Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
“Who said I believed her?”
Izzy glances over at me while holding Josie’s wrist, feeling her pulse. She traded in nursing to become an acupuncturist. “She’s in our storage unit. You tied a bag over her head. You believed her.”
“I owed her.”
Izzy chuckles, resting Josie’s wrist at her side. “Not this. Nobody owes anyone this.”
She’s right. I believed Josie.
“It could be months,” I say just above a whisper. “We have to let her die.”
Izzy doesn’t look at me. She messes with Josie and her bedding, sliding her one way and then the other way. “The bed doesn’t adjust.”
“It’s not plugged in.”
She unplugs the crash cart and plugs in the bed to adjust Josie. “How did you get all of this here?”
“The janitor helped me load it into a moving van.”
“Without question?” She glances over her shoulder.
I shrug. “I said it was going to one of the clinics.”
“And how did you get it in here by yourself?”
“The bed? I paid Jonah to help me. I told him there was some renovation happening at the hospital, and we had to store some things until it was done.”
She snorts. “The neighbor kid? And he believed you?”
“He’s seventeen.”
Crossing her arms, she stares at Josie. “You tied her hands behind her back … that’s why you had issues the night I came home, when I asked you to tie me to the bed.”
When I don’t answer, she glances over her shoulder at me.
I nod once.
“We’re going to take care of her, Felix. We’re not going to give up on her.” Her head dips into a resolute nod.
“That’s not what she wanted.”
“She didn’t want to inconvenience you any longer than possible.”
“She asked me to kill her. I think fear of inconveniencing me went out the window at that point.”
Izzy turns and wraps her arms around my neck. “I’m going to work on her tomorrow. Acupuncture. I’m going to get some essential oils, objects with different textures. She needs to be moved, adjusted, bathed, talked to like she’s not in a coma. Maybe a little music from time to time. Let’s bring her back.”
There’s no use arguing with her, so I nod.
A month passes. I start to lose hope even with Izzy feeling optimistic.
“Her brain is healing,” she says.
She’s braindead, but I don’t say that.
Another month passes. It’s official. I’ve kept the vegetable. I’d say Josie will be pissed off at me, but she won’t. Not in this lifetime. I don’t blame Josie for wanting to try, to exhaust every last effort. I would do the same thing to stay in this life with Izzy. But time is up.
“No,” Izzy says when I come into the storage unit after work. She knows what I’m going to say.
“No one’s immortal, Izzy. You’ve blown me away with your generosity, your kindness to a complete stranger. But—”
“She squeezed my hand today.”
“Palmar grasp reflex. You know this.”
She takes Josie’s hand, running her finger along her lifeline.
“Izzy, I don’t want her to wake up.”
“Why would you say that?”
“You know why. She wouldn’t be able to physically function. She’d be, at the very best, I’m talking truly miraculous best, mentally impaired. It’s unlikely that she’d be able to speak.”
“That’s what therapy is for. Speech. Physical. Occupational. It will take time, but I believe she will recover.”
“Time? You mean years? What are we supposed to do? Take her and dump her off at Colten’s front doorstep? At her parents’ front doorstep? Are we going to rehabilitate her? Izzy, you have to be realistic. The humane thing to do for her and everyone is to let her go.”
“Would you let me go?”
“I would if that’s what you wanted.”
Izzy turns toward me, mouth slightly agape.
I shrug. “I think you forget about your years as a nurse. I think you forget what I see and do every day. And…” I smile “…I love that about you. I imagine us having kids and how lucky they will be to have you as their mother. I want that life, Izzy. I don’t want to go to prison. I don’t want anything to jeopardize our future. Maybe that’s selfish of me, but when it comes to my life with you, I feel protective and selfish.”
She holds out her arms while she makes her way to me. I embrace my world. And then … it’s as if the world stops for a breath. More like a blink.
Josie opens her eyes.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
I wake up alone. No Josie. For a few seconds, I rub my eyes. Was it real?
She’s alive.
She uses a walker.
She’s incredibly thin and frail.
She’s. Alive!
I climb out of bed, grab a T-shirt, and go downstairs. She’s nowhere in sight and neither is her walker. How did she get down the stairs … with her walker? Did Felix pick her up? How did I sleep through everything? I run back up the stairs, and just as I head into my bedroom, I hear her.