23.

Final Night, First Morning

Before sitting down with Dr. Wade, Holley told Bond to wait outside the

door because she hadn’t wanted him to hear what she feared was very bad
news. But sensing this, Bond had lingered outside the door and caught
some of Dr. Wade’s words. Enough of them to understand the real
situation. To understand that his father was not, in fact, coming back.
Ever.
Bond ran into the room and up to my bed. Sobbing, he kissed my
forehead and rubbed my shoulders. Then he pulled up my eyelids and
said, directly into my empty, unfocused eyes, “You’re going to be okay,
Daddy. You’re going to be okay.” He kept on repeating it, again and
again, believing, in his child’s way, that if he said it enough times, surely
he would make it true.
Meanwhile, in a room down the hall, Holley stared into space,
absorbing Dr. Wade’s words as best she could.
Finally, she said, “I guess that means I should call Eben at college and
have him come back.”
Dr. Wade didn’t deliberate on the question.
“Yes, I think that would be the right thing to do.”
Holley walked over to the conference room’s large picture window,
which looked out on the storm-soaked but brightening Virginia
mountains, took out her cell phone, and dialed Eben’s number.
As she did so, Sylvia stood up from her chair.
“Holley, wait a minute,” she said. “Let me just go in there one more
time.”
Sylvia went into the ICU room and stood by the bed next to Bond, as
he sat silently rubbing my hand. Sylvia put her hand on my arm and
stroked it gently. As it had been all week, my head was turned slightly to
one side. For a week, everyone had been looking at my face, rather than