A Song of Salt and Secrets by Amanda Marin

Author:Amanda Marin [Marin, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Iron Blossom Press

* * *

Noah’s gone from the hospital the next day when I try to visit him. I stand outside his door—or what was once his door, anyway—gaping at the empty bed. The sheets are tangled by the footboard as though he kicked them off there. The over-bed table has been pushed aside, by the window. A plastic pitcher of water and a half-empty cup with a straw sticking out of it still sits on the surface. And there, on the stationary nightstand by the chair where I sat holding his hand the past two days is the small vase with the half-dozen roses I’d given him.

He left them behind. Just like me.

My heart wrenches at the thought. I have no right to be angry or sad. I tried to kill Noah, whether I meant to or not. I forfeited my right to be sentimental the moment I opened my mouth to sing that day at the park. But it hurts nonetheless. It feels like a piece of me has been torn out. My lungs and throat are searing, screaming and scratching at me, yearning to call to him—to lure him back to me.

“He was discharged.”

Lois appears by my side. I open my mouth to speak, but my throat hurts so much all I can manage is a single short, scratchy word. “When?”

She glances down at the watch on her wrist. “About a half our ago, I think.”

“I just missed him,” I whisper.

It’s over. I don’t have his phone number; he doesn’t have mine. I meant nothing to him, anyway. The abandoned flowers prove that. The past couple of days pretending there was some connection between Noah and me are done. I have to stop fooling myself.

As Lois moves past me and into the room, I trail behind her. “He was feeling better, then?”

“Oh, better enough, I suppose,” she tells me as she starts pulling up the sheets to change them. “It was more his mother’s insistence that he be treated at home. The doctors might’ve kept him admitted an extra day otherwise. But she’s Olivia Fisk, and she’s on the board, so she gets her way.”

I reach for Noah’s former pillow and start removing the case to help out as we talk.

“You don’t have to do that, hon,” Lois says, chuckling as she takes it from me.

“I want to. It’s no problem,” I insist.

Her smile broadens. “Well, aren’t you a sweetheart? Thank you.”

“What does that mean, Noah’s mom being on the board?”

“The hospital board. It means she gives a lot of money to us and has a lot of power over what happens here. She’s an important person to keep happy.” Lois’s eyes dart over to the roses. “And she was definitely not happy when she saw those. I tried to tell her you only dropped them off and didn’t stay, but she still caused a fuss. Said her orders were overlooked and I may have put her son in danger.”

She scoffs, then mumbles to herself. “Danger … as if a sweet girl like you could ever hurt someone.

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