All four of us were in Norm’s car, on our way to Emerald Isle. Norm and Mom, up front, talked urgently about hospital visiting hours and other logistical things. Stephanie’s phone kept beeping with texts from that new kid, Noah, and she was ignoring them and trying to hide it from me. Like I cared!
“I don’t care if you text with that guy,” I said. “I just don’t really like him, that’s all.”
“Why don’t you like him?”
“He asked me about being called ‘animal,’ and said I should punch Carla.”
Stephanie cocked her head thoughtfully. “You can’t blame him for what you did yourself.”
“Whatever.” I looked out the window. I was never going to tell her that at first I kind of thought he liked me, but now it was obvious he liked her.
“Come on, buddy! While we’re young!” Norm snapped at the driver in front of us. He was driving faster than usual and had twice blown the horn at someone.
“Calm down, Norm,” Mom said. “We’ll get there when we get there.”
I was checking my phone every few minutes, but Dad hadn’t called me back. Was he still mad? My eyes still throbbed from crying so much last night. It was his fault. He’d called me a hothead first.
Maybe there was an airport near Grammy’s house, and Mom and Norm could take me to catch a flight to Florida once we got there. But I could tell Norm was in a bad mood. I’d have to talk to Mom about it. Later.
“So what kind of dog is Jelly?” I asked Stephanie, poking her with the toe of my sock. We’d both taken off our shoes in the car.
“He’s part Chihuahua and part dachshund,” she said. “Grammy calls him a Chiweenie. He looks like a Chihuahua with a long body and short legs. And Grammy talks about how sweet he is, but he is the grumpiest dog ever. He growls when you try to pet him. And he stinks even though Grammy is always giving him baths.”
“Doesn’t he sound fabulous?” Norm interjected with a laugh, looking at us in the rearview mirror. “How could a person live without such a dog?”
“Ah, yes, the lovable Jelly,” Mom said, laughing.
“I’ll get him to like me,” I said. “That’s one of my talents, getting animals to like me. Do you have a picture of him?” I asked Stephanie.
“No, but Grammy has about a million around her apartment.”
“Maybe he’ll sleep on my bed,” I said. “I’m calling dibs!”
“He’ll never sleep on your bed!” Stephanie said. “He’s too grumpy!”
“How much do you want to bet?” I asked.
We were able to drive most of the way to Grammy’s house on the interstate, but then we exited onto a two-lane highway with fields and farms on either side. The land flattened out. We passed white farmhouses that were in the middle of the fields and shaded by one or two giant trees. As the sun began to set, the winter sky turned pink with wispy indigo clouds, and the shadows grew longer. Norm slowed the car as we drove through a small town, past rows of clapboard houses, a school, a gas station, a church, and a small brick library. Darkness fell, and front porch lights and street lights winked on. We drove through the town and back out into the country, with only darkness outside the car window. Our headlights revealed empty fields ahead.
Norm and Mom, still talking about Grammy and the hospital, were ignoring us. Stephanie and I wedged our pillows into opposite window corners and put our feet up on the seat.
“I get the inside!” I said, pushing Stephanie’s feet to the outside.
“Hey, I want the inside!” Laughing, Stephanie squeezed her feet in and pushed mine out.
“Inside!” I moved my feet inside hers and pushed hers out. I started laughing too.
“Girls! Quiet down!” Norm said, sounding irritated.
Mom glanced at Norm, then turned to us and held her finger to her lips. “They’re just fooling around, Norm.”
“They don’t need to be horsing around in the car.”
Dad’s ringtone sounded from my phone. He was calling me back! I didn’t want everyone in the family to hear what I said to Dad, so I turned toward the cold, dark glass of the window and talked in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, what’s going on?”
“Well, we’re in the car right now, and the family has to go visit Norm’s mom in the hospital, and since she’s not my real grandmother, I was thinking that I could come down and visit you.”
Stephanie poked me with her foot. I ignored her.
“What is she saying back there?” Norm said to Mom. “Who is she talking to?”
“Diana, are you talking to your father?” Mom said, turning in her seat.
Meanwhile, in my ear, Dad was saying, “You can’t just make plans to fly down here on short notice like that, Diana. It’s the holidays and all the flights are full.”
“You could check.”
“No, I’m not going to check. I already know this.”
“Dad!” I could feel the tears starting again. Meanwhile, up in the front seat, Mom was talking to me, telling me that going to Dad’s was out of the question. I glanced over at Stephanie, who was chewing her nails, her eyes wide.
“Let me talk to your mother about this,” Dad was saying.
I was not going to cry on the phone with him again. Biting my lip, I handed Mom my phone.
“Hello, Steven?” she said, her voice tense. Then she listened. “Oh no. Diana is coming with us. She could never get a flight at this point in time.” She listened again. “Of course, of course. All right. Bye.” She hung up and looked at me. “Diana, what in the world were you thinking, calling your father about going for a visit like that? I already told you that we weren’t going to do that. You deliberately disobeyed me.” She held up my new phone, then placed it in her purse. “Because you disobeyed me, I’m keeping this phone.”
“No! That’s my new phone! You can’t take it away from me!” I sat up and tried to grab her purse.
“Stop it!” Norm yelled. “Sit back in your seat, Diana! We’re not going to have a fight in a moving car!”
“You can’t have my phone! It’s mine!”
Norm suddenly put on the blinker and pulled to a stop on the side of the highway. He turned in his seat with a thunderous look on his face. “Sit in your seat, young lady. And your mother is going to keep your phone while we’re at Grammy’s house. We have enough tension worrying about Grammy’s health, and Matt in the hospital, without you adding to it. Enough!”
Mom started talking to me, but I turned toward the dark window and put my hands over my ears.
I was not going to cry. They could not make me cry. I glanced at Stephanie, who was curled on her side of the car, trying to be as small as possible. As soon as we got to Emerald Isle, I was going to figure out a way to get away from all of them.
So maybe I couldn’t visit Dad right now. I’d go somewhere else. People figured out ways to get away from situations and I could too.
I didn’t want to go to the hospital and see all the sick people there. I didn’t want to see Grammy lying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of her.
I don’t know how much later it was when we arrived at the hospital. I had curled up in my corner of the backseat for the rest of the way. Sometimes hot tears had leaked out of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks, and I’d had to wipe them away.
Stephanie was talking to Mom and Norm. I stayed curled in a ball, but I listened.
“Is Grammy going to be awake when we see her?”
“I don’t know, honey.”
“Is she in pain?”
“I think so, yes.”
“I’m so upset,” said Stephanie.
“Yes, me too,” said Norm.
We were driving through another town and I glanced over at Stephanie. Streetlights shone inside the car and I saw tear tracks shining on her cheeks.
“Listen, honey, the doctors are doing everything they can. We want to go see Grammy and let her know we’re here for her.”
“The girls are upset. Do you think it’s a good idea to take them in to see her?” Mom asked Norm.
“I want to see her!” Stephanie cried.
I didn’t say anything. Grammy Verra had been nice to me on the cruise. She had asked me questions about myself that a lot of other people may not have asked. She had given me hugs and insisted that I was her new granddaughter. She had given me advice but not in a way that felt pushy. Just caring advice.
But sick people scared me.
“I can wait in the car,” I said.
“We’re all going,” Norm said firmly as he pulled into a space in the parking deck.