She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha

Author:Sarah Adlakha [Adlakha, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250774569
Google: YQX6DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B08GZYWWDQ
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 2021-08-09T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

maria

FIBERS OF DUST FLOATED THROUGH THE meek rays of sunshine that trickled past the prison-barred window of Maria’s room. They danced around her like they were drifting down from heaven but had lost their way. The Alabama spring sky was an impossible shade of blue, mocking her from the side of freedom, where people worked and lived and loved with no regard for the torrent of grief that washed through her. Was her agony any worse than theirs?

Henry was on another day pass and the hours were terminally long. He’d returned to the unit just moments before bed the previous day, and she had yet to ask him about his purpose or his plans. The five minutes they found for each other were spent exchanging phone numbers and addresses in case they didn’t get another chance to talk before he was discharged.

Maria could feel someone watching her as she stared out the window and counted the minutes ticking away on the clock. She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head before she heard his raspy, nasal breath, and though she had no interest in company, she felt compelled to face him. No words were exchanged as they took in the sight of each other, his eyes lingering on her splinted arm as hers tried to reconcile the mismatched pieces of him. A mop of gray hair, well overdue for a trim, clung to the top of his head while a wiry pair of spectacles played an endless game of slip-and-slide off the bridge of his nose. His pants were cinched too high, his loafers were scuffed, and his shirt had most certainly never felt the heat of an iron. He looked like he could be one of her patients.

“Can I help you?” Maria said.

He smiled at her as cautious steps carried him into the room, and only when they stood eye to eye, just inches apart, did he speak.

“Maria.” He breathed out her name as if she’d been lost to him for ages and finally returned. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Were you expecting me?”

“I was, in fact. But still, what a nice surprise.” His hand jutted out between them, but only with hesitation did Maria accept it. “I’m Eric,” he said. “Eric Johnstone.”

“Doctor Johnstone?” Maria replied. “From Iowa?”

“The one and only.” With his hands held wide, he stepped toward the window, the sunlight casting the shadowed bars across his face. “You might find this hard to believe,” he said, “but this is my first trip to Alabama. I was in Louisiana once, New Orleans, right during the heat of summer. I don’t know how anybody survived down there before air-conditioning was invented.” He turned back to her and shook his head. “Hotter than Hades.”

Maria stood in awed silence as this man who’d stumbled into her life carried on about bayous and gators and the overabundance of seafood that was pulled from the Mississippi Sound, like he was an airboat tour guide.

“But why am I telling you all this?” he continued.

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