A gruff man in a white coat emerged from the back room. He had a clipboard and a nametag that said “Nurse Lyle.”
Mom jumped out of her seat, tripping over her jumbo-sized purse as she barreled toward him.
“Yes! Yes, that's us. If you have any news, go on and spit it out.”
“Well, the good thing is that she's sustained no serious head trauma. Unfortunately, she did break her left arm when she landed on it during the fall. She also needed a few stitches here and there.”
An arm was better than her hip, at least, but mom didn't seem to think so. She wailed and sobbed as though he'd just told her grandma died on the operating table.
“She's going to be all right,” Lyle assured her. “She'll have a cast for several weeks, but the doctors expect her to pull through just fine.”
“Let me see her!”
She pushed past the bewildered man despite his protests that grandma really needed to get some rest.
“Where does she suppose she's going?” Asher wondered.
“I dunno, but she's like a stampeding buffalo – stay out of her way if you know what's best for you.”
We found her down the hall in one of the rooms. Grandma was in a bed, hooked up to several monitors that beeped and clicked, her arm slung in a cast.
“Oh, mom, how many times have I warned you not to climb up on the ladder? It's so dangerous at your age.”
Grandma scowled. “At my age? I daresay I'm far more competent than any young man I'd pay for help.”
“But your arm.”
“It's just a little broken bone. I've been through worse.”
Asher hung back in the hall when I went in. There was a strange look on his face that bothered me, but maybe he just really didn't like hospitals. I couldn't blame him.
“Hey, grandma. How you holding up?”
“I've been better. Only thing I'm worried about is how much this will cost me.” She glared at Lyle, who had finally managed to catch up. “These greedy doctors are all out for money.”
“Don't you worry about that, mom. We'll help you. All that matters is you getting better, so you just take it easy. I'm sure Cole will be happy to bring you a few things and come for a visit every day.”
She grunted, not impressed. “I'm not staying in this hole a single night. I demand you take me home right now.”
When grandma ordered mom to do something, she jumped at the command like a trained dog. Off she went to the front desk, leaving the three of us alone.
“Sarah, dear,” she said, calming a little. “And Asher. I see you hiding out there. C'mon in.”
We did, and she looked up at us with a smile.
“It's good to see two kids so in love. I'm glad you're to be Sarah's husband, Asher. You really are a good young man.”
He looked away. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Just like your grandpa. Charles was a sweet man too. Very generous. And very passionate.”
Asher's jaw clenched. He looked like a volcano about to blow its top. Before I could stop him, he moved past me and knelt by her bedside.
“Mrs. Masters. Hazel. I know this isn't the most appropriate time to ask such things, but it's very important. There's something Sarah and I need to know.”
I gave him a look of disapproval. He ignored me and kept on, in the way he always did.
“Go on, then, and don't be shy. We'll be family soon, you know.”
He cringed. “I really don't know how to say this without hurting your feelings, but, um... Was there a reason why you and Charles didn't stay together?”
She got very quiet and gazed out the window at the lightly falling snow.
“Grandma, ignore him, please,” I begged. “You've been through a lot as it is. You don't need to answer his nonsense.”
“This is a story I've never quite told anyone,” she said anyway. “But I'm an old lady now, so I suppose it doesn't much matter anymore. Years ago, when I arrived in America, two men became interested in me around the same time. One was Charles. The other, your grandpa Randall.”
Her watery eyes fixed on me. I should have quieted her, told her to rest and not worry herself with painful memories, but she'd not be stopped once she got going.
“Charles was the first to court me, wooing me with fancy gifts and even a store to run, so I could make something of myself. He was good to me, and I loved him. I even hoped we'd marry – but then I found he already had a wife of his own. He'd kept her hidden from me for months.”
A lump grew in Asher's throat. “My grandmother. So you knew he was cheating on her to be with you.”
She nodded. “I was devastated. Of course, as men do, he sold me quite the bill of goods. Said he was unhappy at home, that Alice treated him poorly and only married him for money. Were divorce less shameful back then, I suspect he would have left her for me.”
Even now, decades later, there was a twinge of bitterness in her words. Charles was long gone, and he had been a cheater, but she still cared for him.
“Like a fool, I kept on seeing him as he strung me along, filling my head with stories of us running away together. I knew he would never leave Alice, however, that he'd never truly be mine. And that's when I met Randall.”
“So you started to date them at the same time.”
“Yes. To be caught with Charles would have ruined me and both our families, so we kept it quiet. Randall, however, was a nice, normal, safe choice for a partner. My mother liked him and set us
