Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapters Ten & Eleven
Epilogue
Chapter 8
The rest of the afternoon sped by. The girls made peanut butter and turkey cracker sandwiches, which they declared to be ‘very good’ when I asked. They went out back and both got in the hammock. They watched the birds in the birdbath, laughing at them dunking themselves and shaking all the water off. That gave them the idea to run through the sprinkler, which I let them do.
6 o’clock came and went with no sign of Velma. I didn’t worry about it too much until about 6:30 or so. I asked Melissa to call home to see where she was. There was no answer. She said neither of them had a cell phone. By about 7:00 I was starting to worry. We called again and still there was no answer.
Finally around 7:15 I decided I should drive over to their house to see if I could figure out what was going on. I went next door and asked my neighbor Mary if she would watch the girls for a few minutes. She was happy to. I told her that if Velma or Angus came by it was fine to let Melissa go with them and to call me on my cell phone if they heard anything.
Velma and Angus lived in a nice mobile home park on the west edge of Sunrise. I had been in it once before to pick up some soccer supplies from a parent so I pretty much knew where I was going. Their mobile home was very nicely maintained, with a little flower bed next to an astroturf patio area. They had a lot of garden stones with words like ‘peace’ and ‘happiness’ carved into them.
I didn’t see their truck as I drove up and the blinds in the back window near the patio were closed. I knocked on the door but no one answered.
As I walked back out to my car an older gentleman on a bicycle was coming down the road waving to me. Right then my cell phone rang. It was my neighbor Mary. As she started talking so did the man on the bike. From both I heard the same thing, overlapping in a weird harmony, ‘Angus had to go to the hospital.’
I asked Mary how Melissa was doing and she said she was fine, all she knew was that Velma would be late. I asked, “So, what did Velma tell you?”
Mary explained, “She just said Angus had a bad pain and had to be looked at, that was all. She was sorry for the inconvenience and she would call when she was able to get back to the pay phone at the hospital.”
I asked Mary if she could stay for a while longer. “Yes of course. Do you want me to feed the girls?” I said that would be great.
I turned my attention to the gentleman on the bike. He continued, “Velma called the ambulance and they took Angus away on a stretcher. They had oxygen and a bunch of people all around him. I hope he is ok.”I was pretty sure what hospital they took him too but asked anyway just to be sure. “Yep, they took him to that little one on Rt. 57, up near the river.” I thanked him and headed north.
The hospital was a cinderblock affair, very small and utilitarian. What it lacked in beauty it made up for in kindness. I had brought all 3 of my girls here at one time or another. Caria had broken her leg playing soccer, Daria had been checked out after she got bit by a spider and Maria had her hand taken care of after burning it in the kitchen. Now you know why she knows the kitchen rules so well.
I parked next to Velma and Angus’s truck and made my way into the emergency entrance. Velma wasn’t in the waiting room so I asked at the desk if Angus Billet had been admitted. The woman at the desk turned out to be Betsy McMillan, who I recognized as a parent from Maria’s class. She looked up and said, “Hi Art. Yes, he was.”
“Hi Betsy, can you tell me what he was admitted for?” I asked.
“They think he had a heart attack.” She responded.
“Wow, that is no good at all. Velma told me he wasn’t feeling well today when she dropped off Melissa at our house.”I said.
“They have a daughter? That’s terrible.” She said as she returned to her paperwork.
“She’s a foster child, has only been with them a short while.” I explained.
“Well, it won’t be quite as hard on her then I guess.”
“What do you mean? Is he going to be in the hospital a while you think?” I asked.
“No, that heart attack, or whatever it was, was really bad. He didn’t make it.” She said.