chapter fourteen

14.
There were a few seconds of static on the phone, and then silence. I was silent. The house was silent. But my thoughts certainly weren't. They were screaming, a massive drowd drowning out anything else. Asking questions, jumping to conclusions, blaming things on myself. I sat down for a few minutes, putting my head between my knees, since I had the distinct feeling if I hadn't, I might have passed out. Then I walked over next door to the Garcia's. Grace Garcia answered the door, and I quickly blurted out an explanation. She nodded, and said,
“Yes, Mother just left but I have my own car now. I can drive you, if you don't mind.”
I nodded, and she stepped away for the door for a moment to yell “Pepè! Watch the baby, I'm helping Shane from next door!”
A string of what sounded like Spanish curse words came from Pepè's direction, but Grace seemed satisfied, as she grabbed her keys and went to her car. I was surprised that she had her own car, since she was only 16. But I didn't say anything, just went over to the passenger's side and slid in.
“Thanks, Grace.” My words sounded lame once I said them, but I meant it. She was really doing me a favor.
“Oh, you're welcome. I want to help out when I can. I mean, you are my neighbor after all, and we used to be good friends. Do you remember?”
I nodded. The good ol' days, when children didn't care about what you wear or how you look or how much money you have. Or at least, most children didn't care about those things. I still didn't, not really, but for some reason Grace and I had drifted apart. We still saw each other a lot, being next door neighbors and all, and we always said hello and asked a few questions. But we never really spent much time together any more. Too bad for me. I should have stayed in touch with her, I thought, especially now that she's not a scrawny little 6-year old with her front teeth missing. I don't think either of us knew why we weren't really friends anymore. I suspected it was partly because I had been sent to the public school, and she was going on a scholarship to a catholic school just outside of town.
We soon arrived at the hospital, and I thanked Grace again for the ride. She nodded, and I could see a worried look on her face as she drove away. I turned and faced the building. Wow, it was gigantic. I hadn't every actually been inside it, at least not any time that I could remember. The building was fairly new, and quite impressive. But it seemed menacing right then. I didn't know what awaited me inside. But I marched through the front door, determined to find out, whether it would be good or bad. I assumed it was the latter.
“Shane!” My mom shrieked when she first saw me. “Oh, I'm so glad you're okay. And you got my message.” She gave me a big hug, and then took me by the shoulders and held me at arms length. “I've just been so worried about you! Let me look at you.” I was confused, but let her look. I wasn't looking at her, though. I was looking behind her, to see who was there.
Several nurses. A doctor or two. One lady with two little kids, sitting down. Then I caught sight of a familiar face. Sophia. But no R. No Bryn. No... Dad.
“Where's Dad?” I asked.
“He's with Mr. Field. They're talking. You know. Man talk.” She let me go. “Are you ready to hear what's going on?” I nodded.
“Yes, please tell me.”
“All right. We got a call from your friend Rupert,” I resisted the urge to correct her. “He told us that the tumors Lydia – his mother – has in her brain are cancerous. And she'd taken a turn for the worse. But the main reason he called it because of his sister.”
“Bryn?”
“Yes. She's gone.”
“Gone. Gone?” I repeated, in shock. “Gone?”
All of a sudden, Sophia appeared right beside me. “Yes, gone. Don't pretend like you don't know what the word means. She's missing. She took their car and just left, and they haven't heard from her since Thursday. Normally they wouldn't be too worried, but she took her dad's credit cards and everything. And she's not answering her cell.”
I took a deep breath. I ran their words through my head. I sat down, and ran them through again. Bryn was gone. She left. I shook my head, and uttered the words that had been coursing through my mind ever since I had reached the hospital.
“Where's R?”
Sophia and my mom exchanged a look.
“He's resting.” My mom said. I wasn't completely satisfied with that explanation, since it also sounded somewhat like an excuse. But I had another question on my mind.
“Well, what are we going to do? And why did I need to come here?”
Sophia backed up a few steps, clearing letting my mom do all the talking.
“Well, we thought you could be of some use. You probably know their family best.” Mom shook her head, then came and sat down next to me. “But it's up to you. Do you want to help find Bryn? Or you could stay here. Or I guess you could go home. Did Mrs. Garcia bring you here?”
“No, Grace did.”
“Ah, she has her license now?”
I nodded. “Yeah, she's sixteen.” I felt an unexpected twinge of pride that Sophia was hearing that I had gotten a ride from a girl. But I tried to ignore it. “And I want to help find Bryn, if I can. But I don't know what you want me to do. Actually, first could I talk to R? I really want to see him.”
After a few minutes of considering, Mom nodded. “Yes. All right. Of course.” She went over to a reception desk, where people check in and such, and told the head nurse there something. Then I was lead down several hallways and into a room where there was a TV, some video game consoles, several tables, and shelves with books and games on them. There were a few people in the room, mostly teens, but my eyes went to the on sitting on the table closest to a window. I could tell who it was immediately. I went over.
“R.”
He turned around, and faced me. “Shane! I didn't know you were here.”
“I just got here a little while ago. My mom told me what's up.” I sat down in the chair across from him.
“So why'd you come?”
“I got a message, from my mom. She told me to. And now that I'm here, I really want to help somehow. They seem to think that I can help find Bryn. I sure hope so.”
“Ha,” he scoffed, “Don't bother. It's not worth the trouble. “
“What do you mean? She's your sister!”
“Yeah, but she deserted us. She's probably off in some ditch, smoking.”
I was speechless. To think that R had such a callous attitude toward his sister, and the fact that she would be smoking. Or at least he thought she would be smoking. Wait, smoking? “Smoking what, R?”
He shrugged. “Cigarettes. Pot. I don't know. That's just what she does when she can't handle stuff. She thinks it's some kind of escape or whatever.”
Escape. Just like James had told me about. R had been offered an escape at school, in the bathroom. I was really worried.
“But you're not doing any of that stuff, right, R? Right?”
“No. It's kind of stupid, and besides, where am I supposed to do it? In the hospital bathroom? It's a good thing I don't want to, because I'd probably get caught if I did. People who smoke and do drugs to get rid of the pain are just sissy. I'm man enough, I can handle it.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I remembered Mr. Quirk's words about me knowing what situation R was in, how I could relate to him. At least he's admitting he's in pain. That's a good thing, I'm pretty sure.
“So why do you think that they think I can help find Bryn?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I dunno. Maybe because she knows you. Cause she likes you.”
That made sense to me. My mood was lightened enough that I tried to make a joke. “She likes me? Oh ho!”
“You dummy. Not like that.” R reached over and punched my arm playfully, and actually smiled. Yessss! I celebrated silently. I was so thankful that things seemed mostly patched up between us. I could never stand it when we weren't speaking, or even when things just weren't completely right. I knew that nothing would ever be perfect, but I liked things to be as close as they could be.