Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Two A.M.

The ambulance left Portland at nine that night with my mother strapped inside and the surgeon beside her.

Anthony drove me behind it.

I had not asked him to come.

He had been waiting in the parking lot at seven with the engine running.

A thermos of tea sat on the dashboard.

For the first hour I looked out the window.

Around Kennebunk I said, "How did you know about Maine?"

"Not tonight," he said.

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I have that won't make you open the door and jump." His eyes stayed on the taillights. "Ask me when your mother is out of surgery."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll tell you anyway. I'd rather you asked."

I drank the tea. It was lemon, no sugar.

I did not like that he had remembered mine.

The hospital in Boston took Janet in at midnight, and by two in the morning she was asleep in a private room with a new line in her arm.

My mother's last words to the room were, "Is the quiet one still here?"

"He's in the hall," I said.

"Good. Tell him to stop standing in the doorway like a coat rack."

I found him in the stairwell.

He had gone there to get away from the lights, and he was sitting on the third step down with a paper cup from the vending machine.

When he saw me he shifted over to make room.

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