Taking Charge (3 page)

“See you,” Cole said
and he headed up the tunnel toward the exit.

She was nice. Really
nice—but kind of crazy. She’d hardly stopped to take a breath
between sentences on the plane, but he’d enjoyed it. It had made
him forget about his own issues—until she’d made him talk about
them. He couldn’t believe he had told her about it. And he’d
sounded so hung up on it still. He wasn’t. He was over it. It had
been a couple of months now; he was moving on. Not just because he
was leaving Chicago—he was moving on inside. The proof of that was
a wrecked car, bleach stains on one of his t-shirts, and a small
scar on the knuckles of his right hand.

She watched him go. The
easy, yet confident way he moved, how his jeans hung on his hips
and the way his t-shirt enhanced the shape of his back. She bit her
lip, but her mouth had other ideas.

“Hey! Cole! Wait!” she
called.

Cole stopped walking
and turned around to face her.

She jogged awkwardly
toward him and, as she reached him, she dropped her broken backpack
to the ground.

She didn’t think, she
just acted. She pulled him by the arms, closed her eyes tight, and
kissed him full on the lips. She drew his dark head to hers with
her hand and urged his mouth to part.

She felt his momentary
hesitation and surprise, but then he relaxed and kissed her back,
tentatively at first and then with more purpose. It felt as good as
she knew it would.

Then, she ended it and
stepped back, quickly heaving her bag off the floor.

“I just wanted to thank
you…you know…for carrying my bag,” she said, smiling.

“Well, I’m liking the
Michigan thank you,” Cole answered with a laugh.

She smiled, adjusting
the band in her hair and standing on the outside edge of her tennis
shoes.

“So, I guess I’ll see
you around?” Cole asked, studying her expression.

“Sure, see you around,”
Robyn replied, nodding.

He picked up his duffle
bag and, with one last smile at her, he walked away.

She watched him
all the way up the tunnel before the smile fell from her face. The
distraction was gone, and it was time to come to terms with being
home.

The wind almost knocked her sideways as she came out
of the airport. It was mid-October and today the sky was clear, but
the Michigan wind was biting. Autumn in the county of Kalamazoo
meant weather for all seasons. Tomorrow could be a bikini day, the
next you might need your snow clothes. It was predictable in its
unpredictability.

“Robyn? Robyn, is that you? Oh, honey, you’re all
grown up! Look at her, Bob! She’s all grown up! Look at your hair,
it’s so different!”

“It’s not different, it’s exactly the same. I’m the
same, completely the same, nothing changed at all,” Robyn said,
pulling a section of hair and observing it closely.

“Come here, honey, let Bob take your bags. Take her
bags, Bob. Is this all the luggage you have?” Pam questioned as she
enveloped Robyn in a hug and began peeling her backpack and case
from her.

Robyn was pleased to see her aunt. She was just as
she remembered her. She was rounded and buxom, with the same kind
eyes and wide smile. They spoke on the phone about once a month,
but time had passed, and it was good to know that Auntie Pam still
looked every inch the mother figure she always had been. It was
familiar and comforting, and Robyn hadn’t realized until now how
much she had missed that familiarity and comfort.

“I traveled light. Thought we could always go
shopping for new stuff. Aren’t you always telling me how many sales
they have on?” Robyn said, smiling at her.

“Hi Robyn,” Bob greeted.

Uncle Bob looked the same too. Perhaps slightly more
gray and a little more weathered, but there were the same doe eyes
and the hunched shoulders from years of huddling over a fishing
pole. Pam wore the pants in their relationship, but Bob wouldn’t
have it any other way. He was a man who lived for ice hockey and
fishing and, as long as he had those simple pleasures, he was more
than content with his lot.

“Shopping, as you know, is one of my favorite words!
Oh, honey, it’s so good to see you. Bob, put Robyn’s luggage in the
trunk. Robyn, let me introduce you! This is Sierra and Sienna.
Girls, this is your cousin, Robyn,” Pam spoke proudly.

Robyn looked through the open window of the car at
two identical girls, both with dark brown hair, tied in braids.
Both had sullen looks on their faces and glared at her with
attitude. They looked a million miles away from the angelic cousins
Pam had described in their phone conversations. Robyn had imagined
them with ringlets, white gloves, and fans. These two looked like
they’d been styled by the Twilight team.

“Say hello, girls,” Pam ordered.

“Hello girls,” they replied together.

Then they cackled to themselves, looking at Robyn out
of the corners of their beady eyes.

“Hello. How old are they now?’ Robyn questioned as
the twins stuck their tongues out at her.

“Almost nine. I was pregnant when you left, remember?
Size of a large family home! Doesn’t time fly by? Bob, are you
okay, honey? Do you need some help?” Pam offered, turning her
attention to her husband who was putting Robyn’s backpack in the
trunk.

“I’m just fine,” Bob answered.

“So, shall we go and see your dad?” Pam suggested,
clapping her hands together.

“Oh, well, it’s probably too late for visiting right
now right?” Robyn began.

The question had fazed her. Sure, she knew seeing her
dad was the whole purpose of her trip, but presented with the
immediate possibility of being face-to-face with him in minutes,
frankly, it freaked her out.

It was too soon. She knew she’d had the plane journey
to prepare herself, but she still wasn’t ready. She didn’t know
what he looked like now. He was ill; he was going to look
different—maybe thin or old or frail. She couldn’t imagine her dad
looking frail. It just wasn’t in his nature. But then, maybe that
had changed too. Maybe he was less John Goodman and more Tony
Shalhoub in Monk now. No, that didn’t bear thinking about.

“The nurses said we could go any time.”

“Oh, well, I guess…” Robyn began.

She knew when Pam had an idea about something it was
pretty hard to oppose it. Though usually it involved shopping malls
and large lunches, not hospitals.

“Pam, Robyn’s flown nine hours to get here, don’t you
think she might want to wash up and have something to eat?” Bob
interjected.

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry, of course you must be
starving. Let’s go eat,” Pam said, opening the car door and leaping
in.

“Thanks, Uncle Bob,” Robyn said quietly as he
prepared to get back into the driver’s seat.

“Eddie is sick, Robyn, but he isn’t going anywhere
today,” Bob assured her.

“Bob, come on! Old Country Buffet, I think. Robyn can
have a bit of everything there,” Pam called, rolling down the
window.

“Is it still seven dollars all you can eat?” Robyn
asked her uncle.

“Yepper,” he answered with a smile.

“Have you tried the mashed potatoes? They still do
great mashed potatoes here don’t they, Bob? And you must try the
fried chicken, the fried chicken’s still good isn’t it, Bob?” Pam
gabbled as they ate.

“She still gets indigestion because she talks too
much while she’s eating,” Bob informed Robyn quietly.

Robyn laughed into her napkin, and Sierra and Sienna
looked up at her with their eerie dark eyes, like the raisins on
the Gingerbread Boy’s face. They had streaks of spaghetti sauce
around their mouths that could have doubled for blood.

“The girls must keep you on your toes,” Robyn
whispered back to her uncle.

“You know what? We wanted children for so long, now
I’d actually pay someone to take them away,” Bob answered, pasting
a smile on his face when his daughters looked in his direction.

“You don’t mean that,” Robyn replied.

“You’ve spent twenty minutes in a car with them, give
it a few days and you’ll be begging for ear plugs,” Bob told
her.

“What are you two talking about? I can’t hear you.
Girls, use your knives and forks properly,” Pam ordered her
children.

“Is she here because Uncle Eddie’s going to die?”
Sienna questioned, looking straight at Robyn with an emotionless
face.

“Sienna! Why would you say something like that?
That’s very rude and disrespectful,” Pam exclaimed in horror.

“Well? Is he?” Sierra asked defiantly.

“We’re all going to die one day. Some of us get
longer than others. At nine you have quite a good chance of
surviving longer than me but, you know, you never can account for
those freak accidents. Car pileup, snake bite, someone sneaking
into your room at night and strangling you with your braids,” Robyn
told them a serious expression on her face.

“Mommy! She’s being rude!” Sienna shouted in a
whimpering voice.

“Girls, you need to mind your manners. Now if you’ve
finished making a mess with that food, I suggest you go visit the
bathroom,” Bob said.

“But we haven’t had dessert yet,” Sienna moaned,
rolling her eyes.

“Bathroom. Now,” Bob ordered.

Both girls let out a disgruntled sigh, but got off
their seats and headed toward the restrooms.

“Is it really serious? I mean, you can tell me the
truth. I’m twenty-five now, not the sixteen-year-old who left all
those years ago. I can handle it,” Robyn told Pam and Bob, looking
at them both.

“It’s serious,” Bob informed her bluntly.

“But the surgeon says once he’s had the operation,
he’ll feel like a new man. Well, if he loses a bit of weight and
lowers his blood pressure,” Pam chipped in, an optimistic
expression on her face.

“When’s the bypass scheduled?” Robyn asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Bob told her.

“Why not? You said it was serious. If it’s serious,
he needs the operation as soon as possible, doesn’t he? Is this a
money thing? Because if it’s a money thing, I can get money.”

“It isn’t the money, he has insurance. He’s just not
in a very good state, Robyn. His blood pressure’s through the roof,
he’s got other patients and their visitors bringing him junk food,
and he doesn’t do as he’s told. They’re worried he might not
survive the operation,” Bob said. The doe eyes showed real concern
and Robyn knew then things were serious.

“Take me there,” Robyn said, standing up and rocking
on the outside edge of her tennis shoes.

“Let’s not panic. I mean, I saw him yesterday and
he’d eaten his greens and his blood pressure was okay…” Pam
started.

“I want to go there, now. He won’t have eaten the
greens. Did you check under his sheets?”

“Well no, but…”

“I haven’t flown all this way to fanny about around
him…I mean tiptoe…whatever. He needs the truth and I’m going to
give it to him. Take me there. I’m ready,” Robyn ordered again.

“He knows what he should be doing, he just doesn’t do
it,” Pam admitted with a sigh.

“Yes, well, he will. Or I’m going to ask the surgeon
to wire his jaw shut before he starts with his heart,” Robyn said
with determination in her tone.

“We’ve tried shock tactics, Robyn. Nothing seems to
sink in,” Bob said.

“Are you going to take me there or am I getting a
cab?”

“Now, honey, don’t be put off by the monitors and
things in his room. It’s just to assess his condition and keep a
track of everything,” Pam explained, trying to keep up with Robyn
as she strode through the front doors of the hospital.

Robyn was trying not to breathe. She hated the smell
of hospitals almost as much as she hated the smell of the inside of
airplanes. Both seemed to have a combination of cleaning solution
and body odors. It wasn’t a good mix.

“Does he know I’m coming?” Robyn asked, striding on
purposefully.

“Well, I didn’t know whether to say anything or not.
I mean, it could have gone either way. You haven’t spoken for a
while and…” Pam began, getting out of breath as she chased
Robyn.

“Does he know I’m coming or not?” Robyn asked.

“No,” Pam admitted, flushing.

“Which way is it? What floor is he on?” Robyn
questioned as she looked for any signs indicating cardiology.

“I’ll show you, just slow down a little, honey. Your
aunt’s not as young as she used to be,” Pam said, taking a deep
breath, her cheeks reddening more every second.

“Does she come and see him much?” Robyn asked as she
finally relented and let Pam take the lead.

“Nancy?”

“Yeah, Nancy.”

She couldn’t help but grit her teeth.

“Most days, I think. Eddie talks about her a lot. I
think she spends most of her time at the roadhouse, though,” Pam
told her.

“That’s my next port of call, then the ice hockey
team,” Robyn stated, ticking things off a mental list.

She wouldn’t feel in control unless she had been
everywhere she needed to go, scared or otherwise.

“Oh, I don’t think you should do any of that tonight,
honey. I mean, you must be exhausted,” Pam said quickly.

“It needs to be done. Someone needs to oversee
things. Brad still plays for the team, right?” Robyn asked, looking
at Pam.

“Yes.”

Robyn nodded.

Brad Willis was her ex-boyfriend. The last time she
had seen him, he had already been six feet tall with blond
shoulder-length hair. He was good-looking, he’d liked sports back
then, and he had been her first boyfriend. Their first kiss had
been at the drive-in in front of Planet of the Apes, and they had
dated in a rather innocent high school way for almost a year. After
that, Robyn had left. Her mother had given up on Eddie and was glad
Fate had given her a reason to leave. At that time, Robyn had been
more than happy to go with her.