Not Perfect(59)

“Okay,” Stuart said, but he was halfway out the door, moving toward Levi. While she waited for him to come back to bed, she fell fast asleep. When she woke up, he was gone.



All this time, somewhere in the back of her mind, she had known he was with Abigail. She had no proof, but that’s what she thought, what she imagined. But if Abigail had died in September—died? Then where had Stuart been in the months since? Where was Stuart now?





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“I’m so sorry,” the woman at the desk said to Tabitha. “But it looks like there’s a hold on your insurance card.”

Tabitha didn’t even know that could happen, though, of course, she had been waiting for this moment. She and Fern were back at the hospital for the next round of tests.

“Huh, okay, well can you bill me?”

“Sure,” the woman said. “But I would call your insurance company right away to get this straightened out.”

Ha! Tabitha thought. Like it was something she’d be able to straighten out. 911—she wanted to text Stuart—your daughter is at the hospital, again, and we are going to owe hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars that I personally don’t have. 911—where are you? I need you.

They spent much of the day there. Levi was on his own again to get to and from school. In the end, none of the tests showed anything conclusive, though one was going to take a few days to come back. When Fern was on the pain medication, she was pretty much okay, but when it wore off, her knee hurt so much that it seemed to be all she could think about. Tabitha started to panic about so many things. What the heck was wrong with Fern? And what was going to happen if she just kept racking up bills? Could they eventually take the apartment away from her? What else could they do?

Tabitha’s phone rang just as they were leaving the office. The doctor was still talking, so she didn’t feel she could answer it, but she sneaked a peek. It was Toby. Without realizing it, she let out an audible sigh, and the doctor stopped talking for a minute. He thought she was reacting to something he said.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Don’t apologize,” the doctor said. “This is a lot to take in. We’ll be in touch as soon as the last test comes back, and we’ll come up with next steps.”

“Thank you,” Tabitha said, but all she could think of was finding a place where she could call Toby back.

Fern followed her, but slowly. Tabitha was slightly ahead and turned to look at her daughter struggling to keep up. She moved her good leg fast, then sort of swung her bad leg around to meet it, then did it again. She had a look of exertion on her face. Tabitha felt like she was on a seesaw—up one second—Yay, Toby called!—and down the next—My daughter is suffering!

There was a bench up ahead, and Tabitha walked to it, then sat. She pulled out her phone. Toby didn’t leave a message, she just had the notification of a missed call. Should she call back? Would she appear overeager? But before she had to decide, her phone rang again, and it was Toby.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey yourself,” he said. “I was just calling back to try to leave a message. I called before, but it didn’t go to voicemail.”

Tabitha’s first thought was that all her systems were breaking down. Her second thought was how glad she was to hear from him.

“How’s your mother?” she asked. She wanted to tell him about Fern, but she didn’t want to one-up his story, whatever it might be.

“Oh, she’s okay,” he said. “We worried she broke a bone, but we took her for an X-ray and she didn’t. She’s just bruised. She’s fine. Resting, and she can’t get around much, at least for the next few days, but she’s fine.”

“Oh, good,” Tabitha said as Fern joined her on the bench. “I’m glad.”

“I’m sorry I ran out on you like that,” Toby said. “First things first, though, is my chair okay?”

Tabitha laughed. Fern stood up quickly and motioned for Tabitha to get off the phone. She shook her head and put up one finger, letting her know she just needed a minute.

“No,” Fern said loudly. “Get off the phone now!”

“Fern,” Tabitha said, putting her hand over the phone. “I just need a second. Then we can go.”

Fern grabbed the phone out of Tabitha’s hand and threw it on the floor. They both stared at it. Then Fern made a move to stomp on it. Tabitha grabbed her, stopping her, and picked up the phone.

“I’ll have to call you back,” she said to Toby, not waiting for an answer, not even making sure he was still there, before ending the call.

“What was that all about?” Tabitha asked.

“I’m so tired of you always being on the phone,” she whined. “You aren’t normal anymore. I’m so tired of it.”

Tabitha reached out to calm Fern, but she pulled away, and then she started running, as best she could, down the hall and around the corner, Tabitha thought toward the elevators. Tabitha was aware of people looking at her, and kept her eyes down as she followed Fern’s route. She wanted to scream at Fern, but that would just draw more attention. She would really yell when they got outside, when nobody could hear them. She would punish Fern for acting like that. She would make her sorry.

As she rounded the corner, there was a tiny boy, walking, but clearly not developing in the normal way, with an oxygen tube in his nose. His mother, at least it looked like his mother, was right behind him, carrying the oxygen tank. Tabitha could see he was struggling, and the mother was encouraging him to keep going. It took all the anger out of her sails. When she moved past them, she saw Fern, sitting on a bench by the elevators, crying. She didn’t look up when Tabitha approached.