Lana and Tom were worried sick. Lorena cried more each day, never in their presence, but they could hear her through the bedroom door. They had both tried to talk to her but she buttoned up tight. Once again sobs filtered down the hallway, and fear clenched Lana’s heart.
“Lorena, may I come in?” She knocked lightly. Tom wasn’t home, and Lana felt she had to at least offer to help.
The reply took a few seconds, and Lana could hear Lorena blow her nose.
“No, Mom, I’m fine.”
That same disturbing answer.
“Honey, you’re clearly not fine. Please let me help.”
“Go away!” Her voice grew edgy.
“But, Lorena dear—”
“It’s too late to help, Mom, way too late.”
Lana’s take-charge personality bit back the urge to bust down the door and shake her daughter into submission. She knew that response wouldn’t help, but she didn’t do well with doing nothing.
A whirlwind of questions caused a tornado in her mind. What if Lorena was suicidal? What if she did something to hurt herself and the baby? Lana felt powerless.
“Please, Lorena, come eat something—if not for yourself, then for your baby.”
“Mom, food is your answer for everything, but it’s not mine. Please—leave me alone.”
Lana turned on her heels and marched to the kitchen. The fridge door was open before she realized what she was doing. She slammed it shut and flopped her body into the oversized rocker. Tears welled and ran down her cheeks in rivulets.
Thoughts swirled into a mountain of worry. Lorena was losing weight instead of gaining. The taut protruding mound looked alien against her skinny silhouette. Her usual rosy full cheeks were gaunt, tightly stretched skin over bone. Dark rings circled her eyes, and her pallid skin gave the impression of a convict who never saw the light of day.
Come to think of it, that’s exactly what Lorena lived like, a prisoner too ashamed to come out of her bedroom. She had no interaction with friends and nothing to break up the day. Lana regretted she and Tom had allowed Lorena to finish her year of school at home. Now in light of the isolation, that choice didn’t seem like a healthy option. Her daughter had climbed aboard a train hurtling toward derailment, and she couldn’t stop the ride.
Lana had tried every angle to reach her depressed daughter. In the past, they had shared a love for the Christmas season, one of the few things they had in common. She had hoped to light a spark yesterday. She put on Christmas music, dragged out the tree decorations when she least felt like it, in hopes Lorena would join her. She had to finally insist that she come out of her bedroom, only to watch the wilted girl stare blankly out the window while Lana did the decorating.
As Lana sat in the chair with little hope left, she bowed her head to pray.
Not more than five minutes into her prayer she heard the whisper of an idea float on wings of wisdom into her mind.
She snapped up from the chair and grabbed her cell.
“Anna, I’m glad I caught you—”
Matt pulled his collar up around his neck and slipped on his gloves before heading out in the cold.
“Hi, handsome.” Tamara jumped out from a side door of the hospital that overlooked the parking lot.
Drat! She must’ve been waiting for me.
Matt said an immediate prayer.
“Tamara, I don’t want to be rude, but you’ve got to stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about—showing up at my office, harassing the nurses here at the hospital for information on my shifts, and texting me constantly.
“Baby, we go too far back … surely you miss me?” She grabbed his arm and squeezed in close. Her perfume assaulted his senses. “I can warm up these long winter nights, in fact I can make them hot.”
Matt shrugged her off and stepped apart. “What’s wrong, Tamara? You can have your pick of men. I’m just not one of them any longer.”
She gave him a crestfallen look with her brightly painted lips pursed into a sensual pout. “We’ll never be over, Matt. You know you’ll get tired of that woman who saddled you with a child. You never stay with anyone for long before coming back to me.”
“Tamara, it’s different now—I’m a different man.”
She blinked her fake eyelashes slowly. “I can work with different, spices things up.”
“I’m a Christian.”
She broke out in a raucous laugh while Matt turned and walked straight to his car.
She followed with the click, click, click of her four-inch stiletto boots tapping behind him and grabbed the door before he could swing it shut.
Her eyebrows raised and her head tilted in a practiced look of seduction. She purposely shrugged her fur coat open and bent toward him to ensure her low-cut dress gave him full advantage.
“You won’t be the first Christian I made forget all about his God.” She wiggled her bosom in confidence.
Matt pulled the door shut, but not before he heard her laugh. “Tootles, darling … God has never kept a bed warm, but I sure have.”
“Come on, Lorena, for as long as I can remember, you’ve helped me pick out gifts for your family, and you can’t let me down now,” Anna said.
Lorena blew out a heavy sigh. “But Auntie—”
“No buts, I need your expertise and you’re coming. Up you get!” Anna pulled her off the bed in playful banter.
Lorena groaned. “Okay, okay already. Give me a half hour to get ready. You should have called ahead.” Her face scrunched into a sour look.
Anna smiled and ignored her. “Half an hour, and then I’ll pick you up over my shoulder and cart you out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah, as if.”
“You’d be surprised what your old auntie can do when provoked.” With a playful wink, Anna shut the bedroom door behind her.
With thumbs up to Lana, she entered
