With nowhere else to go, I turned my head away.
“Sadie?” another voice called.
I opened my eyes and peered around Hector’s body. I could see both Ralphie and Buddy standing just inside the door.
Hector stepped to the side and I saw them fully.
Ralphie was carrying an overnight bag. Buddy was carrying a huge vase of exquisite white calla lilies, my favorites.
They were staring at me and they looked pale (yes, even Buddy, I didn’t know black people could go pale but he did).
“Sweetie?” Ralphie said hesitantly.
Even though he called me “sweetie” (and he’d never called me “sweetie”), Ice Princess clicked into place.
“I’m okay,” I said immediately.
One second Ralphie was across the room. The next second I was in his arms.
“Oh Sadie, sweet ‘ums. You didn’t have an accident, did you?” he asked, his voice whisper-soft, one arm around my waist, the other hand stroking my back.
“Ralphie, I’m fine.” I held my body rigid and spoke to his throat.
He leaned back and looked down at me. “Sweetie, you are not fine. I can see, can’t I? I didn’t go blind in the night like a bad Jodie Foster movie. And I just got back from your apartment. It’s a disaster. What on earth happened? Who did this to you?”
This was not working well for me. It was all coming at me. Everyone was talking about it. How could I set it aside to deal with it later when people were talking about it?
“I’m gonna break his fuckin’ neck.” Buddy was now at our side.
I turned my head and looked up at Buddy, he got a close look at my face and I saw his teeth clench.
Then he repeated between his teeth, “I’m gonna break his fuckin’ neck. Who did it?”
“I’m fine,” I said again.
“You have a cast on your wrist,” Ralphie pointed out and I looked back at Ralphie.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
“You have a bandage on your face,” Ralphie went on.
I could take no more and really, could you blame me?
So I screamed, “I’m fine!”
Ralphie had never seen me lose my cool, never, therefore at my scream he winced. Then for some reason, he ignored my Chill Factor. His arms got tight and he pulled me close.
And no one had held me like that for as long as I could remember.
And I couldn’t bear it anymore.
I shoved my face in his ultra-elegant shirt and clenched his uber-stylish suit jacket in my good hand and I cried.
I didn’t care who saw me. Not even Hector.
Fuck it. I could take no more.
It was not wracking, sobbing, loud crying. It was silent, body-jerking, soul-wrenching crying.
Through it all, and it seemed to last a long time, Ralphie held on.
“Get it out, sweet ‘ums, give it to Ralphie,” he muttered finally.
“I have to go home,” I said into his shirt.
“You can’t go home,” Ralphie replied.
“I have to go home. I have to get out of here,” I said back but I didn’t take my face from Ralphie’s shirt.
“You’ll go home,” Buddy said from close to our side and I felt another hand slide around my waist as Buddy got closer and affected a group hug.
“Thank you,” I whispered, not looking up, not looking at Ralphie or Buddy and definitely not Hector or Daisy.
“You’ll go home, Sadie,” Buddy said. “You’ll go home with us.”
Chapter Three
I Waited
Hector
Hector sat, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his left hand dangling, his right hand holding a Jack and Coke.
Actually, he’d started out the night adding Coke but he hadn’t bothered with it for the last two drinks.
“Hermano, you gotta talk,” Eddie said to him.
Hector looked at his older brother. Eddie was sitting across from him in Hector’s living room.
The living room was a pit, he’d been working steadily on the house now for months but there was a lot of work to do, he’d barely scratched the surface. The living room was a jumble of unpacked boxes and furniture most if it covered in heavy, plastic sheets. Hector was refinishing the floors in the study and dining room. He should have started with the living room.
Hector looked back to the floor and said, “I fucked up, I know it and I’ll fix it.”
Then at the thought of “fixing” Sadie, unwanted and disconnected memories flashed through his brain.
Her standing at the sink in the bathroom at the hospital.
Her crying silently into her friend’s chest.
Her saying she wanted to take a walk instead of admitting she had to use the bathroom.
Her bloody face, bloody legs and the limp body he held as she told him there was no one to care if she woke up.