Chapter 24
We reached the top of the stairs on the back of the building and Jack turned the key in the door hole, but before opening he said, “Close your eyes”.
He covered my eyes with his hands, I heard the door squeak and open, and close again behind me. He guided me around and when we reached what I then figured was his bedroom he said, “Sit here for a moment, eyes closed. Don’t move till I come get you”.
I sat there, listening to the noises from the other room, and feeling around with my hands what seemed like wrinkled linens. I thought the bed was undone and felt the urge to check. I was about to open my eyes when I heard Jack shout “Make sure you don’t cheat!”, and laugh.
Finally he entered the bedroom and placed his hands on my eyes again, “Let’s go miss”, he said smiling, taking me to the kitchen.
“Ready?”, Jack said, taking his hands off my eyes.
There was a huge cake at the center of the table and all around it Jack had arranged dished with sweet and salty finger foods. I was stunned and stood staring at the table in silence. Before I said anything Jack pulled a watermelon from the fridge, he had carved it and pink chunks of the fruit’s pulp floated in what looked like a cocktail.
“Wow”, I exclaimed at last, unable to add anything more.
I walked up to Jack and hugged him tight, my head resting on his shoulder and my arms laced around his waist, my eyes closed, till our sweat began to mix.
“Thank you”, I was able to add after a while, still holding on to him, rocking him slowly left and right.
“I didn’t wish you happy birthday earlier because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise”, Jack said, his gaze laid intensely on me.
My face went blank, I had forgotten it was my birthday, as I often had since a long while. I looked at the two storey cake on the table, with the frosting and the white puffs of cream on it, when it all flew back to my memory.
It was my birthday, the last one I would spend with my family, and my mother was wearing a red flowered apron.
“Hey Iris, what are you doing up there?”, she called out from the kitchen.
My father and brother were helping me put together the puzzle I had received as a present. I had fit in one last piece before running down the stairs. Seeing the cake I had stopped and gasped, before I burst out laughing and yelled “Woah!”. My mother had laughed too, and after my family had sang the “happy birthday” tune for me I had blown the candles, wishing I could find a kid I had met the previous summer in the compound where we could usually spend a week during the summer.
Tears pooled in my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I didn’t wipe them, Jack did it for me.
“Hey…”, he whispered, lifting my chin
I began telling him my story. We had just come back from the campground and unloaded the car. “I suppose we should go buy some groceries”, my mother had said. Mrs Shaw was gardening her flowers when we were about to get in the car. “Welcome back”, she said, waving at us. “I have some popsicles if you want to drop by later”. The idea had got me really excited, “Oh yeah!”, I had exclaimed grinning. “You can have one now darling”, Mrs. Shaw said, smiling at my bubbly joy. When I looked at my mother she said, “We have to go buy groceries now, Iris”. “She can stay with me if she likes”, Mrs. Shaw had offered, smiling again. So my mother relented, “Well sure, if you don’t mind. We won’t be long, we’ll be back in half an hour or so”. But half an hour become one hour, then two hours and four, and I was still at Mrs. Shaw’s place. I knew something was wrong, but that night reality surpassed my darkest thoughts. By the time the sky had turned dusky and I was exhausted by tiredness and worry a police officer knocked on the door. He spoke to Mrs Shaw first. I was in the kitchen, but stepping out I saw she had brought a hand to her mouth, and was standing there gasping. Then the officer had me sit on the couch. He told me a truck had hit the car my father was driving, wiping off my whole family. I didn’t cry, I remember walking to my place, climbing up to my room and falling asleep. Drowsiness numbed me and I lost track of time. I wouldn’t talk or eat. By the time they found my grandmother and she flew from NY to Minnesota I was in the hospital, where they had hooked me up to a tube to feed me.
One day a new doctor walked in my room, carrying a book about an adventurous duck. He sat on my bed and read it, then he pulled out a chocolate spread and put some on my lips. “Nice lipstick miss”, he laughed. I licked if off, smiling after a long time. It was thanks to that doctor that I resumed talking and eating, and a bit at a time I recovered. After two weeks grandma brought me home, where we stayed till the end of the summer. When September was about to start she announced we would move to her place in NY, where a good school was waiting for me.