She Cried. They Buried Me. I Came Back. novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Waiting Room

The cardiac waiting room at Hennepin County had twelve chairs and a muted television playing a Christmas movie.

By one o'clock every chair held a Lang or someone who worked for one.

Margaret sat in the corner with a tissue pressed under her nose.

Dirk sat beside her with his elbows on his knees, staring at the carpet.

Sabrina sat on his other side and rubbed his back in slow circles.

I stood at the window with Jerome, and my hands would not stop shaking.

"Drink this," Jerome said, and gave me a paper cup of water.

"I'm fine."

"You cracked a man's ribs for eight minutes. Drink it."

I drank it.

The door to the unit swung open and a doctor in green scrubs came out with a clipboard.

"Family of the gentleman from the dining room?"

Every Lang stood at once.

"He's alive," the doctor said. "He's in the cooling unit and we won't know the full picture for three days. But his heart is beating on its own and his brain scans are better than I expected."

Margaret sobbed once into her tissue.

"I want to know who did the compressions," the doctor said. "Paramedics say nobody stopped them for eight minutes, and the rhythm was textbook."

"I did," I said.

The doctor turned and looked at me, at my wrinkled sweater and my red hands.

"Then you're the reason his brain still works," he said. "I'd like to shake your hand."

He did, and then he turned my palm over and winced.

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