My motive for asking is partly practical, but I still want to get to the bottom of what happened last night. What if the stress of the conversation triggered some sort of medical issue in Claire?
“Yes, but someone new,” Bonnie tells me. “Not the girl who was here this weekend.”
Wait, does this mean the pink-haired helper really had been the person Claire confronted?
“How come?” I ask.
“She’d only been able to give me a couple of days since she’s getting ready to attend her college orientation program. I have a young guy coming who’s done a few dinner parties with me here.”
So then it clearly wasn’t the helper whom Claire gave the ultimatum to, especially when you add in the fact that I heard Bonnie and the girl leave the premises while Claire and I were in the kitchen.
I jog back to the cottage, desperate not only to check on Henry but also to grab my phone. Though the ambulance probably won’t reach the hospital for another ten minutes, Gabe will surely call after that with any news.
With a start I discover that the ground floor of the cottage is empty, and Gabe’s laptop is resting on the coffee table, its screen dark.
“Henry,” I call out. “Where are you?”
No reply.
“Henry,” I yell, this time frantically.
“I’m up here,” he shouts back from the second floor.
“What are you doing up there?”
“Changing out of my trunks.”
“Well, come down.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Sorry about yelling,” I say as he emerges from the stairwell, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. “I was just worried when I didn’t see you.”
“I’m not a little kid anymore, you know.”
Yes, you are I want to say, but this isn’t the moment.
“Look, why don’t you start another movie on Dad’s computer? I have to use my computer for a minute.”
“Yeah, all right. Are we gonna eat dinner soon?”
“It might be a little later than usual. Sweetie, Gee ended up having to go to the hospital and Dad went with her.”
His face wrinkles in confusion and concern.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“Yes, I’m sure. They took her to a really good hospital, with really good doctors.”
I give myself a D for my performance. Even I hear the uncertainty in my voice.
“I guess I can watch Rise of Skywalker,” Henry says hesitantly, sensing perhaps there’s more going on than I’m admitting to. He trudges over to the couch, plops down, and cues up the movie.
After changing out of my running clothes, I grab my own laptop and sit beside him, but I angle my screen so that he can’t see what I’m doing, which is searching medical sites for “signs of a heart attack in a woman.”
It turns out that in women, there’s not always chest pain in the minutes or hours before a cardiac arrest. They often experience vague or even “silent” symptoms, like fatigue, nausea or indigestion, light-headedness, and a cold sweat. I flash back to my encounter with Claire in the kitchen: her vaguely listless manner, which could have been a sign of fatigue; the uneaten sandwich, which might have laid there untouched because she was feeling nauseated. And her face slightly shiny from perspiration.
If it was a heart attack, that doesn’t mean it’s a death sentence. People have bypass surgery or get stents put in all the time. Like I told Bonnie, Claire’s incredibly strong, and she also has a ferocious zest for life.
Please, I think, let her be okay. She has to be.
I check the time on my laptop. It’s now close to seven o’clock, and Claire should be at the hospital by now, hopefully being seen right away by a great team. I wish Gabe would find a way to call.
I snap my laptop closed and glance over at Henry, who’s transfixed by the movie. A thought about Claire skirts around the edges of my mind, toying with my attention. But as hard as I try, I can’t manage to catch a hold of it.
“You hungry for a snack?” I ask.
“I thought you said to watch another movie.”
“I did, but if you’re hungry we can go up to the house and grab something for you.”
“Okay, yeah. Is Dad coming back?”
“Not for a while probably,” I tell him, hating to be so vague.
We end up entering the kitchen at the same time Bonnie is carrying in several finished flank steaks from the outdoor grill. She introduces us to a twentysomething-year-old guy named Jake, who is slicing tomatoes at the counter and then she helps me cobble together a plateful of items for Henry. I set him up at the kitchen table.
“You want a Coke with that?” I ask.
“My mom says I’m not supposed to drink soda with dinner.”
“Why don’t we make an exception tonight, since things are kind of crazy?”
“Really?”
The violation of house rules seems to brighten his mood, and while he digs into his dinner, I leave the kitchen in search of Keira. She’s alone in the living room, perched on the edge of a chair.
“I haven’t heard anything, have you?” I say.
“No, nothing.”
I sense she’s about to say more, but doesn’t. Maybe she’s annoyed we’re stuck holding down the fort while Wendy is at ground zero.
I find myself exhaling, a long, raggedy breath that’s been caught in my chest.
And then, nearly in unison, both our phones ring. Without thinking, I back a few steps into the front hall to answer mine. Gabe’s name is on the screen, and my heart skips as I answer. All I hear from the other end is a low, guttural sound, like an animal in pain.
“Honey, what’s happening?” I say. “Tell me.”
“Oh god,” he exclaims. “Mom didn’t make it. She’s dead, Summer.”
10
My knees buckle. No, I think. This can’t be true. But I hear my husband choke back tears and know it must be.
“Oh, Gabe,” I tell him. “I’m so sorry. Where are you—in the ER?”
“Yeah. She had a whole team working on her, but they couldn’t save her. They said it was a massive heart attack.”
I start to cry, the kind of hard cry that makes my shoulders shake, but I take a couple of fast breaths and force myself to pull it together. My sobbing won’t help Gabe a bit.
“What can I do?” I ask. “Want me to come down there? I could take one of the cars that’s still here.”
“No, don’t. I mean, it would be good to have you with me, but there’s no point. Blake and my dad are going to stay for a while to handle the paperwork, but the rest of us are heading home in a few minutes.”
“Okay. How’s your dad holding up?”
“He’s still in a state of shock. I guess we all are.”
“God, I, I—”
“I know,” he says, his voice cracking. “It’s so hard to grasp.”
“What about Henry? You want to tell him yourself, right?”
“Yeah, I will as soon as I’m there.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a little while. And call me if there’s anything I can do between now and when you get home.”
“Yup.”