"Well." Marilyn tapped the brake and signaled a lane change. Her exit was coming up. Then came the twisting through the streets around the hospital. "Now that we've established our relationship, what do you suggest I call you?"
"Eli." He watched her with the same care he gave his speech, his attention tangible again. "My name is Eli Court."
"I am very pleased to meet you, Eli." She made the turn that brought her to the maze of entrances and found the sign directing the way to the emergency entrance. "I'm Marilyn Ballard."
"Marilyn. I r'member."
"Good." She parked the car in a non-ambulance spot and pocketed the keys. "So maybe your brains aren't too scrambled."
Eli opened his door and was trying to get out when Marilyn made it around to help him. He gasped when he put his left foot down and immediately she put her shoulder under his arm.
"Lean on me," she said, kicking the car door shut. "Don't put any weight on it. You don't know how bad those sons of bitches might have hurt you."
"'M okay," he protested. But Marilyn noted that he didn't reject her help.
Before they got through the doors, hospital personnel had noticed them and appeared with a wheelchair and questions about Eli's condition. Marilyn was able to give them his name and a few sketchy details of the incident, but little more before Eli vanished into the depths of the ER.
She could leave now, she thought, as she turned back into the waiting room. She'd brought him here, made sure he would be properly tended. Her responsibility was done. So why did she linger? Why was she pacing in the waiting room instead of outside getting in her car to drive home?
Maybe because there was nothing at home to draw her. It was empty. Barren. A one-room efficiency with bath, nothing more than a place to lay her head when living alone at the house out in Hillside had become too difficult. Julie was gone, off to college with her scholarship to Penn State. Marilyn was on her own now.
Eli interested her. Nothing else had in far too long. After Bill died, Julie had needed her, and for her sake, Marilyn had smiled and kept on doing the things she always did. She planted her petunias and impatiens in the spring and put mums out in the fall. She cooked pot roast and rosemary chicken, baked cookies when the occasion called. But she'd just been doing things to make Julie happy and give her a sense of security. Somewhere between Bill's death and Julie's departure for college, Marilyn had lost any sense of herself.
She had to find it again. She wanted, suddenly, desperately, to feel something again. Anything. She didn't think she'd been depressed. She had no urge to lie in bed all day or burst into tears at odd moments. She'd just been...drifting. As if she'd simply checked out of her life and let her body go on without her. Was that depression? She didn't know. But when Julie had moved out, Marilyn had gradually realized that she was a stranger in her own life.
Changes had to be made. So she'd made them, almost randomly. Her apartment was part of that, though she hadn't sold the house and didn't know if she would. The volunteer tutoring at the Youth Center was another part. Sometimes the kids--mostly older teens--excited her with their eagerness to learn. Sometimes they frustrated her so much she wanted to bang their heads against the wall in hopes of banging some learning into them. But either way, they made her feel.
So did Eli. Marilyn didn't quite know what exactly it was that he made her feel. He intrigued her, fascinated her. Not like that. Not in a sexual or even a romantic way. He couldn't be much older than Julie, for heaven's sake. Besides, it was entirely possible he was gay--though somehow that didn't seem to fit.
Maybe it was curiosity that drew her. Maybe it was all that black leather, that aura of danger that floated around him. Or maybe it was the sense she had that he didn't quite know how to react to her. Whatever it was, from the minute he'd appeared out of nowhere behind her on the street, Eli Court had made her feel alive.
How long had it been since she felt that way? Four years, at the very least. Had it been longer? Did it matter?
Probably not. Doubtless Eli wasn't at all intrigued by her in return. But she was going to wait anyway. She didn't have anything better to do. She would stay long enough to make sure he was all right, make sure he had a way home and then she'd let him tell her goodbye.
Mind made up, Marilyn strode to the desk. "Can you tell me how Eli Court is?"
A nurse standing nearby looked up. "Are you his mother?"
Before Marilyn could deny it, the nurse caught her arm and tugged. Marilyn went.
"Maybe you'll have better luck talking sense into Mr. Court than we have," the nurse said, pushing open a door to show Eli attempting to get off the examining table.
"What do you think you're doing?" Marilyn strode in, pointing at the table. "You get right back up there and let these people do their jobs."
He didn't, of course. Just scowled at her. "'M fine."
"You can't talk as well as you did five minutes ago." She stood over him, looking down at him. "Please, Eli." She touched his hair lightly, afraid to touch him anywhere else. "Please?"
"They want to cut my coat." He spoke slowly and carefully.
"Then take it off. I'll help." Marilyn eased it over his shoulders and pulled gently on the cuffs to slip the sleeves over his hands. She could tell it hurt him, but other than a few deep breaths, he didn't let it show. When it was off, Marilyn folded the leather jacket over her arms.
"Now that your mother has your coat, will you let us check you
