Page 141 of Crystal Iris
“I’ll sign whatever they want. I can’t… deal with her right now.” His voice sounds defeated, exhausted.
“I’ll stay with Johanna. Go sign the papers, go back to the hotel… get changed.” I motion to his clothes. “I’ll call you when she wakes up again.”
He fights me on it but agrees in the end.
Johanna sleeps for hours. Hoyt comes back with a change of clothes for me.
I close the bathroom door behind me, and he says from the chair, “You got out. Of the car.”
“Sorry, I…” I don’t even know how to explain what I felt.
“You saved us,” he says.
“What?” I don’t understand what he means.
“Your scream. When he looked away, I moved on him.”
I don’t know what to say. I want to tell him about what happened with the prism, but Johanna is stirring now.
Hoyt moves to her left side; we still don’t know the extent of her hearing loss.
“Doctor said you’re doing great,” he tells Johanna.
“I’m sorry, Hoyt,” she says slowly.
“Sorry? You’re the one in a hospital bed.”
“I thought I could?—”“
I know. Don’t worry about that right now,” he says, taking her hand.
“My head,” she says, lifting her hand to it.
“I’ll get a doctor,” he says, moving out of the room.
“Are you guys okay?” Johanna asks me.
I nod. I stand by her until the doctor arrives.
“Awena is being moved to a place in Montana. It’s not very close to the ranch, but it’s the best place I could find there,” Hoyt tells me in the hallway an hour later.
“When did they say Johanna can go home?”
“A week, maybe. They want to monitor her. We’ll have to take it day by day.”
“I still can’t believe he shot her. Did you see it?”
“No. When I got there, she was already on the floor, bleeding.”
“I heard two gunshots.”
“He was trying to scare me. He pointed the gun away.”
“I’m so sorry, Hoyt. I’m sorry I can’t even give you a hug.”
“I’m sorry this is how you are spending your summer break.”
“I’m glad I came. I want to be here, with you, with Johanna.”
