Page 2 of Someone to Watch Over Me

One of them draws me away from Tom so the others can go to work. “Are you injured, ma’am?”

I shake my head. I’m not injured. I’m terrified as I watch them work on him with the kind of frantic energy saved for the direst of emergencies.

This cannot be happening. What if he dies, too? What will I do then?

“Does he have any kind of cardiac history?”

“I, uh… I don’t know.”

“Is there anyone who would?”

His sister. They’re close. She would know. I look around the room for his phone and spot it on the kitchen counter. As I go to grab it, I recall the night he rolled homemade meatballs and asked me to grab his phone to check to make sure he hadn’t missed any of the ingredients. He’d rattled off his code then, but do you think I can remember it now?

Come on, Lexi. Think. His life might depend on you remembering that code.

“Ma’am?”

Oh my God. My mind is completely blank. My hands are shaking, and I feel like I’m going to be sick at any second.

His twin nieces. Their birthday. When is their birthday? Around Christmas, he said. They hated that. Too much all at once. Their mother holds a half-birthday party for them in June, so they can spread out the celebrating.

Twelve…

Twelve…

Ten days before Christmas, he said.

Twelve fifteen.

I punch in the number, and it works. Thank you, Jesus! But what’s his sister’s name again? I’ve met her a couple of times but haven’t spent much time with her. She’s always frantically busy and on the run when she comes by.

Come on, Lex. He needs you. Think!

I open his favorites and see my name first on the list. At any other time, I’d need a minute to process that I’m first on his list, but I don’t have a minute.

Cora is number two.

Yes! His sister is Cora. I push the button to call her.

When she answers, there’s music playing in the background. “Hey, shithead, what’s up?”

“Cora, this is Tom’s friend Lexi.”

“Oh, hey. What’s up?”

“Tom collapsed. I found him when I got home. The paramedics are asking if he has cardiac history.”

“What? No! He’s perfectly healthy. But our dad… He died of a heart attack at forty-two.”

I convey information that adds to my own panic to the paramedics.

“Where’re they taking him?”

“Where will you take him?” I ask them.

“Inova Fairfax.”

“Did you hear that?”

---