Page 105 of Center Ice
“That part won’t help you.” Zach just shakes his head. The guy is kind of mysterious—quiet and observant, and it makes me wonder if any of usreallyknows him. “If you want to focus on getting control of your emotions, I know a great therapist. I video call with her twice a week. I’m sure she’d talk to you if you want.”
I nod, willing to give it a try. “Alright, send me her info. I gotta get going.”
I hold my phone up to unlock it as I leave the locker room, but the screen is taken over with Caitlyn’s name and an incoming call. As much as she’s not the person I want to talk to right now, she never calls unless something’s wrong.
“What’s up?” I answer.
“Drew, Mom fell leaving the game. She was really disoriented, and they ended up taking her to the hospital via ambulance to have her checked out.”
“What?” The word rips out of me so loudly that the friends and family members lingering in the hallway turn to stare. “Is she okay?”
“I think so, but we’re waiting to see the doctor. It…would be great if you could come by. She’ll want to see you.”
“Of course I’m coming.” She gives me the details as I rush out to my Jeep, thankful that it’s a home game and I can get to her quickly, but then realizing that if it wasn’t a home game, this wouldn’t have happened. She’d have watched the game from the safety of her couch.
That guilt nags at me for the twenty minutes it takes me to get to the hospital and park, and when I find my sisters, they’re sitting side by side in the ER room. It feels so empty without the bed.
“What’s going on? Where’s Mom?”
“They just took her for a CT scan,” Caitlyn says. “Since she was disoriented after hitting her head, they want to make sure she doesn’t have any swelling or bleeding in her brain.”
“It was probably just the Parkinson’s making her disoriented,” Missy tries to reassure us. And she might be right—being disoriented because of the Parkinson’s could be what caused the fall. Or being disoriented could be a result of the fall. And we won’t know until the doctor reviews the images and comes to talk to us.
“It might be a while,” Caitlyn tells me. “They have to put an IV in so they can inject the contrast, and normally they’d do it here. But she was really agitated when they were trying to place the IV, so they took her to imaging to do it. It’ll take a while for the IV bag to empty into her veins, and then they can do the scans.”
“Can we see her in the meantime?”
“I don’t think so. I think the more people around, the more agitated she’ll get.”
“But it feels like one of us should be with her at least,” I say.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out to see that Audrey’s calling.Shit. In my rush to get here through the post-game traffic, I completely forgot to let her know what was going on.
“Hey,” I say, pressing the phone to my ear as I walk out into the hallway.
“Everything okay?” she asks, concern evident in her sweet voice.
“I’m at the hospital. My mom fell leaving the game, and when Caitlyn called to tell me, I rushed straight here. I’m so sorry. I meant to call you on my way, but I was so distracted.”
“Oh no! Is she okay?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her yet…” I pause and take a deep breath as I lean against a wall. The adrenaline rush thathad carried me here is over, and I’m crashing—emotionally and physically. Then I explain about the CT scan.
“Drew, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”
“I don’t think there’s anything to do. We just have to wait and see what happens.” I hate this part. I hate the waiting and the uncertainty. Unfortunately, that’s what this disease brings. All I want to do is wrap myself in Audrey’s arms, but I’d never ask her to come here. Not only because she’s home with Graham, but also because I know how she feels about hospitals.
“Okay,” she says. “You’ll keep me posted?”
“Of course.” I pause, taking a breath. “And Audrey?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m really sorry about tonight.”
“What for?” she asks, sounding confused.
“For losing control of my emotions on the ice. I don’t want you to think that it means I’m not serious about making sure my contract gets renewed, or that I’m not aware that I need to set an example for Graham.”
