Page 63 of Wish I Were Here
I stop fighting and lean back against him. Instead of letting go, he tightens his arm around me. From the same open window comes a muffled, tinny voice through the phone’s speaker. “Hello?”
“Melanie?” The voice of the woman who answered the door drifts out. My pulse picks up speed when I hear the name.Melanie.“Where are you?”
“I’m at St. Anne’s,” says the woman on the other end of the phone. “Where else would I be?”
“St. Anne’s?” I hiss. We were just there yesterday. I turn to look at Luca, and my cheek brushes his nose.
“Shhh,” he whispers again.
“Something’s happened,” the older woman says. “I need to talk to you right away.”
“Are you all right? Do I need to call an ambulance?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“What is it, Mother?” Melanie’s voice has a hint of impatience. “I’m in the middle of my shift. ER patients can’t be kept waiting, and we’re short-staffed today.”
“Well, I don’t want to interrupt. Can you call me when you get off?” the older woman says. “It’s important.”
“They’re paging me right now. I’ll call you in a few hours.”
They hang up, and I turn in Luca’s arms to look at him, eyes wide. He holds a finger to his lips and hitches his chin toward the car. As silently as possible, we creep down the stairs. When we’re on the sidewalk, we make a run for it.
“Melanie works at St. Anne’s Hospital,” Luca says, out of breath, once we’re safely back in the car.
“In the emergency room, apparently.” I gaze out the front window. “She’s a doctor. My mother isan ER doctor.” I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this new development. Because if there was one enduring image that I held of my mother growing up, it was that she left me because she was doing something important. Lifesaving. Something bigger than me.
So to find out that this is exactly what she’s doing…
The breath whooshes from my lungs.
“Well…” Luca flops back against the seat, one hand pressed to his stomach and the other palm up against hisbrow. “I think I’m having a terrible case of food poisoning. I need a doctor.”
And suddenly, I know where this is going.
Earlier today, I made a wish to find my mother. And now I know exactly where she is.
“Let’s get you to the ER right away.”
Ohhhh,” Luca groans as we burst into the waiting room of the St. Anne’s ER. “Ohhhhhhhhh.” He staggers around, clutching two hands to his abdomen. “Somebodyhelpme.”
I run up to the front desk. “My friend needs to see a doctor right away. He’s having terrible stomach pain.”
Luca moans again, lying down on one of the waiting room couches and curling up in a fetal position. “I never should have eaten that sushi…”
I can feel the whole room staring at us, but instead of flushing with embarrassment, I have the urge to burst out laughing. I meet Luca’s eyes, and he gives me a wink before he goes back to rolling around and moaning. As I watch his handsome face screw up in imaginary pain, I can’t help but appreciate how completely Luca has committed to doing this for me. He throws himself into everything, whether it’s dancing with Mrs. Goodwin or breaking and entering or improvising food poisoning.
And it must be rubbing off on me, because I turn back to the woman at the front desk. “Please, can we get my friend into a room immediately?” I wave in his direction. “Look how much pain he’s in. He needs to see the doctor.”
The woman types something into her computer. “I’ll need his insurance card.”
I look to Luca, who rolls his eyes and pulls out his wallet, handing me the card.
“Sorry,” I whisper, vowing to pay him back for any medical bills he might incur as a result of this ruse. As soon as I get access to my bank accounts again, that is.
The woman types in Luca’s information while he clutches his stomach and moans some more.
“Please can we hurry?” I urge.
