the entire meal watching Thomas’s phone, a habit they had acquired while waiting for news about the nameless woman they refused to abandon.
Then the hospital called.
My mother had suffered a seizure.
“We didn’t think about the check,” Thomas said. “We hardly thought about the car. We just needed to get here.”
The anger inside me loosened, leaving shame behind.
“You stayed with her all this time?”
Margaret looked toward the bed. “We kept hoping someone would come looking for her.”
“I did,” I whispered. “I never stopped.”
A faint sound came from the bed.
“We kept hoping someone would come looking for her.”
My mother’s fingers moved against the blanket. Her eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first. Then they settled on my face.
I held my breath.
Her brow furrowed as if she were reaching through a fog.
“Laura?”
One word shattered everything holding me together.
I bent
