Caleb tried to sit up and fell back against the pillow gasping. His chest felt like it was on fire. His head was heavy, and his thoughts were groggy.
“Now, now, son. You haven’t been released yet.” Jennifer’s finger pointed at Caleb’s nose. “You just lie back and relax. Looks like our argument was a waste of breath. You can’t go anywhere anytime soon.”
Caleb groaned. His mother sounded way too pleased, almost as if she had called the fog up herself to keep him from leaving. “Duke,” he said, his word coming out between jagged breaths.
“Duke survived twenty years without you. He can survive in Texas for a week. You heard the doctor. Light duty, lots of rest. I’m quite sure he wouldn’t consider a cross-country trip either light or restful. I guess I can put my rope away.”
“Rope?”
Jennifer laughed. “Yes. If you wouldn’t listen to reason, I was going to tie you to a chair and spoon feed you for a week.”
“Ma!” Caleb laughed despite his sore ribs and instantly regretted it. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“Well, it’s your own fault,” she refused to give in.
“No. You share the blame on my accident, Ma. If you hadn’t called, I would have been at my apartment before the fog rolled in.”
Jennifer’s chin dropped. “You didn’t have to pick up the phone.”
“Right. Ma. Like you’d let me live that down. If I don’t answer your calls, you send the sheriff around to check on me.”
Jennifer blushed. “It was only one time.”
“Yeah, one time I didn’t answer because I had special company. She’ll never go out with me again. Everyone thinks I’m a momma’s boy, now. I’ll never find a wife.” Caleb grimaced as his excitement made him breathe too hard. “How long do I have to stay in here?”
“Supposedly, they are drawing up your discharge papers now. I want you to stay with me for a couple days, please?”
Caleb’s mind whirled. Two days of constant banter from his mom about leaving town was worse than being on his own and taking care of himself. “On one condition,” he said finally.
“Oh? What’s that?” she sniffed.
“No more talk about Mae White. Not unless I bring it up first, which we both know I won’t. Deal?”
“Ugh. You can’t wrap your chest yourself.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to stay at your house.”
Jennifer squeezed her eyes shut and covered them with her hand. “Fine. No more talk about Mae White.”
Caleb eyed his mom closely. She caved much too easily. “That includes anything to do with ghostly hitchhikers, spirits in the fog, the full moon, and especially that abandoned house. They demolished it. No one goes there anymore.” She squinted at him. “Deal? I mean, you want me to rest and relax, right? How can I do that if we keep arguing about dead people?”
Jennifer stared at the ceiling. Her lips pinched together, and Caleb knew he’d struck a nerve.
“Fine,” she said. “But mark my words. You will want to talk about it before the week is over.” A smug smile replaced her disappointment. “You will, Caleb. You’ll see.”
“Erm. Doubtful. But thanks, Ma. I really didn’t want to have to be alone.”
The nurse walked in the room with papers in hand. “Alright, Mr. Archer, you’re all set to leave. I just need your signature here, here, and here.” She stopped long enough to set three papers down on the cart in front of him. “These are your care instructions. This is your time off work note, and this is your prescription for pain medicine.” She set a pen down on the papers and moved beside his bed and turned the computer on. “One more set of vitals before you go, please.”
With his vitals complete, Caleb moved carefully from the bed to the wheelchair, groaning and grumbling the entire time. It hurt to move. It hurt to breathe. It hurt all over. The pain became so intense he had to close his eyes and clench his fists until the wave passed. Getting in his mother’s car was equally painful, and he winced, struggling for breath as he leaned against the back of the seat and tilted his head up to free his airway. Jennifer reached over him for the seatbelt.
“Please, Ma. If you put that on me, I will literally die.”
“It’s the law, Caleb, but we’ll put this pillow between your chest and the belt, okay?” She ruffled his hair and looked at him tenderly. His eyes looked the same way they did when he was small and hurt. “I’m sorry you’re in pain, bud. If I could, I’d take it away for you.”
Bud. She hadn’t called him that since his teenage years. It felt so good, so filled with love, yet so complicated at the same time. A whole mix of emotions welled up in him, and he covered them in gasps and grunts of breath. Jennifer climbed behind the steering wheel, patted his knee, and drove them home.
Chapter Four
“Have you heard the news?” Garvey Harris asked as Everly entered the diner.
“Depends on what news you’re referring to. I saw the weather, but it doesn’t look like rain. I heard world news over the radio. Plenty going on, so which news exactly should I have heard?” Everly hung her purse on the hook and her coat over it. She opened her small compact and reapplied her lip gloss and dropped it in her apron pocket.
“Did you hear about the drifter they found on the side of the road this morning?” Garvey stuck his head around the corner and waved.
“No, but I saw the sirens in the distance on my way in to work. A drifter you say? You think it was that guy with the strange eyes who wandered in here yesterday asking to call his wife?”
“That was my first thought, yes. But apparently, it’s some long lost old timer. You should ask Caleb about it next time you see him. The guy looks about the same age as his mom. Maybe she knows him.”
“Interesting,” Everly said as she double-checked the tops of the sugar, salt, and pepper shakers along the countertop. “He’ll be in around lunchtime. Maybe we’ll know more by then.”
“They’re calling it a hit and run. Found a truck smashed against a pole further down the road. Didn’t say if they were related or not, or who owned the truck. If it’s a townie, we’ll know soon enough.”
“Fair enough. Are you ready to open? We’ve got a line at the door already.” Everly smiled at the elderly ladies in their big hats, patiently waiting outside.
“Yup, just let me turn the grill on and lower the radio.”
Everly knew Garvey would have it done by the time she got to the door, and he did. She opened to a hail of croaked “Good mornings” and soft “it’s going to rain” from the stream of ladies entering the diner. They all sat in the back-corner booths in their handmade hats, playing cards pulled from their purses and spread on the table before she even got the coffee passed around.
“Did you hear, dear?” Maggie asked.
“I did. Have you heard anything more?” These ladies were the best source of information in town. They always knew who, what, where, and why. There were no secrets these old ladies didn’t know, but they were just as tight-lipped about keeping them as their tongues loosened to gossip about everything else.