The flight from Washington to Vermont took
practically no time at all, and soon they were touching down in a small
private airfield.
"This is one of the busiest days for travel, so
we're going to take the back roads to get to the hospital," said the
driver who had been sent to meet them.
Grandma had been moved from the ER to ICU. Not because she was necessarily in any particular danger, the nurse had explained, but there was still a slight danger of the embolism in her artery causing further issue, and they wanted to be ready to remove the blockage as soon as they determined where it was.
Isaak didn't really understand most of this, but accepted the information and filed it away, preferring to talk to his grandmother, which he was told was fine, she was lucid, but not totally coherent.
Isaak's heart nearly broke when he walked in, and when she saw him she only smiled with half of her face, the other half remaining still. She motioned for him to come over and sit on her left side, the good side.
"It's good to see you," she said, her words slurred and distorted, as he sat down beside her bed. He wanted to reach out to her, but he was afraid of doing something that might hurt her. But just as he thought this she held her hand out to him and crooked her fingers in invitation. He smiled shaking his head and took her hand.
The first thought through his head, the first thing he wanted to say was, "I can't do what you want," which made him feel ashamed. His second thought, "How are you" just made him feel stupid. How the hell did he think she was?
So he struggled for a moment for something to say, when she said to him, "You've grown a beard."
He nearly laughed in relief and nodded his head, suddenly wanting to cry...
"It looks good, and you've been keeping it trimmed. Your father didn't really trim his when he had one... looked like a mountain man."
His father. That brought the whole thing back around again, because his father was one of the biggest reasons he left this life.
"Grandma," he started, but she cut across him.
"Do you know how I knew you were going to take my place one day?"
He sighed and shook his head. "I..."
"We were in the control room when I was teaching your older cousin how to do the job. You were six, I think, and you watched everything in the room as I explained."
He remembered, but only vaguely.
"By the time I was done, and testing him, you were looking at the proper controls before I had even finished the question. Then when you were nine, you talked your way out of trouble so often, I thought you were going to grow up to be a con artist. But mostly it
was seeing you teach. I've attended some of your online seminars in
jazz. I had no idea there was so much to it. What I saw you, yelling and
screaming like someone had just said they don't believe in Santa, and
those kids listened. Every single one. They hung on every word you
said."
Isaak couldn't think of anything else to say after this, so
he remained silent for a moment, but she continued right on. "Don't
worry, your mother and your cousin will be more than capable of showing
you how everything works now. You have nothing to worry about."
He didn't speak, just looked pensively at her, but she
didn't seem to notice . She turned her head to the front again, leaning it back, then started snoring lightly. Her hand went slack in her
hand, but all the monitors showed that she was doing okay, so he got up
I'm headed back toward the enterence the room holding his hand to his
forehead and rubbing vigorously.
His mother was walking towards him in the hallway, looking
is a she just got off to get something to eat. She caught sight of him
and gasped with delight. But before she could start her usual barrage
of questions he cut her of.
"When she comes to, tell her that I'm giving her just this
weekend. Nothing else. just. this. weekend."
He started off down the
hallway and back towards is ride.
When Miriam poked her head around the corner she found her mother looking at her mischievously.
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