Twice in the past week he’d walked into town. He’d had coffee one morning at Cuppachino with his mother, Lucy, Clay, and a bunch of St. Dennis residents he didn’t really know. The talk had been about a new restaurant that had just opened out on River Road. Sophie Enright was the owner and there was much chatter about how great the food was and how everyone would meet there for lunch at noon. Everyone except Ford had agreed. Instead he’d stopped at Book ’Em and picked up a few new books, the reading of which had served to give him another excuse to spend time alone in his room.
There’d never been a time when Ford had been inactive, when he’d had to look for things to occupy his time. He’d always been in a structured environment of one sort or another—he’d gone from school into the military—and having no set schedule was driving him crazy—crazy enough that he’d all but decided to ask Dan to find a job for him at the inn. He had an open offer of employment from an old buddy who’d started up a security firm, but that was in Virginia, and Ford didn’t think that his mother would ever speak to him again if he left so soon after having been home for a whopping ten days.
For the first time in his life, he had no real focus, and it was making him flat-out nuts. Something was going to have to change.
He held the door open for a trio of middle-aged women who were deep in conversation and he went into the cool of the lobby. His clothes were wet and uncomfortably sticking to his skin, and he couldn’t wait to change. As he started across the lobby floor, he looked up toward the staircase that bisected the lobby. His mother was on the landing, just about to descend. Seeing him, she smiled broadly and raised her hand to wave to him, and before Ford could register what had happened, she’d stumbled somehow and was falling … falling…
“Mom!”
Ford reached the staircase in less than a heartbeat, but already Grace had landed at the bottom of the stairs, her head on the last step and her body on the floor. A bone protruded from her right forearm, and her left leg lay at an odd angle to her body.
“Call 911!” he shouted across the lobby to the reception desk as he felt for a pulse. “Someone get Dan!”
His brother was there in a flash.
“Dear God, what happened?” Dan knelt next to their mother.
“She fell.” Ford couldn’t believe it even though he’d seen it. “It happened so fast. One second she was on the landing, the next she was falling and I couldn’t get there in time to break her fall.”
Dan reached out to Grace as if to pick her up, but Ford brushed his hand away.
“Don’t touch her, don’t try to move her,” he said. “You could end up doing more damage.”
“Is she still breathing?” Dan wanted to know.
“She is. She—”
“What happened to Mom?” Lucy demanded as she, too, fell to her knees next to the still form.
“She fell from the landing.” Ford repeated what he’d told Dan.
“Oh my God, is that her bone?” Lucy pointed to her mother’s arm and began to cry.
“Let’s hope that’s the only break she has.” Ford didn’t like the way Grace’s leg was bent, but didn’t want to get his siblings more upset than they were. He was grateful to hear the shriek of the ambulance’s siren as the vehicle sped up the drive.
Seconds later, there were four EMTs rushing across the lobby with a gurney, and Ford, Dan, and Lucy were all forced to back away while their mother’s condition was assessed. After what seemed like an eternity, the medics lifted Grace very carefully onto the gurney and headed toward the door.
“Wait! I’m going with you!” Lucy rushed after them.
“Come on, Ford.” Dan tapped him on the arm. “I’ll drive.”
“Where are they going to take her?” Ford jogged to keep up with his brother.
“I’ll ask but I’m pretty sure it’ll be Eastern Memorial out on the highway. It’s the closest.” Dan stopped at the ambulance to confirm the destination and found his sister in an argument with the EMTs.
“I need to go with her,” Lucy insisted as Dan took her by the arm and tried to steer her away from the vehicle.
“Ma’am, we can’t let you do that. We’ll take good care of her,” the medic told her firmly. “You can follow us—”
“I want to …” Lucy tried to shake off Dan.
“Stop it, Lu. Use your head. Let them do their jobs. You can ride with Ford and me and we’ll meet the ambulance there.” Dan nodded to the EMT who mouthed, “Thank you,” before closing the ambulance doors.
“Someone should be with her.” Lucy began to cry again as they ran to Dan’s car.
“Someone is with her,” Ford said. “Several someones who know what they’re doing. They’re the ones she needs right now.”
The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever, but by the time they’d arrived, Grace was already in triage.
“They’re going to take her for X-rays,” the physician’s assistant told them. “Why don’t you all go into the lobby until we get things settled back here. We’ll keep you updated, I promise.”
“I never saw Mom like that.” Lucy buried her face in her hands.
“None of us have.” It was clear that Dan was rattled, too. “Come on, Lu. Let’s go sit down and try to calm ourselves. It won’t do Mom any good to see the three of us this upset.”
They pushed three chairs together and sat in silence for several moments.
“Her arm was broken.” Lucy stated the obvious.
“Broken bones can be fixed,” Ford, who’d seen more than his share of broken bones, reminded her.
“I hate thinking that she’s in pain.” Lucy’s face was white, her eyes rimmed in red.
The simple statement hit Ford hard. He’d seen so much pain over the past few years that in some ways he’d become immune to thinking about what others felt. But when it came to his mother—his indomitable, invincible mother—he, too, hated the thought. She was the epitome of strength to him, the standard by which he’d judged women, and the reason, he knew, why the helpless type had never appealed to him. After their father died, Grace had kept the inn going while running the newspaper and raising three kids. She was loved and respected by everyone who knew her for her gentle nature as well as her can-do attitude. She was deeply involved in community affairs and a staunch defender of St. Dennis’s history. He could not think of one person who’d ever had an unkind word to say about her.
The fact that he’d given her years’ worth of sadness by his absence pained him now more than he could say.
Hang in there, Mom, and I promise I’ll stick around for as long as you need me.
He cocked his head to one side. Funny, he thought, but for a mere instant, it was almost as if he heard his mother whisper: “Don’t think I won’t hold you to that, son.”
Over the next several days, Grace was watched over and kept company by at least one of her children at all times. By Thursday afternoon, though the pain medications kept her a bit groggy and her brain somewhat fuzzy, she was awake almost as much as she slept.
“What’s this?” she’d demanded of Ford upon opening her eyes for the first time.
“What’s what, Mom?” Ford dropped his magazine on the floor and hurried to his mother’s bedside.
“This thing. What is this thing?”
“It’s a cast,” Ford explained. “Your arm was broken when you fell. You have one on your leg, too, don’t you remember?”
“I fell …?” Grace had scrunched up her face in confusion, and Ford had had to explain the events of the last several days.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Grace had grumbled before closing her eyes and falling back to sleep.