by Rob Jones
“Yes it is. Oh, that reminds me, I’ve got to get going. I promised my nana, I mean my grandmother, that I would do some yard work today for her. You know, mowing, raking leaves, all that fun stuff. So um, thank you so much for taking those amazing pictures. You are an incredible photographer. I can see why you are highly recommended.”
“It was truly my pleasure, and I hope that I can truly show you my pleasure very soon.” She kissed him on the cheek and slipped her business card into his front pocket. “I will be expecting a call, Mr. Thorn.”
***
“Ugh, she is being so unreasonable!” Ethan expressed frustration after talking to Zoe on the phone. There had to be a way that they could meet in the middle, come to some kind of compromise. He knew he didn’t want to get married right now: the timing couldn’t be more wrong for them both. He wanted to do the right thing for her and the baby, but he truly didn’t know what that was.
He had dreams of conquering the music world, to honor his father’s memory, he knew his purpose, his own specific journey that had been waiting on him all of his life. He couldn’t just abandon and forfeit his destiny because of one night of weakness. But was it destiny talking to him now or was it the voice of selfishness, the voice of inconsideration? He no longer was certain. So he would do what Nana’s coffee cups said: Pray and let God worry.
“Hey, beautiful lady, where are you?” He walked in the open door of Helen’s house. “Nana, I’m going to work out in the yard, okay?” A stillness was loitering all through the house. “Nana? Hmm, I didn’t see her outside,” he murmured. He could see a sliver of light from the closed door of the bathroom. “Nana, are you in there?” He knocked. “Nana? Nana?” He gradually turned the knob on the door, opened it and found Helen lying on her back on the floor.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Ethan
“Mr. Thorn?” The distinguished doctor with a thick Pakistani accent approached Ethan with an even-keeled look on his face.
“Yes, how is she doing? Is she going to be okay?” Ethan stood up with urgent, bloodshot eyes.
“Mrs. Thorn is resting comfortably right now, but we do have some concerns.” He looked Ethan directly in the eyes. “She has bacterial pneumonia that apparently developed from the flu, and a significant infection has matured in her lungs. Her air sacs are inflamed and filled with fluid. Her immune system is having a tough time fighting it off.”
Despondency poured through Ethan. He couldn’t imagine his life without Helen. She was his rock, his champion, his best friend. He refused to believe that there would be a chance that he could lose her.
“What are her chances of recovering from this?” His voice trembled.
“It all depends on how she responds to the antibiotics and the supplemental oxygen therapy. We will closely be monitoring Mrs. Thorn and doing all we can to expedite her recovery,” he said candidly.
“Can I see her?”
“Yes, but I want you to be aware that she may not be responsive. Be sure to mask up before you go in. She’s in room 322.”
“Thank you, Dr. Singh.” He walked down the hall slowly, trying to prepare himself for what he was about to see. He sucked in a breath, then put on a mask from the cart in front of the door. He hesitantly opened the door to her room. A rush of emotions drained from his eyes. He made a valiant effort to try to hold back the tears by closing his eyes, but he was no match for the liquid onslaught. He understood that she could not see him cry, but somehow he convinced himself that she was fully aware, so he turned his back to her, looked up, and caressed the back of his neck. He took a moment to assemble his composure before walking over and pulling up a chair next to her bed. He regarded her with pity while his knee bounced up and down, triggered by nerves. He reached for her slender, veiny hand, kissed it through the mask, and bowed his head and prayed silently. Beeps, a buzzing light, and voices outside the door created a diversion from the ominous silence. Hours of nurses, missed calls and texts passed by before he got up to stretch his legs. He walked toward the window and looked keenly as the night spilled over the sky, drawing feathery clouds across the moon.
“Hummingbird?” Ethan immediately turned around and rushed to her bedside.
“Nana, Nana, Nana, oh it’s so good to hear your voice, like music to my ears.” Solace enshrouded his heart as he embraced her hand.
“Hummingbird.” Her breathing was ragged and frail. “Honey, you look worn out. Don’t you dare worry about me, I’ll be fine.” He thought he was drained of tears, but they kept falling like drops of rain from his eyes.
“I know, Nana, I know.” He nodded his head vigorously.
“Listen, honey, I need you to promise me something.”
Anything, Nana, anything.”
“Don’t put your life on hold on my account, continue to tour and play your music. But more importantly, be consumed with benevolence, be a symbol of sacrifice. Remember the words of our good Lord.” She let out a wet cough, then cleared her throat. “Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friend.” Also remember what Pastor Dean told you, ground yourself in love, Ethan, and watch your dreams soar. Promise me you will do these things, Ethan.”
“Okay, Nana, okay.” He sniffed, while tears stains his face. She submitted a comforting smile, then she rested her eyes.
Ethan kept singing the words to the song You Are My Sunshine to Helen over and over again, reminding him of the times when his mother used to comfort him by singing it to him when he was a child. “I love you, Nana.”
***
Zoe
“What! Zoe, don’t even play with me like that. I know you. There is no possible way that you’re pregnant.” Tori’s eyes filled with hysteria. “What…how…I-I…I am at a loss for words.”
“I know, Tori, I can’t believe it either. I can’t believe it happened.”
“Ooh girl, I can’t believe this! You almost made me curse. I’m so mad at you right now.” She plopped down on the sofa at Zoe’s house. “Does Ethan know about this?”
“Yes, I told him, and of course he freaked out.” Zoe sat beside her.
“So what now, Puritan? Hmm, I guess that name doesn’t apply to you any longer.” Tori laughed and Zoe responded with a look of derision.
“Too soon?” Tori cleared her throat. “Girl, you know that you will always be Puritan to me, no matter how many times you get pregnant.” Zoe managed to crack a smile.
“So what are you guys going to do?”
“Well, I mentioned the M-word to Ethan but he shot it down. He said that I wanted to get married for the wrong reason.” She could still feel the disappointment prodding within her. “He suggested adoption, but I know he really wants me to get an abortion, which is totally out of the question. So it looks like I’m just going to be a single mother walking around with a scarlet letter branded on my cleavage.”
“I think Ethan has a point, Zoe. A part of you wants to get married for the wrong reason.” Tori widened her eyes and tightened her lips.
“Go ahead and finish your thought, please.” Zoe rolled her eyes.
“Listen, I’m going to keep it real with you, Zoe. You want to get married to protect your pristine reputation, so that the church and the community won’t be spreading disparaging gossip about you, whispering behind your back, and judging you because you are a preacher’s daughter. Trust me, I get it, I understand, but that’s not a good reason to get married.”
Even though those words stung, she knew they were true and that Tori and Ethan were right. Her reasons for marrying Ethan were convoluted. But she did love him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, and before she got pregnant they’d briefly talked about getting married once they were established in their careers. So what if they just sped up the process and got married a little sooner? They were going to do it eventually. She knew this was fear, pride, and hormones talking.
“I don’t like you right now, Tori. I hate it when you’re right.” S
he gave her a huge hug.
“I love you too, Puritan. By the way, that deer really jacked up your house, girl. You all are going to be renovating until Jesus comes back.” Zoe’s cell phone rang.
“That must be Ethan.” She got up to answer it. “Hmm, this number doesn’t look familiar. “Hello,” she answered cautiously.
“Yes, is Ethan there?”
“This is not Ethan’s number, who is this?”
“This is Khloe.” Zoe remembered that name. She was the girl in the pictures that was draped all over Ethan on Ligon’s phone.
“First of all, how did you get my number, and what do you want with Ethan?”
“You better take that volume down a little out of your voice before I put these hands on you, girlfriend. Just tell Ethan that I left my favorite Victoria’s Secret underwear under his bed, and if he could—” Zoe hung up on her in mid-sentence. She dropped the cell on the floor, and she felt all the color and emotion drain from her face. All that was residing underneath her skin became numb and dead.
“Zoe, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Tori got up and walked toward her. “Zoe, who was that?” Zoe looked at Tori with emptiness in her eyes, as if she was looking through her.
“That was Khloe with a K.”
“Who’s Khloe?” Tori enquired.
“She’s the one Ethan is cheating on me with.”
***
Ethan
Ethan, running a little late, blazed into the parking lot where the rest of the band and Bella were waiting to load the bus for their next mini tour. He was blasting the song Let’s Go Crazy by Prince. He parked and proceeded out of the car with luggage and a bottle of Jack.
“Look, Ethan, we have our own tour bus!” Owen shouted out while pointing to the black and silver bus.
“Yeah, I was told this will be cheaper than paying for hotel rooms that you brain-dead juveniles will surely damage. This used to be Allen Down’s band’s old bus,” Bella chimed in.
“Woo man, you smell like Ozzy Osbourne just vomited all over you. Ew!” Owen waved his hand in front of his nose. Ethan walked past them all toward the bus without acknowledging them.
“Oh Lord!” Bella walked onto the bus after him and crossed her arms. “All right, spill it. Whenever you play Let’s Go Crazy something’s not right and your mood becomes like a grumpy old woman who found out she’s in menopause.” He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
“Yep, I’m right. You’re toxic right now, so I guess I’ll tell everyone to stay off your radar until the coast is clear.” She rolled her eyes.
When Wes and Owen stepped on the bus, they looked all around, grinning from ear to ear. Dan climbed on shortly after. He saw Bella and offered her a glad-to-see-you smile and she corresponded with one of her own. They sat down together, going over the itinerary, laughing, telling inside jokes, and finishing each other’s sentences.
“Well, looks like someone sealed the deal.” Wes observed them. “It’s safe to say that you two are officially a couple. Let’s give a round of applause for the fools who just fell in love.” He and Owen gave enthusiastic but fraudulent applause.
“Shut up, Wes.” Bella sunk down in her seat, shielding a smile that was on her face with her hand.
“You see these two, Ethan, trying to be incognito about their torrid affair?” Wes observed Ethan. “Man, is that you smelling like that? You are living foul, bro. You’re unshaven, your hair is jacked up.” He saw the bottle of Jack between his legs. “Man, have you been drinking all morning? Dude, are you cool? This is so unlike you.”
“No, I’m far from it.” He put his head back against the headrest. .
“This is going to be a long tour,” Wes added.
“What’s up, losers?” Ligon entered the bus, with his eyes popped and roaring. “Our second tour, boys, and this time we got our own bus. We are on the rise.” He rubbed his tongue over his teeth. “This is the life, rocking all night and partying every day. Those boys from Kiss sure knew what they were talking about.”
The members of the Gutter Dollz crept on the bus with the aroma of last night drenched all over them.
“Somebody looks like they broke all kind of rules last night. Give me the dirty details,” Ligon commented.
“Pipe down, my man, much too early for talk.” Syd sat down and laid his head back on the seat. “I’m in need of some shut mouth from you all.”
“Dude, I’m afraid that you’re on the wrong tour bus. This bus is only for degenerate party rock gods. We’ll drop you off at the nearest nursing home.” An uproar of laughter broke out on the bus.
“Ha, ha, ha, you’re a real comedian.” Syd offered a sarcastic laugh. The bus took off for their tour. Carbondale and Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; Davenport, Iowa; Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a few more small towns that were all on their itinerary. They were on the road for several hours and sleep had its way with them all.
“Psst.” Ethan attracted Ligon’s attention.
“What’s up, bro? You look like a day-old turd that has a fresh new turd laying on top of it,” Ligon joked.
“I’m not one to be toyed with right now, Lig.” Ethan wanted to tell Ligon all about the drama going on in his personal life. He always confided in Ligon when life got a little messy for him. When he and Bella had problems, Ligon was there to give him some good advice. When Ethan was contemplating quitting his job, Ligon convinced him to stay. Whenever he doubted his faith in God, Ligon convinced him with a philosophical argument by saying that the only plausible answer for the creation of the universe is that an eternal being had to bring it into existence. Ligon also told him that logic dictated that if in the beginning there was nothing, then there would still be nothing, because something cannot possibly come from nothing. So it’s necessary to have an independent existing, eternal God. Ligon talked like a theist, but he lived liked an existential nihilist. He was a walking enigma.
They had a unique bond and he was someone that he could count on. But as of late, Ligon had become a different person, his appetite for destruction was causing him to become a bit erratic and selfish, and somewhat menacing. But he was in desperate need of unburdening himself so this new Ligon would have to do.
“Lig, if feels like I’m drowning without a life preserver,” Ethan whispered. “Nana is in the hospital. She has bacterial pneumonia and it’s taking a toll on her immune system.”
“Man, why didn’t you call me so that I could have been there for the both of you?” Ligon’s voice carried. “She’s my nana too, Ethan. Did the doctor say that she would be okay?”
“It depends on how the antibiotics and the breathing treatments go. I’m scared.” He looked down. “At her age this could go either way. And on top of all this…” He stopped and silence stretched between them.
“Spill it, Ethan.”
“Zoe is, ahem, pregnant.” He threw his head back on the headrest.
“You freaking idiot!” Ligon elevated his voice.
“Shh, gossip girls, shut up,” Manix said in a scolding voice.
“You shut up!” Ligon flared at him.
“How could you be so careless, Ethan? You have been with a sea of women, and the price of penicillin was your only worry. And now you decided that you want to be Papa John?”
“We were only together once. What are the odds that she would get pregnant?”
“Fifty/fifty genius. Man, this couldn’t happen at a worse time. So is she keeping the baby? Because I know that she’s not going to get an abortion.” Ligon threw his hands in the air.
“I believe she is. I’m trying to convince her to give the baby up for adoption, but she’s not having that. Get this, she wants to get married.”
“Well, I hope that all of your blood returned to your brain and you told her not in this lifetime.”
“I told her no and we got into this altercation, and now she isn’t returning my calls and I’m not going to her house.” He bit his lip. “Her parents knows about the preg
nancy and I’m sure that my face is the last one they want to see right now.”
“Well, this explains why you are rocking that day-old turd look.”
“Thank you for letting me unburden myself on you, man. You are a good friend, bro. Oh, by the way, I trust that you will keep this between us, Lig.”
***
Zoe
“Zoe! Sweetie, I’m so glad you called! Baby, you can’t be doing this to me, not answering my calls or texts. I was seriously worried. We’re about to take the stage here shortly. Whew, I can breathe a little better now since you called.”
A lump developed in her throat when she heard his voice. She tried to blink away the tears from her eyes, but they rained down her cheeks.
“Ethan.” Her voice was shaky and quiet. “The only reason I’m calling you is because of the message you left me about Helen.” Her hand quivered. “I-I just wanted to hear how you were doing.” She couldn’t believe that she was reaching out to him after what he had done. Idiot, stupid, idiot, weak, stupid, idiot.
“To be honest, Zoe, I’m not in a good place, not only because of Nana, but because of you too. I’ve been thinking. If you want to keep the baby, I’m on board with that. We can work through it together.”
“Ethan, there is nothing to work through because this is not working.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Khloe is what I’m talking about, Ethan. You cheated on me with her.” The sound of her heart breaking echoed through the phone as her dejection poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears.”
“What, are you insane? Zoe, you’ve got to believe me. I would never cheat on you with anyone, especially with that medieval psycho.”
“She called me and said…” She took multiple breaths between the words she could barely get out. Her heart was still shattering into a thousand pieces from the grenades of those hurtful words that Khloe launched at her. “She said she left her underwear at your place and then when I ended the call, she sent me pics of her in your bed, Ethan. I don’t know your definition of cheating, but in my dictionary that’s the epitome of it.” Deep emotions stirred up such a storm within her that she thought she was about to hyperventilate.