Donnie
Mom was healing well. She had been in the hospital for a week. She was going to get to come home today. They were going to let her do physical therapy at home to prepare her for an artificial hand. Ness’ lawyer was coming to see us when mom got here. She would be staying with my grandparents and me. I made sure the extra room was fixed really nice, the pillows fluffed, magazines and I even put a dorm refrigerator in there filled with waters and cokes for her to drink. I was excited and so was Dug. He could barely contain himself.
“Donnie,” he said. “Should we go get her some more snacks?”
I smiled. “I think we have enough. I bet she will even share with us. Maybe she will let us lie in bed with her and watch a movie.”
He let out a big belly laugh. “Oh Lord, that will be crowded. The bed might break with all of us in it.”
I laughed with him. “It might but I don’t care as long as I get to spend some time with my mom.” I smiled at him. “When I was little, we used to get take out Chinese food and lay in the floor and watch movies. I loved it.” I should have treasured those times more, I thought to myself. After all of this I will treasure every moment with the people I love. I walked over and hugged Dug. “Big guy, maybe I will run and get Chinese food for us tonight.”
“That sounds good,” Dug said. “Mighty good. I promise I will be tidy.”
“You always are.”
He smiled. “My momma didn’t raise no fool.”
I laughed. “She sure didn’t. You are the smartest person I know.”
He looked at me with his head cocked, surprised. “Don’t be silly. I am not smart, but gifted.”
“I actually like the word ‘gifted’ better than smart. Anyone can be smart, but only a certain few are gifted. You, my friend, are some of the certain few.”
We both smiled when we heard my grandmother’s car pull into the drive way. My mom was home. Dug and I rushed to the car to help her into the house.
My mom was smiling as she got out of the car. When she saw us coming to the car, her smile broadened. “Two good looking men to help me in -wow-I feel beyond spoiled.”
She looked better. She was still too skinny, for her body type, and her hair was really grey, but she looked tons better from when I saw her in Ness’s kitchen with blood dripping off of her.
“You look good, Mom,” I told her.
She smiled at me. “I will feel better when I get this hair colored.”
I laughed. I knew that would be one of the first things she wanted to do. “What time is the lawyer coming?”
“In about an hour,” she answered, as we walked into the door. She was still moving slow but she was at least moving. She got in the house and went and sat down in a recliner. She let out a deep breath. I could tell the act of walking and then lowering herself in the chair was painful. “I’m just going to sit here and rest.”
I kissed her forehead. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will,” she told me. “I promise.”