Taking the Long Way by Lily R. Mason

Author:Lily R. Mason [Mason, Lily R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

***

Natalia gripped the shopping cart with one hand and the grocery list with the other. She read the list, wishing that Bridget's mother were half as organized as her daughter. The bread items were listed next to te cleaning supplies, the produce items were scattered across the list in no particular order, and Natalia was pretty sure they didn't carry organic nutritional yeast flakes at Kroger. Whenever Bridget made grocery lists, they were grouped into sections in a logical order, so Natalia didn't have to push the cart up each aisle more than once. But Natalia cut Vickie the slack she deserved; her husband had just had a stroke, after all.

After ten days in the hospital, Gordon had been transferred to the Reid house earlier that day. Natalia had offered to go to the grocery store to stock up on the foods his dietician had recommended. It was going to be a long, grueling recovery for everyone. The Reids had hired a home-care nurse to come by twice a day, as well as a speech-language pathologist, and, much to Bridget's chagrin, a physical therapist. Natalia was glad Vickie had insisted on hiring someone else; the emotional toll it would have taken on Bridget to work so closely with her father's new physical limitations would have been overwhelming, and Bridget would have blamed herself if he didn't progress to her satisfaction. Vickie had permitted Bridget to interview the physical therapist first, but Natalia knew Bridget would be watching like a hawk to make sure Gordon was getting the best care possible.

As Natalia squinted to make out Vickie's scribbles on the list, she heard a familiar voice behind her:

"Natalia?"

Natalia spun around. "Mom!" she gasped in alarm. "Hi." She looked up and down the aisle for her dad, but she realized that was silly; Antonio and Dolores may have become a package deal in her mind, but they didn't do mundane tasks like grocery shopping together. "What are you – what – you're grocery shopping," Natalia sputtered.

"Yes, but what are you doing here?"

Natalia patted the grocery cart. "Shopping."

Dolores rolled her eyes. "What are you doing in Mansfield?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, Bridget's family is going through some stuff right now."

"They can't take care of it themselves?" Dolores frowned.

Natalia stiffened, angry at her mother’s insensitivity. "They could take care of it themselves, but I care about them and offered to help," she defended. "Bridget's dad had a stroke."

"Ay, dios mio, what happened?" Dolores gasped, putting her hand over her heart.

"We're not sure. He's in his early sixties, but he's in pretty good health and doesn't drink or smoke. So we don't know why. Sometimes bad things just happen. That's what the doctors said, at least."

"Is he okay?"

"He's paralyzed on the right side of his body and he can't talk. It's been scary and confusing for Bridget and Vickie and Hayley, but things are looking up. He was released from the hospital this morning and we moved him into the downstairs bedroom."

"Bueno, bueno…" Dolores murmured, seeming to stare through Natalia as she gave a few nods.

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