by J. D. Mason
“It’s a fine time. How are you?”
“Exhausted. Been working a crazy schedule the last two weeks covering for another doctor in the ER.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. It’s my job, right? I was thinking about you,” he admitted.
He was thirty-five, eight years her junior. Terri looked at herself, wondering if what was happening was really happening, or even if it should.
“Still worried about my ankle?” she teased.
Eight years was a big difference, but for the first time in longer than she could remember, Nick brought a kind of real to her life that she couldn’t remember ever having.
“I’ll be back in town this weekend. Think we can get together?”
She smiled. “I’d like that, Nick.”
Terri had walked away from her career. Maybe now, it was time to walk away from that other version of herself, the one that could never quite grasp the idea of tangible.
“Cool,” he said. “I was thinking—”
“Dr. Hunt. You’re needed in emergency,” Terri heard someone interrupt.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, abruptly. “But I’ll call you later.”
“Okay. Talk to you soon.”
She’d spent her life chasing a dream only to end up here, in this small bungalow, in Devastation, Louisiana, with just herself. Terri dedicated all of herself to that dream and ultimately, she was all she had left. There was never the time or even the interest to seriously pursue romance. Marriage, a family, not even a dog played into the theater that was her life, but now she had this... this new existence and this new opportunity to explore what it was really like to get to know someone with the intention of forming an actual relationship. Sure, other actors did it all the time, but Terri had married desperation a long time ago, clinging to her career, her hopes for it like a buoy. Terri had lost everything she feared losing, and she was still here, still breathing, and that anxiety she’d clung to all those years was gone.
She smiled, but the tears came. Not sad tears. Not even close. Tears of relief, of release, and tears ushering in this new phase of her life. Terri, surprisingly, was looking forward to seeing Nick too.
Lanette’s serving tray had been sitting, nicely washed, on Terri’s kitchen counter for the past two weeks. She’d eaten so many biscuits, if she never saw another one, it’d be too soon, but dang, they were good. Terri hadn’t heard a peep out of Lanette since the day the woman abruptly showed up at her house for breakfast, which was fine by her, but she needed to return that dish to the woman so there’d be absolutely no ties between them.
“What’s, what’s happened?” Terri asked, stunned at the sight of Lanette being carried out of her house on a gurney and loaded into the back of an ambulance. “Is she, she alright?”
“You a relative?” one of the paramedics stopped to ask.
“No. No, I’m her... Is she okay?”
Lanette’s eyes were closed. She wasn’t moving.
“Do you know her family? Anyone you can get in touch with?”
The paramedic rushed over to the ambulance and climbed in behind the wheel.
“No, I… I don’t know.”
“We’re taking her to St. Agnes,” she informed Terri.
“Let’s go,” another paramedic shouted from the back.
“Can you please contact her family and let them know where she is?”
Terri nodded and backed away as the ambulance peeled off, sirens whirring. She felt like she’d been kicked in the gut.
They’d left the front door wide open. Numbly, Terri went to close it, but before closing it all the way, remembered that she’d come to drop off the dish. It was silly, but…
Family. She needed to find Lanette’s family and call them. Terri went inside and stopped just inside the doorway, bewildered by the scene.
Sunflowers on decorative pillows, painted on the walls, flowers in vases, some dead, some alive. The woman was obsessed with sunflowers and not in a good way. Terri winded through the living room crowded with too much furniture, tables, vases, and figurines, all in the shapes of or decorated with sunflowers.
Terri made her way to the kitchen, littered with Styrofoam containers, empty soda cans, and candy bar wrappers. She searched through kitchen drawers looking for a phone number or book with contact information for someone she could call. The search was futile. People didn’t write down phone numbers anymore. They kept their contact information on their…
“Cell phone,” she muttered, going back into the living room, then the bedroom looking for the woman’s phone.
Eventually, she found it underneath one of the pillows on the bed. Terri prayed it wasn’t locked, and it wasn’t. She clicked on the phone icon, then searched recent calls, but all she could find were calls to the electric and water companies, eight-hundred numbers. It was odd. Not one personal call to or from anyone. Terri decided to check her contacts list, and again, there were no personal contacts, except for one. Terri Dawson.
A sinking feeling weighed in her stomach. Crazy, Lanette had no friends. She had no one, because no one wanted to be bothered with her. There was no one to call. Not a single person who would be worried about her in that hospital… who would know if she lived or died.
Terri moaned, plopping down in a chair across from the woman’s bed.
Lanette had no one.
Terri uncovered her eyes and took a deep breath. “Shit, Lanette. Isn’t there anyone?”
As much of a pain in the ass as that woman had been since Terri first met her, she shouldn’t have cared. But she did.
Terri walked back across the clearing to her place, grabbed her purse and keys and got in the car, headed to St. Agnes.
Hard to Breathe
“Holding up good, old man.”
Luther sighed with relief after finishing up his exam.
“Old,” he repeated, taking a seat across from Ryan, his doctor. “I ain’t claiming that.”
“Good,” Ryan said, finishing up his notes. “Cut back on the salt and get back in the gym to get that blood pressure down.”
“Can I pick one or the other?”
“Nope. Both. It’s manageable now, but only if you make some lifestyle changes. Otherwise, I’ll have to put you on medication.”
“I don’t like medication.”
“Then follow my orders.”
“Roger that.”
Luther was fifty-four. Seemed like yesterday, he had finally managed to wrap his mouth around the word ‘fifty’, but sixty was coming at him like a bullet. It wasn’t that long ago when time didn’t mean shit because he had so much of it. At least, he thought he did. Time turned toxic when Ava got sick, though… as toxic as the Lupus gnawing on her.
“See you in a year,” Ryan said, following Luther out of the exam room.
“Same time, same place,” Luther agreed.
“Lanette Dole? They just bought her in less than an hour ago,” Terri explained to the receptionist at the front desk.
Luther was on his way out when he noticed her.
“Are you a relative?” the young woman asked, typing into the computer.
“No. I’m her neighbor. I tried find a relative, but — “”
“What’s going on?” Luther asked, appearing next to Terri.
Terri looked at him like she didn’t remember him.
“Luther,” he reminded her. “We met at the market. What’s going on with Lanette?”
“You know her?” Terri asked.
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“I don’t know,” Terri frantically said. “I went to return something to her and an ambulance was at her house. They brought her here. I tried to find family. Do you know any of her relatives?” Terri asked Luther.
“I’m her brother,” he lied.
Lanette had no family. At least, none that would come see about her.
“You’re her brother?” Terri asked.
He turned his attention to the woman behind
the counter. “Where is she?”
The receptionist sent them to the third floor where they waited until the attending physician came out and told them what had happened.
“The doctor is with her,” the nurse, a young blond woman, told them.
“What happened?” Terri asked, before Luther had a chance to, though he suspected he already knew the answer.
“Overdose,” she explained. “The doctor will be out shortly to give you an update.”
“Overdosed?” Terri asked, stunned.
“Why would she do something like that?” Terri muttered, looking lost, and then looking up at Luther. “Why would she do that?”
“Is she going to be all right?” he asked.
“It looks like she’ll be fine,” she assured them before leaving. “Physically.”
“Why the fuck would she do that?” Terri blurted out, lowering on shaky legs to the seat behind her. “Are you really her brother?”
“No,” he admitted. “But I knew they wouldn’t let us see her if I didn’t say I was.”
“We need to call her family, Luther,” she reasoned. “They should be here with her.”
“They won’t come, Terri.”
She looked surprised. “What? Why not?”
Luther sat next to her. Understanding Lanette wasn’t easy. Explaining her was hard as hell. She was younger than Luther, but older than Nick, and everything he knew about her was second-hand information.
“From what I hear, Lanette’s family doesn’t have anything to do with her.”
“So, we need to call them anyway and let them know she’s in the hospital, Luther.”
“It won’t matter,” he told her.
She looked like she didn’t believe him.
“Look, families have their differences, but when something like this happens—”
“It’s happened before. I’ve heard that this is what she does. Lanette takes pills, tries to kill herself and then calls the paramedics to come get her before it’s too late.”
“That’s crazy.”
“It is, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard of it.”
“Gossip. Stupid gossip. Who’d do that?”
“Look,” he said, exasperated. “From my understanding, there is no one in her life. You’re the only friend she has.”
“I’m not her friend,” Terri admitted, lowering her head.
“You’re here.”
“Because somebody had to be here. I tried to find a number for someone close to her.”
“Nothing?”
Terri was silent.
“Because there probably is no one. People steer clear of Lanette. I don’t have first-hand experience. I don’t know the details.” He shrugged. “As far as I know, she’s got no one.”
Tears glistened in her pretty eyes. “That’s so fucked up.”
“It is.”
Minutes passed before she finally spoke up again. “She tried to be my friend,” Terri told him. “I pushed her away because…”
“She’s a lot?”
“That’s the understatement to end all understatements.”
“I’ve heard that too.”
“Pushy. Presumptuous. Irritating. Sarcastic. Bossy. Demanding.”
“I get it.”
“She doesn’t listen. Lanette does what she wants and drags you with her because she doesn’t see you, or hear you, or care, but she pretends you’re all she cares about until it becomes smothering, suffocating—”
“I get it, Terri.” he said, cutting her off. “She’s a lot.”
“Nobody likes her?”
He shrugged.
“It’s understandable,” Terri concluded. “But sad. Sad enough for her to do this.”
Terri looked into his eyes. Luther’s heart kicked.
“Does she have family in town?” Terri asked him.
“I think she’s got sisters in town, Liza and Lilly or Lola, something like that. I think her mother died, and I don’t know about her father.”
Terri stared straight ahead. Luther stared at her, moved by her concern for a woman she didn’t even like.
“Hi,” the doctor said, approaching the two of them. “Are you here for Lanette?”
Both stood.
“How is she?” Terri asked.
“She’s fine. Resting. We had to pump her stomach.” Concern creased the woman’s brow. “This isn’t her first suicide attempt,” she explained. “We’d like to put her on a 72-hour psychiatric hold for evaluation.”
Terri looked at Luther. “Do you need permission to do that?”
“Not for 72 hours. After that, she can refuse care. I think it’d be in her best interest that we evaluate her.”
“Agreed,” Luther offered before Terri could even think of arguing. Lanette obviously needed help.
“Can she see anyone?” Terri asked.
The doctor smiled. “Sure, but only for a few minutes. She’s exhausted.”
Luther followed Terri, taking cautious steps toward Lanette’s bed. It didn’t take long for him to realize Terri had no idea what to say to the woman. Lanette managed to open her eyes and turned her head towards Terri.
“You okay?” Terri asked.
A tear streamed down the side of Lanette’s face. She looked away and closed her eyes again. Terri hovered over her for a few moments before turning to leave.
Luther managed to convince her to go to the coffee shop to compose herself before getting in the car and driving home.
“I understand depression,” she told him, hovering over a cup of hot tea. “We all go through it from time to time.”
“We all do,” he agreed. Luther knew it all too well.
“I feel guilty,” she admitted.
“Why?”
“Because I told her that I didn’t want to be her friend, not knowing that she didn’t have any, and then this happens.”
“What’s that got to do with you?” he asked, a bit taken aback by her believing she had that kind of impact on the woman.
“If I hadn’t pushed her away…”
Luther cocked a brow. “She wouldn’t be here?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re not that important, Terri,” he blurted out, clearly insulting the woman.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Lanette has issues. Issues that she had long before you showed up in town.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she argued. “Why are you trying to make this sound so—”
“Egotistical?”
She pushed her cup away and slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Thanks for the tea.”
“Terri,” he said, knowing it was too late.
She left him sitting there, feeling like a complete ass. Luther rushed after her to apologize.
“Terri,” he called out, racing to catch up with her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
She spun to face him, pissed. “I am not so full of myself that I think I’m to blame for what she did.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know. You don’t know me. I was mean to her. I was impatient. Maybe if I’d been more empathetic, she wouldn’t feel so alone. Maybe if we were all more empathetic with her, she wouldn’t be here.”
“You’re right.”
“Goddamn right I’m right,” she said, storming off again.
“Or,”—he continued following her— “she’s got deeper problems than just needing empathy or patience.”
“What’s your point?” she stopped and spun to face him again.
“My point is don’t blame yourself. Lanette needs help. Maybe now, with you pushing her away, she’ll finally get it.”
That was better. He hoped.
She took a deep breath and seemed to deflate before his eyes. “Broken people,” she murmured, lowering her head.
“Don’t be hard on yourself,” Luther continued, resisting the urge to pull her into his arms. “You’re here for her now when no one else would come. She
might not have said it, but I have a feeling, it matters.”
Terri wrapped her arms around him, rested her head against his chest, and exhaled slowly. Luther hesitated before wrapping his arms around her.
“You’re right on both accounts,” she murmured. “I can be full of myself and she does need help.”
Luther swallowed. “Uh, okay.”
She pushed back, looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks, Luther.”
“For what?”
She shrugged. “For pretending to be her brother. For staying and for listening.”
“No problem.”
Something happened. A pause between them. A look. They both noticed and without saying a word, they both acknowledged it.
“I should be going,” she said, stepping away.
“Yeah, uh. You going to be alright?”
She nodded and smiled. “I’ll be fine. Thanks again.”
Terri waived and left him standing there, feeling the kind of school-boyish shit he hadn’t felt since high school.
Tragedy
Terri was all up in her feelings. What else would compel her to wrap her arms around that tall, dark, pillar of a gorgeous man she barely knew? Luther smelled like ocean air, Redwood trees, a thick, warm blanket, a cool fan, a burning candle, and fresh water. He smelled wonderful and felt as solid as iron, as valuable as gold, as coveted as ivory, and as precious as platinum. Damn!
Terri managed to make it back to her car on legs that were, hopefully, unnoticeably wobbly, tossing one last wave over her shoulder, and topping it off with a friendly smile. Superman had kryptonite. Terri, obviously, had Luther. The thought that a man could have this kind of effect on her was unsettling, and she desperately needed to put some distance between him and her before she did something stupid, like get pregnant.
He stood off in the distance and waited for her to pull out of the parking lot. Terri’s heart lurched as she drove past him, waving. What in the world was in the water in Devastation, Louisiana? Tall, handsome men were casting all kinds of spells on Terri, melting her resolve like butter in a hot skillet.
“Geesh,” she said in exasperation. “Get it together, T.”
To be thinking about a man right now, with Lanette laying up in that hospital all by herself, was ridiculous. The fact that there was no one from her family who cared enough to check on her was insane. Luther said she has sisters. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe, they would be concerned if they knew.