Chapter 9: Corridor

Saint Barnabas smelled of floor cleaner and burnt coffee.

Tancredi walked me to the glass doors of the cardiac unit and stopped.

"I'll wait in the truck," he said.

"It might be hours."

"I've got a truck."

He went back out into the night, and I didn't watch him go.

Corrado and Teo were standing in the corridor outside the intensive care ward, in their wet coats.

They moved apart when I came up, and I stood between them.

Teo took my hand.

I let him.

My father stood at the far end of the corridor with a doctor, and he saw the three of us in a row.

He said something short to the doctor and came down the hall.

"You're here," he said.

"Yes."

"Your grandfather is stable. He's asked that nothing change." He looked at Corrado. "The dinner goes ahead tomorrow. He has said so himself."

"He's awake?" I said.

"For a few minutes at a time."

"I want to see him."

"He is resting."

"He asked for me. The nurse told me on Monday."

"He is resting, Mirella."

A tall woman in a gray cardigan came out of the ward behind him.

It was the same nurse who had taken me up to the old man's room.

She looked at my father, then at me, and shook her head very slightly.

She was telling me to wait.

I stayed where I was.

My father studied the three of us for another moment, then went back down the corridor.

Corrado leaned back against the wall.

"He's got a doctor and a lawyer in there," he said. "Both of them his."

"Then Nonno's alone with them," Teo said.

"Not for long," I said.

I let go of Teo's hand and walked down the corridor to the waiting room.

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