I get Becky on the first ring and explain what’s happened. Becky, being the absolute angel she is, agrees to come over and watch Hailey while I start a door-to-door hospital search for Iris. The problem is, Becky’s a good hour and a half away; she’s got to take an alternate route because of the accident.
Now what do I do? Waste time waiting for Becky to get here? No. I have to find Irisnow.
“Sorry, Becky. No, don’t make the trip. I’ll bring her with me. Yeah, I’m sure. Thanks.”
The next call I make is to my supervisor, April. I explain as quickly as I can, and she agrees to let me have the rest of the day off. “Take care of your girl, Micah. The job will be waiting for you when you get back.”
Now for the tough part: Telling Hailey.
She’s still at her little desk in the living room when I go in there. I look over her shoulder, and she’s working on a picture of three people in a house. One short person with yellow braids, one tall person with dark hair and scribbled tattoos, and one middle-sized person with yellow hair.
I wipe away tears as I scan her desk and see that all of her drawings from today have Iris as part of our family. When I squat down to talk to Hailey, my voice catches in my throat, and I have to compose myself before I can speak.
“Hey, Daddy! I’m drawing pictures for Miss Iris. Do you think she’ll like them?”
I force a smile and nod. “She’ll love them, sweetie.” Oh, God. How do I tell her what happened?
“Daddy? Are you okay?”
The tears that I’d been trying to hide now stream down my face. “Yeah, honey, Daddy’s okay, but Miss Iris isn’t. I don’t want you to be too scared, but Iris was in an accident today. We’re going to go to the hospital to see her, okay?”
Hailey’s face freezes in shock, then crumples. She buries her head in my chest, and I hold her to me as she wails.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to go find her and make sure she’s all right.”
“B-but what if she’s dead like Mommy?”
I can’t think about that. Not right now. “She’s not, Hailey. We’re going to go visit her, and you’ll see that she’s okay.”
It’s no use. Hailey’s inconsolable.
“Do you want to bring a toy with you to the hospital?”
Hailey sniffles and shakes her head. Rather than bring one of her own toys or stuffies, she shuffles through her pictures until she finds one that has all three of us, plus a grey, four-legged blob that I assume is Cleo. “I wanna bring this. For Miss Iris.”
“Okay, sweetie. Let’s go get in the car and find her, so you can give it to her.”
Once Hailey’s in her car seat, I back out and set the GPS for the closest hospital to the accident. My hope is that they didn’t take her far. If I have to go hopping from hospital to hospital to find Iris, I’m going to be a nervous wreck.
Well,moreof a nervous wreck.
Because of the highway closure, I have to take a more circuitous route through surface streets. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, except it seems like everyone’s taking these streets, and that makes it that much slower getting around.
I pull into the first hospital on my list, and judging by the number of photographers outside, I hit the jackpot. One of these assholes probably chased Iris from her office, and now the damn vultures are crowding outside, hoping for a shot of her. I have half a mind to run my SUV through the lot of them, but instead I park and take Hailey inside.
The woman at the admissions desk is no help. Because of privacy laws, she refuses to even tell me if Iris is at this hospital, let alone how she’s doing.
I realize I might have more of an uphill battle than previously thought. I’m not a family member, not a spouse; no one’s going to tell me jack shit. I carry a sniffling Hailey over to a chair in the waiting area and sit down with a thud. My gut tells me that Iris is here, but my gut isn’t going to tell me if she’s in surgery or in a room, or which room she might be in. I’m lost as to where I can go from here.
“Hey, Mr. Lindley!”
I look up and see the paparazzo that I tackled in the restaurant parking lot waving at me from across the waiting area. I half expect him to call security, but instead he rushes over and shoves a crumpled piece of paper in my hand.
“Here. My source here says she’s being admitted to this room. Security’s tight, but I can probably cause enough of a distraction that you can slip in.”
I glance at him with narrowed eyes. “Why are you helping me?”
His face softens, and he puts a hand on my shoulder. “I saw the look in your eyes when you came after me. That wasn’t just alpha-dude rage; that was love. You cared more that I might hurt her than if I was going to take her picture. I gotta say, that was the first time in my career I’ve been scared for my life, and I actually felt like I deserved it.”
