

It’s like they’re in bed one minute, and in that single blink, they’re hugging me.

“Go,” my mom says. “You definitely should go. I’ll drive you and stay with you until we know how he’s doing.”

I nod, batting away the tears. “Okay.”

We drive to General, and we’re met with an over-capacity waiting room of family, coworkers, and friends. I’m completely out of place—more so than usual. There’s no place to sit, so Mom and I huddle in a corner next to a window.

“I can get us coffees?” she suggests.

“Okay.”

After she leaves to grab us coffees, a tiny peephole forms in the throng of people, and on the other side of the room, I make what feels like accidental eye contact with Lori Hawkins. She looks oddly calm. No real decipherable expression on her face. Not that I’m an expert at that.

She slowly stands, releasing Kent’s hand, and worms her way toward me. “Dorothy, dear … come sit with us.” Her arms embrace me. I stiffen. After a few seconds, I flatten my hands and give her a few comforting pats.

“They’re trying to stop the internal bleeding. He was unresponsive when they arrived with him. God … we’re just so lucky someone happened to see him go over the edge, otherwise …” Her voice cracks.

Otherwise, he would have died and it would have taken days if not longer to find his body. Those lines I can read between.

“Where’s Roman?”

“He’s at home with Julie’s mom, Peggy. Come on.” She takes my hand and pulls me to the other side of the waiting room.

Kent gives me a sad smile as Lori introduces me to Eli’s sisters, Kendra and Molly, and their husbands and children. Julie is on the other side of Kent with red eyes and a tissue wadded in her hand. I smile at her. She glances in the other direction and wipes her eyes. Kent rests his hand on her back and rubs circles on it while she leans into him.

“Sit, Dorothy. I’ve sat far too long. I think I need to take a walk. Kent, message me if you hear anything.” Lori releases my hand and points to the seat on the other side of Kent.

“My mom’s here. She drove me. She went to get coffee. I’m good. I don’t need to sit right now.”

Lori nods. “Okay. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Here I stand … in front of Eli’s family and Dr. Hathaway, who is either really sad about the accident—too sad to even smile at me—or she’s still upset about the farmer’s market incident. I can’t blame her either way.

“Hey, here you go.” Mom hands me a cup of coffee. I turn toward her and take a few steps back to distance us from Eli’s family.

“I guess you’re not going to introduce me, huh?” Mom gives me a look. The you-have-poor-manners look.

“Lori took a walk. Dr. Hathaway is on his dad’s right, crying. I know Kent’s name, but I already forgot Eli’s sisters’ names and the names of their spouses and kids. I would epically fail the introduction.”

“Fair enough.” Mom nods.

“I should have just gone to the cafeteria with you. We’re just going to wait here now for who knows how long, and eventually a doctor will come out and either say he’s dead or alive. Either way, I won’t be allowed to see him very soon, so …” I shrug.

“He’ll be fine. We have to believe that.”

I nod.

During the three remaining hours of surgery, I take the opportunity to introduce my mom to his family. After Lori comes back, we grab an early morning breakfast sandwich and a Dr. Pepper, and take a long walk around the block. Then two doctors come out to let his family know that they stopped all the bleeding. He has two fractured ribs, a broken fibula, a multitude of cuts and puncture wounds, and cerebral edema.

It’s a miracle he survived the fall. At least that’s the chatter going around the waiting room. And as bad as the list of injuries sounds … in the larger scope of things, they are minor injuries. He doesn’t need surgery for the fractures. And as long as the swelling in his brain goes down without any complications, he should make a full recovery.