No matter what explanation Alicia had tried to come up with, Melanie knew something was wrong. Alicia had sounded sort of squirrely, and she’d paused for a couple of seconds before answering Melanie’s question. Most people who lied didn’t realize they were doing that. But as of yesterday, Melanie had begun doing a bit of pausing and lying herself to her ER doctor, so she knew firsthand how a person acted when they weren’t telling the truth.
Melanie heard Brad shutting off the water in the shower, so she knew once he shaved he’d be getting dressed pretty quickly. She still had on her robe, but it wouldn’t take her long at all to slip on the pair of jeans and sweatshirt she’d already laid out. The temperature was going to be in the eighties today, but the air-conditioning at the hospital last night had been pretty cold, and she wanted to be prepared for it. There was no doubt that her mother would think she should have worn something more presentable, but Melanie was planning to stay for a few hours and wanted to be comfortable.
She looked at the clock. Since it was still too early to call her office to let them know she wouldn’t be in today, she took a deep breath and called her mother. She wasn’t looking forward to speaking to her, but Gladys was still her mother and it was only right that she check on her.
Gladys answered on the first ring. “So when exactly are you going to get back over here?”
“When Brad gets dressed, he’ll be dropping me off.”
“Well, it’s good to know that you’re in no real hurry.”
“Mom, I really needed to get some rest, and I do feel a lot better.”
“Yeah, but it’s like I told you last night, if you ate right every single day and not just when you want, you wouldn’t gain any weight, period. You also wouldn’t have to resort to some crazy crash diet. All that up-and-down stuff is just plain silly. Especially when I’ve taught you so much better than that.”
“I do eat right, and I work out, too. But I’m not you, Mom.”
“Isn’t that the truth, because if you were me you’d be using a lot more common sense.”
Melanie squinted her eyes. “Why are you always so mean to me?”
“Look, what time are you going to be here? It’s bad enough that you left in the first place. Your dad’s doctor came and talked to me and Freda about an hour ago, but you’re the nurse practitioner. You’re the one who understands all that medical lingo. But noooo, you were more worried about going home and getting in bed.”
“Mom, I’ll see you in a little while, okay?”
“Whatever, Melanie. Come or don’t come. Good-bye.”
Melanie opened her mouth to respond, but Gladys had already hung up. Her mother had always been unloving and disapproving, but now she was being downright cruel. She seemed mad at the world. Although, maybe this was the only way she knew how to deal with her husband’s illness and the fact that he wasn’t doing so well. Melanie was afraid, too, but instead of being angry she was trying her best to remain prayerful and positive. She also didn’t understand why her mother was being so unsympathetic about her collapsing at the hospital or about her struggle with her weight. It was as if her mother didn’t love her, and that she spent most of her days looking for reasons to criticize and hurt Melanie. It was senseless, and while Melanie had become as immune to her mother’s comments as she could, she wondered why Gladys had always been so tough on her. She wondered why her mother had never loved and nurtured her only child. Maybe it was because Gladys had grown up in foster care and had never met her own parents. There were times when Melanie had wanted to do a background check on her mom and search for her biological grandparents, but her mother had made it clear that she never wanted to lay eyes on the “lowlifes” who obviously hadn’t cared enough about her to raise her.
Brad walked into the room with a large bath towel wrapped around him and sat on the bed next to Melanie. He hugged her, and Melanie wondered if this was his subtle way of saying he was sorry for squealing on her to the doctor.
But how wrong she was.
Brad wrapped his arm around Melanie’s waist. “Baby, I know you won’t want to hear this, but you need help.”
She scooted away from him. “For what?”
“Your eating disorder.”
Melanie laughed out loud. “You must be kidding.”
“I’m very serious. You have a problem, and I would be less than a husband to sit back and watch you starve yourself. Which is exactly what you’re doing.”
“Where is all this coming from?”
“You have to ask? You’re not eating. You fainted in the ER last night. You were dehydrated, and I found these inside the vanity,” he said, pulling her box of diuretics from inside his towel.
“What were you doing in my drawer?”
“The same reason you were in mine the other day. I wanna know what’s going on.”
“And you think losing ten thousand dollars—no, wait, make that twenty thousand dollars—is the same thing as me taking a couple of pills?”
“I’m not saying it’s the same thing. I know what I did was wrong, and I’ve owned up to it. But you’re in denial.”
Melanie got up and stormed down the hallway. “I don’t even wanna talk to you anymore.”
She slammed the bathroom door and let her robe drop to the floor. For the first time in years, she hadn’t gotten on the scale as soon as she’d gotten up, and it was all because she’d been afraid to see how much weight she’d gained from the IV. So, this morning, she’d gone to the bathroom and come back out to call to check on her father. But now, Brad had made her so furious, she needed to know how much damage had been done so she could take care of it.
She stepped on the scale and wanted to cry. She was up five pounds. Five whole disgusting pounds, the four she’d lost this week plus a new one. She’d known this was going to happen, but somehow seeing it with her own eyes made it too real to deal with.
She looked at her body in the mirror that spanned the double-sink vanity and shook her head. What a disaster. Here she’d stopped eating solid food so she could lose more weight and do it quicker, yet she’d ended up dehydrated and had been pumped with fluids. As she gathered her thoughts and composure, however, she realized all she needed to do was take two diuretics and drink her three shakes. She would do this today and tomorrow, and at the very least, she’d be down those five pounds by the time she got up on Sunday or Monday. She’d been worried about what she would eat on Father’s Day, but sadly, dinner was no longer happening.
She would also take the potassium pills Dr. Romalati had prescribed for her, so she wouldn’t have to worry about that, either. Her father would get well, she would lose the weight, she and Brad would settle their differences, and life would return to normal. There was, of course, this awkward tension between her and Alicia, but she knew that would work out, too.
In a few weeks, her problems and emotional concerns would be a distant memory. It would feel as though none of it had happened.