Page 8 of Red Hunt

“He complains about the nurses, the food, and…basically everything.”

Sharon looked at me sideways before she focused back on the road. “Understandable…isn’t it? This has been going on a long time.”

I nodded and sighed. Grandpa had broken his hip when he fell down a ladder in the store. Not a big deal at first, but the healing had taken a lot longer than expected…which had pissed him off. He’d been alone, independently managing the store all of his life, before taking me and my sister Tara in. He just wasn’t used to following orders or not being able to…function on his own. And even though I was fully prepared and more than willing to take care of him at home, he and reality weren’t cooperating.

Our apartment was above the store. And stairs and a broken hip didn’t go very well together. Neither did being stubborn as a mule and not asking for help. So, since the initial accident, he’d fallen down the stairs twice and re-broken his hip on his last fall…which had brought us back to square one.

We arrived at the hospital and parted ways with a wave. Sharon had become my best friend in Moon Lake even though she hadn’t lived there all that long. She had her own demons from her past, but somehow, she’d managed to get her act together a lot better than me. Something to aspire to.

We were the same age. Twenty-three. The perfect time to start life, come out of hiding, and find…whatever would make me happy…probably. Oh, whatever.

I entered the hospital and took the elevator to Grandpa’s ward. There, I popped my head into the nurse’s room and sighed. At least by now, I’d connected the names to the faces. Maria looked up from the computer.

“Hey, Milli.”

“Hi, Maria. How’s he doing today?”

Maria gave a lopsided grin. “Mad. He tried to get up without help and had another fall. I don’t know why he doesn’t stay put and ask for help.”

“Did he hurt himself?”

“Nah, just his pride took a ding. Didn’t appreciate lying on the floor in his hospital robe and all.”

I exhaled and reached for the box of chocolates I’d brought with me, then handed it to Maria, whose smile deepened.

“You should stop getting us treats, Milli. You know you don’t need to.”

I shrugged. I knew, but all the nurses were so nice, staying professional and friendly while taking flak from Grandpa. The least I could do was bring them their favorite treat now and then. “I know. Thank you for taking care of him.”

“Of course.”

I turned around, went farther down the corridor, and knocked before entering his room.

“Hey, Grandpa, hey, Ollie.”

“Hey, Milli.” Ollie grinned at me. In his late eighties, he was completely bald, and deep laugh lines marred his sagging face. He had broken his hip, as well, and no matter how grumpy Grandpa got, Ollie always kept grinning.

Grandpa’s face, on the other hand, was pale and drawn. Maybe his fall had been worse than the nurse had described. “You okay, Grandpa?”

“No, I’m not okay.” He huffed. “I’m stuck in this stupid bed in this stupid hospital. The food is worse than what you would give to an inmate, and someone stole my dessert.”

I raised my eyebrows and quietly listened to his tirade. There was a routine to my visits. First, he complained, then he asked about the store, then he asked about me, then I went to the cafeteria to get him whatever he wanted that day… Maybe I would cut the routine short today.

“I can get you something from the cafeteria…cake, maybe? Would that make you feel better?” Cake always made Grandpa feel better.

He nodded, and I put down my backpack next to his bed, took out my wallet, and skipped out of the room. Grandpa wasn’t an easy man to be around but compared to living with my drug-addict mom and being at the mercy of her “visitors”—compared to that, he was a saint, and living with him and his moods was Heaven on Earth.

I tried calling my sister to tell her about the fall, bought today’s newspaper at the little kiosk and two pieces of cake on paper plates. I always got one for Ollie, as well. Since his family lived outside the state, he didn’t have many visitors, so Grandpa and I had adopted him. Or maybe it was the other way around. On my way out of the cafeteria, my phone rang in my pocket. I wedged my wallet and the newspaper between my arm and torso, managed to hold onto both paper plates with one hand, and jammed my phone between my shoulder and ear. A juggler I was not.

“Milli? What’s wrong?”

My twin sister Tara’s voice boomed in my ear. How my sister could be so different to me amazed me again and again. “Why does anything have to be wrong for me to call you?”

“Because it usually is, so…spill; I’m busy.”

Tara was always busy. By working her ass off, she’d single-handedly built a contractor business over in Stone Valley, and since her reputation was top-notch, she was never out of work. Work I couldn’t have done even if I wasn’t violently afraid of just holding a conversation with any representative of the male species. But telling a bunch of workers what to do? Next level.

“Grandpa fell again.”

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