Waking Charley Vaughan (12 page)

“Is it awful that I wish we could trade? Even just for today?” she asked me sadly.

I chuckled bitterly, “I wish we could trade for good,” I told her, “so your wish doesn’t sound so bad in comparison.”

She gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. “I love you,” she said sweetly.

“I love you, too,” I said. Then thought, “Hey, Mom…why don’t you come with me after breakfast?”

“I couldn’t do that—“ she began, “I’d be imposing.”

“Actually, you wouldn’t,” I started, “but I should explain something to you first.” My mother looked at me curiously as I began to explain the situation.

***

A few hours later, my dad and Matt were sitting on the couch, watching a football game while my mom and I loaded up presents and baked goods into the car. She and I had thrown together some of Charley’s favorite Christmas things, including a stocking that we’d been working on stuffing for most of the month of December. I was glad it would be my mom and I going to see her. Granted, her family would still be there, but Charley would also have one more person on her side.

My mom had taken my explanation of our little web of lies much better than I had expected. She hadn’t yelled, or lectured me on doing the right thing. She had just said, “Charley deserves that Bakery. It’s all she’s talked about for as long as I can remember. Rebecca has no right to take that from her because of what Matt did.”

I made a mental note that my mother was indeed capable of being devious if the situation warranted. That was good to know.

I warned her about Charley’s family, explaining in detail how Rebecca’s insults worked, and how it was better to offer Charley silent support that to get into a full on confrontation with her family. “Sara, Honey,” my mom said, “I don’t imagine a full on confrontation would even be necessary. Honestly, even if she is as bad as you say she is, there are more civilized ways to handle things,” my mother’s tone held a hint of
honestly, I raised you better
, but I wasn’t insulted. She was going to have to meet Rebecca to see what I meant.

“You’ll see, Mom,” I said was we walked into the elevator that would take us to Charley’s floor. “You’ll see.”

When we walked into Charley’s room, I noticed an IV in her arm again. She hadn’t been, “tapped,” as Brennan called it, for the last few days, so it caught me off guard.

“Charley,” I said. “What’s with the IV?”

“No worries,” she smiled. “I’m OK. Just a little infection.”

I looked to Brennan for confirmation.

“She said not to call you, and Dr. Sutherland assured me it was nothing life threatening. They caught it in time, and they’ve got her on antibiotics to treat it.”

I sighed, and Charley jumped in. “You don’t get to be mad at him. I asked him not to call. You needed rest and time with your family. I’m seriously fine,” she assured me. “It just means I won’t get to go home until the infection clears up. No big deal.”

She seemed sure, but I wasn’t. I was overwhelmed for her. It just felt like one more awful thing on the pile of already awful things. I said a silent prayer that our luck would hold in one area, and that the scheme would work. Charley needed a win.

***

We hadn’t been at the hospital visiting Charley for more than half an hour before I could already see signs that my mother, sweet as she was, had listened to almost all she was going to take from Mrs. Rebecca Vaughan.

It seemed like as soon as we arrived, Rebecca was already starting in on Charley—her hair, her nails, her lack of make-up. Charley took it the same way I always remembered her handling her mother’s insults—at least outwardly she did. I saw something different in her eyes this time, though. For the first time ever, it looked like she might not believe everything her mother was saying. That was new.

We all exchanged gifts. I was impressed to find that Brennan, the poor soul who had only been dragged into this situation a few days ago, brought gifts as well. He was as good at thoughtful gifts as Charley was. He bought her dad some fancy cigars, some funky and warm looking scarves for her sisters, and a set of gloves for Charley’s mother. Of course, Rebecca had remarked that the gloves wouldn’t match anything she’d purchased, despite them being ivory and able to match just about anything. Brennan just smiled and he and Charley exchanged a look a few seconds later.

It was funny to see them together. They meshed well—with the ease of a couple who had been together for years, not the awkwardness of two people who’d only met a few days ago.

I liked how Charley was with him. She was more of herself and less how she thought someone expected her to be. Even with me, I know there was part of her that had been held back before. Not intentionally, but there was part of her that went along with whatever I said sometimes because it was easier. The Charley that I saw interacting with Brennan didn’t have any of that in her. I didn’t know if it was the accident, or Brennan that had caused the change, but I was glad for it, and hoped I would see more of it.

It would take a big change for her to stand up to Rebecca, though. I almost couldn’t fault her for that. Rebecca Vaughan was a scary woman. Her own husband didn’t even stand up to her. With her, I thought the best solution was to just wait her out. Once she was gone, Charley could be happy—truly happy. She could rebuild her life, and make it better than it had been. I didn’t know if Brennan would become a more permanent fixture in Charley’s life or not, but I sort of hoped he would.

After all of the gifts were exchanged, we were all sitting around Charley’s hospital room making small talk. Brennan, my mother, and myself were all taking turns finding ways to change the subject off of Charley’s failings each time her mother brought them up. Her sisters stood mute in opposite ends of the room, but eventually even they came closer to the rest of the group and started helping us with subject changes. That was a miracle considering how much they seemed to hate Charley. She never fully explained why the three of them didn’t get along. It had always just come as fact that warranted no further explanation.

The straw that seemed to break the camel’s back for everyone started like this:

“The Dr. says Charley should be able to go home soon,” says Casey, in her second attempt at subject changing.

“She should have been home already, if you ask me,” was Rebecca’s reply.

“Well, Rebecca,” my mother says politely, “She was pretty banged up. The doctors wanted to keep her here to keep an eye on some of her more serious injuries. Not to mention, she now has to recover from an infection.”

“I beg to differ, my dear,” Rebecca said, “This is what happens when children begin acting like dramatic little princesses for no damned good reason. She got hit because she made a foolish choice to go get drunk and began wandering the streets. That’s why they haven’t caught whoever hit her. Whoever hit her probably assumed they were hitting a damned hobo.” Rebecca sounded completely indignant. She added, “And, I shouldn’t have to add, that the infection never would have happened, had she not ended up in the cesspool of a hospital in the first damned place! This was preventable, and yet everyone wants to sit around kissing her ass when the whole thing is her own foolish fault!”

My mother had lasted as long as she could. She stood up quickly “Excuse me, Rebecca, but you are way out of line!”

“And excuse me,
Linda
,” Rebecca drawled harshly, “But Charley is my daughter, and I will speak to her and about her in any way I deem necessary.”

“You’re right!” My mom said, bending down to get in Rebecca’s face, “If Charley were
my
daughter, I would make her feel precious, and loved, and tell her every moment how special and wonderful she was! If she were
my daughter
she never would have moved 2,000 miles away from me!” My mom straightened herself out and added, “And if she were
my
daughter, I would never in a million years talk to her the way that you talk to any of your daughters. It’s despicable, and disgusting, and it makes me
sick
!”  She grabbed my arm and stomped out of the room, pulling me along.

Before reaching the elevator, she turned around, and marched back toward Charley’s room, still fuming. I followed her, stopping in the doorway.

I watched as she stormed in, kissed Charley on the forehead, and whispered something in her ear.

When she came back out, I had to ask, “What did you say to Charley, Mom?”

“I told her I was sorry,” she said, looking less angry and more ashamed. “And I told her that I loved her. And I believed in her.”

I smiled at my mom’s predictability. I grabbed her up in a huge hug. She was slightly shorter than me, but when it came to hugs, she was far more powerful. When she finally let go, I pulled my keys out of my pocket.

“Here,” I said, handing them to her, “You go home in my car. I’ll have Brennan take me home later. I don’t want to leave him alone in there.”

“I’m sorry I blew up like that,” she apologized again. “That woman is just….she’s…” my mom said, looking for the word before finally spitting, “incorrigible!” 

“I know, Mom,” I laughed. “I believe I warned you.”

“Yes, but…there’s no way to prepare someone for that.” My mom said, appearing to try to shake off the bad experience.

I hugged her again. “Mom, you are perfect,” I said into her ear as we hugged. “I love you.”

“I love you, Sweetie. Tell Charley sorry for me again.”

I laughed. “I will, but I’m sure she isn’t mad.”

I watched my mom get on the elevator and waved goodbye before heading back toward Charley’s room. Brennan cut me off in the hallway before I reached it.

“I need a break. I can’t go back in there right now. I don’t even know that woman and I want to strangle her.”

“What did she say now?” I asked him.

“Everything!” he spat. “It’s not even the stuff about me that bothers me—although, she has plenty to say about me!” he was gesticulating wildly as he spoke. It was pretty funny to watch. I wondered if that’s what I looked like when I was worked up. Charley had been known to call me “windmill” when I got upset because she said my arms flung around in circles when I was in the throes of any intense emotion.

“How does Charley just sit there while this woman pretty much calls her every name in the book? She may not use profanity to say it, but prettying this shit up with an accented, snarky bitch vocabulary doesn’t make what she’s saying any easier to swallow!”

“You gonna make it?” I asked him.

He ran his hands through his dark hair. “Yes, but,
shit
.” That woman is awful. She’s like…Satan’s sister…or maybe even his
mother.
My God!”

I chuckled. “Come on,” I said, taking his arm. “Let’s walk off some of that aggression.”

We made a couple of laps around Charley’s floor, giving Brennan time to cool off, and giving me time to prepare for more of Rebecca when I we got back into the room.

When we got back, Codey and Casey were standing outside the room, talking rapidly to one another.

“What’s up?” Brennan asked them. They both smiled at him. It was more than obvious that they were both infatuated with their sister’s fiancé, despite what they may have thought of Charley. 

“Mom made Charley cry,” Casey said sympathetically.

“What?” Brennan and I asked simultaneously.

“We got put out when we took her side,” Codey said, her thick drawl enhancing the bitterness in her tone. “Bitch,” she muttered, and I wasn’t sure if she meant the moniker for Charley or Rebecca.  When she stormed off toward the nurse’s desk, though, it was clear who she meant.

“Excuse me,” she said sweetly as she approached the nurse we’d all come to know as Brandy.

“There is a woman harassing the patient in that room,” she said, point to Charley’s closed door. “She’s…” Codey began but Brandy cut her off.

“It’s her damn momma, isn’t it?!” she asked angrily. Before Codey could answer, she stormed off toward us, barging into Charley’s room as soon as she reached the door. Codey walked over to us then, her face still angry.

“We’re going to have a hell of a night thanks to that move,” she said to Casey. “So just prepare yourself.”

Casey gave her a sideways hug. “It was the right thing to do. No matter how much you hate her, she doesn’t deserve that.”

“I don’t hate her!” Codey snapped. “And I don’t want to talk about it. It’s done, and once again, we will deal with momma’s attitude because of something Charley has done.”

Casey started to protest, but Codey grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door, “Come on!” she said impatiently. “Let’s go wait in the car with, Dad.”

I hadn’t realized that Jackson had already gone to the car. He must have left the room when we were on the other side of the floor.

Casey waved to us as Codey pulled her down the hallway toward the elevator. 

It was only a few minutes later that Rebecca came storming out of the room.  She was muttering something under her breath about having “never seen such…,” but we weren’t able to catch the rest.

“Well,” I said to Brennan. “Let’s go try to get our girl smiling again.”