Chapter 17: Operation: Remove the Bread Basket for 1000 dollars

I watched the car skid across the lane. We were approaching the turn as it skidded at us from the right. I shouted, “Keep your eyes on the road!” Unfortunately, I was too late. It wasn’t Daisy’s fault. Winter roads and someone in too much of a hurry are a combination destined to end in disaster. If Daisy had been watching the road instead of looking at me, she may have been able to evade the sliding car, but I don’t think anyone could be certain.

It was the sound that really struck me. The squeal and grinding as the car’s brakes locked and the navy blue consumed my vision. The metal of the van buckled and crushed. The van jolted sideways. Daisy hadn’t been buckled and slammed into Helen, then seemed to slam back into the wheel, and then as the van ended up on its side, she hit the passenger door.

Helen was buckled in and so was I, but the impact had occurred on our side of the vehicle and the sharp pain and blurred vision indicated I’d hit my head on something as well. The van was still moving and I felt my stomach try to turn. When the van finally collided with a streetlamp, I heard the crunch of that ... and then things went black.

Various things ran across my awareness, but it was hazy. Two men talking; joking, feeling like I was on a trampoline, a series of lights, and finally a drop ceiling and squeaking.

I woke up on a gurney in a hallway. I forced myself to sit-up though the world shifted with my movement. I slipped off the gurney and realized I wasn’t wearing my clothes anymore. I had an untied hospital gown draped over me. I had to grab the gurney to keep myself standing. I looked around and caught sight of the nurse’s desk and walked over to it.

A rather effeminate male nurse squeaked at me, “You need to lay back down, sir!”

“Just tell me where my mothers are.”

He went to call for another nurse or security, but I didn’t really care. I looked for the whiteboard that would inevitably have the bed assignments on it and saw Helen was in 34. I started to retch and barely found the can behind the nurse’s desk in time.

I felt something press against my ass and turned and saw the nurse from earlier had pushed a wheelchair up to my back, “You need to get back to your room.”

“My room was in the hallway. Just need to check on Helen and Daisy. Give me one of those AMA forms.”

He put a hand on my shoulder and I wilted the room spinning in the process, “Sit down and tie your fucking robe.”

I forced a laugh, “Nah, I’m newly single. Need to advertise.”

“Which room?”

“I was in the hallway.”

“Your mothers?”

“Helen was in 34.”

“Oh, that Helen.”

He pulled the chair back and started to push me towards what I presumed was room 34. I did my best not to hurl again as I was pushed up in front of a sliding glass door. He stepped around and opened it and pushed me in.

I forced my eyes back open and saw Helen was ... fine. She was lying on the bed in her street clothes tapping away on her phone. She looked up as I entered, “Johnny?”

“You seem, okay?”

“Yeah, I was buckled. Are you?”

The nurse pushed me into the room and helped me transfer to a cushioned bench built into the wall, “I’ll pretend I didn’t see you sneaking in here.”

I chuckled and sized him up, but dismissed the thought, “Thanks.” I turned to Helen, the room still shifting with me, “Concussion, not my first. I assume they did scans. Where is Daisy?”

I saw the worry flash on her face, “She is in surgery.” She extended one of her hands to me. I froze. I still wasn’t there yet, but Minnie was dead. Connie was in the Aether. I had no chance of reestablishing those relationships. I had no way to fix that. I wasn’t ready to give her emotional comfort, but I extended my hand and took hers. I gently squeezed it and counted off three seconds, trying to make the reaction seem more natural than it was.

“Why are you in a room when I was in the hallway?”

She glanced down at her phone, “I paid for about 60 percent of the last remodel of the ER here. It might’ve pushed me up the triage list.”

I sighed, “I assume that is giving you updates on Daisy?”

“Sort of, I have a few friends here and one of them is observing the surgery and texting me.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“She should be. She’s banged up, but they’re going to fix her arm and a punctured lung.”

Her slamming into the steering wheel flashed in front of my eyes, which was oddly clearer than what the world actually looked like.

She pulled her hand back, “Do you even care?” The tonal shift was striking. A minute ago, she’d been family reaching out even if it was distant, but the chill in that said a lot.

“I do.”

“Since when?”

“Can we talk about it after she is okay?”

“No ... I want to know. Your entire attitude changed. I’m not sure I can believe it.”

“But, I’m supposed to believe yours?...” I sighed, “Fine. My mother is dead.”

They haven’t asked about the damn video in a while.

“Daisy isn’t dead.”

“Not Daisy. Minnie. My mother is dead. She died alone and had her ashes scattered over an unmarked grave. I’m not religious, but she was and that would’ve pissed her off. I can’t fix that. I can’t ever get that back; I found Dad’s journals ... like they were hidden just for me. Set behind a chess puzzle to open a hidden cabinet with a safe and the combination being my fucking birthdate and while I was grieving, I went through every message, chat, and e-mail that this family has sent, and I noticed patterns ... I noticed you and Daisy needed reminding 8 or 9 times for all those events you went to for my sisters. That they started begging you for what they wanted weeks before each birthday. I ... thought it was just me, but they just begged you for your attention and I will never do that. Too much pride.”

“And that’s why you’re trying now?”

“That’s why I’m not hiding that I give a shit. I didn’t stop ... I just buried it deep. It’s the reason I stepped between Annie and Random. It’s the reason I didn’t fucking strangle the bitch. Some part of me still gives a shit ... there is one more thing I realized, but it’s all going to be moot when I leave anyway.”

“Why are you still going to leave?”

I heard a familiar voice from the door, “Because he told you he was and there is only one thing he’ll never do.”

My head flipped up, “Hey, Sarah.”

Helen asked, “What is that?”

Sarah answered, “He doesn’t lie or cheat. He’ll exploit the hell out of the rules, but he’ll never outright lie or break the rules of the game.”

Sarah walked over and sat on the bench seat next to me and I let myself melt into her and found myself drifting back off to sleep.

A few hours later

Sarah had woken me up and the nurse had come back and helped wheel me upstairs. Daisy had been given a room, Sarah had signed an AMA for me, and Helen had been discharged so we ended up going up to the sixth floor. I didn’t remember the trip in full, but when I was truly conscience again I saw my sisters had joined the fray. Sarah was still sitting next to me on an actual couch this time. Helen was bedside with the others in chairs nearby. I could see the Bitch eyeing me.

I turned my attention to Daisy who was still asleep. She had oxygen tubes running to her nostrils, but wasn’t on a ventilator and her right arm was in a cast. She was a few different shades of purple. I reached in and tried to tell what that made me feel, but it was still numb.