Crossing the room, she adds her arms to ours, her happy laughter joining ours to fill the sterile hospital room.
“I love you, Neev,” Terry whispers, kissing my temple. “I’m so sorry and I’m so glad I can do this for you.”
I’m too moved to speak and just nod, tightening my arms around them, my family.
“And I love both my girls.” Mama splits a smile between us. “I thought today I would just be scared, but this right here feels as important as the surgery itself.”
A movement at the door catches our attention. Quianna stands there, wide eyes flitting from her mother to me. With no hesitation, I extend one arm, breaking the circle of our hug long enough to invite her in. She rushes over, a bright smile on her face. She buries her head in my neck and closes the circle again. We stay like that for long moments until the nurse comes in.
“I’m sorry,” the nurse says. “But we need to start preparations for surgery. And Ms. Mathis, you need to go back to your room so they can prepare you, too.”
I stand, ready to follow orders, but Mama sets a staying hand on my arm.
“Can you give us just a minute to pray?” she asks the nurse, who after a quick hesitation, nods and steps back to the wall, giving us some space, but not leaving the room. The four of us hold hands and bow our heads, but before Mama begins, I glance up and see Brandon hovering in the hall, his worried eyes on my sister.
He does love her.
And she loves him.
Maybe it wasn’t the best start, and I know they’re still working some things out, but they have love and they have Quianna.
And after all these years and all this pain, they have my blessing.
“You should come pray with us,” I say to him, tilting my head toward our circle.
Terry’s hand tightens around mine and she smiles tentatively. “Come on in, Brand.”
I once thought he was the finest man I’d ever seen. Now, whatever once drew me to him, I can’t detect any sign of, which is as it should be. He’s my sister’s husband and I feel nothing but hope that he is good to her. I sincerely hope they are more faithful to one another than they were to me. Forgiveness has cleared the way in my heart to truly wish them only the best. Brandon walks over to stand between his daughter and his wife, and bows his head.
“Amen,” Mama says at the end of the prayer. “God got both of my girls. I don’t have any doubt.”
“Ms. Mathis,” the nurse says. “You need to go to your room. Mrs. Olson, we need to begin the preparation.”
Terry and I look at one another, and I see a measure of the fear return. I feel it, too, now that we are really about to do this. Her recovery will be harder, but my surgery is more invasive. Through laparoscopic surgery, they will remove her kidney from an incision just below her belly button. During mine, which also should take about three hours, they’ll enter through my lower abdomen, and my kidneys will actually be left in place, and nearby blood vessels used to attach her kidney to one of mine.
Three hours, and my life will be changed.
“You ready?” Terry asks, smiling tremulously.
I nod, the reality of what we are about to do landing on me like a house. “Thank you, T.”
“I’ll see you on the other side.” She laughs, her voice shaking.
The nurse shoos me out and down the hall to my hospital room where a team waits, ready to prepare me for my surgery.
“I’m here,” Canon says, coming to the door, looking more flustered than I’ve ever seen him. “Sorry I cut it close. Galaxy had a million questions and didn’t want to let me off the phone.”
“We’re about to start preparations,” the nurse says sternly. “You’ll have to leave, Mr. Holt.”
“Please,” I beg from the hospital bed. “Just one minute.”
“One minute,” she relents. “We need to get in your IV and get you prepped.”
Canon flashes her a grateful smile and walks over to the bed, sitting down and taking my hand.
“How’d it go talking to your sister?” he asks, his voice low and concerned.
“It was good.” I laugh ruefully. “I hate it took me needing an organ to bring us back together, and I’m sure we still have issues to work through, but I needed to go into this with a clear heart. And now I can.”