Page 70 of Justice for JoElla

“Not if you all would like to be there with him.”

“Actually, I think he’d rather see you than us. After everything that’s happened… Look, JoElla, I love my son. He was our pride and joy. And what he did set us back in the community. They’re all looking at us differently now, all of our friends, all of the members of our church, the political members of the community, everyone. Word of what happened traveled fast. Let a kid get a full ride scholarship to Harvard and there’ll be a little clipping of it in the newspaper, but if a doctor has a maniac come into the operating room and… Well, you know what happened. My point is, we’re not happy about Landon’s vocation, nor are we happy about Breckin’s. And we sure aren’t happy about Liella’s, although she seems to be thrilled with it. But my point is, the two children who’d caused us grief are angels compared to what Brandon has done. And yet, he’s my son, and I love him. I’ve had to learn the hard way that I can’t control my adult children’s lives, and that it’s probably a good thing, because I might make a worse mess of them than they could.”

“I’d say you’re right about that.”

“So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not pleased that Brandon did what he did. I’m not pleased at the way my grandchildren have treated him. And I’m not pleased about what he’s doing for a living, or what you do for a living. But it’s not my call, and I won’t lose my children because of my opinions on how they should run their lives. It’s truly none of my business.”

JoElla smiled. “No, ma’am. It’s not.”

“So you’re welcome in our family. And it’s not ma’am?it’s Louella. I understand Jerrica is expected to change her name to Jerrella sometime in the future.”

“I think that would be most appropriate!” JoElla said, laughing.

“Good enough. Well, thank you for this little talk, and I hope I haven’t intruded too much.”

JoElla was laughing when she said, “You’re always welcome here, although there are some times when you probably would rather stand outside the door and talk to me through it.”

“Fair enough! Goodbye, my dear. I hope you’ll go to the hospital this afternoon. I’m sure he’s going to be glad to see you.”

“I hope so. Thanks for coming by. Drive carefully.” As soon as she closed the door, JoElla leaned back against it and sighed. That certainly wasn’t what she’d expected. She’d thought Louella would tell her to get away from their son and leave him alone, but that hadn’t been it at all.

I’m sure he’s going to be glad to see you. “Well,” JoElla said aloud to herself, “I suppose we’re about to find out.”

Chapter 11

The hospital’smain entrance was quiet when JoElla stepped inside. She’d put on the cleanest things she had. Doing laundry and washing dishes had seemed too mundane with so much on her mind, and then she’d been ready to go and had nothing clean to wear.I’m sure he’s going to be glad to see you. If so, then he wouldn’t care what she was wearing, she assumed. The text she’d sent to Jerrica asking about his room number had given her the answer followed with the message,Get up there to see him. Somebody was forever telling her where to go and what to do, usually to hell and to fuck herself. None of them had said that to her… so far.

The hallways were quiet too on the third floor, and she made her way toward the room number?three twenty-nine. Based on what she could tell, three thirty was the very last room in the hospital. It wasn’t very large. It was, after all, Taylorsville. If there hadn’t been so many places nearby that had no medical service of any kind, it probably wouldn’t have existed.

The door was barely cracked open, so she pushed it just a little and looked in. No one was there except the form in the bed, and she stepped in to take a quick peek and make sure she wasn’t in the wrong room.

Brandon was still, eyes closed, and breathing softly. JoElla tiptoed into the room. If he was still out, he wouldn’t hear her. If he was just sleeping, she really didn’t want to wake him. There was nowhere she needed to be, so it wasn’t like she was in a hurry to go. She could wait.

The big chair nearest the bed was comfortable enough. She sat down and tried to figure out a way to occupy herself. The TV was out if he was sleeping, so she looked out the window instead. All that was outside was a parking lot with some cars in it and a field out past it where a few cattle grazed. Turned sideways, she threw her legs over the chair’s arm and tried to relax.

She was nodding off when she heard something and looked up to see a nurse coming in. “Hey. How are you?”

JoElla checked out her name tag: Ruth. “I’m fine. And you?”

“I’m quite well, thanks. Waiting for him to wake up?”

“Is he just asleep, or is he?”

“He’s coming down now. Started tapering it off about noon. He should be awake shortly. Don’t expect him to be real lucid, just awake.”

“Okay. How’s he actually doing?”

“He’s doing really well. Labs are coming back fine. He’s going to be in some significant pain, but that’s about it. He’ll have to take it easy, so if you’ve got a honey-do list, it’s probably not going to get done.”

She wanted to tell the nurse that they weren’t in that kind of relationship, but she stopped. It wasn’t something she was completely against, just not something she’d thought about, at least not until the events of the previous few days. After that, she’d thought about it a few times, what it would be like to live together, to have a home… and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t want that with her. Hell, he might not even want her around after what had happened.

After the nurse left, JoElla settled back down and tried to doze. She was almost out when she heard something, a rustling sound. When she sat up, she found Brandon’s hand wandering across the sheets, almost like he was looking for something, but his eyes were still closed. Something swept over her, some kind of sweetness, and she reached out and trapped his hand in hers.

His grip was instantaneous, and he held her hand tightly. For the first time since he’d been shot, she felt some glimmer of hope. Her thumb absentmindedly stroked the back of his hand, and she waited, hoping he’d wake up.

“Hey. Hope I’m not intruding.” JoElla looked up to see Landon standing in the doorway.

“Absolutely not. Come on in.”

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