Goodbye Earl(59)

Ada felt guilty for being so absent—not only physically, but mentally too—this past week. She hoped that with the wedding being over and having sent Taylor and Ben off in style to honeymoon in Hawaii, she’d have more brain power for getting back to normal and dealing with her mom and work and everything. Now she was up from the table, putting breakfast plates in the sink, wondering if she should take flowers up to the hospital even if Caroline didn’t get moved out of the ICU today. She could give them to the nurses. She should take some for the nurses anyway. That was what she’d do.

Caroline would wake up soon.

She would be out of the ICU soon.

Ada knew it and believed it. She had to.

She began doing the dishes. Moved a mug to the other side of the sink, tossed some forks in.

“Leave it. I’ll take care of it. You go,” Grayson said to her as she sprayed a splotch of jelly off a small plate. “Boys, go upstairs and get ready.”

Ada thanked Grayson profusely for being amazing and kissed him. She told him she’d talk soon, keep him posted about everything.

*



Ada dropped the twins off with Mr. and Mrs. Kingston by the lake, then called her dad on her drive to the bakery. She told him it was time to think seriously about getting her mom into the rehab center in Adora Springs. Her dad did some hemming and hawing, but Ada raised her voice.

“Daddy! It’s better to do this now before she gets worse. She drinks too much when she takes those pills. And what if she starts needing more? What if she gets desperate? She could take too many or get her hands on some bad stuff. All those overdoses…no telling what could happen. She could kill herself with them, and I already have my best friend in the hospital, I—”

“Ada, I’ll talk to her. It’s all I can do.”

“That’s a start. Do that. Please. I’ll call back later,” she said.



Her twin brothers had left Goldie the day after the wedding, returning to Boston and Chicago. She called them both at the same time and told them she needed them to talk to their parents and convince their mom to enter rehab. She told them about the four teenagers who overdosed in one weekend in Adora Springs and the other one who’d overdosed last week in Goldie. She considered the fact that maybe she was overreacting, but she was too tired to mince words anymore. Ada needed help. They needed to step it up.

“Don’t leave me here to do it all by myself, y’all. Please,” Ada said. Her voice was thin and shaky. She turned into the Plum Bakery parking lot and shut the engine off.

“Ada, I’ll call him right now. I didn’t know. How was I supposed to know how bad it’d gotten if you hadn’t told me?” her brother Henry asked.

“Pay more attention, Hen,” she said. “And thank you for calling him.”

“Do you need me to come back down there? I’ll get on a plane,” Michael said. His husband was a pilot and they’d both spent the better part of their last ten years together on airplanes, so Ada knew he wasn’t kidding.

“Maybe; I don’t know. I just needed to call and yell at y’all because I know neither of you can stand it when I’m mad at you and I’m so mad at you right now! Taylor’s not here and I’m doing this alone and I need you,” Ada said.

Henry was more defensive than Michael, but he softened when he heard the hurt in Ada’s voice. Michael said he’d work it out with their dad to make sure he was back in Goldie by the end of the week.

*



Rosemarie and Kasey were sitting at the bakery counter waiting for her. She waved at them as she walked to the back to grab two boxes of muffins and doughnuts she’d had set aside. Caroline should’ve been there in her apron, staring at a cake in the oven; Caroline should’ve been behind the counter greeting their regulars, like she always was, like she’d been doing ever since she graduated from pastry school.

Ada had been filled with rage about how Roy treated Kasey and her mom, but Ada was so young then, so unable to truly imagine what it was like to live with a man like that. Even seeing how different Caro’s and Kasey’s home lives were, Ada didn’t fully realize how lucky she was growing up. She hadn’t been raised in a perfect home, but she’d been raised in a loving home. Not one person in the Plum family had ever shied away from an argument or a confrontation, but they knew how to make up too. Even talking to her brothers quickly about how much she had on her plate helped settle her down. Now that she was a grown woman, she realized how heavy the weight would be if—like Angie or Caroline—she was scared to go home to Grayson at night. How much it would change who she was if he ever put his hands on her to hurt her.

When she motioned to Rosemarie and Kasey at the counter that she was ready to go, she thought about that panic attack she had the night of their graduation party. It was bad. Full-blown. She thought about that little girl crying in her white dress. How that little girl had turned into a grown-ass woman. She thanked God for refilling her with the power and strength she had now.



They walked down to Plum Florals to snatch up every sunflower they had, filling Ada’s minivan with them and driving to the hospital.

*



Mimi had texted them on the way, letting them know Caro still hadn’t woken up, but without wanting to say too much, the doctor felt like there was probably a good chance she would soon. Ada left one box of banana muffins and the flowers with the nursing staff. She imagined Caro seeing them and lighting up when she awakened, when they moved her to a regular room.