Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

Author:Jennifer Fawcett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Forty minutes later, I’m pulling into the almost empty parking lot of the hospital. No hesitation this time, I’m running. Over the past twenty-four hours, her mother told me as I struggled to pull my clothes on and get out of the house, the doctors began decreasing some of the medications, and Abby started to show signs of consciousness. She’s coming, she’s coming back.

Mrs. Lindsay waits for me in the lobby with a pass that will get me upstairs. As soon as she sees me, she rushes toward me, arms open.

“Oh, Clare, you came. I knew you’d come.” She holds me out at arm’s length. “How are you? When did you arrive? It’s going to mean so much to Abby that you’re here.” Before I can respond, she hurries me toward the waiting elevator. “Come on, let’s go up to her room.”

“Is she awake?” I finally manage to ask.

Mrs. Lindsay is stabbing the elevator button repeatedly. “No, not yet, but soon,” she says. The doors whoosh closed, and we start to move up. “She started showing signs around dinnertime. We had just left. It was one of the nurses who noticed. She was giving Abby a bath. We’re going to stay with her all night, all the way through this. They said not to get too hopeful yet. There are tests scheduled for the morning, but this is such a good sign.”

“How long will it take before she’s fully awake?”

“They don’t know. They are going slowly so they can monitor her. Clare, she’s coming back to us.” She’s grabbing on to my coat and looking at me like I’m the grown-up and she’s the child, practically vibrating with excitement. “I can’t believe you came, you actually came.”

“But you asked me to—”

“When Mitch told us you were in town, I knew, I just knew, something was going to shift for Abby.”

“I was going to come later today,” I say. I feel like I’ve got guilt written all over my face, but she’s too excited to notice.

The elevator doors slide open on the fifth floor and Mrs. Lindsay bursts out, striding toward Abby’s room with me scrambling to keep up. In some ways, I’m grateful. There’s no time to be nervous. Mrs. Lindsay’s excitement is infectious, and I have to stop myself from believing that Abby’s going to be sitting up in bed smiling at me. To think it could all be that easy. The floor is quiet. The lights in the hallway are dimmed and the nurses’ station glows. They look up when we move past, and nod to Mrs. Lindsay. Abby’s been in here for a week. I’m sure they know the whole family well by now. The doors to rooms are all closed except for one at the end on the right. I can hear a man’s low voice coming from inside. Mrs. Lindsay pushes it all the way open and there she is.

Abby is suspended in a web of tubes and machinery. Tubes in her nose,

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