Page 74 of The Pieces We've Lost

“Grandpa, how long is it going to be?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I wish I had an answer for you, but we’re just going to have to be patient,” he replied.

Mom and Grandma joined us a few minutes later, and we all sat together in the waiting room. The rodeo was still being televised, andthey had already moved on to the next events, like the accident hadn’t happened and my entire world wasn’t about to change.

I counted the tiles on the ceiling, watched cars go by, and watched people leave the hospital. People in wheelchairs, couples with tiny babies, and families with tears in their eyes. I begged God to not let my family be one of the latter. I silently pleaded that Dad would be okay and leave the hospital holding both Mom’s hand and mine.

There were only so many games you could play in your head before you started to get anxious and impatient and I was well past the point of being impatient. Time felt like it was moving in slow motion. A minute felt like an hour as we waited for someone to come tell us what was going on.

“How much longer is it going to be?” I pouted. It had only been fifteen minutes but I wanted to see Dad.

“I don’t know, Ellison,” Mom curtly responded. She was stressed. We were all stressed.

“This isn’t fair,” I huffed and crossed my arms. I was tired and I wanted to go home and I wanted Dad.

“Let’s go take a walk, shall we?” Grandpa offered.

“But I want to see Dad,” I protested.

“Well, let’s just go walk around and that will pass the time,” he countered.

“Fine,” I conceded.

He grabbed my hand and we went down the hallway, past a coffee shop and vending machines. The hallway had a sterile smell to it, like it was trying to mask the fact that people died in this place all the time.

Once we reached the end of the hall and couldn’t walk any farther, we turned around. It had already been a couple minutes. On our way back, he bought himself a bottle of water and a chocolate bar for me.

“Our little secret.” He winked at me, and I gave him a beaming grin.

When we got back to the waiting room, a man in a white coat who I assumed was a doctor was speaking to Mom and Grandma. Mom was chewing on her lip and had her hands clenched together but she was nodding at what he was saying. We made our way over to them, and I politely waited for an update.

“We can go see Dad now, Ellie,” Mom said softly.

The doctor guided us through the closed double doors, down a long corridor. After taking a few turns, he gestured for us to enter a small room.

Dad lay in the hospital bed hooked up to machines with bandages on his chest. Even though he looked weak, there was still a glint of mischief in his eye.

Mom entered the room before the rest of us. “You’re supposed to aim for the back of the steer, Cowboy,” she joked.

He just chuckled at her. “You’re right, Baby Blue. You always have been. From the moment I met you, all you’ve ever been is right. And I love you so much for that.” He turned his head to me as I walked into the room. “Hi, Sunshine.”

“Dad, are you going to be okay?” My lip trembled a little, and I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes. It was weird seeing him laid up in a hospital bed, and I didn’t like it. I just wanted him to come home.

“I don’t know, but the doctors are taking care of me the best that they can,” he replied, a little sadly.

I believed him. Dad was always right.

Except for maybe one thing because he had promised me that I never had anything to worry about when he was competing, that he had never been hurt by a steer.

But he was wrong. Hehadgotten hurt by one.

I had seen him bleeding on the dirt and I saw him now, with cords and machines hooked up to him.

“What exactly did the doctor say? Is there anything they can do? There has to be!” Mom asked frantically. “What are we going to dowithout you? What am I going to do without you? I need you here with me! I can’t do this without you!”

I didn’t understand why she was asking those questions. What did she mean by, “What am I going to do without you?”

He was coming with us. Hehadto come home with us.

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