“How long?” Anita asked.
“It’s hard to say at this point. We’ll know better in about a week. Our main concern now is keeping her weight stable and protecting her from any infections. She’s in isolation, but of course you and Dan can be with her whenever you want. Did I leave anything out?” He scanned the chart.
“Are her chances very good?” Anita wanted to know. “I mean, do you think she’ll live?”
“Well, of course, we can never make any kind of guarantees in these matters,” Dr. Vaughan said calmly. “But I’d say her chances are strong. Six months ago we had one here who weighed two pounds five ounces at birth and had a hole in his heart. We flew him to Honolulu, and he was actually home within three or four weeks. I saw him yesterday. Strong and healthy as can be. Your little girl is almost four pounds. That’s a lot by today’s medical standards.”
Anita looked only slightly comforted. Teri felt for her. At least the baby was alive. At least she didn’t have any major complications. There was a lot to be thankful for.
“Can we see her?” Teri’s mom asked.
“Through the nursery window, yes. We’re obviously trying to keep her away from as much contact with germs as possible.” The doctor rose and gave Anita a warm smile. “She’s really a beauty, you know. I think she has your looks.”
Teri saw tears glistening in her sister’s eyes.
“Now, I want to keep you here at least two more days, Anita. I’d like to see your blood pressure stabilized before we send you home.”
“I don’t mind being closer to my baby,” Annie said.
Teri slipped out into the hallway and found Danny in the waiting room with Gordon and Grandma, finishing a sandwich.
“Is the doctor in the room now?” Dan asked, swallowing a bite.
“Yes. He gave us the update already. I guess you and Anita can see her whenever you’re ready. Annie’s looking awfully tired. I’m not sure it’s helping that we’re here.”
“It’s helping,” Dan said, tossing the sandwich wrapper into the trash and chugging down a swig of his soft drink. “We’re both glad you came.”
They discussed their next step and decided it would be best if Teri, Mom, and Grandma left with Gordon and went to Dan and Annie’s house. The hospital was nearly an hour’s drive from their home, and it was already growing dark out. They couldn’t do anything else at the hospital, and a good night’s sleep would prepare them for the next few days of long hospital vigils ahead.
The trip seemed to be the hardest on Grandma Maria. It had all hit her so fast. She was confused for the first two days, but then her body seemed to fall into rhythm, and she forged ahead like a trooper. The women took turns at the hospital and spent many hours sitting with Dan and Anita.
Even though they looked through the glass window dozens of times at the little one in the clear plastic bassinet, they couldn’t see her clearly.
Gordon came with them every day. Sometimes he would drive them over to the hospital and drop them off for the day. He would always call in or come by in the evening and drive them home. It seemed he was giving Grandma Maria rides more than anyone else. Teri and her mom preferred to stay as long as they could and ride home with Dan. They all fell into a pattern, their emotions rising or falling with each new bit of progress or regression.
The first two days the baby lost five ounces, which seemed a huge amount when she had been so little to start with. Anita was able to nurse the baby, which was good, and when her milk came in, the tiny little one gained one whole ounce that day. She gained two more ounces the next day, but on the fifth day she began to run a fever and wasn’t even back to her birth weight yet.
Anita came home on the afternoon of the third day but only to sleep a few hours each night. Dan needed to get back to work, and although he swapped a few hours with some of the other guys, he still needed to work at least twenty hours.
A week went by, a week of blurred emotional ups and downs. They all slept at the house, at least from about midnight to six every day. Then they would rouse themselves and take the hour drive back to the hospital where Teri, her mom, and grandmother spent the day in front of the nursery window and in the waiting room.
It seemed there was nothing they could do. The baby appeared to be stabilizing, but who could tell? Anita was an emotional wreck, which is what prompted Teri to decide she would stay a little longer. Her mom and grandma had return tickets for January third, and it made sense for them to go on home.
The decision was hard, especially for Teri because she had already used up her sick leave. It meant she would have to request a leave of absence from her job.
She talked to Jessica about it at length one evening on the phone in the waiting room. Jessica encouraged her, saying she was doing the right thing.
“Even if you came back now,” Jessica said, “I think your heart would be so attached to what’s going on there that you wouldn’t be at your best in the classroom. Besides, I think in a strange way it would be a blessing for Marita. She really needs the hours.”
Marita was the substitute they called in for Teri in December when she was out with laryngitis. Marita lived in a little town about twenty miles from Glenbrooke and often substituted at Glenbrooke High School. Her area of specialty was Spanish, and since Teri was the only high school Spanish teacher within a fifty-mile radius, Marita didn’t often get to do what she loved best.
“I guess you’re right,” Teri said. “At least I feel as if I’m leaving my class in good hands.”
“You need to stay,” Jessica said. “We’ll continue to pick up your mail. I have a box of it here already. Why don’t I just send it on to you? There’s nothing pressing that you have to return for. Just stay, okay?”
“Okay,” Teri agreed. “Do you have Mr. McGregor’s phone number?”
“Why don’t I make those calls for you?” Jessica suggested. “I can do it a lot easier from here. I’ll call you back in a couple of days and let you know how everything turns out, okay?”
“Thanks, Jess. Did I ever tell you that you’re one in a million?”The minute the words were out of her mouth, Teri wished she could suck them back in. Jessica hated any reference to her money. Teri hadn’t meant it that way, and she hoped Jessica didn’t read flippancy into the remark. Before Jessica could respond, Teri said, “My neighbor has a key to my house. Why don’t you tell Kyle to pick it up and make good use of some of those tamales in my refrigerator? The ones in the freezer are okay, but the ones in the fridge should be eaten. Maybe he can treat the guys down at the station.”
“Great idea,” Jessica said. “By the way, have you seen Scott since you’ve been there?”
“No. I haven’t even asked about him. It’s been such a crazy schedule.”
“I hope you don’t mind my asking about him.”
“No, of course not. It is kind of funny, though. I haven’t thought of him more than two or three times since I’ve been here. And I don’t feel anything for him. Is that normal?”
“Don’t ask me! It’s probably a sign that everything is resolved between you so you don’t feel loose strings are hanging.”
“I hope you’re right,” Teri said. Gordon walked into the waiting room just then and gave Teri his familiar little half wink. “I better go, Jess. Gordon’s here.”
“Gordon?” Jessica repeated. “The one who proposed to you at the restaurant that one night?”
Teri felt her cheeks begin to blush. She hadn’t remembered that she had recounted that incident to Jessica. “Yes,” she said in an even tone.
“Has he been around a lot?”
“Yes,” Teri said again, not wanting to let on to Gordon that she was talking about him.
“Are you seeing Gordon with new eyes yet?”
Teri didn’t answer. What was Jessica talking about? Was she trying to tease Teri because of the proposal incident?
“I’ll talk to you in a couple of days,” Teri said. “Thanks for making those calls for me.”
&nb
sp; “No problem. I’ll talk to you later, and you can fill me in on all the details. Bye.” Jessica hung up first.
Teri returned the phone to the corner of the table and turned to Gordon. He sat down next to her but seemed to have misjudged the distance because he ended up close to her. She guessed it must be his balance problem.
“I saw Dan. He said they finally named her. Did you hear?”
“Yes, Grace Malia. My grandma likes that they gave her the Hawaiian version of Maria for her middle name,” Teri said. “Or did she already tell you that?”
“She did,” Gordon said with a smile. “She also told me that you share her middle names: Angelina Raquel.” His smile broadened, and he repeated Teri’s full name as if it were a poem he had memorized, “Teresa Angelina Raquel Moreno.” To him it was no longer unlisted.
Chapter Thirty
It’s a mouthful, isn’t it?” Teri said dryly. “And what’s your middle name?”
“Thomas. Gordon Thomas Allister. Has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”
“Yes, it’s very nice,” Teri said. It seemed odd to her that his name didn’t bother her the way it had when she first heard people calling him “Gordo.” She always called him Gordon, and it now seemed to carry a certain dignity to it.
“Besides your middle name, your grandmother also told me she’s planning to leave tomorrow with your mother. Are you going too?” His eyes looked into hers.
Teri looked away. She wasn’t prepared for him to see into her soul as he had before. She gathered up her purse and address book from the table and said, “No, I’ve decided to stay awhile longer. A friend of mine is going to make the arrangements for a long-term sub for my classroom.”
“Jessica?” Gordon asked.
Teri glanced at him. “Yes, how do you know about Jessica?
“You’ve mentioned her before. Seems like a good friend of yours.”
“Yes, she is. Well, I suppose we should tell Anita we’re ready to go. I think she said she was going to stay here until Dan came after work.” Teri and Gordon walked down the hall to the nursery. Mom and Grandma were standing at the window talking. They motioned to Anita through the glass that they were about to leave. Anita was dressed in a sterile gown, gloves, and hat and stood in the corner talking to one of the nurses. She waved good-bye and blew them a kiss.
Gordon offered Grandma his arm, as Teri had often seen him do, and they headed for the car. Grandma loved the attention. It seemed she loved Gordon, too, because she raved about him constantly. “He’s such a fine man. So considerate. So selfless in his love for others. Mark my words; the hand of God is on that man.”
Teri overheard him asking Grandma if she had ever smelled a tuberose before. He said he had something in the car for her. She chortled and squeezed his arm like a school girl. His words reminded Teri of how Gordon had bought the lei for her in the restaurant. That was a tuberose lei. She loved the fragrance from those flowers.
When Gordon opened his car door, that wonderful sweet fragrance met her nostrils again. He had three tuberose leis, one for each of them. He looped the first one over Grandma’s fuzzy white hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Grandma kissed him right back on both his cheeks. Then he placed a lei around Mom’s neck and offered her a kiss on the cheek.
Teri stood waiting for hers and felt her heart beating. Is he going to kiss me, too? She knew it was the island’s custom and not at all unusual, but for some reason the sudden anticipation of being kissed on the cheek by Gordon Thomas Allister gave her butterflies.
He placed the lei over her head and looked into her eyes with an intensity stronger than he had ever used before. When he looked at her, it was as if no other woman had existed in the world before or ever would after. He let go of the lei and pulled away without kissing her.
But Teri felt as if she had been kissed—and kissed but good. The intimacy that had grown between them was much more powerful than anything she had ever experienced with a man. Yet aside from his hand on her shoulder after her “baptism” and the embrace in the crater, Gordon had never touched her.
Teri slid into the backseat beside her mother and remained silent as Gordon drove them back to Lahaina. He and Grandma kept up a lively conversation, and Mom kept saying how wonderful the flowers smelled.
“It’s too bad you didn’t get to see much of the island,” Teri said.
“We’ll have to come another time. I need to convince your father to come,” Mom said. “He hasn’t taken a real vacation in years. Once I get him here to see his granddaughter, I have a feeling he won’t want to leave.”
“Maui can have that effect on you,” Teri said. “Now you can see why I’ve thought about moving here.”
As they drove past the sugar cane fields outside of Lahaina, the sun was about to set in the late afternoon winter sky. Like busy little maids in waiting, the frilly white clouds gathered around the top of the Moloka’i mountain, preparing to tend to the sun before it made its way down the celestial aisle and gave itself to the ocean.
“I was wondering if you would allow me to treat you to dinner tonight,” Gordon said.
“Oh, how thoughtful of you,” Grandma said. “You don’t need to do that for us.”
“Well, to be honest, I’ve already done it.” Gordon turned off the road into a gravel parking lot alongside the beach. It had a picnic area with tables, a restroom, outdoor showers, and a row of wind-bent coconut trees. He parked the car and came around to the passenger side, opening the door for Grandma and offering her a hand out. Then he opened the door for Teri and her mom. Gordon popped open his trunk and gathered in his arms all kinds of beach gear: a blanket, two folding beach chairs, an ice chest, and a guitar.
“Do you need some help there?” Teri asked.
“Could you grab those two shopping sacks? That ought to do it.”
With his arms loaded, Gordon motioned with his head and said, “Follow me, ladies. Your sunset luau awaits you.”
Teri started to giggle until it turned into an outright laugh. She sort of sounded like Gordon with his tickle-laugh. Everything had been so serious and so intense for the past week that this seemed crazy. She felt like a child being let out for recess in the middle of final exams.
They took the little path to the beach with extra caution. Perhaps Gordon was going slow for Grandma’s benefit. Or maybe he was being cautious because of his tendency to trip, especially with his hands so full. A few people were enjoying the sunset on the beach, but not many compared to the beaches in front of the hotels and condos.
Teri had never been to this beach and thought it was a beautiful hideaway. She had driven past it dozens of times but never guessed such a gorgeous strip of white sand stretched along the shore.
Gordon stopped in the sand and unloaded all his gear. He spread out the towels and set up a chair for Mom and a chair for Grandma. They were delighted. The man could do no wrong, as far as they were concerned. Teri placed the grocery bags alongside the ice chest and had a peek inside. A bag of marshmallows, a bag of taro chips, some hot dog buns, a bag of charcoal, and a roll of paper towels greeted her. This was going to be one unique luau.
“All right, ladies,” he said. “I have some Hawaiian drinks for you here. Who would like papaya coconut?”
Grandma Maria cheerfully accepted the bottle of cold juice from the ice chest and set her sights on the evening sunset show going on directly in front of her. “¡Que bonita!” Grandma said. “What a perfect, perfect evening!”
“I only take you to the finest of dining establishments. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to put the shrimp on the barbey, as they say.” He pulled a package of hot dogs from the ice chest and grabbed the grocery bag with the charcoal and matches. “Help yourselves to those drinks there.”
“Go help him,” Grandma Maria said, nudging Teri.
“Help him what? He doesn’t need me.”
Grandma rolled her eyes heavenward and clutched her chest with her hand. “Oh, Teresa, of course he does
n’t need you. But he wants you. This is a woman’s dream.”
Teri shook her head at her dramatic grandmother and reached into the cooler for a pineapple-mango juice. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a crush on that man,” she teased.
“Well, at least one of us admits it!”
Positioning herself between her mom and grandmother, Teri sat down on the blanket with her back to Gordon. She hoped he hadn’t heard any of their conversation. “What a beautiful sunset.”
“Why can’t you see that Gordon is the one man for you, Teresa?”
“Grandma, why are you even saying that? It would never work. He’s nine years older than I.”
“Your grandfather is seven years older than I.”
“This is ridiculous! The man is from a different culture, he’s different from me, and he came from a wild background. He doesn’t fit my list of qualifications at all, Grandma.”
“Perhaps you need a new list—like the one God wrote.” Grandma Maria began to quote 1 Corinthians 13 in Spanish, stating how love is patient and kind and never jealous or conceited. Looking meaningfully at Teri, she completed the recitation with the statement that love never gives up.
Teri glanced over her shoulder at Gordon, who was several hundred yards away roasting the hot dogs. How could she tell her grandmother that she needed fireworks, and she wasn’t sure there were fireworks with him?
Teri had to admit, even though he had never touched her, she felt as if he had with his eyes, if not with his hands or lips. The sensation those few times had been powerful.
Still, it was crazy. Her and Gordon? Never.
“You talk some sense into her,” Grandma said, giving up and passing the baton to Teri’s mom.
Mom’s soft expression showed that she was on Grandma’s side before she even said a word. “I believe he would make you happier than you can even imagine. And I think you would make him the happiest man in the world. He’s in love with you, Teri. It’s obvious by the way he looks at you and the way he treats you. This is not the crush of a young boy. His is a solid, mature love that will make your heart sing, if you would open yourself to it.”