Iwent from the airport to my childhood home to drop off my suitcase, then on to the hospital where two of my dads were hunched over in their chairs in the waiting area.
“Hey, Daddies.”
They both perked up when they saw me and instantly hopped to their feet to drag me into a group hug.
“Peanut, you didn’t have to come.”
“I moved for my bestie, you think I’m not going to come home for my dads? If nothing else, you’ll all get a few extra hugs.”
Their scents were stressed, but even so, the gentle warmth of sawdust and pine resin flung me right back to childhood comfort. They kept me smooshed between them, using me as a lifeline.
“How much longer is he in surgery?” I asked, throat tight.
“Surgery is done,” Poppy said. His actual name was Pete, but I’d struggled with the last part when learning to talk, so Papa Pete had turned into Papapi and condensed to Poppy. He had a few more gray hairs mixed with his brown than when I’d last seen him, but the rest—round glasses, checkered button-up,stocky build—was the same. “He just woke up. They said he’s pretty loopy from the pain meds.”
“Can we go see him?”
“Only one person at a time,” Dad told me. His salt-and-pepper hair was spiked in all directions from shoving his hands through it, a habit he’d always had when stressed. “You can go in first if you’d like.”
“You two are gonna be okay?”
Poppy laughed softly, giving me another squeeze and planting a kiss on my hair. “We’ve survived this long.”
I checked in at the nurse’s station, and they directed me to the room where my poor dad was waking up.
Pappa blinked sleepily, his blue eyes exhausted and his five o’clock shadow rough and scraggly. “Hey there, peanutty buddy. What are you doing home from school so early?”
I wasn’t entirely sure if he thought I was skipping out on a college semester, or if the meds were making him remember years past. “You really expect me to be in school instead of coming to see you in the hospital?”
He looked around at the room, as if he was just realizing where he was. “Oh, shit. Oh, fuck, can’t swear around you. Dammit.”
I laughed and scooped up the hand that didn’t have an IV in it. “I’m plenty old enough, you don’t have to worry about swearing around me. How are you feeling?”
“Right as rain.” He leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, “they got me on the good stuff.”
“I’m glad you’re not hurting. You scared the shit out of all of us.”
Pappa closed his eyes, a little smile on his lips. “You should see the other guy.”
“Did they say when you get to go home?”
“We’ll keep him for at least a week,” a voice said behind me, and I turned to see a petite Asian woman in a doctor’s coat. “You must be Clover. I’m Dr. Yoshimoto, and I’m handling your father’s case. Your other fathers said you wanted to take care of him when he goes home?”
I nodded. “They have to go back to work, so I’ll stay for a while.”
“It’s a long recovery, but we’ll provide resources to help. In the meantime, I want to assure you the surgery went very well. We’ll keep him for monitoring and notify you when he can go home, provided you have an adequate setup.”
“I’ll get everything ready if you can give me a list.”
“Of course. We have a charity that works in conjunction with the hospital to provide in-home mobility devices, so I’ll let them know everything you’ll need, and you can pick it up prior to his discharge.”
“That sounds great, thank you.”
I spent the next week up to my eyeballs in preparations. With the second floor of our house off-limits for a while, I turned the main floor into a healing oasis. I had no idea how many tripping hazards a house could contain until I started looking for them to clear.
My non-injured dads hovered like mother hens whenever they weren’t at work or at the hospital. I gave them the tasks of cleaning and installing to keep them busy and out of my hair while I made sure the million appointments were on the family calendar. The care plan and meal charts made me feel organized. It was probably a false sense of security, but I needed it. All theimportant details were pinned to the walls so my technology-hating parents knew what was happening at all times.
I had help for the first week Pappa was home, with Poppy and Dad alternating who went in that day. After that, it was all me during the day. Hats off to caretakers, because this was exhausting.
