Melanie looked at the accident photo and article write-up in the newspaper and shook her head. That poor, poor little girl. Dead because of a mother who saw nothing wrong with drinking and driving with her own child in the car. From the looks of how demolished her compact car was, it was a wonder the woman driving hadn’t died as well. Brad was truly blessed, and it probably hadn’t hurt that he’d been driving a large SUV.
She folded up the paper and placed it in her handbag. She stood on one side of Brad’s bed, leaning against the wall, and her father stood on the other, holding on to the bed rail. Brad was still sedated and resting peacefully.
“You look a little tired, Dad. Why don’t you go on back out to the waiting room?”
“I will. Just thought I’d come in for a few minutes.”
Melanie wasn’t sure why she was bringing this up right now, but she couldn’t stop herself. “So, what was Mom’s excuse this afternoon?”
“Said she was tired from getting up so early for the eight o’clock service.”
“Really? That’s the reason she gave?”
“You know your mother,” he said. “Hard to understand some of the things she does.”
“I’ve spent my entire life trying to do everything she wanted, but after all these years, it’s still not enough.”
“I know, and I’m very sorry about that.”
When someone knocked, Melanie and Andrew looked toward the door and saw it opening.
Melanie smiled. “Hey, Phillip. How nice of you to stop by.”
“Of course,” he said, hugging her. “And thank you for adding me to the visitors list.”
“You’re like a brother to Brad, and to me, too. He wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Phillip walked around and hugged Andrew.
“Son, you gave a great sermon this morning,” Andrew told him. “It was powerful.”
“Thank you, Brother Johnson. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“I’m sorry I missed hearing you,” Melanie said. “I was really looking forward to it.”
Phillip looked at Brad for a few seconds. “So how’s he doing?”
“Good. Dr. Romalati ordered another brain scan a few hours ago, and the swelling has gone down a lot. They’re going to slowly bring him out of sedation early tomorrow morning.”
“Praise God.”
“Well, hey, you two,” Andrew said. “I’m gonna head back out there to sit down for a while.”
“Okay, Dad. We’ll be there shortly.”
When Andrew left, Phillip moved from the foot of the bed to the side of it.
“I’m sure you saw the newspaper this morning,” he said.
“I did. Was just looking at it again right before you got here.”
“Such a senseless act. This woman has killed an innocent child, and they’ve already charged her with child endangerment and vehicular homicide.”
“There were a couple of other charges, too. It’s all very unfortunate. A part of me is angry because of the fact that she could have killed Brad, but I also can’t help feeling somewhat sorry for her. Not only is she going to prison, but she’ll have to live with what she’s done for the rest of her life.”
“A lot of folks wouldn’t understand it, but we have to keep everyone involved in our prayers. Including her.”
Melanie nodded in agreement, but she sensed something was bothering Phillip. “Are you okay?”
Phillip folded his arms and relaxed his body against the wall. “It’s your friend. The old Alicia is back.”
Melanie prepared for the worst, but she waited for Phillip to continue.
“She’s up to her same old shopping habits again, and it came out of nowhere. You should have seen all the stuff she bought.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Melanie said, glad Alicia’s lost time was all about shopping and that it had nothing to do with Levi.
“It’s not like I didn’t know she’d had a problem, but I thought those days were gone for good. She hasn’t been obsessed with shopping in years.”
“She really hasn’t. Maybe this was just a one-time trip.”
“Well, that’s the thing. She did it all day Friday and said she wasn’t going to do it again. Of course, that was a just a huge lie because she was right back at it yesterday. She also lied about her phone being dead. Swore she couldn’t make or receive any calls the whole time she was gone.”
“Wow. Not good.”
“She also said something about you and her getting into it. I wasn’t sure if that was true, though.”
“I’m embarrassed to admit it, but we did. We said some really terrible things to each other, and I feel bad about it. Especially after seeing what happened to Brad and realizing how short life is.”
“I don’t like what she’s doing and the problems she’s already causing for us. I haven’t even spoken to her since last night. Didn’t even ride to church with her this morning.”
“That’s really unlike you guys.”
“I’m too upset to deal with her. She got me so worked up, I changed my whole sermon. I’d planned on speaking about one thing, but early this morning I changed my mind and spoke about betrayal.”
“I think you need to talk to her.”
“I was hoping you would, too. Just to see where her head is. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Brad’s resting, and I’m sure the nurses will be back in soon, so I’ll go call her now.”
The two of them walked out of the room and left the ICU area. Phillip went into the family room with Melanie’s father, and Melanie walked down the hallway and into a tiny conference room. She closed the door and sat in one of the chairs.
Alicia answered on the second ring. “Hey.”
“How are you?”
“Not the greatest, and I’m really sorry about yesterday.”
“I’m sorry, too. About everything I said and for asking you to leave.”
“How’s Brad?”
“Good. They’re going to bring him out of sedation tomorrow, and he’ll probably get to come home in a couple of days or so.”
“That’s wonderful. Thank God nothing worse happened to him.”
“I know.”
“They were saying on the news that the woman who caused the accident was on suicide watch.”
“Really?” Melanie said. “I hadn’t heard that, but Phillip was just saying how we have to pray for everyone. Even her.”
“We do,” Alicia said, but Melanie noticed her voice trailing off a bit.
“Hey, Phillip is really worried about your marriage. He’s kinda down, and I don’t know if he’s ever asked me to call you about anything. If he has, it was years ago.”
“I messed up. I didn’t mean to be gone so long Friday, but once I started shopping I couldn’t stop. Then yesterday I went again.”
“Well, Phillip’s not happy about it, and you need to talk to him.”
“I will. You don’t know how glad I am that you called.”
“I’m glad I called, too.”
“I think I’ll just head over to the hospital so I can see Brad.”
“Sounds good.”
“I should be there in about an hour. Maybe less.”
“See you then…and I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mel.”
Melanie stood up, preparing to leave the room, but she felt dizzy. She held on to the doorknob, trying to steady herself. At first she wondered what was going on, but then it dawned on her that she hadn’t drunk any shakes today. She’d had a couple of bottles of water, but after all that had gone on with Brad she hadn’t remembered to drink anything else this morning before leaving the house. Her nerves had also been too shot for her to eat a salad last night, and she still didn’t have an appetite now.
She opened the door to the conference room, and while her dizziness had begun to subside, her legs felt weak. She hoped she wasn’t getting dehydrated again, but just in case, she would up her water intake for the rest of the day. She would do it until her energy level returned to normal.