I should have gone to the bathroom first, too, but I was afraid to mention it. Ian, however, looked at me squirming and told Felix he had to find a place where I could go.
"She should have gone before we left," Felix said, not hiding his annoyance. Perhaps Grandmother Emma would blame him for this short delay.
"The world is full of 'should haves," Ian told him.
He said nothing after that. We pulled into the parking lot of a diner and Ian walked me into it to go to the bathroom. Felix came in and bought some gum and a cup of coffee to go, and then we were off again.
Na matter what Grandmother Emma believed, I thought, my brother always looks after me.
She was waiting for us in the lobby. It wasn't until I saw her standing there speaking with a doctor that I came to understand and appreciate how much in control she could be even under great pressure. No matter what you thought of her, if you needed someone upon whom to rely and depend, she was that person.
She saw us enter, but continued her
conversation with the doctor. When she was finished, she turned to us. "Come with me," she said, and led us to an elevator.
"How are they?" Ian asked as soon as we were alone with her.
"Your father has seriously injured his spine. He will be paralyzed from the waist down," she said.
I started to cry.
"There's no time for that, Jordan. The damage is done and we have to deal with it," she said. "He also has a broken shoulder and a broken leg, a concussion, a broken nose, and a fractured cheekbone. He had a ruptured spleen and the spleen has been removed."
"Removed?" I asked.
"You can live without a spleen," Ian said. He looked dazed and a bit pale because of what she had said about Daddy. "You just have some added risk of infections."
"Ian is right," Grandmother Emma said.
The door opened and we stepped onto the floor that had the intensive care unit or ICU.
"What about Mama?" I asked her.
"Your mother miraculously did not suffer any broken bones, but she wasn't wearing her seat belt. Neither was your father for that matter, and she apparently struck her head either against the windshield or even on the metal roof. She is in a coma. The doctors are not sure yet what it means and they are continuing to evaluate her condition."
"What's a coma?" I asked.
It's like being asleep," she said.
"Only you can't wake up," Ian added. "You could be in a coma for years and years. She probably has swelling and pressure and that's why she's in a coma."
"Yes," Grandmother Emma said. "At the moment they are not sure how serious the damage is."
We entered the ICU. Patients were on both sides with a nursing station in the center. Monitors of all sorts were going and two nurses were behind the counters while two others were attending to patients. Some of the patients were in the open, but many were in areas walled off by curtains the nurses pulled back. Both Mama and Daddy were behind these, side by side.
"Your father's as good as in a coma as well at the moment," Grandmother Emma said. "He's been sedated because of the pain. You can try to talk to him. You can talk to your mother also, but she won't respond to anything. Even if you touch her," she added, looking at me.
I glanced at Ian. His eyes were small and narrow and he was looking around the ICU. I was doing all I could not to cry since she had reprimanded me, but it was hard smothering my tears. We approached Daddy first and looked at him. His right arm was in a cast that went right over his shoulder. His left leg was in a cast. His face had all sorts of black and blue marks, red marks, and some bandages over his eves and around his ears. There was a tube inserted in his left forearm and there were wires on his chest. He moaned.
"Does he know he won't be able to walk again?" Ian asked Grandmother Emma.
"No," she said. Grandmother Emma looked at him more with a mother's disgust and annoyance than sadness. I thought.
She looked at me and nodded at him, giving me permission to speak to him.
"Don't tell him," Ian warned. I couldn't imagine doing that.
"Daddy?" I said. "It's Jordan and Ian. How are you? Daddy?" He moaned again. His eyelids fluttered, but he didn't speak.