15 Days Before I Left Him novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Medal

Faye was in a bed on the fourth floor, with a monitor beeping beside her and her scarf off.

I had not seen her bare head in daylight before.

Her skin looked like paper, and her eyes were enormous.

"Clara." She started to sit up and winced. "You came."

"Lie down. What did the doctor say?"

"A scare. The baby is fine." She put a hand low on her stomach. "They want me here overnight."

"And Roscoe?"

"I told the nurse to keep him in the waiting room until you got here." A small, tired smile. "She likes me. She said she'd try."

I pulled the chair to the bedside and sat.

She looked at the closed door, and then at me.

"I've had seventeen years to practice this," Faye said. "And I can't remember any of it."

"You don't have to."

"I do. It's the only thing I've ever done that I'm ashamed of."

She breathed in carefully.

"I was on the far side of Hollis Pond that day, skating in a red hat my aunt gave me. I saw a boy with a sled go out too far."

My hand closed in my lap.

"Then I saw a girl lie down on the ice and crawl," Faye said. "She was so small. She reached him, and she pulled, and the ice kept cracking."

"Faye."

"I couldn't make my legs move. I just stood there."

Tears ran sideways into her ears.

"You dragged him all the way in and ran for the road. Then I finally skated over and knelt next to him. I put my hands on his back, and I wasn't doing anything. I didn't know how."

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