Nothing Else Matters (25 page)

Once again, Reyna rushed to the emergency room.

She found him attached to an IV and sleeping peacefully. She placed his hand in hers and kissed it while berating herself for leaving him alone.

“I’ll never leave you again,” she whispered.

A few minutes later, Scott began to toss and turn in his bed. Reyna feared the worst when he woke up. Would he be depressed again? She thought he would eventually lose the will to live and try to kill
himself
or something. She would stay with him day in and day out if that was the case. She would keep him in her presence every second if it meant saving his life. He was too valuable to her.

But when Scott looked at her and smiled his classic lopsided grin, she knew something inside him had changed. He wouldn’t be sinking into a depression again.

“Are you okay?” she asked, brushing his hair off of his forehead.

“I’m fine. I had a Lupus flare up. That combined with missing my meds
kinda
threw me into some pretty bad pain. After what I felt this morning, I could knit a sweater while
sittin
’ on hot coals till the cows come home.”

Reyna chuckled at his colorful analogy. He really was back to normal.

“Anyway, they gave me enough medication to make a rhinoceros tap dance and some fluids to fight the dehydration from all the vomiting and now I’m happier than a clam at an oyster roast.”

“Vomiting? Oh God, Scottie, I’m so sorry I left you. I should’ve been there for you.”

“Rey, you were there. When I couldn’t move and I thought I was going to die, I thought of you. Your face, your smile, that’s what gave me the strength to get out of bed and call 911.” Scott took his finger and followed the path of a tear that slid down Reyna’s cheek.

Dr. Schaeffer kept Scott in the hospital overnight, hoping that the inflammation in his joints would decrease enough for him to walk comfortably. Despite several medications at different doses, nothing worked. So, the hospital rented Scott a wheelchair and recommended that he stay off his feet and in bed for as much time as possible.

The star athlete of Charleston Prep was bedridden.

When they got to the Kincaid house, Stu had anticipated Scott’s needs and moved his bed downstairs to the dining room so Scott wouldn’t have to climb the stairs.

That night they held each other in a comforting embrace. As Reyna described the wedding plans for Saturday, she felt for the first time that she and Scott could live happily ever after. That was until Sam returned the next morning.

Friday Nov. 21

We awoke to the front door slamming. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock sitting on the windowsill. It was 5:30 in the morning.

Sam stood in the doorway of the dining room staring at me lying next to Reyna. She was silent. I noticed her favorite duffle bag tossed over her shoulder and a new medal hanging from her neck. She must have won the marathon in Italy.

Reyna rolled over slowly. When she opened her eyes and saw Sam standing in front of her, she froze. They stared at each other like two tigresses that had happened upon the same fresh carrion. After what felt like an eternity, Reyna finally said, “I think you two should talk.” Thankfully, she wasn’t naked as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She slipped her feet into her shoes and grabbed her keys. After giving me a peck on the lips she said, “Don’t forget your medicine.” Then she slid past Sam and walked out of the front door. The whole time Sam hadn’t taken her eyes off of her.

When she heard Reyna’s car start, she said, “I sure hope you used a condom. I don’t want any nappy-headed grandchildren.” Sam dropped her duffle bag on the floor, and then headed to the kitchen.

“Take it back,” I said as Sam opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water.

“What did you say?” she asked with the bottle halfway to her mouth.

“Don’t talk that way about my wife.”

“Wife?”

I nodded. “We got married on Wednesday. Right after you left.”

“Married? You married her?” She shook her head in disbelief then took a swig of water. After swallowing she added, “Doesn’t matter. I’m your mother. You can’t do that without my permission. Don’t I have to sign something or something? I’ll have it annulled.” She shrugged.

“I’m eighteen. You have no control over what I do.”

“I do as long as you’re living in my house.”

“Well, then we’ll move out and get an apartment together.”

She chugged the rest of the water then said, “You’re so retarded, Scott. You have one close call and you get all sappy. That girl is not gonna make you happy. Now she has you trapped. She’s gonna have half of your future earnings when you turn pro.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I had to stay calm. This conversation was a long time coming and I didn’t want to lose my temper. I needed to convey my feelings to Sam as calmly as possible. Maybe then she would understand me.

“Mother, listen to me,” I said, trying to appeal to any remnants of motherly instincts she may have. Wasn’t it a part of nature for mothers to love their offspring? Why hadn’t I ever seen any evidence of that in Sam? “When I’m with her, my wife, Reyna, I feel human. I feel alive, instead of some trained monkey programmed to fulfill your dreams. Why can’t you understand that and be happy for me?”

She didn’t respond. And she didn’t notice that I was barely moving in the bed or the fact that my bed was downstairs in the first place. She didn’t even inquire about my health. The woman had tunnel vision. If it didn’t directly pertain to my athletic career, it didn’t register in her mind. She would never understand me. I felt myself losing my cool.

“I played a football game with a hole in my lung. A HOLE IN MY LUNG! Do you know how ridiculous that is? Any normal human being wouldn’t have even thought to do such a thing. But I didn’t feel I had any other choice. Because of you, I forced myself to go out on that field and I nearly died. I nearly killed myself for you. For you! Then you turn around and jet off to Italy to run in some stupid race without a second thought to my well-being.”

“I couldn’t deal with seeing you in a hospital bed anymore, okay?” she said, turning away from me. “And it wasn’t a stupid race. It was the Firenze Marathon in Florence, Italy. I’ve been training for it for months,” she added softly. Maybe some guilt was finally starting to set in. She touched her medal self-consciously. In the dim lighting I couldn’t tell what place she had earned. I’m sure if it was gold, she would’ve felt her behavior was beyond justified.

“Well, I hope winning that medal was worth it because you just lost a son.” I turned my back to her and shut my eyes tightly. I didn’t want her to see the sadness in my face.

***

Reyna spent the day texting Scott every free moment she got to make sure he was okay. She wanted to stay by his side, but with Sam’s return she thought it might not be in their best interests. Instead, Stu stayed home to keep an eye on him.

After school, Reyna,
Shawan
, Andrea, Julie, and Maggie went to Caroline’s mother’s dress shop on King Street to try on the dress.

“OMG, Rey! You look like a princess. I love your hair straight like that,” Maggie gushed.

“She’s looks better than a princess,” Julie said. “She looks like … like the sunrise over the marsh.”

“What did you say?” Reyna asked, staring at Julie oddly. Her mood changed instantly from one of gleeful bliss to pessimistic foreboding.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Julie’s wide eyes revealed her nervousness at Reyna’s sudden change.

“No. It’s just I’ve never heard anyone use that expression before.” Reyna stepped down from the platform and went over to her pile of clothes in the corner of the room. She searched for her cell phone. For some reason, that innocent reference to La Cienega filled her with an overwhelming need to speak to her husband. She couldn’t explain why. Julie didn’t even know anything about the story.

You can’t explain away feelings. Sometimes you just have to let them explain themselves to you. She heard La
Cienega’s
voice in her head and searched harder for her cell phone. The day before when she had a bad feeling, Scott ended up in the emergency room.

“Well, my family lives out in
Bayview
in Mt. Pleasant right on the marsh. Every morning I get up to watch the sunrise and I think it’s the most beautiful thing ever. I was just trying to say you looked beautiful.” She heard Julie explaining her choice in words. She seemed hurt over Reyna’s reaction.

“
It’s
fine, Julie. And you’re right. The sunrise over the marsh is beautiful. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just have this bad feeling. Like … like something bad is going to happen.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Andrea asked in her sweet tiny voice. She had such an amazing and powerful singing voice, Reyna marveled how it could come out of the same little person.

Reyna noted the looks of concern on everyone’s faces. She hated making people worry for no reason. She just didn’t understand why she couldn’t shake this feeling of doom that shadowed over her. She and Scott were going to be happy. The worst was behind them, right? Maybe Sam’s return had something to do with the bad feeling. She wondered if Sam was working up some way to keep them apart.

She tried to smile and show everyone she was okay. She didn’t want to put a damper on what was supposed to be a joyous occasion. She was wearing her wedding dress.

“Just let me talk to Scott for a minute, then we can grab a bite to eat and finish making plans, okay?” Reyna put on the most chipper voice she could muster. She took her cell phone into the changing room for a little privacy and called her husband.

“Hey, Rey,” he said in his deep baritone phone voice. The sound of him made her insides quiver. She swore that when he spoke on the phone his voice went two pitches deeper making her weak in the knees. “What’s up?” he added.

“I just wanted to hear your voice. I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“What’s up with Sam?” she asked, hoping to allay the fears that woman had conjured up in her mind.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t said a word to me since that argument we had this morning.”

“Oh.” This didn’t help Reyna’s worries. “So, she’s still home then?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess I’ll stay at my place tonight.”

He sighed. She could tell he didn’t want to spend a night away from her, but there was nothing else they could do. Sam would never allow Reyna to stay there and getting Scott to her place would be a logistical nightmare considering his wheelchair and the fourteen steps up to her front door.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too. The next time we see each other, I’ll be walking toward you down the aisle.”

After eating dinner at Magnolia’s and finalizing all the plans for the wedding/Fall Ball, the girls hugged each other and said their goodbyes.

“So I guess the Saturday study session is cancelled, right?”
Shawan
asked with a hopeful grin on her chubby face.

“No way, little girl. I’ve had to cancel the last two. I
gotta
get back on track. We have to keep those Geometry grades up. I’ll see you at eight at the center. The wedding doesn’t start until six in the evening. We’ll have plenty of time.”

Shawan
pretended to pout by poking out her bottom lip. Then she smiled and said, “Fine, I’ll see you at eight.”