Chapter 21: The Family Lounge

My mother stood in the middle of the transplant family lounge with her phone held up in front of her face.

She had on her camel coat and her pearl earrings.

Two women from her church stood at her shoulders.

A man in a clerical collar stood behind them with a cardboard check as wide as a door.

Eleven other people sat in the lounge's plastic chairs, waiting for news about someone they loved.

"Hello, friends," Gwendolyn said to the phone, in her funeral voice. "I'm here at the hospital with my daughter Willa's care team."

"Thanks to you, we've raised enough to start her transplant. I've been at her side every step of this long road."

I stopped in the doorway.

Abel stopped beside me.

"Let her finish," I said quietly.

"Are you sure?"

"I want everyone to hear every word."

Gwendolyn turned, saw me, and put her free hand to her chest.

"There she is," she said. "My brave girl."

She crossed the room and took my face in both her hands.

She kissed my cheek.

It was the first time she had touched me since I was twenty-two.

"Everyone," she said, to the phone and the room, "this is Willa. She's going to be fine, because her family never gave up on her."

The women behind her wiped their eyes.

The man with the check smiled, and held it a little higher.

I took her hands off my face.

"Mom," I said. "Tell them how much you've paid."

"Willa."

"The bill, I mean. The one you're covering. How much is it so far?"

Her smile held, but her eyes moved.

"We don't need to talk about money in front of..."

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