Page 19 of The Family Cross

“Head hurts. Dizzy. I… where…”

She started to close her eyes again. Dr. Ames turned to me, said, “Can we go into the hall, Alex?”

We walked out the door. The surgeon said, “We found something unexpected. I mean, we were looking for—”

One of the nurses rushed up and whispered a question to Dr. Ames.

“Yes,” Dr. Ames said, nodding. “We want to do it ASAP.”

The nurse hurried into the room. I was getting frustrated and upset.

“What is going on, Sydney?”

“Your grandmother just became a very complicated case,” she said. “It turns out she might have had a stroke before the head trauma.”

“Stroke!”

“It’s probably why she felt dizzy before her fall.”

“But she’s still going to be okay, right?”

Dr. Ames swallowed hard. “The stroke seems to be minor. But we’ve got another problem—the CT scan revealed extreme swelling in her brain beneath the area that hit the brick. Hence her headache and dizziness.”

I was having trouble keeping up. “Just tell me what we need to do.”

The doctor put her hand on my arm and told me the recommended course of action. I admit, I was horrified by what she described for many reasons.

“Would my grandmother even survive something like that?” I asked. “She’s in her nineties.”

“It’s risky. But not doing it might be riskier. At the end of the day, Alex, you have Regina’s medical power of attorney. I don’t know how much she understands at this point, so it’s your call.”

I felt like a great leaden yoke was coming down on my shoulders as we walked back into my grandmother’s room. Her eyes were lazily opening and shutting.

“Nana,” I said. “I need to tell you something.”

She didn’t reply. Her eyes slowly rolled back in her head, and her whole body began spasming.

18

AGAINST HIS BETTER JUDGMENT, John Sampson opted not to call child protective services after watching Robert Bogner head back to the Bridge to Nowhere, and he decided not to follow him, not without having any backup. He’d been awake since four thirty a.m. and wanted to be sharp when he went to talk with the high trolls in the morning.

Before going home to his daughter, Sampson stopped by the hospital. He hadn’t heard from Alex since the text about the delayed CT scan, and St. Anthony’s was only a few minutes out of his way. He parked, went inside, and asked for Regina Cross’s room.

His stomach fell when he walked into the room a few minutes later to find the bed empty and Alex, Bree, Jannie, and Ali all with their heads down, apparently praying.

Nana Mama passed.

Alex opened his eyes, which were bloodshot.

“Did she—” Sampson began.

“No,” Alex said in a hoarse voice. “But it’s bad, brother. Dire.”

He explained about the ischemic stroke making her dizzy, leading to her fall onto the bricks and the subsequent brain swelling and bleeding, which had triggered a short seizure.

Nana Mama was being prepped for a craniectomy—surgery to remove a piece of her skull to relieve the pressure in her brain.

“If she dies on the table, they won’t resuscitate,” Alex said. “If she makes it through, they’ll put her in a medically induced coma for a day or so to allow the swelling in the brain to subside, then they’ll replace the skull piece and slowly bring her back.”