I WOKE UP with a hand pressing on my shoulder and someone whispering close to my ear. “Time to go to work, sweetheart. Tia’s here.”
My aunt Tia set her big canvas knitting bag down at my feet. I’d been awake and then asleep again half a dozen times through the night; it was strange being here, with no windows and no real sense of time, and Nana so sick.
She looked about the same to me this a.m. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. A little of both, maybe. “I’m going to wait for morning rounds,” I told Tia.
“No, sweetheart, you’re going to go.” She nudged my arm to get me out of the chair. “There’s not enough room in here, and Tia’s calves are killing her. So go on. Go to work. Then you can come back and tell Nana all about it, just like you always do.”
The knitting came out automatically, with the big colorful wooden needles she always used, and I saw a thermos and a USA Today in the bag too. The way she settled right in made me remember she’d been through this before, with my uncle, then with her younger sister, Anna. My aunt was almost a professional at caring for the very sick and dying.
“I was going to bring you some of that David Whyte you like,” Tia said. At first I thought she was talking to me. “But then I thought no, let’s keep you riled up, so I brought the newspaper instead. You know they’re outsourcing the statue for Dr. King’s memorial to China? China? Do you believe that, Regina?”
Tia’s not a sentimental woman, but in her own way, she’s a saint. I also knew there was no chance she’d let Nana catch her crying, coma or no coma. I leaned down and kissed the top of Tia’s head. Then I kissed Nana too.
“Bye, Tia, Nana. I’ll see you both later.”
My aunt kept right on chattering, but I heard Nana answer me. Another echo or memory or whatever these were.
Be good, she told me. And Alex, be careful.
Actually, I wouldn’t be in any physical danger right away. Technically, I was on administrative leave after the previous day’s shooting. Superintendent Davies kept it down to two days, which I appreciated, but even that was time I couldn’t afford. I needed to talk with Tony Nicholson and Mara Kelly. Now. So I asked Sampson to set up some interviews under his name. Then I would just go along for the ride, be another set of ears and eyes.