Found

CHAPTER 8

Niles drove us to Saint Barnabas Medical Center. He dropped us off at the front door. We sprinted to the reception desk in the lobby.

“Fifth floor,” the receptionist said to us. “The elevator is on your right. Look for the signs for the ICU.”

ICU. Spoon was still in the Intensive Care Unit. I felt my eyes well up, but I forced the tears back down.

We hurried to the elevator. I pressed the button repeatedly, as if that would somehow tell the elevator that we were in a rush. It took too long to arrive. We leapt in and of course three other people did too, all pushing for floors lower than ours. I wanted to yell at them to cut it out.

When we finally reached the fifth floor, Mr. Spindel was waiting for us. He was wearing the beige janitor uniform he wore at school, the words MR. SPINDEL stenciled on the right chest pocket. He was a wiry man with big hands and usually an easygoing way about him. There was no smile now.

“This way,” Mr. Spindel said.

As we followed him, Ema asked, “How is Spoo-I mean, Arthur?”

“No change.”

No change. The words hushed the corridor. When we last saw him, Spoon had no feeling in his legs. He was paralyzed below the waist.

No change.

Down the corridor I saw Mrs. Spindel sitting in a chair. I flashed to the first time I had seen her when I dropped Spoon off at his house a few weeks ago. She had greeted her son at the door with such pure joy. Her entire face had lit up as she hugged him. Now it was like someone had extinguished that light. Her cheeks were sunken. Her hair seemed grayer.

Mrs. Spindel gave me a baleful look. The last time I was here, she had told me in no uncertain terms that what happened to her beloved son was my fault. Clearly her opinion had not changed.

“My wife doesn’t think this is a good idea,” Mr. Spindel explained.

There was no need to comment on that.

We approached a big door.

“I’ll wait out here,” Mr. Spindel said. “You two go in.”

I pushed the heavy door open slowly. Spoon was sitting up in bed. There were tubes and machines and beeping noises. He looked tiny in that big hospital bed, this little skinny kid with the big glasses lost among all this horror.

When Spoon saw us, his face broke into a huge smile. For a second everything else in the room disappeared. There was just that big smile on the face of that tiny, doofy kid.

“Did you know,” Spoon began, “that Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his baseball cap?”

Ema and I just stood there.

“For real,” Spoon went on. “He’d wet it on hot days and it kept him cool. He changed it every two innings.”

I couldn’t help it. I lost it. I ran over to him and tried so hard not to cry. I’m not a crier by nature. But as I rushed over to Spoon, as I swept him as gently as I could into my arms, I could feel the tears push through my eyelids.

“Mickey?” Spoon said tentatively. “What the…”

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to hold it. I needed to be strong right now. I needed to be strong for Spoon. I was his big, tough friend. I remembered on the very first day we met how he’d said that I was Shrek to his Donkey. I was his protector.

And I had failed him.

It was no use. I started sobbing.

Spoon said, “Mickey?”

“I’m so sorry,” I said through the sobs. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

I just shook my head and held on to him.

“For what?” Spoon asked again. “You didn’t shoot me, did you?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. So what are you sorry about?”

I let him go. I checked his face to see if he was just playing with me, but he looked genuinely baffled.

“It’s still my fault,” I said.

Spoon frowned. “How on earth do you figure that?”

“Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack,” Spoon said. He started laughing. “Man, I always wanted to use that line. Serious as a heart attack, except it really isn’t funny, I mean, not in here. Mr. Costo down the hall, he had a heart attack. That’s why he’s in the hospital. I met his wife. Nice lady. She went to elementary school with Tippi Hedren. You know, the old actress? From The Birds? Isn’t that something?”

I just looked at him. He smiled again.

“It’s okay, Mickey.”

I shook my head. “I got you involved in all this.”

Spoon pushed the glasses up his nose. “Really?”

I looked at Ema. She shrugged. I turned back to Spoon. “Are you putting me on?”

“No,” Spoon said. “And no offense, Mickey, but you’re kinda sounding full of yourself.”

“What?”

Spoon’s eyes met mine. “You’re not that powerful, Mickey. You didn’t make me do anything. I made my own choices. I’m my own man.” He looked at Ema and winked. “That’s why the ladies dig me, am I right?”

Ema rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me punch you.”

Spoon laughed at that. I just stood there.

“You weren’t the only one the Bat Lady chose,” Spoon said. “Sure, you’re our leader, I guess. But we’re a team. We are all a part of Abeona-you, me, Ema. Rachel too. Can we walk away from it? Well, I can’t. I mean, I really can’t. My legs aren’t working right now. But even if they were, I don’t think I could. And that has nothing to do with you, Mickey. You’re not to blame.”

“Wow,” I said.

“What?”

“You’re kind of making sense.”

Spoon arched an eyebrow. “I’m a constant surprise.” Another wink for Ema. “Another reason the ladies dig me.”

Ema made a fist and showed it to him. Spoon howled with laughter. When he finished, he spread his arms and said, “So?”

“So?” I repeated.

“So why do you think I told my dad I had to see you? We rescue kids. That doesn’t stop because I got hurt. So who do we need to rescue now?”

“Just rest,” I said. “You need to concentrate on getting better.”

Spoon frowned at me and looked toward Ema.

“A guy I met in a chat room,” Ema said to him.

“A boyfriend?” Spoon asked.

“Sort of.”

Spoon shook his head. “I get shot and you’re already on to a new guy?”

“I will hurt you,” Ema said.

Spoon pushed the glasses back up his nose again. “Tell me about him,” he said.

So she did. Spoon nodded. He never showed doubt. He never judged. He just listened. It made me wonder who indeed was the leader of this group. Ema was just finishing up when a nurse came in and told us it was time to leave.

“I have my laptop,” Spoon said. “I’ll get us everything I can on this Jared Lowell.”