Chapter 7
Janice thought she had timed it right. She seems to be more relaxed now, I think the drink worked.
"Well dearie, are you ready?"
Wendy stood up, and wiped her mouth on her plaid shirt sleeve, then nodded, looking up.
"Hella! Let's go!" She turned around, adjusted her fur lined hat, and began marching towards the door.
"Mom! I'm coming!"
Dipper and Mabel each took a side by the tall redhead and Dipper rushed forward to open the door for her. Janice followed behind with the car keys.
"Seat belts everyone! We don't want anyone dearly departing prematurely haha!"
"Shotgun!" Wendy shouted, and got in the front of the black family station wagon, which was hard to tell apart from the funeral home hearse.
Dipper and Mabel got in the back, and then Mrs. Valentino backed up the car and then put it in forward gear and started down the road.
The twins looked around and then at each other. Mabel held her nose and then whispered.
"Ewww….it still kinda smells like…like…"
Janice looked up in the rear view mirror, smiling.
"Like dead people? Why of course dearie. This car follows the hearse carrying the grieving of the deceased. You are a happy lot, a nice change from the usual passengers." And she giggled.
…
They arrived at the Badger Convalescent Home. Janice put the car in park but Wendy already had her seatbelt off and practically jumped out of the car. The twins had to hurry to catch up with the tall girl's stride. Janice could barely keep up.
The crew rushed into the lobby, and the same nurse looked up with surprise at the kids, but then noticed Janice coming in behind them.
"Oh, Hi Janice. No one has died today."
"Oh I know, we're just visiting today."
"Visiting?" and then the nurse looked at the kids.
Wendy slammed her fist on the desk, shocking the nurse.
"YES! I want to see MY MOM! Mrs. Corduroy?"
The Nurses mouth dropped open, and then she tried to speak but nothing came out, until finally…
"Your mom? Your mom is Fran Corduroy?"
Wendy nodded with determination, Janice nodded with a grin, and the twins just watched.
The nurse got up, and then swallowed. "Follow me."
The shiny white and waxed vinyl flooring echoed footsteps as they all made their way past open doors, each a room with a television blaring for almost deaf occupants, or were dark with someone snoring, or someone exiting a bathroom, toilet flushing. Then they came to the last room. The door was closed.
The nurse turned around.
"Now, I haven't ever seen you here to visit, so I don't think you know what she…she looks like. Remember, she has been bedridden for eight years, and…"
Wendy pushed her out of the way and grabbed the door handle, and stormed into the room, the twins behind her.
…
"Mommy, how much longer before my brother comes?"
The seven year old's mother laughed.
"Very soon! Maybe three weeks."
"But how do you know?" The little freckled girl with braided red pigtails looked up with a questioning face to her mother's calm and smiling face, short, shining hair framing her kind and dark brown eyes.
"Because he is already trying to oof! Kick his way out haha! Here, feel…"
The mother gently guided her daughter's head and placed it against her pregnant tummy. The little girls eyes went from side to side as she listened and then…
"Ow! He kicked me!" She jerked her head back.
"Haha! You see? He is trying to come out! Very soon Wendy, very soon your brother will be here."
…
The room was dark, with only a sliver of sunlight showing between the drawn curtains. Wendy rushed to the side of the bed as the nurse went to the window and drew back the curtains.
As Wendy looked down at the face in the bed she thought she saw a flinch in the closed eyelids as the sunlight washed over the pale, thin face.
"She moved! Her eyes! Is she…?"
The nurse turned around from the window.
"Reflexes. Here, I'll show you."
The twins and Wendy looked confused as the nurse went to a table drawer and pulled out something in a sterile plastic bag, and then opened it, withdrawing a small square yellow sponge on what looked like a lollipop stick. She then turned on the facet at the sink and passed the sponge under the water, soaking it. She shut off the water and walked to the bedside.
"Here. Hold the wet sponge to her mouth. What you will see is reflex."
Wendy, still confused, grasped the sponge stick from the nurse and then held it up to the cracked and dry looking lips.
The patient's mouth puckered and sucked at the sponge!
"You see? She isn't consciously doing it. Her nervous system is."
Wendy didn't believe it.
"Mom? Mom? It's me, Wendy. It's Wendy mom! Mom?"
The nurse sighed.
"She can't hear you dear. I'm sorry but she is in a coma." The nurse walked to the other side of the bed. She took a pocket penlight out of her dress pocket and then shocked Wendy with what she did next.
With one hand the nurse gently touched and pulled back an eyelid, and with the other shined the penlight bean into her exposed eye.
"Hey! What are you doing to my mom?"
The nurse then checked the other eye without even looking up.
"I am checking her other reflexes dear. I do this every day."
Janice touched Wendy's arm.
"Gwendolyn, let's let the nurse do her work, and then we…I mean you…can spend some private time with your mother. OK?"
Wendy glanced at Janice and then back up at the nurse. I know you were there back then. I know it was you!
"Uh…OK." The twins each took an arm and slowly and gently stepped Wendy back away from the bed.
They watched as the nurse grasped the patients arm and moved it around, then she lifted the leg and again moved it in slowly gyrating circles. Then she walked over to the other side where Wendy had been standing earlier, and repeated the arm and leg movements. She lifted the bed sheet and checked the catheter and other tubes and wires connected to her and then pulled the sheet back down. Wendy swallowed as she watch the almost disrespectful way her mother was administered.
Then the nurse turned to the party. "Visiting hours end in 2 hours." And she left.
Janice turned to Wendy and the twins. "Do you want me to wait and then give you a ride home? Or are you going to walk home? "
Wendy slowly walked back to the bedside. "Walk home." Then she turned to Janice. "Thanks Mrs. Valentino. I mean Janice. Thanks a lot." And she turned back to face her mother.
The twins nodded too . Dipper spoke up.
"We'll get her home Mrs. Valentino. Thanks again."
"You're welcome dearies. Bye."
And she left too.
…
Dipper pulled up a chair next to the bed, and Wendy sat down. She reached out and searched for her mother's hand under the sheet, and found it: cool, not cold, but very soft, her skin softer than silk, softer than anything.
She looked back up to the person laying in the bed. She was still struggling with the realization that the person in front of her was her mother.
The hair was still brown but with a gray hair here and there on the sides. Her eyebrows looked pleading, almost in pain. The skin still smooth but with a hint of wrinkles by the eyes.
"Mom? Mom?"
Wendy stood up and reached over to brush her mother's hair to the side. Then she leaned over and kissed her mother on the forehead.
"Mom? It's Wendy mom. Wendy."
Now she lifted the cool hand up and held it with both hands.
"Sorry…I…haven't visited mom, but dad…well…he never told me. I thought you…"
Dipper saw a teardrop fall onto the bedsheet. He gently held her arm to let her know he was there.
Mabel went to the other side and held an arm too.
Wendy wiped her nose and eyes with a green plaid sleeve, and sniffed.
"Anyway…nothing is going to stop me visiting you now. I'm going to see you every day mom."
And she leaned over and kissed her mom again, this time on the lips.
She is so cool. She reached over and felt the side of her neck. Still warm there.
Wendy let go of her mother's hand and then walked over to the room closet, and took out a blanket.
She walked back to the bed and spread it out, throwing it across the bed. Mabel went to the other side and pulled, then straightened out the blanket on her side, as Wendy pulled it up to her mother's neck, tucking her in. Then Wendy turned and spoke to Dipper and Mabel.
"Guys, would you mind giving me and mom a few minutes alone together?" Dipper nodded.
"Sure Wendy. We'll be outside." He and Mabel left, closing the door behind them.
Wendy turned back to her mother. Then her lips started to tremble and her eyes watered.
"Why mom? WHY?"
She grabbed her mother's hand again, and then shaking it pressed it against the bed, up and down, up and down.
"Why?!"
She wiped her nose again and sniffed, blinking back tears.
"Why couldn't you come back? What happened? Can you hear me mom? MOM? You left me alone! Alone with the boys, alone with dad…I couldn't take your place! I tried but…I just couldn't! I needed you! I needed to talk to you, to ask you things…but you didn't come back! Why? "
She threw down her mother's hand against the bed, and walked to the other side. She leaned in close to her ear and shouted.
"Can you hear me? Mom! I needed you, but you were gone! You were here the whole time! And dad. Dad! He never told me! Why?"
She leaned up and then leaned back down, and got in her mother's face.
"WHY? Can you hear me? Huh? Can you? MOM! I'm talkin' to you! You hear me? You hear me?"
She threw herself across her mother's body, across the bed and buried her face in her mother's tummy, hugging her through the sheets and blanket. Sobbing she spoke much softer now.
"Mother?" She looked up and turned her head to look at her mother's face.
"Mom? Please. I need you. Please come back. Please?" She buried her face in the blanket again and cried.
