Ch 7
I was genuinely scared. I felt a deep, twisting fear regarding what would happen to Dad. I knew from bbt in my past life that Dad would eventually die from a heart attack.
However, I simply did not remember the exact date it was supposed to happen. I had always assumed it would occur much later in his life, not when we were all still just young kids.
I desperately wanted to go to the hospital right away, but Meemaw absolutely would not let me leave the house. I asked her multiple times, begging to just see him.
Missy eventually came over to silently sit beside me on the sofa. She leaned her small head against my shoulder. "Dad will be okay," she whispered quietly, trying to comfort both me and herself.
Georgie returned home from practice shortly after. As soon as he walked through the door, he immediately recognized the heavy, depressing atmosphere of the house and inquired about it.
When he heard about Dad's sudden medical situation, he also demanded to go see him. When Meemaw firmly denied his request, he just angrily went away.
After what felt like an eternity, our house landline finally rang. It was most likely Mom calling from the hospital waiting room to give us an update.
Before Meemaw even picked up the heavy receiver, we all perked up in our seats. I quickly gestured toward the hallway and silently ordered Georgie, who had just peeked his head out of his room, to sneak into our parents' bedroom to listen in on their private conversation through the other phone line.
He obliged without a single complaint, quietly shutting the door behind him. Meemaw spoke in hushed, nervous tones for a few minutes before placing the receiver back on the cradle with a heavy sigh. She stood in the hallway for a moment, composing herself, before finally turning around to face us with a tight, unconvincing smile plastered across her wrinkled face.
"Well, your dad is just fine," Meemaw announced, her voice slightly higher than usual. "The doctors say it is just a bad case of gas. He will be home before you know it."
"I certainly hope you are not bluffing this time, Meemaw," Sheldon stated flatly before turning on his heel and walking straight back to his room.
I immediately went down the hall to check on Georgie and hear what actually happened on the call. Georgie's pale face said it all the moment I walked in. He was absolutely terrified.
"What happened? Tell me everything," I demanded quietly, closing the door behind me.
"Dad is in the ER," Georgie replied, his voice trembling slightly. "Mom sounded really bad."
I knew right then that I could no longer just sit here and wait. I needed to be there.
"We have to get down there right now," I told Georgie firmly.
"Yeah, I agree. So what is the plan?" he asked, equally desperate to see Dad.
"We just need to make Meemaw drink more and wait for her to fall asleep," I suggested smoothly.
"She is already doing exactly that," Georgie noted. I peeked out the door and saw Meemaw currently bottoming out the pink wine bottle that she had been loudly complaining about just a few minutes prior. I suppose everyone has their own unique coping mechanism during a crisis.
We all ate our pizza dinner in complete, suffocating silence. About an hour later, Meemaw was officially passed out on the living room sofa. I quietly grabbed Georgie by the shirt and told him to go grab her car keys from her purse.
Georgie silently tiptoed across the room and successfully retrieved the keys without making a sound. We both planned to take the car by ourselves, especially since Georgie absolutely refused to let me go alone. But things in this household usually never go exactly according to plan.
Right as we got outside and slipped inside the car, someone knocked loudly on the passenger side window, making us both jump out of our skin.
"Take me with you," Missy demanded through the glass, making a strict face that clearly implied she would scream and wake Meemaw up if we dared to say no.
"Is it not way past your bedtime right now?" I replied through the cracked window. Before I could stop her, she had already opened the door and made her way straight into the backseat.
I was sitting in the driver's seat, and Georgie was situated right beside me. He had strongly asked to let him drive, but I was absolutely not going to let his dumb ass accidentally kill us by doing something incredibly stupid on the road.
Right as I put the key in the ignition and started the car engine, the front door of the house flew open. "Wait for me!" Sheldon yelled into the quiet night, sprinting across the lawn and quickly climbing into the back next to Missy.
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath.
Missy immediately reached forward and turned on the radio music to break the tension, but I quickly slapped her hand away and turned it right back off.
I needed absolute silence to concentrate. I honestly did not actually know how to drive a real vehicle.
Because I had been confined to a hospital bed for most of my teenage years in my previous life, I missed out on getting a license. However, I had played countless driving simulation games and read plenty of manuals regarding it. It would be easy for me, right?
Furthermore, I possessed an eidetic memory and had spent the last month intensely observing every single movement Dad made while driving his truck. I jogged my memory and remembered how he pressed the pedals, turned the steering wheel, and shifted the gears. I knew the theory perfectly.
At the very least, it was late at night and the suburban roads were completely empty, which meant there was a significantly lower chance of us getting into a fatal accident.
I gripped the leather steering wheel tightly and just prayed I did not accidentally jinx our entire trip by thinking that.
I carefully shifted the gear into reverse and managed to back the heavy car off the concrete porch without hitting the mailbox. I shifted into drive and moved incredibly slowly for the first few minutes, gently testing the sensitivity of the gas pedal and the brakes to get a proper feel for the heavy machine.
Gradually, my overall confidence grew, and the mechanical movements started to feel much more natural. Once we were cruising steadily down the main street, I asked Georgie exactly where the local hospital was located. He confidently pointed straight ahead and said it was located right near the Dairy Queen.
Before I could even process that vague direction, Sheldon piped up from the backseat.
“Which one? You know there are two dairy queens right?”
Panic instantly spiked in my chest, and I reflexively slammed my foot down hard on the brakes.
"Now what are we supposed to do? It's not like we can ask anyone." I asked, gripping the steering wheel tightly as the car jerked to a sudden, violent halt in the middle of the empty road. My heart was pounding loudly in my ears as I glared at Georgie, feeling completely lost and deeply frustrated.
Fortunately, right before a massive argument could break out inside the vehicle, a loud siren pierced the quiet night. We all looked up through the windshield to see a brightly lit ambulance speeding past the next intersection.
Figuring it was heading exactly where we needed to go, I immediately hit the gas and closely followed its glowing tail lights.
I managed to carefully park Meemaw's car in a dark corner of the crowded hospital visitor lot without scratching the paint. We all quickly unbuckled our seatbelts in complete silence. We got outside into the cool night air and nervously made our way inside the building.
As soon as we walked through the glass doors, we spotted Mom pacing nervously near the waiting area. She looked completely surprised to see us standing there. I could clearly see how worried she was and her tired eyes told me.
Instinctively, all four of us rushed forward and wrapped her in a tight group hug before she could even manage to ask a single question.
Mom's stiff, tense shoulders visibly relaxed a little bit after that embrace. It must have been incredibly hard for her to be sitting in this place entirely alone.
"What in the world are you kids doing here? Where is your Meemaw?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly as she looked around and saw there was no adult accompanying us.
I honestly did not know what to say to her. I desperately wanted to avoid worrying her any further during a highly stressful time like this, so my mind just drew a complete blank.
Fortunately, a familiar voice suddenly echoed across the lobby. "There you kids are. You really should have waited for me to finish parking the car," Meemaw called out as she hurried into the hospital. She caught my eye, shooting me a sharp glare that silently dared me to tell the actual truth. We all unanimously decided to play along with her convenient cover story.
She must have found out somehow and made it here.
"Well, we just could not wait to see Dad," I replied smoothly, doing my best to play along with the sudden lie.
"Mom, what are they doing here so late?" Mary asked, rubbing her forehead in exhaustion.
"They all love their daddy so much, Mary. I simply could not keep them locked up at home after they cried so hard about seeing him." Meemaw was truly a master liar when the situation demanded it.
A tired looking nurse soon walked over to call Mom back into the medical wing. Mom quickly followed after her, but not before giving us a very stern look that clearly instructed us to behave ourselves. She was definitely not happy that we were wandering around a hospital at this hour.
I quietly trailed behind her down the sterile hallway, my mind still heavily clouded with deep distress. Meemaw quickly called out my name from the waiting room to stop me, but I simply ignored her warning.
I needed to see exactly what was happening for my own peace of mind. I kept my distance and watched closely as Mom disappeared behind the heavy swinging doors of the emergency room.
A few seconds later, a passing orderly pushed the doors wide open to wheel in a medical cart. In that brief window, I caught a terrifying glimpse of Dad lying flat on a narrow hospital bed. A team of doctors and nurses moved frantically around him, checking monitors and adjusting various intravenous tubes.
Mom was standing right by his side, gripping his large hand with both of hers.
Everyone in the room was working swiftly to do their designated jobs, maintaining a highly professional and focused atmosphere. However, my eyes were drawn entirely to Dad's face.
I could clearly see a deeply pained, exhausted expression etched across his usually stoic features. Right as the heavy wooden doors slowly swung shut, effectively cutting off my view, the grim reality of the situation finally crashed down on me.
I instantly felt my knees go completely weak, forcing me to lean heavily against the cold corridor wall for physical support.
I felt some kind of out of body experience. Everything was was moving slowly and rapidly at the same time.
My enhanced mind suddenly started racing, replaying absolutely everything about our recent time together. I vividly remembered how he always made a conscious effort to act incredibly strong and unbothered in front of us, shielding his kids from the harsh realities of the world.
Seeing him lying there looking so incredibly weak and vulnerable completely shattered that protective illusion. I suddenly realized just how much of a massive, foundational support he truly was for me and the rest of our family.
The overwhelming weight of that realization crushed my chest, and I simply could not control the hot tears that immediately started streaming down my face.
Through my blurred vision, I spotted a small, dimly lit chapel located just off the main hospital hallway. Seeking a quiet refuge away from the chaotic medical staff,
I slowly walked inside and sat heavily on one of the wooden pews. I had never been a religious person, and I certainly did not believe in the traditional concept of God that my mother constantly preached about.
Despite my lifelong skepticism, I bowed my head and genuinely prayed that day for the very first time with absolutely all of my heart. I had never even prayed for my own health to magically improve when I was slowly dying in my previous life.
However, the undeniable truth was that some incomprehensible, higher being had transmigrated my soul and granted me the gift.
I directed my desperate thoughts entirely toward that specific, mysterious entity. I tightly clasped both of my hands together, letting the warm tears freely roll down my cheeks as I silently begged for them to make my dad better.