Joanna Simmons must have caught an extremely early flight because she was at school by 10:30 AM the next morning. I had been at school by 9 am to talk to Sally immediately upon her arrival to let her know the plan. So when Joanna came into the office Sally sent Clarissa Dinkins, her office assistant to get me out of the computer lab. But before I went to the office I made the very important call to Cherry, that sent her on a frantic race to the hospital hopefully to arrive several minutes, the more the better, before Joanna and myself.
When I walked into the office Joanna was a far cry from what I had mentally pictured having seen Jack. She was like me short, stocky and not that pretty, with mousy brown hair and non-descript brown eyes. But she did give me the impression immediately of a woman of wealth and stature. Perhaps that came from the chunk of a rock on her wedding finger.
I introduced myself and explained that I would be taking her to Emily because Emily couldn't be at school. Strangely enough she didn't question me as to the why's Emily couldn't be at school but that she could see Emily someplace else. I guessed it had to do with whatever excuse Sally had given her the day before.
Deliberately, I took the longest possible route to the hospital chatting almost as bad at Eunice about this and that but steering a wide path around Emily as a topic. Joanna didn't attempt to turn the conversation towards her anyway. She seemed quite content to listen to me tell about some of the states history from what I knew of it, like the town I was born in was founded in 1734 by French fur traders, or that I am somehow related to Daniel and Squire Boone. I'm probably lucky I didn't bore her to death on the ride as she probably could have cared less about my family genealogical relations. Not many people do.
As we finally turned one last corner and the hospital loomed before she realized where we were headed with a quizzical eyebrow. "Yes, she's here today."
"Why, is she okay?" Joanna asked.
"Oh she's fine. She'll tell you about it. I'm just your chauffer."
"Did whatever is wrong come about because of my call yesterday?"
"Beats me. I don't get told things like that. Sally just asked me if I'd bring you here. I said yes."
"You do know why I called?"
"I know Jack Cooper was your brother and that he is deceased."
"Oh wait, I recognize your name now. You're the woman who slammed his hand in the door."
"Yeah, sorry to say that was me."
"I've been wanting to talk to you. Maybe after I finish discussing funeral arrangements and Jack's estate with Emily, we can go to lunch. I don't fly back to Colorado until Thursday. The Wyoming authorities won't release the body until after they do an autopsy and other things so I have sometime to spend here."
"I guess that's okay."
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"No reason."
"Do you have class?"
"Not today. My classes are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this semester," I answered as we walked the passageway from the parking garage to the hospital.
"Emily Wesson's room please. W. E. S. S. O. N. I spelled it so it would be quickly found in the computer. I didn't want Joanna to by a clue that I actually knew quite well what room Emily was in and what floor.
"Oh like the gunmaker. 5th floor. I can't tell you what room. Stop at the nurses desk and ask," the receptionist stated.
"Thank you," Joanna said as I headed toward the Elevator then she turned to me. "You seem to know your way around here."
"My family is from a hole in the wall town of 1000, two hours south of here. Whenever, someone is too sick for our little medical clinic that some refer to as a hospital, they are airlifted here. Last spring my cousin was changing a tractor tire and didn't chain it when he went to inflate it. The rim blew off and took 3/4ths his face with it. So I've been here several times before."
"Yikes, did you cousin live?"
"So far so good. It's been touch and go. He's at a rehabilitation hospital now."
She shook her head as the elevator doors opened and we exited onto the 5th floor.
I stopped at the patient information desk that was just around the corner from the elevator even though we'd been instructed to stop at the nurse's station. I knew that this would work too. Within seconds we had been directed to the visitor's lounge where Cherry was waiting. The woman who directed us to the lounge gave me a strange look because she was the same lady who'd directed me the day before. I got lucky in that she didn't question my wanting it again. Cherry took us to Emily's room
The room and Emily were setup perfectly so it all came down to how good an actress Emily was. I knew she could be a clown but I wasn't sure about her acting ability. I shouldn't have even questioned it because Emily said and did everything perfectly. Heck she even gave more information on what she was there for than I had supplied her with the day before. I think she must have asked Sharon to have a nurse give her a more in-depth definition of what exactly a D and C was and things it is used to diagnose and treat
Emily and Joanna discussed Jack in Sign, while Cherry and I whispered to each other in the corner about school. No one had bothered to introduce Cherry maybe that was a good thing. Joanna might have smelled a rat if we'd told her that Cherry was a student and not somehow affiliated with the hospital. Maybe Joanna assumed Cherry was an interpreter since she's so proficient.
Forty-five minutes after we arrived at the hospital I was taking Joanna back across town toward school. "So did you get everything worked out?"
"Not exactly, I really wanted Emily to come to the funeral but she is insisting that she does not wish to come."
"Well, I can understand why she might not want to be there."
"I guess I can too but I still hoped. Where do you want to eat?"
"There's a McDonald's not far from school. Is that okay with you?"
"That is fine. It's still early for me but I've been up since 2 am so that I could catch my 5 AM flight. I haven't eaten since my breakfast before I left my house for the airport."
"You have to be famished then."
"I'm hungry," she answered as I swung into the turn lane and then into the McDonald's parking lot. It was the same McDonald's that had set Emily and I down the path we were on together.
We ordered and sat down to eat.
"I'm sorry for being nosey but tell me about Jack. I never officially met him. I want to understand why this all happened," I asked after gulping down my hamburger.
"He was two when he contracted German Measles. When he got better his hearing was gone. Mom and dad doted on him. He was never to want for anything. His whim was our command. I know now how messed up that mentality was. We made him into a monster. He didn't work unless the notion came over him. He drank and played. That was Jack's life. Oh he was a looker and a charmer. Emily wasn't the first to fall under his spell. And she wasn't the first to be hurt by him, though I must admit he never had gone as far over the edge as he did with her before. It was all a game to him. Life was a game. He'd get women to fall for him hook line and sinker and then he'd split. Somehow Emily was different. Maybe because when he came back she refused him. Refused to come back to Colorado with him. He was a selfish man. All he cared about was himself and what he wanted. When she wouldn't return with him I guess that pushed him over the edge. Someone actually stood up to him and told him no."
"Why didn't you stop treating him like a willful child and make him own up to his mistakes instead of indulging them?"
"I'd done it so long that I didn't even know how to tell him no. I didn't know how to just let him sit in jail for the bar room fights. He was my baby brother and he was handicap. I had to look after him. That was my job. We all made a bunch of mistakes when it came to Jack. It's a poor excuse, I know."
"It is but I do understand. Though, I know that to be Deaf is not a handicap. I'm Deaf. I'm not handicap. Jack's handicap was that he never grew up."
"So what's Emily's excuse?"
"Excuse for what?"
"For trying to hide the fact that she's pregnant and lying to me about it?"
I coughed as she'd caught me off-guard, "Um."
"I'm not stupid. I am by profession a nurse. I used to work Obstetrics and Gynecology. I quit after I strained my back. I recognize a pregnant woman when I see one. Jack also told me about the baby the last time I ever spoke to him."
"No point lying to you, then?"
"Nope."
"She didn't think you knew. And she decided that if you didn't know then she wasn't going to tell you."
"She didn't tell Jack either. He said he found out because he saw her tell someone else. Didn't he deserve to be told that he was going to be a daddy?"
"Did he? Let's see… Emily asked Jack if he loved her. Instead of answering her he packed his bag and crept out in the middle of the night with his tail tucked between his legs. Then he comes back and demands that she move to Colorado with him. When she says no he hits her, causing her to fall, leaving her battered and bruised among other things. Then he disappears and the next time he shows up that any of us were aware of he took a gun and blasted 8 holes in the door to her office. What if she'd been inside? Then he comes to my apartment and tries to force his way in. If a man did those things to you and your friends do you think you'd tell him he was going to be a father? Me, I'd do everything in my power to keep my child as far away from that man as possible. Nope I don't blame Emily a bit for denying Jack's right to knowing about the baby. For that matter Jack didn't even have proof that the baby is his. She could have decided that she wanted to be a mother, gone to a Reproductive Endocrinologist and undergone Fertility treatments. Or maybe there was another man before or after your not so precious brother. I think Emily was perfectly within her rights to keep the child a secret from Jack and you."
"So Emily sleeps around?"
"No, she does not!" I exclaimed as I got up and walked out, leaving her sitting at McDonalds.
I'm going to quit eating at that McDonald's it seems only bad things happen to me there.