Faint Trace Read Online Free Page B

I—­”
    â€œLyons, your head won’t be in the game until you take that call. C’mon, do it now.”
    Ernie was of the “catch more flies with honey” school, only making demands of ­people he was handcuffing, and I tried to figure out if he was angry at me. Instead he smiled, making a hurry up gesture with his hand and I took the call.
    â€œJune?” Holly said, breathing hard.
    â€œHolly? You OK?”
    â€œNo,” she said, the rest of her sentence getting lost.
    â€œHolly? Holly!”
    She didn’t answer, but several bank patrons stared and a security guard approached. I did sign language with Ernie indicating that I would watch the front exit if he would watch the side and stumbled through the rotating glass door. The sidewalk was crowded, and I put my finger in one ear, blocking some street noise. Holly was silent but in the background I could hear a man—­not Kevin—­say, “Alta Bates Medical Center.”
    â€œJune, sorry,” Holly said. “First, you need to know Lucy is safe and healthy. Kevin is also safe, but he had a scare this morning and needed medical attention.”
    Despite Holly’s hippie accessories, during a crisis she was as focused and direct as a Navy SEAL. She explained how she had arrived to find Kevin passed out in the bathroom.
    â€œIt’s hard to tell what happened,” she said. “But it looks like he either coughed or vomited up a considerable amount of blood. The doctors should know better.”
    I paced back and forth, earning dirty looks from pedestrians who almost lost an eye to my jutting elbow, as Holly described what happened: Kevin was breathing and had a pulse. He remained nonresponsive. Holly called an ambulance, which had arrived in seven minutes, during which time he never regained consciousness, and the ambulance was transporting him to Alta Bates.
    â€œLucy,” I said. “Holly, did Lucy . . .”
    â€œLucy is fine,” Holly said. “She was asleep when the ambulance arrived and I had her sit in the kitchen during the crush. Do you want me to bring her to the hospital?”
    â€œNo!” I said. “No, stay home with her while I go to the hospital. Please.” Holly hung up and I turned abruptly and ran smack into Ernie, who grabbed both my arms, steadying me.
    â€œI have to go. Kevin . . .”
    â€œOf course, of course,” he nodded towards the car. “Let’s go.”
    He didn’t meet my eye. At first I thought it was pity, but as I looked past his shoulder to the parking lot I saw the empty handicapped space. Ouyang was gone. I had let him escape.
    â€œI THINK T HE important lesson I learned today,” Kevin said, “is no more tooth brushing.”
    I smiled, appreciating Kevin’s efforts to make me feel better, but I couldn’t laugh.
    â€œC’mon, June, it was just a nosebleed. Nothing to worry about.”
    â€œYou’re right, you’re right,” I said. “It was nothing.”
    A nosebleed seemed like no big deal. According to Kevin he’d gotten up to brush his teeth and fainted, smashing his nose on the sink on his way down. There was a bump on the ridge of his nose and both of his eyes were blackening, but there were no stitches or fractures.
    But it wasn’t nothing.
    The doctors took a look at why there had been so much blood after the injury and discovered that something was wrong with Kevin’s clotting factor. They checked his red blood cell and white blood cell counts and made a decision: No more chemo. Tomorrow we would visit his oncologist, come up with a new plan, but for tonight, he would stay at the hospital. The doctor was worried that he might have another incident of bleeding.
    Holly had offered to stay at our house with Lucy overnight, but Kevin was having none of it.
    â€œC’mon June,” he said. “Luce needs normalcy.” His reached for my hand.