Once they were at Elmhurst General Hospital, the doctors and nurses deferred to Douglas as a matter of professional courtesy. Douglas told the staff that he was Leah’s brother, and they didn’t question him. Joseph held Leah’s dry, lifeless palm while Douglas filled out the paperwork. Joseph answered Douglas’s questions when the doctor didn’t know the answers. He handed Douglas a credit card that he had used perhaps twice in his life. He signed whatever Douglas told him to. How should he contact Casey? Douglas asked. Joseph didn’t know. When the doctors took Leah away and directed Joseph to the waiting area, Douglas phoned his daughter and asked her to find Casey. Leah had had a spontaneous miscarriage.
It was Sabine who finally gave Ella the Kearn Davis number. Casey was surprised to hear Ella’s voice on the phone and stunned to hear the news.
“Oh, thank you so much for calling. I. . . I don’t know what to say. Oh, my God. What should I do?” Casey mumbled to herself. She had a research project due in a few hours, but she had to leave. Offer decisions came out in two weeks. How would she get out now?
“Your parents need you there now,” Ella said sternly, surprised that Casey didn’t immediately offer to go.
Casey felt the reproach. Did Ella really think that she wouldn’t go right away? What did Unu say to her? After thanking Ella, Casey got off the phone, saying, “Take care,” with the precise intonation she’d use to indicate that the conversation between them was over. She called a car service and requested a driver to take her to Elmhurst General Hospital.
When Casey arrived, Dr. Shim explained everything to her. He had to go. He was late for a dinner with a board member from his hospital.
“You’ll take care of your mom?” Douglas said. He felt better now that Casey was here.
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Dr. Shim. Thank you for everything you did today. Please thank Ella for finding me.”
“It’s nothing. I wish I didn’t have to go to this dinner. But I really have to. I’ll call later. Okay?” He looked at her fondly. “I’m sure you have all this under control.”
Casey nodded. “We’re going to be okay. Thank you, though.”
Douglas smiled and hugged her before leaving her alone with her father.
Her father was staring at the beige hospital floor, unable to look her in the eye. The thought of her parents having sex was not awful, but surprising. Her mother had been pregnant. She and Tina could have had another sibling. How crazy.
“How is she? Have you seen her since?”
“She’s still in there.” Joseph pointed to the area behind the swinging doors. “They’re cleaning out. . .” He couldn’t say any more. Did his daughters know? That he’d had a vasectomy after Tina was born? In all these years, she had not gotten pregnant. Not as far as he knew. Could she have kept that from him? Elder Shim had said sometimes women miscarry and don’t even know it. It could appear to be a heavy menses. His wife never talked about her periods or things like that. “Ella’s dad said vasectomies are not a hundred percent.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
Her father looked alarmed, as if she were learning something she wasn’t supposed to know. “Oh sure,” Casey said quickly. “I read that somewhere. That you can get pregnant even if a man has a vasectomy.” She had never read that anywhere, but her father’s relief was palpable. Her father had a vasectomy? Casey knew nothing more than the average person about contraception. She’d had an abortion, for crying out loud, having gotten pregnant while on the pill. Shit happened. She fought the urge to phone Tina right then. To ask if a vasectomy was foolproof.
Joseph sat down. He rubbed his temples with his hands. His headache was worsening. Casey sat beside him, her body parallel to his. From the corner of his eyes, he could see her in profile. Her eyes were dark brown with short black lashes. She was so close to him that he could make out the layer of black mascara coating her eyelashes. Her eyes were small, different in shape from his wife’s, far more like his own. She had his mother’s nose, and her lips were like his, taking after his side of the family. This was something he had always known, had been pointed out to him, but he had not liked this about her, and he felt sorry that he had always favored the younger one. But he had. The younger one had been easier to love. She had been more like a child, mild in nature and obedient.
Casey was wearing something that looked like a short necktie with a white shirt and white trousers. How odd. He was wearing a tie, but he was a man, and he had just come straight from church services. She looked strange in her getup. Not bad, but weird. She had always dressed so bizarrely. She had come from her office; routinely worked on the weekends, she’d said to Elder Shim. Why couldn’t she dress like normal people? And in her hand she held a straw fedora with an orange ribbon band. Like a man’s hat, too. Was his daughter a lesbian? No. She’d had boyfriends. Who knew? Tina was yam-jun-heh, ladylike, in comparison, though it was Casey who had loved skirts and wearing beaded necklaces as a little girl—the one who had fooled around with their mother’s lipstick. Tina was reserved, did better at most things without having to be reminded, helped out her mother. Casey had been more trouble. Not so much at school, but in all things, she’d wanted to do things her own way without anyone’s help. His girls were so different. Casey had the temperament of a boy. She had acted like a rebellious son. Before the war, he had been that way.