The Light Through the Leaves(125)

The beauty of it nearly made Ellis cry.

“This is a great idea, Raven,” she said, walking to the bed. “But usually people bring flowers to the hospital.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

“The flowers are supposed to come from a clean place. From a florist. And you put them in a vase, not on the sick person.”

“He needs to have it close. To smell it and feel it.”

A tiny spider crawled up the white blanket toward River’s face. Ellis captured it in a plastic cup, placing another cup over it to keep it inside.

“You see?” the young nurse said. “There are bugs. If she doesn’t stop, she’ll have to leave.”

“I will not!” Raven said. “Just go and let us take care of him the way we want to. Your machines aren’t waking him up.”

“The machines are monitoring him,” the older nurse said in a kinder tone. “They aren’t supposed to wake him up.”

Raven crushed a leaf and smelled it before holding it near River’s nose. “River, doesn’t that smell good?” she said. “Do you smell it? River, wake up.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m getting his doctor to stop this,” the younger nurse said. She strode out of the room.

“Raven . . . ,” Jonah said, “the doctor is probably going to want him to be clean. We’d better take it off now.”

“Not till he wakes up,” Raven said.

Jonah looked at Ellis. She didn’t know what to do either.

A doctor came in. She looked tired, in no mood to negotiate with a teenage witch doctor.

“There are bugs crawling all over him,” the nurse said.

“Come on, you know that’s an exaggeration,” Ellis said.

“We can’t treat the patient with that on him. It’s got to go,” the doctor said.

“Can we just leave it there for a little longer?” Ellis said. “It’s her way of dealing with the stress.”

“Yeah, just leave it,” Jasper said.

“I really don’t see why it’s a problem,” Jonah said. He surreptitiously brushed an ant off the blanket, but the doctor saw.

“You can’t bring dirt and insects into an ICU where there are sick people,” she said.

“People bring dirt and insects in on their clothes and shoes,” Keith said.

Raven tickled a grass stem on River’s cheek. “Do you feel that, River?” she whispered in his ear. “Wake up.”

“I’m sorry, but we have to take it off,” the doctor said.

“You won’t!” Raven said. “He’s my brother, and my family said it’s okay. Just go and leave us alone!”

Right then, River opened his eyes and coughed. He lifted his hand and looked at the taped IV needle with confusion. Then he started pulling the cannula tubes off his nose.

“I knew it!” Raven said. She leaned over the bed rail and kissed his cheek.

“Raven?”

“Yes! Do you feel better?”

He looked down at the piles of vegetation on him. “What the hell are you doing? Are you burying me?”

“Quite the opposite,” Jonah said.





9


RAVEN

Keith threw the Frisbee to Raven, and she tossed it high, making River reach for it. He lobbed it back to Keith, who threw it long and low to Ellis, just returning from the nursery. She ran for it, but it landed short and she just missed. She threw it to River and joined the game.

River had taken off his shirt, and Raven appreciated how strong he was getting. For two months, he’d worked for Tom the landscaper and helped Ellis and Maxine with the nursery. He’d been alcohol-and drug-free for three months, since the day of the accident.

Raven looked at the watch Keith had loaned her. “We have to leave in twenty minutes,” she called to River.

“Can’t we skip it today?”

“No.”

He threw the Frisbee forcefully at her head. He was good. But she was, too. She caught it and immediately flung it back at him.

“We’d better stop to give you time to clean up,” Ellis said.

“Why would I need to clean up for a bunch of addicts?” River said.

Ellis and Keith walked away from the game. They wouldn’t give him an excuse to be late for his Narcotics Anonymous meeting. On Wednesdays, Raven drove him to his NA meeting, and on Saturdays, she took him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. She’d gotten her driver’s license specifically to bring him to the meetings in Gainesville. His license had been revoked after the accident, and Ellis and Keith were usually too busy to take him.

River threw the Frisbee to her, and she didn’t throw it back. “Go shower,” she said.

“Jesus, you’re a controlling bunch.” He sat down in the grass and lay back with his arms under his head.

Raven walked toward him. “Fire ants.”

“Shit!” He jumped to his feet.

“Just kidding.”

“I’ll give you fire ants!”

He grabbed her before she could run away. He lifted her off her feet, carried her to a fire ant mound near the driveway, and held her, head down, over it. Her hair nearly touched it.

“Stop it!” she shouted, laughing.