Chapter Thirty-One

One ambulance came to take Aunt Miranda away. They said she was in a diabetic coma, whatever that meant. Taylor could hear the blare of the siren dying away in the distance. They were making him ride in an ambulance, too, but they didn�t have the siren on. They said he had to get stitches.

Taylor had gotten stitches before. They hurt. He didn�t want to get them again. His eyes filled. The last time Taylor had gotten stitches, Ike had been there. They�d made up a lie to tell the doctors so Mommy wouldn�t get in trouble. Taylor had only cried a little bit. Ike said he was brave. Then the doctor gave Taylor a lollipop and they went home. When Mommy left, Taylor had started crying again. Then Ike had told him the story of the caveman who squished the dinosaur with the baseball bat. Then Taylor laughed. Then he started crying again because Mommy was still gone, and then Zac started crying too because he didn�t want Mommy to come home. Then Ike had to tell the story about the little boys who were lost in the woods and they had to build a fort. And they had to defend the fort from pirates and from werewolves. And they had to chop down trees and make big fires.

While Taylor was still thinking about this, the ambulance arrived at the hospital. It wasn�t Nora�s hospital. It was a different one. The doctors there weren�t mean, but they weren�t as nice as Nora, either. They asked a lot of questions and took a few pictures. Then they did the stitches. Taylor had to get shots, too. He did cry this time, more than a little. He cried a lot.

�Why don�t we go pick him up in the car?� Zac asked. �We could get there fast.�

The sky had darkened to black and the street lights were blazing. Dan and Zac sat in the living room, waiting. A social worker would bring Taylor by, Child Welfare had told Dan that afternoon. He had offered to go pick Taylor up himself, but had been told that it was against procedure. There was also something about an aunt, a diabetic coma and a hospital. To Zac, who was convinced that this delay meant that he would never see either of his brothers again, the next few hours seemed like months.

He was actually surprised when the car pulled into the driveway, having abandoned all hope. �I think that�s them, Zac.� Dan stood up, wiping his sweaty palms on his pantlegs. He moved to answer the door.

Zac pressed his nose against the window. �I think maybe.� He paused. �It is them! It is!�

Taylor trailed behind the social worker, staring at the snow that crunched underfoot. He didn�t say anything, and Zac, too, had fallen silent. Neither of them looked at each other. Taylor was still crying, silently.

Zac found his voice. �Tay, did you get hurted?�

Almost imperceptibly, Taylor nodded.

Zac was quiet for a moment. �Did somebody hurted you?�

Taylor shook his head, his eyes filling anew. �I hurted myself.�

�C�mere.� As soon as the social worker was out the door, Dan gathered them both on either side of him on the couch. �I�m really sorry about what happened over the past few days. It was really bad, huh?�

Zac sighed, shakily. �I thought you were never coming back. I thought nobody was ever coming back.�

Taylor didn�t say anything. He didn�t want to say anything.

Nora couldn�t stay in the hospital room any longer. She felt as if the walls were closing in. Each breath Isaac drew was a struggle; each time he coughed, Nora squeezed her eyes shut in jolting empathy. She needed to get out, if only for five minutes. She needed to recollect herself.

Nora glanced at her watch. It was half past midnight; she should be back by a quarter to one. Nothing would happen in fifteen minutes, she promised herself. She�d just run outside, take a few breaths of fresh air and run back in.

�Ike, I�ll be back at twelve forty-five,� she promised. He was unresponsive. She�d expected that. �I really will,� she added, grabbing her coat.

A wall of frigid air hit Nora in the face as soon as she passed through the heavy metal door that led to the cement walkway outside the hospital parking garage. It felt good; she inhaled deeply. This wasn�t a good neighborhood to find yourself alone in at night, but she walked along the sidewalk anyway, not really sure where she was going.

There was a church at the top of the street; Nora sometimes went to six AM mass there when she�d worked late on a Saturday night. You could knock off your Sunday obligation early, and spend the rest of the day in bed. Now, Nora tried the door. It opened easily, and she stepped inside.

Dan stood in the doorway of the guest bedroom, checking on Taylor and Zac for the fifth time that night. Taylor still hadn�t said anything, and he hadn�t gone to sleep, either. Dan could see two bright little eyes peering at him around the edge of the blanket.

�Do you want to come downstairs and sit with me, Tay?� Dan whispered.

Taylor didn�t move. He didn�t even blink.

Dan took a deep breath. �If you want to come down, that�s where I�ll be.�

There were several rows of candles next to the door, for special intentions. Nora found a few quarters in her pocket and dropped them into the collection box next to the rack. She spent a long time choosing a candle.

Dan had been staring at the crossword puzzle for so long that his vision had blurred. He didn�t hear the sound of bare feet creeping down the stairs and into the living room until Taylor was standing right next to him. Dan looked up.

�You came down?�

Taylor nodded, perching on the edge of the couch.

Nora finally settled on the candle in the upper right hand corner. In appearance, it was identical to every other candle on the rack, but she hoped that, somehow, the candle she had chosen was invested with special power. God knew, Isaac would need it. Maybe she should light two candles. Maybe three. She would have set every candle ablaze, but didn�t want to seem selfish. One would be fine. Quality, she reminded herself. Not quantity.

Still, she dropped another quarter in the slot and lit another candle, just to be safe.

Several miles away, Kathleen sat on the edge of her narrow bunk in the county prison, whispering softly. She had learned the words a long time before, though she had rarely spoken them aloud, never with this much fervor. Kathleen was concentrating her entire being on praying. �I have no idea why you�d listen to me,� she told God. �You probably shouldn�t, but this isn�t for myself. . .�

Nora knelt in a pew for a moment, her hands folded on the back of the pew in front of her. Before she stood up, she lifted her eyes to the heavy wooden crucifix that hung in the front of the church, taking in the darkened stained-glass windows and the carefully rendered religious scenes that covered the vaulted ceiling. With a sigh, Nora stood up and made her way to the door. There had to be something else she could do. . .

�We�ll know by the end of the night.� Back in the hospital, Matt Greene was leaning against the nurses� desk, flipping through Isaac�s medical chart. He swallowed, turning to face the orderly who was searching through a stack of papers on the other side of the counter. �I�m pretty sure we�ll know.�

Chapter Thirty-Two?

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