Winners (22 page)

“It means I had too much homework and had to come home.” She knew that was an ironclad excuse, or would have been if she hadn’t been getting straight Ds. Clearly she wasn’t doing her homework either, and Jessie never seemed to have time to check it or help them anymore. By the time she cleaned up the kitchen, did laundry, paid bills, and tidied up, they were all asleep.

“We’re going on a field trip to Sacramento next week. To the Hall of Fame Museum,” Adam announced. “This time don’t forget to give me the money.”

“I’ll try not to.” The teacher had had to pay for him the last time they went on a field trip, but it was three weeks after Tim died, and Jessie was brain-dead or felt like it. She still did. She never seemed to catch up. And in two more weeks they’d have spring break and would be home alone and have nothing to do, which was worse. She had to remember to hire a sitter for the week, to drive them around and give them lunch. She couldn’t expect Chris to do it every day. It wasn’t fair to him, and they might kill each other over the PlayStation.

All of them ate quickly, as they always did now, and went back upstairs to their rooms. Jimmy gave her a kiss before he did. The others each rinsed their plate, put it in the dishwasher, and left, except Chris, who lingered to talk to his mother.

“What’s up?” Jessie said. She could tell he had something to say to her. She just hoped he hadn’t gotten someone pregnant. She could only think of worst-case scenarios these days. What else was there? After Tim dying, anything could happen.

“I got my letters today,” he said with a meaningful look.

“Letters? What letters?” Her mind was a blank.

“My acceptance letters, Mom!” he said, visibly annoyed at her. She was like a zombie these days, which was how she felt by the time she got home. She just couldn’t manage working all day, and being there for all four of them, without Tim’s help. But she knew she had to, and would get used to it eventually. She still cried herself to sleep every night, and slept in his pajamas. “My
college
acceptance letters,” he said with emphasis, and she got it.

“I’m sorry. I forgot. So?” She sat down at the kitchen table and looked at him expectantly with a smile. “Tell me!”

“I got into Princeton, Harvard, and Yale,” he said with a grin.

“Very funny.” He had refused to apply to any eastern schools, and his grades weren’t good enough for the Ivy League. He had only applied to schools in the West.

“I got into Arizona,” he said, which he knew was a no from her, because she was convinced it was a party school, and Tim had agreed with her, but Chris had applied anyway. His getting in there was no surprise.

“I didn’t get into Berkeley or UCSB.” She was disappointed to hear it. She knew he had only applied to five, although she had wanted him to apply to more, but Tim let him off the hook, softie that he was. “And I got into Boulder and DU.” He looked pleased as he said it, she knew he wanted to ski, and DU was the University of Denver, which he preferred over Boulder, and so did she.

“You look happy. So what do you think?” She was too tired to get excited and pretend to be overjoyed over two schools she hadn’t been wild about in the first place. She wished he had gotten into Berkeley, but his GPA hadn’t been high enough, nor his test scores. He had never been a great student. He had improved somewhat during senior year, but it was too late. His junior year had been too weak. “What are you feeling about those two? I know you liked them both when we saw them.” He seemed to hesitate between the two, which surprised her. He had been leaning toward Boulder before, although neither she nor Tim had loved it, and then he had favored DU. Now he didn’t look sure.

“I really like Boulder, but I know Dad liked DU better, so I’m kind of leaning toward DU,” he said, which took her breath away. It was his way of pleasing his father posthumously, which almost ripped her heart out. And she wanted to be supportive of whichever school he chose. They needed something to be hopeful about these days.

“I like it too, but you have to feel good about it,” she said, gently touching his arm, and then his cheek. They exchanged a long look, and she smiled at him, fighting back tears. “I want you to be happy, baby. Daddy would want that too.” He nodded, and she saw that there were tears in his eyes too. He gave her a hug then, and she choked on a sob.

“I’m going to go to DU. I liked it,” he said quietly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I am. And two of the guys in my class are going there. We’re going to try to room together.”

“It’s funny. I have a consulting job there, so I can visit you whenever I go.”

“What kind of consulting job?” He looked surprised. She had never done that before. But she could use the income now, if they paid her. If she went regularly, she was going to charge Bill Thomas a small fee, but not if she just went once or twice.

“Someone’s starting a rehab hospital for SCI kids. I’m just giving them advice.” He nodded, not particularly interested, but he seemed pleased with his decision, and he said he might join the ski team, or the swim team. He was a fabulous athlete and excelled at both. It was hard to believe he was leaving for college. It had all happened so soon. She dreaded his going now, and it was less than five months away. “So are you sure about DU?”

“Yes, I am.” He seemed pleased with the decision, hugged her again, and went back upstairs. She went to kiss Jimmy goodnight then, but he was already sound asleep when she got there. It happened every night. She stuck her head into Adam’s room and told him to brush his teeth and go to bed. And when she checked on Heather, she was back on the phone.

“Is your homework done?” Jessie mouthed at her, and Heather nodded and pointed at the door for her to leave. She considered all her phone conversations top secret and didn’t want her mother hanging around to listen in.

Jessie went to her own room, took off her clothes, got in the shower, and let the water run over her while she cried. And then she put on her pajamas and went to bed, thinking about Chris going to the University of Denver. She hoped it was the right decision for him. Even Denver seemed too far away now. All she wished was that she could turn back the clock. They’d all be babies and Tim would still be alive. Instead, Chris was leaving, and Tim was dead. She rolled over and turned off the light. She had gotten through another day.

Chapter 17

Bill called Jessie regularly to report on the progress of his plans, and discuss the suggestions she had made for staff, and she finally succumbed to his entreaties and agreed to go to Denver in May. She had all of the kids stay with friends for the weekend, took Friday off, and flew to Denver on Friday morning. She was worried about leaving the kids, but interested to see what he’d done and what he was doing. Carole was up to her neck in the project by then, and trying to help him find staff too. And Jessie was looking forward to seeing Lily. She was almost finished at Craig, and according to Bill, she had done well there, and was going back to school for the last few weeks of junior year, and would be a senior in the fall, since she had kept up with her work. She was training for the Paralympics, and had skied until the end of the season. She was a remarkable kid. Jessie wished her own worked as hard.

As they had agreed, Jessie took a cab from the airport, and met him at his house. It was a shambles, with construction still in progress. He had told her he was putting in accommodations for Lily, and he was expecting her home soon, so the heat was on to finish.

When she rang the doorbell, Steve, the architect, had just delivered a model of The Lily Pad to Bill, who was looking at it with delight. Every detail he had described was there. It was The Lily Pad just as he had dreamed it. And he was still smiling about it when he opened the door to Jessie.

“Well, hello,” he said, opening the door wide. “Welcome to Denver!” The house looked like a bomb had hit it, and they had to climb over lumber to get to the kitchen. She left her bag in the front hall. And as soon as they walked into the kitchen, he introduced her to Steve.

“Dr. Matthews, Steve Jansen. Dr. Matthews has come from Squaw Valley to consult on The Lily Pad.” He pointed to the model, and Jessie stared at it with awe.

“This is amazing,” she said, smiling at both of them. “It looks like a whole village.”

“It will be, when we’re finished. Everything is already there now, it’s just not adapted to us yet,” Bill explained. “The only thing we have to build is the pool, and we’re starting that in June. It should be finished by October, before the winter. And we’ll be working on everything else this summer too. Would you like something to eat? Coffee? How was your flight?” He looked happy to see her, and she noticed that everything in the kitchen had been lowered for Lily. The kitchen was almost complete, and they were still finishing the elevator. And Bill said he had put in a whole new bathroom for her, and changed her closets.

“She’s going to be thrilled,” Jessie said as she sat down at the kitchen table. She had worn jeans and a peacoat and running shoes.

“How’s your brood?” he asked her, while pouring her a cup of coffee.

“Hanging in. My son just got in to DU. So now I really have an excuse to come to Denver. I can meet with you and visit him.”

“You can always move here,” he teased her. “Think how convenient that would be.”

“Yeah, and the others would kill me. How’s Carole? Has she been back?”

“She’s coming next week. I can’t wait to show her the model too. I just got it.” Steve left then, after checking on the elevator again. He promised it would be finished by the end of the week, and Bill said he hoped so. The construction mess would be hard for Lily to navigate. But the work was almost complete. “I can’t believe you’re here,” he said to Jessie, with a look of pleasure.

“Neither can I. I figured one of my kids would do something, or get sick, and I’d have to cancel.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He hadn’t seen her since February, but he had talked to her every few days for the last month, with questions, ideas, doctors he’d heard about from other people and wanted to check out with her. She had been very patient with his calls, and so had Carole, who had been an invaluable source of help to them. He knew from Joe that he called her regularly for advice about administrative issues. Bill wanted to put Carole on a retainer, so he didn’t abuse her time and good nature, and he would have liked to do the same with Jessie, but so far Jessie had declined.

“Are you ready to see The Lily Pad in the flesh?” he asked after they’d sat at the kitchen table for an hour, talking and catching up on the latest developments in his project. Right now they were just concentrating on remodeling and staffing. The rest, the designing of all the programs, would come later. He hoped to have all construction finished by the end of the year. And he was willing to hire a skeleton staff six months before they opened, but he had to find them first. He was working on that almost full time.

They chatted on the way to the property, and he didn’t say it, but he noticed how tired Jessie looked. She had gotten thinner and was almost gaunt, and very pale. He suspected she’d been having a hard time, which Carole had mentioned too. It was to be expected, but Bill knew that being a single parent wasn’t easy, and he had had only one child when he lost his wife, not four, and hers were older, active, and needed more attention from her, while she managed a demanding job.

“It was a good time to come,” she commented. “Things are quiet right now. Ski season’s over, so we have no nasty head injuries, except car accidents and things that happen at home. This is the first time I’ve been away in ages,” she said, and he thought to himself that she looked it. She seemed tired, and he could see what she’d been through. Her eyes were bleak, with dark circles under them, and it was easy to see she wasn’t getting a lot of sleep. But she sounded lively and excited whenever they talked about The Lily Pad.

They arrived at the property then, and got out of Bill’s car, and she commented on how beautiful it was, which was the first thing everyone said who saw it, and how lovely and peaceful the location was, and how well laid out it was. And as they walked, she saw the buildings and the elegant architecture that fit right into the landscape in total harmony. There was an instant feeling of calm, the moment you entered the space, and it was the perfect marriage of nature and fine architecture.

“This is beautiful, Bill. It’s much prettier than I expected, and the buildings are lovely.” He let her into the larger of the houses, and they walked around the spacious common rooms, while he described what he was going to do with them. And she was impressed when she saw the bedrooms.

It took them over an hour to tour the property, and she sighed as she looked at him. “You’re doing something so wonderful here. I hope you know that.” Everything he had described made perfect sense now, and she only had a few suggestions that would help medically. She wanted him to use some of what he’d allotted for offices as space for medical exam rooms, which they would need. She showed him how it would work best, and it all sounded sensible to him and was an easy fix. He pointed out the stakes where they had marked off the pool and the building that would house it. It was perfectly placed and close to the gym, with an enclosed walkway. And the gym was fantastic.

“Wow! It makes you want to stay here forever.” She loved everything she had seen. And there were little gathering areas outside, where the kids could play games or have story time in good weather. There was a large barbecue area too for outside dining. There would be campfires in summer, and the roof over the pool was going to be retractable. “It’s almost like a school or a camp, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like a hospital at all.” She was immeasurably impressed.

“That’s the idea.” He showed her the therapy rooms then, and all of the changes Carole had requested, which she agreed with. There was absolutely nothing about it she didn’t like.

“I wish we had something like this near Squaw. It’s tough sometimes sending patients all the way to Denver. It worked for you because you live here, but for a lot of people this is a long way away.”