Save Me

Chapter Twenty-one

Rose walked down the quiet hall of the hospital, empty at this hour. There had been no press out front, and a janitor in baggy blue scrubs was shining the floor with a large rotating polisher. The nurses’ station held only the goateed intern, who was on the computer and barely nodded at Rose when she approached the counter.

“I’m Melly’s mother, back to stay the night.”

“No problem.” The intern glanced up from the computer, and Rose could see tiny playing cards reflected in his glasses.

“I understand there’s another child in the room.”

“Not anymore. A new bed opened up, and her parents wanted a private.”

“Great.” Rose looked around. “Is Rosie here, the nurse?”

“Saw her a while ago, but not sure where she is now.”

“Okay, thanks. See you.” Rose crossed the hall to Melly’s room and opened the door. It was still and dark, except for the vital-signs monitor, pulsing red, blue, and green digits.

“Mom?” Melly asked softly, and Rose felt a rush of tenderness, shedding her purse on the chair and coming over to the bed.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“You’re my mom.”

Rose smiled. “How you doin’, night owl?”

“You came back.”

“Leo’s with John. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I’m not tired.”

“Well, I am.” Rose lowered the guardrail, kicked her loafers off, and eased onto the bed. “Roll over, Beethoven.”

“They said on the TV that cafeteria ladies died in the fire.”

I hate TV. “That’s true, sweetie, and a teacher died, too. Marylou Battle.”

“I don’t know her.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Did they burn up?”

Rose shuddered. Another truth she couldn’t tell, another necessary lie. “No, the smoke got them.”

“The smoke almost got me, too.”

“But it didn’t, in the end.”

Melly fell silent, her breathing shallow. The oxygen tube was in place under her nose, and she’d been taken off the IV. “Did they go to heaven with Daddy?”

“I’m sure they did, Mel,” Rose answered. Bernardo had died when Melly was four, and she brought him up often, though he hadn’t bothered to see her much, after the divorce.

“If Amanda dies, will she go to heaven?”

“Yes.” Rose swallowed hard, caught unawares. “Absolutely.”

“I think so, too,” Melly said, after a moment.