Farmer Joe finds himself forced to live with his daughter and her boyfriend, Blake, for the entire Fall. The redneck hates being stuck in a small apartment in the city, but he has a secret. Joe and Blake have begun a relationship last Summer... Living once again in such close proximity, things could get steamy... and complicated.
A FALL IN THE CITY
Chapter 20: Relapse
We passed by the drug addicts' aisle of the hospital as we were walking to the emergency room.
One guy was heavily shaking in the waiting room.
He had relapsed.
Heroin.
It was written all over his face and his teeth. Poor dude, he was probably hating himself for finding himself here again.
I hated hospitals.
I know. Who likes hospitals? But trust me, after Debbie, I had had my fair share of hospital's waiting rooms.
I barely knew Fran, why was I so affected?
Thankfully, Blake was with me and handling everything.
The ride to the hospital, the queue at the welcome desk, the wandering around the depressing hallways to find the proper service.
Fran was not in the emergency department after all; she had been moved to the critical care section.
That was not good news...
We found Zaid pacing around in a hallway. He was very different from his usual light-hearted attitude.
I had not thought about it, that it would be awkward to be the three of us in there.
Were we a love triangle at this point?
I shook his hand.
"Hey, man. I'm sorry I wasn't here this morning. How is she doing?"
Zaid had cried. His eyes were red.
I had cried too, I wondered if he could tell.
I had been opening myself up a lot lately but still, I was not very comfortable with other men knowing that I could have a softer side.
"She's not good..."
"I bet that she's not if they brought her to the hospital. But what does she have exactly?"
I was nervous, impatient.
I could have been more understanding, taken it easy on Zaid. After all, he had done the most difficult part. But I was very shaky myself and that did not bring the best out of me.
Zaid looked at me. His eyes were tearing up again, he was grave.
"Joe. I don't think Fran's going to make it."
I gulped and spontaneously looked for Blake's hand.
I reached it and he held me tightly.
"Fucking hell... She was performing just a few days ago." I grunted.
"I know, but that's exactly what she wanted; To keep going until the very end."
"The very end... God... You're right, I just can't believe it."
I sat down on a chair, stunned.
My heart was hurting so much, I wanted to puke.
Blake sat right next to me, and Zaid kept on pacing around.
"She was already unconscious when I arrived for lunch. She was passed out in the kitchen. I didn't know what to do so I called Blake, and then, I called the ambulance because she was barely breathing... Maybe I've lost too much time."
"You've done everything that could." Blake told him, while holding my hand.
Should he not be comforting his boyfriend instead?
I felt awful.
I let go of his hand and I talked to Zaid.
"Kid, you've done much more than anybody else would have. And I'm not just talking about today. You've been taking care of Fran for months. You have no idea how grateful she's been for you. She loves you."
He wiped some tears from his face, trying to collect himself.
"I've never pushed for her to get her treatments, maybe she could have been fine if I had. I should have insisted."
I chuckled.
"As if you could have convinced her of doing anything! She was stubborn as one can be."
"I suppose..."
"Do you think we should call her kids?" I asked.
"I already have, as soon as I got here. I got one of them, the eldest, he's gonna let the rest of his brothers know."
"Let's wait and watch them, the vultures, all coming around for the succession. What does she have, two from a second marriage and one with her last husband?"
"Yes, that's it."
Zaid remained silent and we stayed there for nearly a half hour before we could talk to a doctor.
He talked a lot of gibberish, as doctors do, but in the end, it was pretty much the same thing that Zaid had told me earlier.
Fran had refused to be hooked up to a machine or to be artificially kept alive in any way, and she would not make it another day.
This is when I decided to call Sergio.
He had been a good friend to Fran for years and he would have probably wanted to say good bye. He deserved to know.
It meant that three men I had slept with would be gathered in the waiting room, and I almost started to hysterically laugh when I thought about it.
I was very much on edge.
The phone call with Sergio quickly brought me back to reality.
"You're already missing me? My asshole is barely recovering form yesterday night." He joked.
The silly "bottoms' competition" and threesome felt like it had happened years ago.
I was in a totally different state of mind.
"Sergio, I... I'm not calling to joke around."
"Why so serious? Has something happened with your daughter because of Eric? Look, man, this was not that bad. The guy spends most of his time exposing his body at the gym! He's not that prude!"
"This has nothing to do with that. It's about Fran."
Sergio's light tone immediately disappeared for a much more serious one.
"What's going on with Fran?"
"She's in the hospital and this is very serious. Sergio, you should come, she's going to..."
I could not finish my sentence; I had tremors in my throat.
"Shit. Is she conscious?"
"No... She passed out or fell in her home, and she had been brought to the hospital. She had not woken up since then and... Sergio, she probably won't survive this."
There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line.
"Okay." Sergio eventually said. "I'm coming. Everyone at the bar will understand. I mean, Fran is a friend of everyone there. Actually no, she's not a friend, she's the soul of the place."
I hung up the phone and I had to walk away from the others. I knew I was about to snap.
I needed to breathe.
I saw an exit sign and I blindly followed it; I climbed a few flights of stairs and I found myself on the rooftop of the hospital.
Fresh air, exactly what I needed.
They were growing plants there, a nice tended garden. There was a beautiful view of Sacramento beneath it as well.
There, I could cry in peace.
If I thought I had broken down with Blake earlier, this was nothing compared to what was happening there. There came the tsunami!
It was not only about Fran.
I was getting everything out: Debbie's sickness and her death, the years I had spent fucking men afterwards while being emotionless inside, the Summer I had spent with Blake, the guilt, Liv... My Liv, attempting to kill herself and to kill us all, all because of me... And Blake, again, the break-up, the distance, the knowledge that he was pursuing his life with somebody else...
And now, Fran was leaving.
Forever.
And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.