They kept him in the hospital overnight. He vaguely remembered waking at six or seven in the morning, the room still dark but a hint of gray at the window, and a nurse came in and gave him a shot of something. He wanted to ask her to tell his daughter he was fine and that he would be home later, but then he fell back asleep. When he next opened his eyes, it was almost noon.
Eileen was standing there, tear stains down her cheeks, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.
“Yes,” she said, “it’s your ex-wife.”
Hastings said, “Ohhh. Does this mean I’ve died and gone to hell?”
Eileen laughed, emotion mixing with it.
“You idiot,” she said.
“Sorry. Bad joke.”
“No, not that. I meant going after that psycho by yourself. You want to leave my daughter without a father?”
“No. Eileen, don’t say things like that. Please.”
She was chastened by his words, which was not common for her. “Okay,” she said. “I won’t.”
There was silence between them for a while. Then Hastings said, “How is Amy?”
“She’s okay, I think. She’s downstairs. The doctor told her you had minor surgery. Just to clean out the wound. Something called an I and D?”
“Irrigation and drainage. Yeah, that’s what they told me, too, before they put me down. I guess they were telling the truth, huh?”
“Yeah.” Eileen shook her head. “Jesus, George, you scared me.”
“Sorry. Who notified you?”
“Joe. God, I haven’t spoken to him in years. He’s never liked me, has he?”
Hastings did not answer her.
Eileen said, “Anyway, when he called me, I knew something bad had happened. He said up front that you were fine but that you had been shot. Or ‘grazed,’ he said. Whatever that means.”
“It means there’s no bullet in me.”
“I guess he wanted to contact Amy through me. That’s something, isn’t it?”
“You are her mother.”
“Ted’s here, too. Downstairs with Amy. He wants to know if there’s anything he can do.”
Hastings thought about a transgression years past. Well … the man was here. Christ, modern family arrangements.
“Tell him thanks,” Hastings said. “Really. They told me last night that if the surgery went well, they would release me today. Is that what they told you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Listen, Eileen.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want Amy coming in here, seeing me like this. It may be a little much for her.”
“She wants to.”
“I know. But if I can get out of here in a couple of hours, see you down in the lobby, I think that would be better. For her, I mean.”
Eileen looked at her ex-husband and he looked at back at her. For a moment, he persuaded himself that he had fooled her and perhaps himself, too.
“Yeah,” Eileen said. “For her.”