Page 10 of Leave a Mark
“Call your grandma. I’ll bring you some lunch." And then the nurse was gone.
Wren sighed and picked up her phone. It felt like it weighed fifty pounds. She tapped Mamaw Gigi’s contact and waited.
“Thank heavens!” Her grandmother answered the phone in a breathless rush. “I was worried sick!”
“I’m sorry, Mamaw. I—”
“It’s not like you to miss my hair appointment, and when you didn’t answer your phone, I—”
“I’m fine now,” Wren cut in. “But I’m in the hospital—”
“The hospital? Mercy! Were you in an accident?” she gasped. Mamaw Gigi usually wasn’t the type to get rattled — unless there was an actual emergency.
She knew that all bets were off now. “No, I… got sick.” Wren realized that she didn’t quite know what had happened. She’d arrived at the hospital ready to die; they’d performed some kind of surgery, and she was alive to tell the tale. That was pretty much all she knew. She remembered then that the female doctor she’d seen first had said that it wasn’t her appendix.
“Wh-what’s wrong with you?” Wren could hear the fear in her grandmother’s voice, and guilt twisted in her gut. She knew that if something happened to her, Mamaw Gigi wouldn’t survive it. The woman had already lost more than most people could bear in a lifetime.
“Everything’s fine now, Mamaw. I collapsed at work last night. Rocky drove me to the hospital. They did surgery—”
“Surgery?!”
“And now, here I am talking to you.”
“What kind of surgery?”
Wren closed her eyes. This was too hard. She just wanted to sleep again.
“Abdominal?” she ventured.
“Bless its heart,” Mamaw muttered. “Are you at Lourdes or General? I’ll get Nanette to drive me.”
“I’m at UMC. But don’t come yet. I’m so tired.”
“UMC? Don’t you have insurance yet?” Mamaw scolded, seeming to recover from her panic in record speed.
“I… hadn’t exactly… gotten around to it…” At least Rocky had brought her to the charity hospital.
“Wren Marguerite Blanchard.”
“I know… I know.”
It would feel so good to fall asleep.
“You sound exhausted,” Gigi said, her voice softening at last.
“I am, Mamaw. I think it’s the drugs. I need sleep.” Wren could feel herself sinking deeper into the stiff bed as though her body were melting
“Sleep, then. I’ll get there as soon as I can. What room are you in?”
“I have no idea…”
BLUE EYES SMILEDdown at her.
They reminded her of a treehouse under the night sky.
“I never had a tree house,” she told the blue eyes. And the smile beneath them laughed.
“Oh, shit,” she muttered, startling awake. She made to sit up and whimpered in pain.
