cheek. When he released me, I turned from the window and saw Max looking at me.
Basil blustered in. “It’s getting almost impossible to drive,” he said. “I don’t even know how we’ll leave the hospital.”
“I’m not leaving,” Max said.
“How is she?” Basil asked.
“She’s in surgery.”
“I stopped at the Franklins’ and they’re ready to take you all in,” Basil said.
“We still have the house,” I reminded him.
Charlie returned from the window.
“The snow’s thick on the ground.”
We sat and we sat some more.
Eventually Winnie came back out through the double doors. She was on crutches and her ankle was wrapped in an Ace bandage.
“It’s a sprain,” she said.
“I’ll bet you all wish you didn’t wake up this morning,” Basil said.
“If we didn’t wake up this morning, we’d all be dead,” Max said.
Heather laughed, a snort of laughter, short and loud.
Basil looked at the floor. I followed his eyes toward the pocked linoleum.
Three hours later the doctor came down to tell us that Lindsay was out of surgery. He looked at Winnie. “Oh, it’s you,” he said. No one knew what that meant, but I could only imagine what had gone on behind those double doors.
“We just have to wait,” the doctor said. “You never really know with head injuries.”
“Can I see her?” Max asked.
“No one can see her yet. You should all go home. You can’t see her till morning.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Charlie said. He shook the doctor’s hand.
After the doctor left, Max said he had no intention of leaving.
“Me either,” Heather said.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” Winnie said, “though I am so uncomfortable.” She looked at her ankle. “It would be nice to get into bed.”
“We’re staying,” Charlie said, “at least until morning. Then we have to do something about the kids.”
“They’re with your parents.”
“My parents are coming up right away. They’re going to try to find Gabriella to take care of the boys.”
“They didn’t ask me if I approved of that idea,” Winnie said.
“No, they didn’t,” Charlie said.
I didn’t think we should all spend the whole night in this waiting room if no one could see Lindsay until morning. Maybe one of us should stay in case she woke up, but there was no need for everyone to stay, certainly not Basil Funk. I went to the window to check the weather. It was bad.
I returned and spoke to Basil.
“Basil, could you do us a huge favor?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said. “That’s what I’m here for.”
Well, at least now I knew why he was there.
“Take Heather and Winnie back to the house. There’s no reason for them to sit up all night.”
“I’m not leaving,” Winnie said.
“Neither am I,” Heather said.
I sat beside Heather. “You’re going to need to be strong for your parents and it won’t help if you’re exhausted. I think Charlie should get some sleep too. Even Max.”
“I’m not leaving,” Max said.
“Jane’s right,” Charlie said. “There’s no point in all of us staying through the night if we can’t see Lindsay, so long as someone is here in case she wakes up.”
“I think one of the family should stay,” Winnie said.
“We couldn’t get Max out of here with a crowbar, so he might as well be the one to stay,” Charlie said.
“But what if we get stuck and can’t come back? What if the weather’s too bad?” Heather asked.
The nurse behind the counter spoke up.
“There’s a motel across the street,” she said. “Why not stay there?”
So it was settled. Rooms were rented across the street.
They rented a room for me, but on my way out I turned and saw Max sitting there by himself staring into space and I couldn’t leave him. The others went on and I returned to the waiting room.
We sat there side by side like two old people waiting for a bus.
“It’s all my fault,” Max said.
“Stop saying that. It’s not your fault.”
“I should have stopped her.”
“We went after her as fast as we could,” I said.
“I wasn’t thinking about her, the way she is, what she’d do. I was just thinking of myself. That’s all I ever do. I’ve spent the last fifteen years being a selfish bastard.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It is. You don’t know. Even this,” he said, “this Lindsay thing. It was all about me, what I wanted. I’m like that with women. Some of the stories are true. Not all of them, but some of them. I dated a lot of women, but I never got really serious with any of them. Strange, I know. When I met Lindsay, it started the same way, just another conquest. I thought maybe I could change. She comes from a nice, solid family. I thought that maybe this could be it, but I never even really knew her.”
He took my hand.
“I don’t know what we would have done without you today,” he said.
“You would have managed.”
At about two o’clock in the morning Max fell asleep with his head on my shoulder. He snored softly. I was wide awake, listening to every breath.
At five, he blinked his eyes open and smiled at me. He seemed unaware of where he was at first and with whom, because he turned to me and gave me a soft half-asleep kiss.
“Morning,” I said.
“I fell asleep.”
“You did,” I said.
He sat up straight.
“Any news?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
Chapter 24
Lindsay remained in a coma for three days. In that time, the senior Maples came up and traded places with the junior Maples, and Winnie and Charlie returned home to the children. Winnie was not too pleased at being sent away. She wanted to remain where the action was—even if the action was merely sitting around in a hospital waiting room.
I checked out of the Inn at Long Last and into the Moon Dairy Motor Inn across from the hospital. I tried to be there for Max, but it’s hard to be there for someone who walks around like a bombed-out shell. He was a zombie, and all I could think was that his love for Lindsay had blindsided him, that she had become more to him than he imagined.
When Lindsay woke up, she was foggy and confused. She didn’t recognize Max. For some reason, she recognized Basil. She didn’t know the Franklins or Heather. She knew Charles Sr. but not Marion. She didn’t know
