Page 4 of Playing the Game
I suck in a cry and tuck myself into a corner right before I get to the waiting room. I sink to the floor and hug my knees.
Jami’s woodsy cologne drifts up from his jacket to my nose. I yank it out of the bag and bury my face in the fabric.
Please don’t let this be the last time I ever smell him.
I hug his clothes and cry, wishing it was him I was holding. My phone rings again, so I check the screen. Melanie’s name shines up at me.
“Hey…Mel,” I say through a shaky breath.
“Thank fuck, Dori. You’re all over the news. I just heard about it. Where are you?” She pants through her words.
“I’m at the hospital.”
“Were you shot? In the video, you’re covered in blood.”
“I have a graze on my shoulder, but they stitched it up.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
She sighs heavily. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“There hasn’t been time. I just got discharged…but Jami?—”
“I know. The news got a hold of someone’s cell phone footage. Whoever sent it in got a close-up video of most of it. That’s how I found out. Now tell me what hospital you’re at and I’ll pick you up.”
“I’m not leaving without him. He’s not out of surgery yet.”
“Then I’ll sit with you until he is. Which hospital did they take you to?”
I squeak out what hospital I’m in and stay curled up, bawling in the corner. The emptiness and hopelessness consume me, but there’s nothing I can do but wait.
Not much later, Mel’s crouched next to me as I sob in her arms. She pulls me to my feet and takes me into the empty waiting room.
She gives me a side hug. “What do you know about Jami’s injuries?”
“Nothing. He’s in surgery.”
“I know that, but where was he shot?”
I replay the scene in my mind. “The paramedics said he was hit in the chest and head.”
“In the head?”
“That’s what they said. He was covered in blood. It was coming out of his mouth.”
“Fuck, that can’t be good.” She guides me to a chair.
I lower into it. “He could die, Mel.”
“Don’t talk like that. He’s a fighter and this won’t stop him.”
The two large doors to the operating rooms swing open occasionally when doctors and nurses come in and out. A nurse’s station sits on the other side.
Now that Melanie’s with me, my numbness subsides and prickly nerves take over, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to ask about Jami’s condition.
Mel doesn’t wait for me to give her the green light. She just goes to the desk to ask the nurse what I dread to know.
