Page 12 of This Love
She opened her door. “I will.”
Something glinted on the curb. I almost ignored it, but it’s familiarity caught my eye.
I leaned over the console as Gram stood up. “Is that Ava’s shoe?”
She bent down to pick it up. “I think it is.” She passed it to me.
I held the shiny white heel. It wasn’t midnight, and I wasn’t exactly a prince, but I’d take any symbol I could get.
Even though the Ava I loved would be physically fine, sitting on an exam table in the ER, nothing about her would be the same.
She might be hostile. Or terrified. Or frantic. We’d seen all those versions of her after she’d emerged from a seizure of this magnitude.
Gram closed the door, and I pulled forward to enter the parking garage.
The doctors would never listen to me, at least not until we got in touch with her usual neurologist. Memory loss like Ava’s was extremely rare, although losing a half-hour before a seizure was typical. It used to happen to me.
But in the ER, they always dismissed our concerns and left us to deal with it on our own. This time, though, we had the father factor.
I might be a minor character in the new world of Ava. And technically, I still wasn’t her husband.
The Buick barely fit between a pillar and an SUV, but I squeezed through the door and made a dead run for the stairs with the shoe in my hand.
I wasn’t clear why people stopped to stare as I passed, other than my speed, until I caught sight of myself in the glass panes leading to emergency.
Full tux. Boutonniere. A fancy shoe. They’d think we were doing a Cinderella-inspired flash mob or a viral video prank.
I spotted Gram at the desk, flanked by Ava’s sisters Jennifer and Amanda, plus Vinnie, Ava’s photography assistant. They all looked terribly out of place in their fancy clothes. The other patients in the chairs watched with interest. A few not-so-covertly filmed them with their phones.
“Only two people can go back,” Amanda said. “Mom is going to come out so you can go.”
The secure doors whooshed open to the right of the desk, and Tina emerged, looking poised as always. I wasn’t sure anything rattled her. “She’s awake. Go straight back and find the section on the left. She’s behind the third curtain.”
“How is she?” Gram asked.
Tina’s lips pressed into a glossy rose-colored line. “Curled up in a ball. Won’t talk.”
Terrified Ava. I wasn’t sure whether this version would be easier or harder than before.
“Thanks,” I told Tina. “I’ll report back.”
“Tucker,” Vinnie said. “Hold up.”
I paused and turned to him. He looked grim in his shiny black pantsuit. He passed me the fancy camera.
“I don’t know how to use it,” I told him. And why would I want to take pictures?
He turned it aside and showed me a play button. “She had me hold on to a recording on a memory card she made in case something happened while we were together. It’s been in my camera case ever since.” He pressed play.
I watched the screen. Ava sat on a chair in the spare bedroom, which she used as her office, dressed like she always was in jeans and a T-shirt. This one read, “I’m about to snap.”
She gave a little wave. “Hey, Ava, I’m you. If you’re not sure, look at this tattoo.” She held up her arm, showing off the words inked there. “Go ahead, find it.”
Vinnie pressed stop. “Hopefully, it will help.”
I held the camera against my chest. “Thanks.”
A nurse came out of the secure doors, so I hurried through while they were open. Time to find out what I was dealing with.
