Rust On the Razor Read Online Free Page A

the rest of your life.”
    The nurse glanced around the room with his eyes finally coming to rest on me. “Is he part of the family?” he asked Scott.
    â€œHe’s Tom Mason. He’s my lover,” Scott said. “He’ll stay if I want him.”
    â€œNot if the supervisor says he can’t. Only family in here.”
    â€œWhere is everybody?” Scott asked.
    â€œMrs. Carpenter and her daughter went to the machines in the cafeteria to get some coffee a while ago. I thought I’d be back before they returned. I’m sorry. I apologize. Still, the only people allowed in cardiac care are immediate family. When your mother and sister return, he’ll have to leave.”
    I could see Scott preparing to be stubborn. I didn’t want a fight, but I wanted to do whatever I could for him. The phone buzzed on the nurse’s desk. He hurried the eight feet to answer it. He listened for a minute and then said, “Only two at a time.”
    In a minute Scott’s mom entered the room. She leaned on Scott’s sister Mary’s arm. Scott hurried to her, and they embraced.
    â€œIt’s good to see you, son. So good.” Mary hugged the two of them simultaneously. His mother gave me a warm smile and patted my arm. Mary thanked me for coming.
    â€œWhat’s happening, Mama?” Scott asked.
    â€œYou can’t all be here,” the nurse said.
    â€œWhat needs to happen,” Scott said, “is for me to get a status report from my family, and if necessary, from available medical personnel, which I assume is you, and you
are going to be very helpful and pleasant.”
    The nurse hesitated. Scott turned to his mother and sister. “Any news?”
    They shook their heads. “They want him to rest. The doctors won’t be sure for a while what to do. They may want to operate. They don’t know how much damage has been done to his heart.”
    â€œHe recognized me,” Scott said.
    â€œHe hasn’t wakened,” Mary said.
    â€œIt was just for a second.”
    â€œIs that good?” Mrs. Carpenter asked the nurse.
    He shrugged. “You’ll have to ask the doctor in the morning.”
    â€œYou okay, Mama?” Scott asked. “Shouldn’t you be home trying to get some sleep? Mary and I can stay tonight. Tom will drive you home.”
    She smiled at her son. “Your father and I haven’t been apart a night in forty years. I’ll stay for a little bit. I slept for a while earlier, and I can nap on the couch in the waiting room if necessary.”
    â€œI just got here a bit ago,” Mary said. “I’ll stay. Shannon and Nathan were here all day.”
    I melted into the background as they discussed logistics, which son or daughter would be expected and when, who was keeping which parts of the family informed.
    â€œDo you have a place to stay?” Mary asked.
    We shook our heads.
    She offered her home.
    â€œYou’re too crowded as it is,” Mrs. Carpenter said. “And you’re too far away. They will stay at the house with me and your daddy.”
    Â 
    Scott spent the rest of the night sitting with his dad. I stayed with him for brief intervals. Mostly, I read my book or counted holes in the tile of the ceiling of the waiting
room. Once I escorted Mrs. Carpenter to the lounge for a nap. I chatted with Mary for half an hour in the hall and brought up orange juice, candy bars, moon pies, and RC cola from the machines in the basement, depending on who wanted what when. Around four, three teenagers spent half an hour on the waiting-room pay phone making frantic calls. A nurse came and led them away to another part of the hospital.
    An hour after dawn, the nurses’ shift changed. I was half-dozing next to Mary when three people entered the waiting room. Mary introduced them as Hiram, who’d written the nasty letter, and Shannon, a sister of Scott’s. The third was a woman in her sixties,