Against the Fire (33 page)

“Are you sure, Tracy? You haven’t really known each other that long.”

Tracy just smiled. “I don’t have a doubt in the world. In fact, I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life.”

Mattie walked over and sat down in one of the cone-shaped chairs, her legs no longer steady. “You’re just engaged. This isn’t happening right away.”

Tracy came up and stuck out her hand, waving a beautiful diamond ring in front of her nose. It was ornate, understated and lovely, nothing like Tracy might have picked for herself.

“It was Sam’s mother’s ring. He wasn’t sure I’d like it, but I love it. It means something, you know. Sam loved his mother. She’s gone and now he’s giving the ring to me.”

Mattie stared up at her. “Something about you is changing. You’re different than you used to be.”

Tracy seemed pleased. “It’s Sam. He’s made me see myself in a different way. He believes in me. He makes me believe in myself.”

Mattie smiled. “I think I’m really gonna like this new you.”

Moisture glistened in Tracy’s eyes. “I like her, myself, so I hope you do, too.”

Mattie stood up and hugged her. They remained that way for several seconds, two lifelong friends who wanted only the best for each other.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Mattie finally said, easing away. “When is this wedding going to happen?”

“Soon, I hope. Sam’s worried about Gabe. He wants to wait until they catch the arsonist.”

“He’s a good friend.”

“The best.”

“Just like you,” Mattie said, her own eyes glistening.

Tracy smiled. “So what about you and Gabe? Are you going to marry him?”

Mattie sighed. “I don’t know if he’s interested in marrying me anymore. I’m not sure how he feels.”

“But you love him, right?”

A week ago, she would have denied it. Instead, she nodded, pushed the words past the lump in her throat. “I love him.”

“Then everything is going to work out.”

Mattie said nothing.

“It will,” Tracy said determinedly.

But there was no way to know.

Mattie finished collecting her things while Tracy talked excitedly about the wedding she and Sam were planning.

“I want to keep it small. Just a few close friends. But elegant, you know? I think we should—”

Mattie’s cell phone began to ring, stopping Tracy mid-sentence. Mattie grabbed her purse, dug out the phone and flipped it open. “Hello?”

“Mattie? It’s Rosa.” The woman started crying. “Something has happened to Angel.”

Her stomach clenched. Mattie forced herself to stay calm. “Rosa, take a deep breath, slow down and tell me what’s going on.” She looked over at Tracy, who worriedly bit her lip.

“I do not know exactly. His head…something happened inside. They took him to surgery. He is in there now.” She started crying again, so hard Mattie couldn’t understand the rest of what she was saying.

“Just hang on. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” She closed the phone and turned to Tracy. “It’s Angel. Something happened and they took him to surgery.”

“Oh, God.”

“I need to get down there. I don’t want to leave Tigger here any longer. Not with that firebug running around.

Do you think you could take him over to where he’s supposed to be boarded?”

“Sure, I can do that. But why don’t I just take him home with me? I love Tigger. He’s a real sweetie.”

“What about Sam?”

“Are you kidding? The man is a cream puff when it comes to animals.”

“Tracy, thank you, that would really be great. I know Tigger would far rather go home with you than board with strangers. You’ll need his bowl and watering dish.

And I just changed his litter box.”

“Great.”

Together they carried the big tom and all his gear down to the garage and loaded them into Tracy’s car. Mattie steeled herself against Tigger’s meowing, which ended when Tracy settled him in her lap and started stroking his head.

“It’s all right, sweetheart,” Tracy said. “Mama will come for you as soon as it’s safe.”

Mattie grinned.

“Call me,” Tracy said as she started the engine. “As soon as you know anything.”

“I will.”

“I’ll say a prayer for Angel,” Tracy called after her, and Mattie thought again how much her friend had changed.

“Thanks.”

On her way out of the parking garage, she phoned Gabe and told him that Angel had been taken to surgery and that she was on her way to the hospital.

All the way there, she prayed that her friend would have a chance to become the man he was meant to be.

Thirty-One

Gabe’s long strides carried him down the wide, linoleum-floored hallway toward the waiting area in the surgical wing. Mattie had called half an hour ago to tell him what little she knew. He had forgone the visits he had been planning to make on former tenants of Greenwood with prison records, and driven directly to the hospital instead.

He found Mattie sitting with Rosa and her two younger children, both of whom sat quietly, their faces pale and grim.

Mattie stood up the moment she saw him. He started toward her, opened his arms and she walked straight into them. God, he had never known a woman who felt so right in his arms.

“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s go out in the hall and you can fill me in.”

She nodded. He could tell she was fighting not to cry. They pushed through the waiting room door and stepped out into the corridor. Several nurses hurried past, pushing a cart loaded with equipment toward a room at the far end of the hall.

“Tell me what happened.”

Her lips trembled. She took a shaky breath and slowly released it. “A blood clot formed in Angel’s brain. The doctors called it a hematoma. Apparently, after the kind of trauma he suffered, sometimes it happens. Blood solidifies between the skull and the outer layer of the brain. It causes the pressure to build. They took him to surgery to remove the blood mass and reduce the pressure.”

She glanced away and when she looked back, he caught the sheen of tears.

“They make a hole in the skull,” she continued, wiping at a tear that slipped onto her cheek. “That’s how they remove the clot.”

“The surgery’s over, right?” Gabe asked gently.

She nodded. “Angel’s in the recovery room.”

“Did they give you any prognosis? Tell you whether or not the operation was a success?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think they really know. We’re…we’re staying with him tonight. The doctors want us to remain hopeful. But the priest…the priest is coming, just in case.” She started to cry and Gabe eased her back into his arms.

“It’s all right, honey. Just hang on. We’ll get through this together.”

“It isn’t fair,” Mattie whispered against his shoulder. “He’s just a boy. He was only trying to help us.”

Gabe felt the words like a punch in the stomach. Angel had been out on the street asking questions, trying to help him find the arsonist. Now the boy hovered on the edge of death. Mattie was right. It wasn’t fair.

But then, when had life ever been fair?

She pressed a wadded-up Kleenex beneath her nose. “Rosa wants to go over to the church across the street before Father Michaels arrives. I’m going with her.”

Gabe just nodded. He rarely went to church, but he believed in God and he didn’t mind saying a prayer on occasion. Tonight seemed exactly the right time.

“I know where it is. I’ll walk over with you.”

She swallowed and nodded. When they returned to the waiting room to collect Rosa, another woman sat with her, a cousin named Lupe, Rosa said as she introduced him. A younger Hispanic woman in her mid-thirties with black hair cut short around her head, Lupe waited with the children while Gabe escorted the women over to St. Mary’s church.

It was small but beautifully kept. A lone woman dressed in black sat in the very last row, her head covered by a black lace shawl. Candles flickered on the altar, casting shadows on the stained-glass windows behind the cross on the wall. A Bible sat open on a white satin cloth.

Rosa genuflected, crossed herself and sat down in one of the pews. Mattie sat down, looked a little surprised when Gabe sat down next to her.

He reached over and squeezed her hand and some of the tension in her shoulders eased. Gabe sat there in the silence, his chest feeling heavy. Angel deserved to live. Gabe prayed the boy would get the chance he deserved. As the minutes passed, he could hear the faint click of rosary beads as Rosa repeated the prayers. Mattie’s lips silently moved and Gabe said his own simple prayer.

Then it was time to go.

The priest was coming to perform the last rites, just in case. Gabe’s throat tightened as he led the women out of the church and back to the hospital. When they reached the waiting area in the surgical wing, cousin Lupe sat alone.

“My husband came and I sent the children home with him.”

Rosa’s lips trembled. “Thank you. And please thank Alberto for me.”

Lupe’s dark eyes looked sad. “The children…they didn’t want to go. They wanted to stay with their brother. They said that when he wakes up, we must be sure to tell him they love him.”

Rosa made a pitiful sound in her throat and Mattie reached down and caught her hand.

“Father Michaels came while you were at church,” Lupe said. “He has already gone in to Angel.”

Rosa’s knees buckled. Gabe caught the heavyset woman and helped her into a chair.

“My boy,” she said on an anguished cry. “God, please help my beautiful boy.”

Tears collected in Mattie’s eyes as she sat down next to Rosa. Watching her, Gabe’s chest constricted. Seeing her with Angel’s mother, knowing how deeply she cared, moved him as nothing had before.

Rosa and her cousin repeated the rosary over and over while Mattie wiped away tears. Time slid past. The priest came out, an imposing man with iron-gray hair. He spoke quietly to Rosa then left the waiting room. Rosa sobbed softly.

“You don’t have to stay here, Gabe,” Mattie said as the hours slid past. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“I’m staying,” he said flatly. Mattie caught the hard set of his jaw and didn’t argue.

Midnight came. Two o’clock. Rosa fell asleep against her cousin’s shoulder. Mattie had moved next to Gabe and held on to his hand.

Four o’clock came. He must have fallen asleep, his head tilted back against the wall behind his chair. When he opened his eyes, the first gray light of dawn filled the room. His back ached and there was a kink in his neck. Mattie slept against his shoulder. She opened her eyes as if she felt him watching her, and the people in the room began to stir.

The door swung open and Dr. Burton walked in. His narrow face reflected the exhaustion that all of them felt.

“He’s been moved to Intensive Care. If one of you would like to sit with him for a while, you can go on in. Just don’t stay too long.”

Rosa came wearily to her feet. They all moved down to the floor that housed the intensive care unit of the hospital, a place they had been before. Rosa sat with her son for a while, then returned to the waiting area.

At nine o’clock that morning, Angel’s friend Enrique shoved through the waiting room door, looking as worried and haggard as everyone else.

He spoke to Rosa. “How is he? My mother got a call from Alberto. He told her what happened. He said they took Angel to surgery. He said Padre Michaels had come.”

Rosa started crying.

“He made it through surgery,” Gabe said gently. “What will happen now is uncertain.”

Enrique’s dark eyes filled with tears. “He has to get well.” He looked over at Mattie, whose eyes also glistened. “Mr. Zigman from the gallery called. He said one of the artists cancelled and an opening came up. My show is set for this weekend. If it wasn’t for Angel, it wouldn’t be happening. He has to get well so he can be there.” The tears in his eyes spilled onto his cheeks. Turning away, he walked out of the waiting room, his long black ponytail bobbing against his narrow shoulders.

Gabe followed him into the hall, where the teenage boy stood silently weeping. He settled a hand on Enrique’s shoulder.

“There’s still a chance he’ll make it,” he said gruffly, pushing the words past the lump in his throat. “Sometimes miracles happen.”

Enrique sniffed and turned away, embarrassed that Gabe had seen him crying.

“It’s all right. That’s exactly the way all of us are feeling right now.”

The waiting room door swung open and Mattie joined them in the hall. She didn’t say a word, just put her arms around Enrique and held him tight. Both of them cried.

Enrique finally let her go. “I want to see him,” he said. “I want to tell him about the show.”

Only immediate family members were allowed in patient rooms, but no one stopped the boy when he walked through the doors and went over to his best friend’s bed.

Through the double glass doors, Gabe could see Enrique talking to Angel, though he couldn’t hear what he was saying. Next to Gabe, Mattie stood with her head on his shoulder and he suddenly felt her tense.

“Oh, my God!” She straightened away from him, started racing for the door. She shoved it aside and rushed into the room, Gabe right behind her.

“Gabe, look! His eyes are open! Angel’s awake!”

Out of nowhere, doctors and nurses rushed in, surrounding the bed and ordering everyone out. Hearing the commotion, Rosa and Lupe ran toward them.

“What has happened?” Rosa’s face paled in fear. “Angel…he hasn’t—”

“He opened his eyes, Rosa!” Mattie gripped the woman’s arm to steady her. “Enrique was talking to him and he just…he opened his eyes.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Dr. Burton…Dr. Burton is with him now.”

Rosa started praying. Huddled outside the door, no one made a move to leave.

When the doctor finally came out, he was smiling. “He’s conscious. He seems to understand who he is and why he’s in here. There could still be complications, of course, but if everything continues to go well, I think he’s going to make it.”

Gabe felt a sweep of relief so powerful he had to fight to keep himself steady. Fresh tears rolled down Mattie’s cheeks and Gabe’s own eyes burned. Angel was going to make it.

“Thank God” was all he said.