Part Five: Ten Hours
The phone call came on a Tuesday morning.
“Alice.”
Lily’s voice was barely recognizable.
“Ed collapsed. They’re taking him into surgery.”
For a second, I could not move.
“What happened?”
“They said something about his heart. Please come.”
I drove to the hospital without remembering most of the journey.
When I reached the surgical waiting room, Lily was sitting alone. Her cane rested across her knees, and both hands were clasped tightly around its handle.
I sat beside her.
“I’m here.”
She reached toward my voice, and I took her hand.
Her fingers were ice-cold.
“Have they said anything?”
“Only that the surgery is complicated.”
“How long has he been in there?”
“Two hours.”
We waited together.
The clock above the doorway seemed louder than everything else.
At the fourth hour, I brought Lily coffee she never drank.
At the sixth, I called our parents. They were several hours away and immediately began driving.
At the eighth, I tried to reassure Lily.
“Ed is stubborn. You know that.”
She gave me a faint smile.
“Yes.”
“He’ll fight.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Alice, you’re a good sister.”
Something about the words frightened me.
“Why are you saying that?”
She turned her face toward the surgical doors.
“Because he always believed you would do the right thing, even when it was difficult.”
Before I could ask what she meant, the doors opened.
The surgeon walked toward us.
I knew before he spoke.
His shoulders sagged. His hands were folded in front of him, and sorrow had already settled into his expression.
“I’m very sorry,” he said.
The room tilted.
I stood because my legs had forgotten how to bend. Somewhere nearby, a machine beeped. A nurse crossed the hallway. The world continued moving even though mine had stopped.
Lily did not cry out.
She simply lowered her head.
I reached for my phone to call Mom, but I could not focus on the screen.
Then Lily touched my sleeve.
“Alice, we need to talk before your parents arrive.”
“Not now.”
“It has to be now.”
“My brother just died.”
“My husband just died,” she whispered.
The pain in her voice silenced me.
She opened her bag and removed a sealed envelope.
“Ed prepared this for you.”
“What is it?”
“The reason he kept his condition secret.”
