Done in Fifteen Years novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: Carnations

I got between Doreen and the bed before I thought about it.

Vernie didn't wake up.

Her monitor beeped slow and steady, and I wanted it to stay that way.

"Hallway," I said quietly.

Doreen smiled.

"I came to visit the sick, Raylene. It's Sunday."

"Hallway, Doreen."

Deke stood up from the chair by the window.

He just stood there, and Doreen looked at him and stepped back out the door.

I followed her and pulled the door shut behind me.

The nurses' station was right across from Vernie's room.

Three nurses sat behind it, and an old man in a wheelchair was parked beside it, waiting on somebody.

They all looked up.

Doreen held the carnations in front of her.

"I'm sorry about your friend," she said, loud enough for the station. "At her age. On a dance floor, in a bar. You should have been watching her."

"It's a dance hall."

"It's a beer joint with a tax lien." She tilted her head. "How much is in the can, honey? I hear the child keeps a chart."

I didn't answer.

"Nine thousand short," she said. "Three weeks to go. And the old woman can't cook."

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