“It’s true,” their son said defensively. Turning to his mom, he added, “I’m glad you’re not dead.”
“Well, that’s something at least,” Jessica answered.
Winnie appeared next, her head down as she typed something into her phone with her thumbs. “What?”
“What do you mean, what?” Mike asked, his voice booming with frustration. “Your mother was in a very serious car accident. We’re lucky she’s even alive. Say hello to her, for Christ’s sake.”
Winnie looked up, her cheeks pink. “Sorry, Mom.” When she actually took in the sight of her face, her mouth dropped. “Oh, yuck. You look terrible.” She pocketed her phone and walked over with her arms out.
“Careful,” Mike warned. “Her whole body is sore.”
Winnie folded Jess into a rare, warm hug. How strange it was that her little girl was now able to makeherfeel small. Jess breathed in the heavy perfume she was wearing, searching for the familiar scent of her daughter that was somewhere underneath the formula concocted by the team at Givenchy, but the hug ended before she could quite catch a whiff of her child.
“You okay, Mom?”
“I just need to rest for a few days, but I’ll be fine,” she told her.
Noah, who was either already bored by the situation or was having feelings that were too uncomfortable to process, said, “Okay, well you should go to bed then.” He turned to leave but was stopped by Mike’s voice.
“Hang on. There’s something more I need to tell you guys,” he said. “While we were at the hospital, we ran into Grandpa. Grandma had a stroke a few hours ago. They’re expecting her to recover, but I’m going back there now to see her.”
“Fucking hell,” Noah muttered. “That’s bad.”
“Language, Noah,” Mike snapped.
“What? You say that all the time.”
“It’s different.”
“How?” Noah shrugged.
“Because I know when to swear and when not to. You don’t,” Mike told him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, seeming to realize that now wasn’t the time for the no cursing lecture. “I need you two to look after your mom.”
The pair wore matching horrified expressions. Jessica rolled her eyes at them. “Relax. It’s not like you have to give me a sponge bath or something. I’m going to have a hot bath and go straight to bed. I just need one of you to feed Baxter and take him out.”
“Dibs out,” they both said at the same time.
The vein on Mike’s temple started to throb. “Are you goddamn kidding me right now? Dibs out?”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” Winnie snapped. “Just like I do everything else around here.”
“You feed him,” Mike told her, then turning to Noah, he said, “And you take him out. And make sure you wait long enough for him to poop. We don’t need him shitting on the rug again.”
“That happened one time,” Noah told him. “Like, years ago.”
“It was last month,” Mike said. What he didn’t say was how completely irritated he was that their dog of three years still had accidents in the house. It was a bone of contention between him and Jess because he didn’t want the damn thing in the first place. Normally, he’d take every opportunity to mention what an inconvenience the dog was, but Jess was relieved that tonight he bit his tongue.
Turning to her, he said, “And I don’t love the idea of you trying to get in and out of the tub without me here. What if you slip or have trouble getting out?”
She hadn’t thought of that, but with her limited mobility, she wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong. Her fantasy of soaking the aches away quickly dissipated. “Right. I’ll shower instead.”
He nodded at her, his eyes full of concern. Then, as he turned to his kids, his expression hardened again. “Make sure you have your ringers on in case your mom needs to phone you.”
Noah wrinkled up his face. “I’m not going to help her if she’s having trouble in the bathroom.”
“Oh for…” Mike said. He looked at Winnie. “Can you do it, please? Just answer your damn phone if she calls you.”
Winnie nodded and shot her brother a ‘this is why I’m so much better than you’ look.
