Yes, I Know the Monkey Man

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  Then all that shopping would have been for nothing. “Nonsense,” Bob’s mother said. “Neither one of you should back out.”

  “That’s right,” Suzanne said. “I asked you both to be in my wedding because I wanted you both there. I like the idea of the bridesmaids walking in by themselves. What do you think, dear?” she asked Bob.

  “I think that would work,” he said. I had a feeling Bob didn’t care either way.

  “And I don’t think it matters if there’s an uneven number of bridesmaids and groomsmen standing at the front of the church,” Suzanne added. Grandma Sperling sort of scowled.

  “Well, let’s try it, then,” the minister said. “Bridesmaids, why don’t you go with Suzanne. Line up in the order you’re going to be in tomorrow. Bob, groomsmen, come with me.”

  All the men who were in the wedding walked through a door at the front of the church. Suzanne, Grandpa Sperling, and all the bridesmaids moved to the back of the church. Grandma Sperling trotted after the bridesmaids. Everyone else sat in the pews and watched us. “What order do we walk in?” Sam asked.

  “Well, your mom goes last,” one of Bob’s sisters said. “She’s the bride. And Paula goes second to the last since she’s the matron of honor. The rest of us? I don’t know. It’s up to you, Suzanne.”

  “The girls should go first,” Grandma Sperling said.

  “Okay. But which of us goes first first?” Sam asked.

  “You do,” I said. That way I could watch her and do whatever she did.

  “I think they should go together,” Paula said.

  “Oh, I like that idea,” Suzanne said. So Sam and I moved to the front of the line and stood side by side.

  “Are you all ready back there?” the minister called from the front of the church.

  “Ready,” Suzanne said. She held her paper plate bouquet in front of her like it was a real bouquet of flowers and smiled. Grandpa Sperling stood quietly beside her.

  “Ready,” Sam called back to the minister.

  “Okay, you two start walking as soon as the music starts,” the minister told Sam and me. He nodded to someone in the balcony and a couple of violins started playing. Whoa. I wasn’t expecting violin music. And I wasn’t expecting to hear a song that wasn’t “Here Comes the Bride.” Wasn’t that the official wedding song?

  I watched as Bob, the minister, and the four groomsmen strode out of that little side room at the front of the church. They looked like soldiers. The minister and the groomsmen marched up the steps, but Bob went and stood down by the front pew.

  “Come on,” Sam hissed, grabbing my arm. “The music started.”

  “Remember, girls,” the minister said over the violins. “This is a solemn occasion. Walk with the music. And with each other.”

  We were walking with each other.

  Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. I felt really stupid because everyone was watching us. I hoped we were doing it right. I also felt stupid because I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt while Sam was wearing this pretty skirt and blouse. We didn’t match and for once I sort of wished we did.

  “Where do we go?” I asked Sam as we approached the end of the aisle.

  “I think we go up the stairs and stand on the other side from where the guys are standing.”

  “That’s right,” the minister said. “Go all the way down so you leave room for the other bridesmaids.”

  When we got there I wasn’t sure which direction we were supposed to face: the front of the church or the back. The groomsmen were all facing the back, so Sam and I turned around, too. By then one of Bob’s sisters was already on the steps, the other was halfway up the aisle, and Paula was just starting down the aisle.

  Once all the bridesmaids got to the front of the church, the music stopped. But Suzanne and Grandpa Sperling were still back where we started. What was going on? Why did the music stop and why were Suzanne and her father just standing there?

  “All rise,” the minister said and the few people who were in the pews stood up.

  A trumpet and piano started to play. I didn’t know what they were playing, but it gave me goose bumps because it sounded so majestic. You’d think the president of the United States was coming into the church, but it was just Suzanne, clutching her paper plate bouquet with one hand and Grandpa Sperling’s elbow with the other. This is my mother, I thought. She looks so … beautiful.

  Sam nudged me. “What’s the matter?” she whispered. “You look like you’re going to cry or something.”

  What? I did not. “I never cry,” I informed her.

  “You look like you’re going to.”

  I sniffed. “Well, I’m not.”

  And I didn’t.

  After that the minister went through the whole service and explained what happened when. The singers ran through their song, which was some lovey-dovey thing I’d never heard before. Then the minister explained how the unity candle worked and where everyone was supposed to stand when it was being lit. While he was talking, Sam’s cell phone rang inside my front pocket.

  Everyone, including the minister, looked toward me and Sam.

  “Samantha!” Suzanne cried. “You know better than to bring your cell phone to church.”

  “She didn’t bring it,” I said as I slid the phone out of my pocket. It rang even louder then. “I brought it.” But whoever was calling obviously wasn’t calling me; they were calling Sam. And since it wasn’t my phone, I didn’t know how to make it stop ringing.

  Sam grabbed her phone out of my hand and turned it off. Then she looked around for a place to stash it. “I’ll put it back in my pocket,” I told her.

  “No,” Grandma Sperling said. “I’ll take it.” She marched up the steps us with her hand outstretched. This time she gave us both a nasty look.

  Sam had no choice but to hand the phone over to her grandmother.

  No! How was I going to call Joe now?

  After the rehearsal we went to this really fancy restaurant for dinner. All the tables had white tablecloths and candles in little bowls. And was that steak that I smelled back in the kitchen? I still felt out of place in my shorts. Not to mention cold. The air conditioning must have been cranked all the way up. But once we sat down, no one could see my shorts anymore. I sat at a table with Sam and Suzanne and Bob. Grandma and Grandpa Sperling sat at another table with Bob’s parents.

  It was steak that I smelled. Once everyone was seated, the waiters started bringing out plates and setting them in front of people. I love steak, but I haven’t had it very often. When I got my plate, I just leaned over and breathed in the smell. There was also a weird green vegetable that came in long spears. I wasn’t sure what that was. And mashed potatoes with the peels mixed in. Mmm … I couldn’t wait to dig in.

  I picked up my knife and started cutting. My knife slid through the meat like it was soft butter. I popped a piece into my mouth and just about died, it tasted so good. Then I realized I was the only one eating. In fact, I was the only one who’d even started cutting the steak. I slowly set down my silverware. What was the deal? We all had this amazing meal in front of us. Why wasn’t anyone eating it?

  “Go ahead,” Bob said to me and everyone else at the table. “Eat.”

  Sam and I glanced at each other out of the corners of our eyes, then we both started eating. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. Not until I’d cleaned my whole plate. Man, that was one of the best meals I’d ever had. In fact, it was so good I felt a little bit guilty. Joe sure wasn’t having a meal like this in the hospital.

  I leaned over to Sam and whispered, “Do you think you can get your phone back from your grandma?”

  She didn’t look real thrilled about trying. “I don’t know,” she whispered back. “Maybe. Why?”

  “I want to call Joe.” Everyone else was still eating and talking and laughing, so this seemed like a good time to sneak out and try to make a phone call.

  She looked confused. “But we already know about Katie.”

&nbs
p; “I know. I just want to talk to him.” Joe and I still had a lot to talk about.

  Sam wiped her mouth with her napkin, then got up and made her way over to the grandparent table. I watched as she put her head close to Grandma Sperling’s, but I couldn’t tell whether her grandmother was going to give her the phone or not.

  Yes! Grandma Sperling leaned over and pulled Sam’s phone out of her purse. When Sam came back, she slipped the phone into my hand.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  I started to stand up and Suzanne asked, “Where are you going, T.J.?”

  Uh-oh. Could she see the phone? I put that hand behind my back and said, “I need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

  She wasn’t going to make Sam come with me, was she?

  “Don’t be too long,” she said. “There’ll be dessert in a little bit.”

  “Okay,” I said. I meandered around all the tables and through the restaurant lobby. When I went out the door a blast of warm air hit me.

  I opened Sam’s phone and punched in the number for Joe’s hospital room. Once again, nobody answered. I sighed as I slammed Sam’s phone shut.

  Why wasn’t Joe answering his phone?

  The next morning everyone was bustling around the house like crazy. Suzanne was trying to get ready for the wedding, trying to pack her overnight bag for the hotel that night, and trying to make sure she didn’t forget anything. Grandma Sperling had made bacon and eggs and was trying to get everyone to sit down and eat, but Grandpa Sperling was the only one who actually did. I reached for a slice of bacon, then went to see what Sam was doing. She was running around her room gathering up earrings, a bracelet, and a hair clip.

  “Hey, do you still have my phone?” she asked when she saw me standing in her doorway.

  “Do you need it?” I really didn’t want to give it back. Not until I talked to Joe.

  She looked at me funny. “Not at the moment. But I should charge it up in case I need it later.”

  It was her phone. I couldn’t think of a reason to keep it if she wanted it back.

  “I’ll go get it,” I said. When I came back she wasn’t in her room anymore. She was in the bathroom, messing with her hair.

  Suzanne breezed past us, then did a double take when she saw what Sam was doing. “Sam! Why are you curling your hair? You’ve got an appointment in half an hour.”

  “Because I haven’t decided what I want them to do with my hair!”

  Suzanne sighed. “I thought you were going to have them pin it up.”

  “I don’t know. I might want it long and curly. I’m trying something different.”

  “Well, are you ready to go?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about you, T.J.?” Suzanne asked. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Go? Go where?”

  “To the hairdresser’s,” Suzanne said like I should have known.

  “I don’t need to go to the hairdresser.”

  Suzanne took a deep breath. I thought she was going to lose it there for a second, but I honestly wasn’t trying to make her mad.

  “Look, my hair isn’t even an inch long.” I pinched a section of my hair to show her. “What do I need to go to a hairdresser for? I can just wash it here. They’re not going to comb it any different than I would.”

  “You don’t want to go to the hairdresser with Grandma, Sam, and me?”

  “Not really.” It seemed like a big waste of money.

  “Well, okay,” Suzanne said a little reluctantly. “You’ll be here by yourself, though. Grandpa’s going to come along and get his suit while we’re at the hairdressers.”

  Great! Then I could try Joe again.

  I tried not to appear too eager for them to leave. But it had been way too long since I’d talked to Joe and it took them way too long to get going.

  Once they were gone, I ran up to Sam’s room and looked around for her phone, but I couldn’t find it. She must have taken it with her. Suzanne probably had hers with her, too, but I went into her bedroom to check. The room smelled like her. All soapy and flowery. I felt funny being in her room when she wasn’t home, and I didn’t see her phone, so I left.

  I decided there wasn’t any reason I couldn’t use their main phone. As long as it could make long-distance phone calls. So I went into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and punched in Joe’s number at the hospital.

  The call went through.

  “Hello?” Someone answered this time. A woman. It sounded like the same woman I’d talked to yesterday.

  “I’d like to talk to my dad. Joseph Wright.”

  “I’m sorry. He’s not here anymore.”

  “What do you mean? Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is his bed is made up and he’s not here.” There was a pause and I heard another voice in the background. “My husband says the nurses gathered up his things late yesterday afternoon. We don’t know what happened to him.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I called the main number for the hospital and asked to talk to the nurse on Joe’s floor. “I’m sorry,” the nurse said. “Your father is no longer a patient here.”

  “Why not? Where’d he go?” He couldn’t possibly have gone home. Not without anyone there to take care of him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I cannot release that information.” It was the same thing they’d told me yesterday.

  “Privacy rules again?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, he didn’t die or anything, did he?” I didn’t really think he had, but when she gave me the same old “I’m sorry, but I cannot release that information” line, I started to wonder.

  “I’m his daughter!” I cried. “You can’t even tell me if my dad is alive or not?”

  “I’m sorry—”

  I hung up. She wasn’t sorry at all.

  Joe couldn’t have died. He just had a broken back. He was getting better. But if he wasn’t in the hospital anymore, where was he? I tried calling our number, just in case he had somehow gotten home, but the answering machine picked up.

  I sighed. Why, oh why, hadn’t I tried harder to get ahold of him yesterday?

  Maybe Gram knew something. She’d said she was going to call the hospital yesterday. I called the nursing home and Nurse Kari answered the phone.

  “I’m sorry, T.J.,” she said. “Your grandma had another stroke early this morning.”

  My heart stopped. “What?” No. Not Gram on top of Joe.

  Was this stroke my fault? Joe told me not to tell her about Sam and Suzanne.

  “Is she.?” I couldn’t even say the words.

  “She’s in the hospital,” the nurse said. “We’ve been trying to reach your dad for the last two hours. Do you know where he is?”

  I swallowed hard. “Here’s the thing. I’m at … my mom’s. In Iowa. And Joe … he … had an accident.” I ended up telling Kari the whole story, from the moment Joe’s boss called to tell me he fell off the roof to the fact that he was no longer a patient at Fairview and I had no idea where he was now.

  “Oh, honey,” Kari said. “I’m so sorry.” She went on to tell me way more about privacy laws than I ever wanted to know, none of it very helpful. Then she said, “Don’t worry about your grandma, she’s going to be fine. Right now you should concentrate on finding out where your dad is. I’m not going to be able to help you with that, but why don’t you have your mom call the hospital? Maybe she can get some information for you.”

  “Maybe,” I said. But there was no way I was going to get Suzanne involved. I’d figure something out on my own. I always did. “So what hospital did you send Gram to?” Would privacy laws prevent Kari from telling me that, too?

  “Fairview Southdale,” she said.

  Great. The same hospital Joe was at. Or used to be at.

  I called Fairview back and asked for Eva Wright’s room. But of course, Gram didn’t answer. Nobody did. And when I called again and asked to talk to a nurse on Gram’s floor, all I found
out was that Gram was sleeping and she was “stable.”

  So now what?

  My family was having this huge crisis and there wasn’t a thing I could do to help. I couldn’t talk to my grandma. I didn’t know where Joe was or if he was even alive. And if I gave Suzanne any idea that anything was wrong, I’d probably never be allowed to go home.

  I tried to act normal when everyone came back. “Wow, you guys look nice,” I said cheerfully. Grandma Sperling didn’t look much different from the last time I saw her, but Suzanne and Sam did. Suzanne’s hair was all braided up and twisted around her head. Little white flowers poked through the braids. Sam’s hair was braided on the sides, but the back hung long and curly.

  “Thank you, T.J.” Suzanne beamed.

  Sam looked at me like, What’s wrong with you?

  What? Wasn’t it normal to compliment people when they’d just come back from the hairdresser’s?

  We gathered up clothes and shoes and bags of who-knows-what and then headed over to the church. Even though we still had almost two hours before the wedding. What were we going to do for two hours?

  I don’t know what the guys were doing, but the women—at least the women in Suzanne and Bob’s families—all crammed into the church nursery to get dressed and do hair and makeup. It was like a big party in there, all these half-dressed women talking and laughing.

  “Let’s go over there,” Sam said, pointing to a quiet corner of the room, away from everyone else. There was even an easel we could sort of hide behind while we put on our dresses.

  What would it be like to be part of a big, happy family like this? I wondered as I gazed over the top of the easel at the people on the other side of the room. A family where everybody loved each other and there were no secrets.

  What happened with Joe and me would never happen in this family. No one would ever take a kid away for ten years and let the rest of the family think that kid was dead. It just wouldn’t happen. And if someone in this family was in the hospital, no one would have to worry about privacy laws because everyone would already be there at the hospital. All the time. They’d always know what was going on.