Not Perfect(54)

“What is it?” Tabitha asked. “What happened?”

“We were fine, just watching, but suddenly Fern started crying, and then she stopped, which was worse, and she’s been like that,” Levi said, pointing.

“Sweetie, what is it?” Tabitha asked, kneeling in front of her. “Is your knee worse?”

“It’s burning,” she said. “I can’t stand it.”

Tabitha reached out to touch it and Fern yelped.

“You have to do something,” Levi said.

“Come on, let’s go,” Tabitha said. “We’ll go to the hospital.”





CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The decision was made, but getting to the hospital was much easier said than done. Fern couldn’t walk on her leg, and Tabitha couldn’t carry her anymore. She was too big, and anyway, Tabitha was afraid to lift her and bang her knee on something. She knew there was a solution to this, but she didn’t know what it was.

“Can you call Dad?” Levi asked, and Tabitha was surprised by the urgency she heard in his voice.

“Yes,” Tabitha said. “Sure.”

She picked up her phone, found his number, and dialed. If there were any chance in the world he actually answered for Fern, maybe he’d answer for her. Then she remembered that Fern called from the house phone, so she put her cell phone down and dialed his number from their landline. She hadn’t told the kids that she had not spoken to Stuart since he’d left, and they never asked, directly. She just made it seem like it was a series of missed calls and bad times. But now she needed him. 911—our daughter can’t walk! 911—I can’t handle this alone. 911—I’ve been flirting with a strange man.

It rang and rang. No answer. No voicemail. Fern continued to whimper. Tabitha hung up the phone and walked over to her.

“Here, can you bend it?” she asked, moving to gently grab her foot.

“Nooo!” Fern screamed.

Tabitha picked up her cell phone again and began to text Holly, the emergency room doctor who was also the mom of Fern’s friend. Maybe even she and Holly were friends at this point. She was so helpful when Fern was sick earlier in the year. Tabitha worried about bugging her, but she didn’t know what else to do. She needed help, and she needed help from someone who was a professional at giving help. But texting could take too long. She decided to call instead. She would normally text something like, Hi! This is Tabitha, Fern’s mother, so that she could identify herself right away. Calling was a little harder. She doubted Holly had kept Tabitha’s contact information in her phone, so it would just come up as an unidentified number.

“Hello?” Holly answered. Tabitha thought of hanging up for a split second. Then she looked at Fern.

“Holly, hi! It’s Tabitha, Fern’s mom,” she said quickly. “I am so sorry to bother you. Really. But I just wasn’t sure where else to turn. Fern has had a bad knee for, well, for a long time. I guess I just kept hoping it would go away. We did see the pediatrician and they ordered tests, which I haven’t followed through with yet. But now she is in a lot of pain, tremendous pain, I think, and I was considering an emergency room visit since the doctor’s office is closed. I wanted to check in to see if you think that sounds appropriate. And also, we’re stuck. I can’t move her, but she doesn’t seem so bad that she needs an ambulance. I thought you might have an idea about how to transport her.”

The other end of the line was quiet, and Tabitha wondered if they’d been disconnected, but then she heard Holly whispering to someone, the sound muffled by a hand over the phone.

“Sorry, I was just checking with Mitch,” Holly said, kindly. “I’d be happy to come over and take a look.”

Tabitha felt such relief, such appreciation, that she had to work hard not to cry. At the same time, she knew it was too much to ask.

“You guys are right on the Square, right?” Holly said. “I was just heading out to the grocery story, literally right there. Let me come up and just see. No need to make a trip if you don’t have to.”

“Thank you,” Tabitha said, quickly giving her the address. “Thank you so much.”

Levi looked at her, Fern was too distracted by her pain to care.

“Holly’s coming,” Tabitha said, like that was the answer. “She’s a doctor.”

They waited what seemed like a very long time, when in fact it was only about fifteen minutes. The doorman called up, and Tabitha went to the door to let Holly in. She wanted to hug her, but she was too afraid of doing the wrong thing and pushing her away, or making her regret her decision to come over to help.

“Where is she?” Holly asked cheerfully as she walked through the door. She wore a black-and-red fall dress with heels, and Tabitha wondered if she had pulled her away from a party or an early dinner or something, and that she hadn’t been going to the grocery store at all. But she didn’t ask.

“Over here,” Tabitha said, spotting Toby’s chair in the hall. She grabbed it and pulled it inside, tucking it into the corner of the foyer.

She expected Fern to perk up once Holly arrived, but she didn’t, which worried her. Holly talked to her, and felt around gently. Then she stepped back and motioned to Tabitha to follow her into the kitchen.

“So, it is really hard for me to tell what’s going on inside her knee,” Holly said kindly. “I was hoping it would be something more obvious, but without a definite injury that you guys are aware of, and considering the fact that she is in such pain, I think you might as well go get it checked out. An X-ray might tell us a lot.”