Ch 8
We eventually settled into the uncomfortable plastic chairs of the hospital waiting area.
Surprisingly, Meemaw did not scold me too much for orchestrating our reckless nighttime drive. However, she did make sure to lean in close and deliver a very stern warning to all of us. "If you kids want your Meemaw to still babysit you, you will keep exactly how we got here a strict secret," she whispered sharply.
We all nodded immediately, completely agreeing to her terms without a single complaint. None of us wanted to deal with Mom's wrath on top of everything else.
We ended up waiting out there for an agonizing hour and a half. The sheer exhaustion of the night finally caught up with my siblings. Both Missy and Sheldon fell fast asleep. Children can sleep anywhere, it their superpower.
Missy was resting her head heavily on my lap, her soft breathing a small comfort in the stressful environment. Sheldon was leaning on meemaw's shoulders.
On the other hand, I simply could not fall asleep. My mind was racing far too fast.
Finally, the swinging doors opened, and Mom walked toward us with a genuine, relieved smile on her face. Seeing her expression instantly lifted a massive weight off my chest. Everyone quickly woke up, rubbing their eyes as we all looked to Mom for the official news.
"Your father is going to be just fine," Mom announced, her voice thick with emotion but remarkably steady.
"The doctors say it was a very minor heart attack. They caught it early enough that there is absolutely no permanent damage to his heart." Hearing those specific words felt like drawing my first real breath of air in hours.
Finally, this terrifying nightmare is over, I thought to myself, letting out a long, shaky sigh. The tension that had been gripping our family shattered instantly.
We all gathered around Mom, pulling her into a massive, collective hug right there in the waiting room. She held onto us tightly, resting her chin on my shoulder. She then explained that Dad would need to stay admitted here for a few more days just for observation and proper recovery.
While waiting in that quiet hospital, I had a lot of time to seriously think about my future. My naturally cynical mind had inevitably wandered down a very dark path, coming up with grim possibilities if Dad had actually died tonight.
The primary question haunting me was who would financially support the family, and exactly what I would need to do to step up. It was wrong of me but I couldn't help but think.
The harsh reality was that we were already living hand to mouth, stretching every single dollar. Our family survived strictly paycheck to paycheck. Clearly, having twins was never part of my parents' original financial plan.
It is incredibly hard to feed and clothe four growing kids on a meager high school football coaching salary.
However, it was still the late nineteen eighties bleeding into the nineties, an era where the cost of living was relatively manageable compared to my past life.
So, while things were incredibly tight, surviving on that single income was still technically possible. But surviving was no longer enough for me. This medical scare made me realize how dangerously close we were to losing everything.
Sitting in that cold chair, I finally found absolute clarity regarding a few specific things I desperately want to achieve in the near future. My first and most pressing goal is to find a reliable way to earn my own money.
Financial independence is the ultimate safety net. I don't want to be the richest guy but I want enough to be comfortable. Money should not be a thing I have to worry about when I think of problems.
Unfortunately, my future knowledge is not as incredibly useful as one might expect in this exact decade. I mostly remember major events and technological shifts that happen well after the early 2000.
That information might eventually help me make a fortune in the stock market, but it does me absolutely no good right now when I have zero starting capital.
I am obviously way too young to legally start a proper, registered business or sign binding contracts. Therefore, my only realistic option is to try and find a decent part time job around Medford.
If nobody will hire a fourteen year old, then I will just have to start some kind of independent gig of my own. I didn't want to bother mom and dad if i wanted some money.
The second major resolution I made is that I will personally make sure to get Dad healthy again. I know the man is stubborn. He is certainly not going to completely abandon his lifelong habit of drinking cold beer while watching television.
However, I will still push him relentlessly to exercise and improve his overall diet as much as I possibly can.
A heart attack is almost always caused by a combination of a terrible physical lifestyle and chronic mental stress. If I can successfully execute my first goal and earn enough money on the side, I can secretly help pay some bills.
That alone would relieve a massive amount of stress right off my dad's heavy shoulders. Who says money can't buy happiness.
The third and most important thing I learned about myself tonight is that I genuinely love this family. Despite the noise and the constant arguments, I am deeply attached to them, and I will do everything in my power to help them.
Becoming a theoretical scientist like Sheldon might bring academic prestige, but it will not solve our immediate earthly problems. Getting incredibly rich, however, definitely will.
Absorbing complex college textbooks and learning advanced physics is genuinely fun, but it is ultimately just an entertaining hobby for my enhanced brain. It is absolutely not my true ambition in this life. Wealth and security are my real goals.
We all ended up staying at the hospital for the entire duration of the night. There was no way Mom was going to leave, and she certainly was not going to send us back to the house alone. We slept fitfully in the waiting room chairs, bundled up in thin hospital blankets that the nurses kindly provided for us.
We finally moved back to the house the following morning, but only after we were allowed into the room to briefly meet with Dad.
As expected, he acted like the entire ordeal was absolutely nothing. He joked around and tried to brush off the severity of his medical collapse, putting on a brave face for his kids.
Despite his confident act, I could clearly see the underlying truth written all over his face. He looked incredibly tired and deeply shaken by it. Any man would be. He must have thoughts like me about what will we do if he was there.
It honestly seemed like he had aged a few entire years overnight. Still, his vitals were stable, and he was undeniably going to be okay, which was all that truly mattered.
We went home shortly after sunrise and naturally did not attend school that day. Sheldon was predictably unhappy about missing his classes and ruining his perfect attendance record, but Georgie, Missy, and I were more than happy to stay home.
It was mentally exhausting night. Hospitals are depressing. I decided that I don't want to be a doctor even if I could. They see life and death everyday. That should not be normal for their psych. Maybe that's the reason doctors mostly marry doctors. Maybe it is for the good.
_________
A full month has passed since that terrifying night at the hospital, and a few significant things have gradually changed around the Cooper household. The most noticeable shift is in the kitchen.
Mom has completely overhauled the grocery list, forcing Dad to eat much healthier meals consisting of lean meats and actual vegetables instead of heavy, greasy brisket.
Dad constantly complains about the lack of flavor, but he begrudgingly eats what is placed in front of him. However, everyone in the family knew he would inevitably still try to sneak his beloved alcohol.
To compromise, I smoothly suggested to Mom that she stock the fridge with light beer instead. If he truly cannot help himself, drinking fewer empty calories is at least a step in the right direction.
I will not force dad to exercise yet since he is recovering but soon I will find ways to make him. He is stubborn, he will not listen but I will have to try.
I rigidly kept up with my personal schedule of running every single morning before dawn. Furthermore, I quietly started to actively look for a suitable part time job around town. I am doing this completely without telling my parents just yet.
I figured it would be much easier to simply tell them the good news after I actually secure a position, rather than inviting a lecture beforehand.
Academically, I have already blown through absolutely everything remotely interesting I could find in the high school library. I even stumbled upon and read Fanny Hill just out of sheer curiosity.
Obviously, there were no inappropriate magazines allowed anywhere near the school grounds, but Georgie somehow managed to get his hands on a few hidden adult magazines(playboys') that he graciously let me borrow.
My physical body is currently going through hornism that teenagers get. Since there were absolutely no convenient internet sites available in this era, I had to rely on those magazines and my own vivid imagination for some much needed release.
Putting my hormonal distractions aside, I recently went to the main office and had a very serious discussion with the high school principal. I bluntly explained how incredibly easy the standard freshman classes were for me.
I backed up my claims by pointing out that I had effortlessly scored perfect grades on every single one of my recent tests and assured him I was already done with the syllabus for the rest of the semester.
The principal was initially skeptical, but the flawless test scores spoke for themselves. He actually considered my proposal and eventually agreed to let me take a series of advanced proficiency exams to completely test out of this semester's subjects.
Based on my current mental processing speed and the sheer volume of material I can retain, I have carefully estimated my academic trajectory. If everything goes smoothly, I should easily be able to fulfill all the state requirements and pass high school by the end of this academic year.
The only reason it will take me an entire year to graduate is certainly not because my learning speed is slow.
In fact, I could likely master the remaining curriculum in a few weeks. The real obstacle standing in my way is the incredibly slow, tedious nature of the public education bureaucracy.
The sheer amount of official paperwork required to skip multiple grades is a hassle. It takes an agonizing amount of time for the school counselors to compile the proper files, schedule the standardized state tests, and officially grade the mandatory semester projects.
That unavoidable administrative red tape is what will ultimately drag this entire graduation process out until the spring.
Later that evening, right after I had finalized my new schedule with the principal, Dad brought up the topic of my recent developments. The principal must have told dad about the talk I had with him today. Not surprising since dad was friends with the principal. I guess it was time for some truths.
Everyone was gathered around eating, even Meemaw. Nowadays, she had started dating a very polite, eccentric Jewish professor from the local university. Because of her new romance, she did not eat dinner here quite as often as she used to, but she still made sure to spend plenty of quality time with the family.