In the morning, I watched the sun come up, a golden marble emerging from the earth. I showered and loaded the few belongings I’d brought into the room back in the car. At the diner across the street, I ordered breakfast, but when the plate arrived steaming before me, I pushed it aside and nursed a cup of coffee, wondering if Savannah was already up, feeding the horses.
It was nine in the morning when I showed up at the hospital. I signed in and rode the elevator to the third floor; I walked the same corridor I’d walked the day before. Tim’s door was halfway open, and I could hear the television.
He saw me and smiled in surprise. “Hey, John,” he said, turning off the television. “Come in. I was just killing time.”
As I took a seat in the same chair I’d sat in the day before, I noticed that his color was better. He struggled to sit up higher in the bed before focusing on me again.
“What brings you here so early?”
“I’m getting ready to head out,” I said. “I’ve got to catch a flight tomorrow back to Germany. You know how it is.”
“Yeah, I know.” He nodded. “Hopefully I’ll be getting out later today. I had a pretty good night last night.”
“Good,” I said. “I’m glad to hear it.”
I studied him, looking for any sign of suspicion in his gaze, any inkling of what had nearly happened the night before, but I saw nothing.
“Why are you really here, John?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “I just felt like I needed to see you. And that maybe you wanted to see me, too.”
He nodded and turned toward the window; from his room, there was nothing to see except a large air-conditioning unit. “You want to know what the worst thing about all this is?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I worry about Alan,” he said. “I know what’s happening to me. I know the odds aren’t good and that there’s a good chance I won’t make it. I can accept that. Like I told you yesterday, I’ve still got my faith, and I know—or at least I hope—there’s something better waiting for me. And Savannah… I know that if something does happen to me, she’ll be crushed. But you know what I learned when I lost my parents?”
“That life isn’t fair?”
“Yeah, that, of course. But I also learned that it’s possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief… lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it’s not overwhelming. That’s what’s going to happen to Savannah. She’s young and she’s
strong, and she’ll be able to move on. But Alan… I don’t know what’s going to happen to him. Who’s going to take care of him? Where’s he going to live?”
“Savannah will take care of him.”
“I know she would. But is that fair to her? To expect her to shoulder that responsibility?”
“It won’t matter whether it’s fair. She won’t let anything happen to him.”
“How? She’s going to have to work—who watches Alan then? Remember, he’s still young. He’s only nineteen. Do I expect her to take care of him for the next fifty years? For me, it was simple. He’s my brother. But Savannah…” He shook his head. “She’s young and beautiful. Is it fair to expect that she’ll never get married again?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Would her new husband be willing to take care of Alan?”
When I said nothing to that, he raised his eyebrows. “Would you?” he added.
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came out. His expression softened.
“That’s what I think about when I’m lying here. When I’m not sick, I mean. Actually, I think about a lot of things. Including you.”
“Me?”
“You still love her, don’t you?”
I kept my expression steady, but he read me anyway. “It’s okay,” he said. “I already know. I’ve always known.” He looked almost wistful. “I can still remember Savannah’s face the first time she talked about you. I’d never seen her like that. I was happy for her because there was something about you that I trusted right away. That whole first year you were gone, she missed you so much. It was like her heart was breaking a little bit every single day. You were all she could think about. And then she found out you weren’t coming home and we ended up in Lenoir and my parents died and…” He didn’t finish. “You always knew I was in love with her, too, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“I thought so.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve loved her since I was twelve years old. And gradually, she fell in love with me, too.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because,” he said, “it wasn’t the same. I know she loves me, but she’s never loved me the way she loved you. She never had that burning passion for me, but we were making a good life together. She was so happy when we started the ranch… and it just made me feel so good that I could do something like that for her. Then I got sick, but she’s always here, caring for me the same way I’d care for her if it was happening to her.” He stopped then, struggling to find the right words, and I could see the anguish in his expression.
“Yesterday, when you came in, I saw the way she was looking at you, and I knew that she still loved you. More than that, I know she always will. It breaks my heart, but you know what? I’m still in love with her, and to me that means that I want nothing more than for her to be happy in life. I want that more than anything. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.”
My throat was so dry that I could barely speak. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying don’t forget Savannah if anything happens to me. And promise that you’ll always treasure her the same way I do.”
“Tim…”
“Don’t say anything, John.” He raised a hand, either to stop me or in farewell. “Just remember what I said, okay?”
When he turned away, I knew our conversation was over.
I stood then and walked quietly out of the room, shutting the door behind me.
Outside the hospital, I squinted in the harsh morning sunlight. I could hear birds chirping in the trees, but even though I searched for them, they remained hidden from me.
The parking lot was half full. Here and there, I could see people walking to the entrance or back to their cars. All looked as weary as I felt, as if the optimism they showed to loved ones in the hospital vanished the moment they were alone. I knew that miracles were always possible no matter how sick a person might be, and that women in the maternity ward were feeling joy as they held their newborns in their arms, but I sensed that, like me, most of the hospital visitors were barely holding it together.
I sat on the bench out front, wondering why I’d come and wishing that I hadn’t. I replayed my conversation with Tim over and over, and the image of his anguish made me close my eyes. For the first time in years, my love for Savannah felt somehow… wrong. Love should bring joy, it should grant a person peace, but here and now, it was bringing only pain. To Tim, to Savannah, even to me. I hadn’t come to tempt Savannah or ruin her marriage… or had I? I wasn’t sure I was quite as noble as I thought I was, and the realization left me feeling as empty as a rusted paint can.
I removed the photograph of Savannah from my wallet. It was creased and worn. As I stared at her face, I found myself wondering what the coming year would bring. I didn’t know whether Tim would live or die, and I didn’t want to think about it. I knew that no matter what happened, the relationship between Savannah and me would never be what it once was. We’d met at a carefree time, a moment full of promise; in its place now were the harsh lessons of the real world.
I rubbed my temples, struck by the thought that Tim knew what had almost happened between Savannah and me last night, that maybe he’d even expected it. His words made that clear, as did his request that I promise to love her with the devotion he felt. I knew exactly what he was suggesting that I do if he died, but somehow his permission made me feel even worse.