Humming, I accepted said metal spoon and pulled off the lid. “So, what did you do today?”
“I lay here.”
I scooped up excess pudding from the lid. “We talked about this. You’re supposed to do the physical therapy?—”
“What’s the point?”
“What’s the point in anything?” I pointed the spoon at him and stabbed the air. “I mean, I’m in my twenties. I could walk into traffic and die tomorrow. You’ll have lived longer than me.”
With a grunt, he pressed the buttons on his bed, adjusting the angle so he didn’t have to strain his neck to talk to me.
“I thought your niece was due a visit.”
“She came.”
“You have family that cares, Currau. I don’t understand you. Sure, this is a prison in itself, but I’d prefer to be here eating chocolate pudding with a spoon than sleeping with a plastic one I’d sharpened into a shiv. Go out in style, my man.”
Currau treated being institutionalized as a part-time job.
“You don’t understand, Kitty. You can’t. And I’m grateful for that.”
I tsked. “Why waste the time you have left?”
“Why let them get close and then mourn my death? Loss hurts. I’m sparing them.”
Like always, he made me want to scream. “Your logic is so fucking skewed.”
“Considering you’re spending Friday night with a sick old man, I’d say yours was too.”
“Aren’t you grateful I came by?” I fluttered my lashes.
“It’s always a pleasure to talk to you, Kitty. Even if you don’t take enough breaths between words.”
“It’s a gift. Some people are born with it, and I’m one of them.”
“That’s the Irish in you.” He flicked a look at the TV screen. “My nephew also came to visit.”
That had me stilling. “Really? Which one?”
No, I wasn’t interested. Nope. Not at all.
Okay, that’s a lie.
Ever since I’d returned from PTO and found him being discharged that morning, I’d been curious about his case. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t gotten the chance to sneak a peek at his notes.
“The youngest boy.” This time, he pressed the ‘mute’ button on the TV remote. “You should ask him out. He’d tell you if he was looking for a placeholder. Seems like the kind of man who’d beat the shit out of that idiot you dated tonight.”
“That does make him a higher form of life,” I concurred, but something inside me, something indefinable, tightened.
Like a pinch.
In my stomach.
Strange.
That morning I’d noticed, yet again, how much space he took up.
He wasn’t a giant or anything. The top of his head didn’t brush the damn ceiling, but he wasbig.
