Learning to Swim(42)

“Steffie,” Alice said with a smile, pushing herself up in bed. Thelma, who was sitting in a chair beside Alice's bed, reading an old edition of Glamour, gave me a little wave before focusing back on her magazine.

Until then I had done a good job of holding it together. There had been no crying jags or dramatic proclamations like “What if she doesn't make it?” or “I'll never have a better friend!” But when I saw tough little Alice wearing that hideous blue hospital gown, and lying in that bed with an IV running into her arm, and hooked up to a bleeping heart monitor, I could feel myself start to break down at the thought of losing her forever or even for just a day.

“Don't cry, honey.” Alice was the picture of calm. She held out her hand. “I'm going to be okay, really.”

I took her hand in mine. “So, what happened? Did you have a heart attack?”

“No, no,” Alice said dismissively. “Nothing like that. It's just that my heart valve isn't working properly…”

“Mitral valve prolapse,” Doris said authoritatively.

Alice rolled her eyes and smiled at me. “They're going to fix my mitral valve.”

“How do they do that?” I asked.

“Well, they stop your heart, take it right out of you, and fix it,” said Doris, making an X over her heart.

The image of an Inca warrior holding a still-beating heart above his head popped into my mind and I wanted to throw up. “How do you breathe if they take it out?” I was no science whiz, but didn't the heart have to pump oxygen through the blood or something?

“They've got machines for everything, Stef,” Alice said. There was no nervous lilt to her voice or anything. “They're going to pump blood mechanically for a while.”

Thelma looked up from her magazine. “What if there's a power outage?”

“For Pete's sake, Thelma. What kind of question is that?” Doris snapped.

Alice sighed and raised her hand, as if signaling for silence. “They have a nurse riding a stationary bike in the basement that's attached to a generator. Happy now?”

This was one of the funniest things I'd ever heard. I'd always looked up to Alice, but right then, my admiration for her was at world-record-setting levels. She found the humor in everything, and at the same time, she managed to handle every crisis with such dignity and grace. I was so thankful to know her and grateful to have her as my best friend.

“So you're having surgery tomorrow?” I croaked.

Alice looked over at her IV and began fiddling with it. “Actually, they decided to do it this afternoon.”

“This afternoon!” Doris and Thelma exclaimed in unison, equally horrified.

“Can I talk to Steffie alone for a minute?” Alice asked them.

They both wiped their eyes and left the room quietly.

“They took that well,” she said. “Don't you think?”

I smiled as I sat down next to her. “I wish you'd told me you were sick. I could've helped you.”

“Oh, Stef, that's all you needed—someone else to take care of. Besides, there's nothing you could've done.” She grinned and squeezed my hand. “Anyway, I wanted to talk with you about Keith. He was just here,” she said.

“I know,” I said softly. “I saw him.”

“He's such a sweet young man,” Alice added.

“Yeah,” I said, and then I paused. “Did he come here just to see you?”

I didn't mean it to come out sounding like it did, which was, Why in the world would Keith come here to see you, of all people?

But Alice just laughed. “Thelma brought me to the hospital last night, and she phoned Keith and asked him to bring over some of my medications because she didn't want to leave me. He came right over and then he dropped in again this morning.”

Her explanation wasn't really that helpful. I was more curious as to why he'd taken the trouble to come to the hospital to see my best friend. Naturally, I didn't have to explain any of that to Alice because, as usual, she could read my mind.

“Keith will always be special to me too,” she said. “I loved his mother—bless her heart—and I used to babysit for him when he was a little boy. After she died, well, I spent a lot of time with him. Then when his father started dating again, Keith went through a really hard time. He needed someone to talk to.”

“And you were that person?” I asked.

She nodded.

I had to admit that the news that she and Keith were old friends was a total shocker. What other surprises was she going to spring on me? That Keith and I were siblings, separated at birth? Then it dawned on me.

“Wait a minute. Did you ask Keith to give me swimming lessons?”

She started fake coughing and pressing her call button. “Wow, I think I need to see the nurse.”

I let go of her hand and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Knock it off, Alice. Tell me the truth.”

She sighed deeply. “Yes, I did. But I was worried about you. And that near-drowning incident really scared the crap out of me.”

Everything suddenly fell into place. After all, I had wondered how someone like me (a pear girl who toted a plunger around) had caught his eye.

“No, Steffie,” Alice said firmly. “Stop right there.”