Chapter 20

Ruby’s week had taken on a routine of its own. Most days, she felt like she was standing outside her own body, watching it go through the motions.

They buried Gertie Lafferty on Wednesday without any ceremony other than the pastor who read the Twenty-Third Psalm as they lowered her casket into the ground in the plot next to where Bennie Lafferty had long ago been laid to rest.

When Ruby heard about it, it made her wonder what she would do if she had to bury Peanut. It was a horrible thing to consider, so she set it aside and went to work, talked and laughed, and fixed hair and shared lunches. Some evenings she went to Granny’s and ate supper with Lovey, but it all felt surreal.

It was just after nine a.m. Sunday morning and she was getting ready for church when her phone rang. She turned around to pick it up, and when she saw it was from the hospital, her legs went weak. She was trembling as she sat down to answer.

“Hello?”

“Good morning, Ruby. This is Dr. Rousch, and nothing is wrong.”

“Oh, thank God,” Ruby said.

“I called to let you know that we have been slowly weaning Peanut off the medicine that kept him in the coma, and he’s showing signs of waking up. I told you I would let you know.”

“Oh my God, oh my God, can I come?”

“That’s why I’m calling. Yes, you can come. The nurses know to expect you. But you have to be mindful it’s the ICU.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll whisper.”

She heard him chuckle. “Have a good day,” he said.

“Yes, you too,” Ruby said, then hung up.

She jumped to her feet, took off her slip, and ran to the closet for warmer pants and a sweater because the hospital was always cold.

* * *

Ruby Dye didn’t make it to church.

Lovey waited until the preacher started his sermon before she got out her phone and started texting.

Where are you? Is everything okay?

Within a minute or two, she got an answer.

With Peanut in ICU. He’s waking up.

Lovey dropped her phone back in her purse and lifted her eyes above the pulpit to the angel in the stained-glass window.

“Praise the Lord,” she whispered.

* * *

There was sound in the darkness.

Sometimes Peanut could hear what people were saying, and other times it was just a mumble of voices. When he was closest to the voices, he kept listening for her voice, but she wasn’t there.

Once he came to just enough to hear someone moaning and someone crying. It made him anxious, and he let go and fell back into the hole. Other times, he woke up trying to climb out. The hole was deep. It had been a sanctuary, but now it felt like a trap.

At times he thought he was talking, and then realized the voices he heard were in his head, but they were all telling him the same thing… Wake up. Wake up. It made him angry. Couldn’t they see he was trying?

Then help me! he shouted, but when he talked back to them, they disappeared down in the hole.

He was drifting in and out of sleep when he heard footsteps again, then voices beside his bed.

“Please be mindful of the others nearby,” a woman said, and another woman answered, “Yes, I will.”

His heart began beating faster. It was her! She’d come back!

He felt a hand on his arm, then a faint aroma of lilac as someone kissed the side of his cheek. He heard the voice again, only softer and right against his ear.

“Hey, you, it’s me,” she whispered, and put her hand over his fingers.

He inhaled slowly.

* * *

Ruby’s heart was pounding. Seeing the bandage around his head, she was afraid of what was to come. The anxiety of not knowing how much more damage there could be had kept her sleepless for most of the past week, and being only minutes from an answer was suddenly scary.

“Can you hear my voice?” Ruby whispered. “Follow it, sweetheart. Follow the sound back to me.”

His fingers curled around her hand.

“Oh, honey, you hear me, don’t you?”

His grip tightened.

Tears welled from her relief as she leaned over him again, her voice barely above a whisper.

“All you have to do is open your eyes. I know it’s hard, but there’s so much left for the two of us to share. Just open your eyes.”

She saw his eyelids fluttering. There was a muscle jerking at the side of his mouth.

“I’m here. All you have to do is look.”

His lips parted.

“Hear,” he mumbled.

“Yes, yes, you hear me, don’t you, darling?”

His eyelids fluttered again, and then opened just enough that he saw light.

He’d done it! He was almost out of the hole. He tightened his grip on her hand, using her strength to pull himself the rest of the way up.

Light came into his world as he began to blink. It had been so dark, and now there was light.

“I’m here,” she whispered.

He turned toward the sound of her voice, and then he saw her face. Yes, she was who he’d been waiting for.

“It’s you,” he said.

It was all Ruby could do not to cheer.

“Yes, it’s me.”

He sighed. “My Ruby. Love you so much.”

Ruby gasped. “Oh my God,” she whispered, and put her hand over his heart, letting the peace of that heartbeat surround her. “You remember. You remember.”

He looked confused. “Yes. You’re my girl.”

“Yes, I’m your girl. You go to sleep now, sweetheart. I’ll be back.”

“Yes…back,” he mumbled, and closed his eyes.

Ruby kissed him goodbye and felt like she was floating all the way back to the nurses’ station.

“He woke up,” she said softly. “He knows who I am.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” the nurse said. “I’ll note that on his chart.”

“I told him I’d be back,” Ruby said.

The nurse smiled. “Yes, you can come back.”

“Thank you,” Ruby said. “And you will call if there’s a change?”

“Absolutely. You are listed as family on his records.”

Ruby slipped out of the ward as quietly as she’d come in, but the moment she got in the elevator, she closed her eyes.

“Thank you, Lord, for giving him back to me.”