My Husband Sold Our Perfect Marriage on Tour, So I Ended It on Stage novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Gull Rock

Jack did not look at me while he told it.

He looked at the work lamp, and at his hands, and at the anchor on his left arm.

"Six years ago I worked nights at St. Anselm's," he said.

"Fourth floor. I was an orderly. I was twenty-nine, and I'd dropped out of a degree I couldn't pay for."

I sat down on the road case across from him.

My hands were folded in my lap, and I could not feel them.

"There was a woman in 412," he said. "Hit by a delivery truck on Gage Street. Nine days in a coma. Nobody expected her to wake."

"Jack."

"Her sister came every day. Loud. Freckles. She'd bring pastries and leave them at the desk." A small smile. "She told me once the nurses were afraid of her."

"That's Maisie."

"The husband came sometimes."

My throat closed.

"He came in a suit. He took pictures with the nurses. He sat for twenty minutes, held her hand, and left. Six times, because I kept hoping he'd stay."

I could not speak.

"I took my breaks in her room," Jack said.

"At two, and at four. I didn't know why. I was tired. She was quiet. I read out loud to keep from falling asleep, and then one night I realized I was reading to her."

"The Lamp at Gull Rock," I whispered.

"It was in the family lounge, on a shelf. Somebody left it there. I started it, and I liked it, so I took it into the room."

He shook his head.

"I read her the whole thing. Then I read it again. It takes about six nights a read. Ninety-four, all told, if you count the ones after she woke."

"I woke up," I said.

"You woke up on the ninth day. And I came in the next night, and you looked right at me."

My heart stopped.

"You were too weak to talk," he said. "You looked at the book. I said, 'Do you want me to keep going?' And you moved your hand an inch."

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