She doesn’t laugh but I’m too focused on not cutting my father’s chin to check if she’s smiling. I move carefully around his mouth, pulling his upper lip down to shave below his nose.
With her sure hands, she drags the towel along as I move across my father’s face. A few minutes later, I’m done, and she gathers the towel and brings it to the washroom. I follow to rinse out my shaver.
“I don’t remember your name.”
“It’s Sage.” She moves away from the sink to give me room.
“Thanks, Sage.”
“You’re welcome.”
She stands patiently beside me and watches as I wash the blade.
“I was just teasing you back there, about knowing your way around shaving a man in a hospital bed.”
“I know.”
She isn’t smiling. “Did I offend you?”
She inhales slowly and looks me in the eye. They’re a little watery. “No.”
Then she walks away.
“I’ll see you later, Jane,” she says as she leaves the hospital room.
I can’t seem to say the right thing around her. She’s always storming off.
I shrug my shoulders and walk back to my father.
“I can take you back to the house to unpack,” says Austin.
I pull up a chair beside my dad’s bed. “I think I’ll stay a bit longer. You go ahead. I’ll take a cab.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Austin hesitates but Jane pushes him out of the room.
I lean back in the chair and examine my work. Finally, with a clean-shaven face, I recognize my father and exhale. “Hey, Dad,” I whisper, leaning closer to him. “It’s me. Casey.”
I clear my throat. I feel stupid talking to him like he can hear me, but there’s this pressure in my chest that I need to get the words out.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to come back home. But I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere until you wake up.”
I reach for his hand and rub my thumb over his knuckles. His hand is warm and still bigger than mine. I find comfort in that. I squeeze it and then sit back in my chair, listening to the beeping of the machine.
5
Sage
After typing the last of my notes, I tidy up the kitchen table, placing my laptop and textbooks on the shelf nearby. I built the shelf shortly after starting my Master of Physical Therapy program.
I’m having no difficulty with the anatomy and kinesiology courses, but the biophysics class is killing me. I’ll have to review the last chapter when I return from Jane’s place.
I promised Jane and Austin that I would join them for Sunday dinner even though Jane invited Casey, too. I wanted to say no, but she begged me to come since I haven’t been over in a while.
It’s not that I’m trying to avoid Casey necessarily. But yesterday, shaving his father at the hospital brought back memories of my own dad, and it’s been hard today.
