Hello.” I click on my phone quickly so nobody in the small, used bookstore will judge me.
“Mari, it’s me, Bernie.”
“Bernie who?” All I can think of is that Bernie sounds like a politician and must be a friend of Mom’s.
“Fabio.”
I slap my head with my free hand. “Of course. Sorry, Bernie. Do you need me to pick up a higher set of weights for Dad? Or maybe a straightjacket?” I laugh and a woman in my aisle snaps her head at me in obvious disapproval.
“Where are you?”
“Shopping in Georgetown.”
“Good. I need you to meet us at Lincoln Memorial right away. Your dad fainted.”
“Why would you take him sightseeing?”
“Lincoln Memorial Hospital, Mari, not the tourist attraction. He fainted while working in the yard and hurt his leg.”
“And you were there?”
“No. Daisy called me using your dad’s cell phone.”
“Daisy! She’s five.”
“Your dad’s last words before he fell down were ‘Don’t tell your mother that I’m out here,’ ” Fabio says, chuckling, “so she called me. Smart girl.”
“So who is with Daisy?”
“Marcus came home to watch the kids. And your mom will be coming from the American Food Shelter board meeting.”
“I’m on my way.”
As soon as I hang up, the woman next to me opens her mouth to say something. I stop her with a wave of my phone.
“I don’t like people talking on their phones in public places, either, but my dad is in the hospital. Step aside.”
Her face softens and she pats me on the shoulder as I squeeze by her along the dusty, historical literature shelves.
To avoid thinking about my dad during the drive to the hospital, I worry that my departure line sounded like something from a terrible low-budget action film, and if I got in a fatal car accident, that would forever be my last spoken line.
I start singing “Amazing Grace” aloud—a much better final sound bite.