Chapter 10
I squinted my eyes against the morning sun which was shining brightly
now through my window. Another beautiful spring day here in Lexington and I
would be stuck in the hospital. Spring was my favorite time of the year, and
spring in Lexington, Kentucky... well it had been among the top reasons why I
had managed to convince Nick to buy a house here.
I glanced around the room, once again taking in the mass amounts of
medical equipment, IV's, machines, tubes, and other not so fun things I was
hooked up to and looked up to read the dry erase board on my wall.
"Good Morning," it read.
Your nurse today is: Katie :O) (She'd drawn a
smiley face beside her name, at least I knew she would be somewhat perky and
not another "nurse ratchet"... I'd had a few of those since my
journey began).
And beneath that it read, "NPO -- 11:00" -- which
meant that because of some scheduled procedure or test I would not be allowed
to eat until at least 11:00.
I sighed. I was hungry now and these days that wasn't a feeling I
commonly held. I looked over towards the clock on the nightstand, it read 9:45.
At least I wouldn't have to wait too long.
I heard a small rustle from the corner of the room and it was only then
that I realized I wasn't alone. I glanced over and my eyes came to focus upon a
figure resting at the table in the corner. He had the Herald Leader spread out
in front of him, most likely the real estate section, and was taking long swigs
from a cup of McDonald's coffee.
I made it a point to stretch out and yawn loudly and when I did that he
looked over and smiled.
"Hola Chicka," he said making his way over to the chair
beside my bed. He sat down and took my hand and kissed it gently winking up at
me.
"Good morning Howard," I laughed at his attempt at suaveness
and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "When did you get here?"
"Oh, about midnight last night. We crashed at Kevin's house... got
to see the baby!"
"Yeah, he's beautiful isn't he?" I said turning my head
towards the window. I hadn't thought about the baby for a few hours now, but
that brought it rushing back in. I could sense that Howie knew something was up
as he quickly changed the subject.
"Sure is. How are you feeling though? You look pretty good."
He said pushing the hair away from my eyes.
"I'm okay this morning. Starving. Thank God they aren't starting
chemo up again for a few more days... I don't think I could deal with that
right now."
I blinked the tears that had started to form out of my eyes and Howie
saw me. He gave me a concerned look and took my hand in his again.
"What's up?" He said looking me dead in the eye. "Grace
you know that you can talk to me about anything..."
He was right too. Brian was my brother, Kevin my cousin, Nick my fiance
and AJ... well he was AJ! But Howie, for some reason Howie and I had always had
a connection. No matter what or when or where I knew that I could talk to Howie
about anything and he wouldn't tell another soul. He had a unique sort of
honesty about him and he was the one person I trusted with my deepest secrets.
I just... I wasn't ready to share this one. Not yet.
"I'm okay Howie. Honest. This is just a lot to go through." I
said as he took me into a hug and kissed my forehead.
"Well, just so you know, I'm always here."
"I know."
We sat there together for a long time and talked about what was going
on in life. I got to hear about married life and the start of his solo career,
he listened to me talk about treatments and planning a wedding. The time
slipped by quickly and before I knew it the doctor had come and gone to perform
my tests and I was sitting there in bed chatting with Howie, eating a turkey
sandwhich and french fries.
***
