The Favor Read online

  Janelle’s stomach tightened. “Don’t you feel good?”

  Stupid question—the woman was eighty-three years old, suffering from high blood pressure, anemia and a brain tumor. Chances were she never felt good. Nan shrugged without taking her hand away from her eyes.

  Janelle got up and put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me help you to bed. I can bring you something in a little while, if you want. Bennett, finish up and then clear the table.”

  Nan didn’t protest when Janelle hooked a hand under her elbow to help her up, proof of how bad she really felt. Janelle guided her grandma through the kitchen and to the hall, though Nan paused at the bathroom.

  “I need to go.”

  “Okay. I can help you.”

  Nan made a noise, but didn’t argue, just let Janelle help her to the toilet. Janelle lifted her nightgown, helped her pull down her incontinence pants. The toilet had been fitted with a high seat and bars, but Nan was still a little unsteady as she sat.

  There was no good way to do this, no way to make it anything but awkward. Janelle had changed her son’s diapers and nursed him through a variety of childhood stomach bugs, but that was completely different than standing in the bathroom doorway as her beloved grandmother groaned with cramps. Nan gripped the railing and turned her face.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” Janelle forced herself not to cover her mouth and nose with her hand, but after only a few seconds, she had to step outside the bathroom. She closed her eyes and put her face to the door frame, but only for a second because Bennett spoke up from the kitchen.

  “Mama?”

  Janelle donned a smile, turning toward him. “Yeah, buddy.”

  “Can I go play my game?”

  “Is your homework finished?”

  “It’s Friday,” Bennett began, then sighed. “After I’m done?”

  “If you do it now,” she pointed out, “you won’t have to worry about it for the rest of the weekend.”

  The toilet flushed, and Janelle peeked inside the bathroom. Nan was still looking away from her, frail shoulders slumped. “I have to help Nan now. Go do what I asked you to do, please. And we’ll watch a movie or something after I get her to bed.”

  In the bathroom, Janelle stood for a moment, uncertain of how to help. Nan looked at her, and though her face was wan, there was a bit of a twinkle in her eyes. She gestured at the built-in wall cabinet.

  “Baby wipes are in there, honey. We can use those.” The twinkle faded as her mouth turned down. “I’m sorry to even ask you...”

  Janelle opened the cupboard, found the wipes. Shook her head. “Shh, Nan. Don’t.”

  Nan gripped her arm as she moved to help clean her up. “Thank you, Janelle. For coming here.”

  Janelle looked into her grandmother’s eyes. “I’m happy to do it. Let’s get you into bed.”

  It still took much longer to get Nan ready for bed than Janelle had anticipated. First the meds, a plethora of pills from a small plastic case with sections for each day of the week, entirely different from the ones she took in the daytime. Then she had to brush her teeth, which she could still do on her own, but took twice as long as seemed normal. She had to put on her face lotion, not for wrinkles, she said, but to keep her skin from being too dry. Also a simple task that took so much time Janelle found herself itching to take over and just do it for her, rather than watching. She didn’t.

  At last, Nan was in a soft flannel gown and tucked into the double bed that had been her wedding furniture, propped on her pillows, the lamp on and giving her enough light to read by. She held the thick hardcover in shaking hands for a moment before she sighed and let it sink onto the blankets covering her belly. She needed a lap desk, Janelle thought, but a pillow would have to do. She folded one in half and propped the book against it.

  Nan smiled. “Oh, that’s so much better, honey. Thank you. I’m only going to read for a while, then go to sleep. What are you and Benny going to do?”

  “Watch a movie or something.” There was laundry waiting, the kitchen to clean. But Nan didn’t need to know that. “I’m pretty tired, too. I’ll probably turn in early myself.”

  The sound of breaking glass woke Janelle some hours later, after she’d finally managed to fall asleep. Eyes wide and heart pounding, she bolted from bed, out the bedroom door and halfway across the hall before she even really knew she was awake. She went automatically to Bennett’s room, finding his door cracked a little and a faint light from inside. He’d never needed a night-light in California, but had found one here and had been using it. Janelle hadn’t said anything about it and was grateful for it now as she pushed his door open just enough to see that he was sleeping soundly, mouth open, one arm flung above his head.

  She’d been dreaming about Gabe and his brothers, of that night in the woods when everything went wrong, and her skin felt clammy, her pajama shirt damp with sweat that still trickled down her back. When she licked her upper lip, it tasted of nightmares, so she swiped at it with her sleeve. She paused at the head of the stairs, imagining herself tumbling down them headfirst to end up broken at the bottom.

  She might’ve convinced herself she’d dreamed the sound of glass breaking, if not for the hint of light at the bottom of the stairs. She raced down them as fast as she could without making her imagined fall come true. The light was coming from the kitchen. Not bright enough to be from the overhead light. Something smaller. The fridge, she discovered when she went into the kitchen and found Nan at the sink, holding her hand under the water. Glass littered the floor, along with a puddle of spilled juice still spreading as it gurgled from the container lying there.

  “What happened?”

  Nan half turned, the front of her nightgown soaked through with juice. “I was thirsty. Got up. Danged glass was slippery.”

  “Let me see.” Ignoring Nan’s frown, Janelle turned on the overhead light and took her grandmother’s hand gently. “You cut yourself.”

  The wound didn’t look deep, but it was still bleeding. Janelle glanced at the mess on the floor, the juice and glass, then again at the cut. She wrapped it in a clean dish towel. “Stay right here. Don’t move.”

  She shut the fridge door, then tossed another tea towel over the mess on the floor to sop up the juice as she found the broom and dustpan. The glass had broken neatly enough into two sections that didn’t appear to have shattered too badly, though she knew from experience that her bare feet would find any pieces she didn’t sweep up. The floor would be sticky until she could mop it, but for now the mess had been contained.

  She moved back to Nan, who stood patiently at the sink. “Let’s get this taken care of.”

  First, she washed the cut gently, careful not to press too hard. Nan winced, anyway. Janelle spread a thin layer of antibiotic ointment, then wrapped it in gauze bandages. She helped Nan back to her bed and beneath the blankets.

  “What were you doing?” Janelle tried not to sound accusatory or angry.

  “I was thirsty,” Nan said with a frown.

  “You should’ve called for me. I’d have brought you something.”

  “I’m not crippled,” Nan protested. “Besides, you were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “It’s what I’m here for, Nan.”

  Her grandmother frowned again, shifting under the blankets. “I didn’t want to wake Benny.”

  Janelle sighed. A monitor, that’s what she needed. Like the one she’d used for Bennett as a baby. “You can’t... You could’ve really hurt yourself. That’s all. I’m supposed to take care of you. From now on, if you need to get up in the middle of the night, just call for me, okay? I’ll help you.”

  Janelle bent to kiss her cheek. So many times as a child, Nan had bent over her this way, and Janelle found herself echoing what her grandma had always said, what Janelle had always said to Bennett since he was a baby. “Good night, sleep tight, and may the angels watch over you until morning.”

  “They will,” Nan s