Where the Forest Meets the Stars(86)

“That’s nice they’ll all be together.”
“Want to come home with me—just to pick up your car?”
“I can rent a car when I leave. I have to be here for Ursa.”
“You do.” He cuddled her closer. “It was good that you spoke your mind today. At first I wasn’t sure, but I think what you said is part of the reason they’ll let you keep visiting.”
“Or they’re using me to keep her under control.”
“Maybe a little of both.”
“I got the idea to speak out from your mother.”
“Really?”
“I knew what I wanted to say while they were all there, but I almost lost my nerve. Then I thought of Katherine having the guts to bring Arthur and George together.”
“You two are badass ladies.” He was drifting into sleep.
“Gabe . . . ?”
“What?”
“Does it worry you that Ursa refers to herself in third person?”
“It does. But I guess it’s how she’s handling it.”
“I’m afraid making her talk before she was ready split her in two.”
“That’s what the psychologist is for.”
“I don’t like that woman.”
“I think it’s mutual. Go to sleep.”
Jo’s first rest in a regular bed since Kinney Cottage was more like a coma. The soap-scented steam of Gabe’s shower woke her. “You were exhausted,” he said.
“I was. I like this room. I’m going to keep it.”
“Should I check out?”
“No. I wanted to pay the bill anyway.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I want to.”
“All right, moneybags. Let’s have breakfast before I get on the road—your treat.”
After breakfast they bought Ursa colored pencils and art paper and Jo purchased a new cell phone. Jo walked Gabe to the parking garage. He gave Jo his two room keys. And for the first time since they’d been together, they exchanged phone numbers. “I guess we’re a normal couple now,” Jo said.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.
“Can I go so far as to say, I love you? I know it’s not the most romantic place to say it the first time—in front of a parking garage and all . . .”
“I love you, too, Jo.” They pressed their bodies together, Jo’s crutches clattering to the ground. People stared as they walked by.
Jo acutely felt his absence as she walked to the hospital. Ursa missed him, too.
The sentry policeman was gone. Later that day, Jo heard Nathan Todd had been arrested. Ursa was moved to a regular room in the children’s hospital the next day. Jo was allowed to visit as much as she wanted except during her counseling sessions. Those hours gave Jo time out to have a meal or to buy something for Ursa to keep her mind occupied.
Keeping Ursa engaged wasn’t easy. After several days, she was bored with books, drawing, and TV. Jo brought her an adult puzzle—a picture of a doe and fawn standing in a wooded scene that looked like Ursa’s beloved magic forest. They were working on putting the outer edge together when someone knocked on the half-open door. Lacey entered, two stuffed kittens in her hands. “Am I intruding?” she asked.
“Not at all,” Jo said.
Lacey held up the beanbag kittens, one white and one gray. “I know they aren’t as good as the real thing, but these are supposed to be Juliet and Hamlet.”
“Gabe told you their names?” Ursa said.
“He told me all their names,” Lacey said. “You did a great job naming them.” When she held out the kittens, Ursa looked at Jo, apparently suspicious of Lacey’s intentions.
“Go on, and you know what to say,” Jo said.
Ursa took the kittens. “Thank you,” she said. She lifted the tabby cat, Caesar, off her pillow and laid the three kittens together. “I only need Olivia, Macbeth, and Othello now.”
“You look like you’re feeling well,” Lacey said.
“I am,” Ursa said. “Tomorrow or the next day they’ll let me go to Urbana with Jo. I’m going to live with her and Tabby.”
“That sounds nice,” Lacey said.
“But that’s more wishful thinking than reality,” Jo said.
“It’s not!” Ursa said.
“If it’s not, no one told me, love bug.”
“Maybe they didn’t tell you yet, but I know it’s going to happen.”
Jo got off the bed. “Have a seat,” she told Lacey, pulling out a chair.
“I can’t stay,” Lacey said. “I wanted to see how Ursa is doing and talk with you for a few minutes. Would you mind a quick chat out in the waiting room?”
“Of course not.” She told Ursa, “Find more edge pieces while I’m gone.”
“Will you come back and help?” she asked.
“I will, but I have to leave soon. Dr. Shaley will be here in thirty minutes.”
“I don’t want to talk to her!”
“Can we please not have this discussion every time?” Jo said.
“She talks about stupid things!”
“She’s trying to help you. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Jo was curious about what had caused Lacey’s transformation. Even her face looked different, calm and radiant, and her torn jeans and bright peasant blouse matched her mysteriously relaxed mood. They sat in a colorful room decorated to cheer sick children. “How are things going?” Lacey asked.
“Depends on which things you mean.”