She rolls her eyes and one hand comes up to rest on her hip. “Oh, is that all? Those ain’t my department, sugar. I’m purely blood pressure taking and butt sightings, only. For feelings repair, I’ll have to call the Boo-boo Doctor. But he’s usually pretty busy… in the children’s’ ward.”
“Ouch. You did it again. I would clasp my chest if I could bend my arms. Do they teach sass in nursing school?”
“No, honey, that’s all me.” She grins proudly.
“Anyway, back to the music.”
“Ah yes, that’s a new patient that’s just been moved up to our floor. She’s been playing the… what do you call it… um…”
Please don’t say ‘ukulele’, I think to myself. That would be too weird considering I was just thinking of Toilet Girl playing the ukulele last night.
“Now, what IS it called, you know,” she circles her finger in the air, as if that will conjure it up in her brain, “… that mini guitar thingo.”
Shit.
“A ukulele?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“I guess. Mini guitar works for me.”
“A guitar has six strings, a uke only has four,” I tell her.
She just shrugs. “Yeah, you’re not convincing me ‘mini guitar’ is the wrong name for it. Four is mini version of six.”
We’re quiet for a few seconds, listening.
“She’s really good. Don’t you think?” I ask her.
“I guess. I’ll see if she can play some BB King on it, then I’ll decide.”
“What’s she like?” I ask, trying not to seem too interested.
I get a look before she answers. “The new girl? Why?”
I shrug, “No reason. Just making conversation.”
She raises her eyebrows, and I can’t help but wonder how she can make me squirm with just a look. She must be hell on her kids.
“She’s … delicate. Don’t you be practicing your playboy ways on her,” she waggles a finger at me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Oh, I know all about you and your ways, Mr. Petrescu… I watch the DMV just like everybody else,” her mouth purses, like she’s giving me a silent lecture in her mind.
“You mean TMZ?” I laugh, and her lips purse even more. “Don’t believe everything you see.”
“Did you or did you not get caught on a certain rooftop with a certain person who may be referred to as her royal highness?”
I quickly avert my eyes. “Don’t you have some other butts you need to be sighting?” I get a laugh for my trouble. “So, when did the new girl moved up to this heaven on earth?”
“Just this morning.”
So it couldn’t have been her I heard last night. And the chance that I’m going crazy increases a bit.
“Okay, Mr. Petrescu, get some rest. You’ve got a big day,” Toni says, patting my right wrist cast gently. “You excited?”
“To be able to scratch my own butt after today? More than you know.”
“Uh huh, I’ll be glad to not have to be the one doing it as well. I’ll come get you when it’s time, hun.”
“Thanks, Toni. I’ll be right here.”
She walks over to the door. “Door open or closed?’
I lay back, listening to the faint strum of the ukulele.
“Open, please. As open as possible.”
“You got it.” I think I see a twitch at the corners of Toni’s mouth but she leaves before I can call her on it.
It takes a while for my ears to adjust to the quiet again, but when it does, I can hear the ukulele much more clearly. It’s a simple tune she’s playing now, sad and somber.
I close my eyes and let it lull me into sleep.
***
Three hours later and there’s nothing sad and somber about the noise surrounding me right now. There are eight other people in the room, but it sounds like we’re in the middle of a fish market. Yelling and laughing and items being thrown from one side of the room to the other.
It’s lunch time, and the circus has come to visit. My three bandmates, their three respective partners, Dennis, our manager and Hailey, his daughter and our PR rep. It’s so loud I’m sure the guy in the coma in the next room can hear us.
“Jez, Jez! Catch!” A soft, plush pig sails across the room and knocks me on the side of my head, for the third time today.
Marius doubles over in laughter at his joke.
“You know, you better get those in, because in half an hour, you’re not going to be able to do that anymore, and boy, my revenge is going to be sweet.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” he says. But he clearly is. He moves over to hide behind his girlfriend Anca, my little sister. She holds out her arms, as if in defense of him.
“Don’t worry, Marius! I’ll save you from Jezzy.”
“Anca,” I say, “Do you want me to tell Marius what happened when you were six and ate too much pizza at Euro Disney?”
She immediately drops her arms down and goes to sit in one of the chairs. “Marius, you’re on your own.”
I grin at her and she pokes her tongue out at me.
I’m glad to see her. She’s made this trip from Romania especially to be here today. I know it’s been hard for her these last few months, being so far away from me when I’m holed up here, but she has her own life, one where she’s happy and finding purpose doing what she’s doing. I watch Marius go over and lay a soft kiss on the top of her head, and I think I’m finally used to seeing them together. Not that I don’t still secretly tell him every few weeks that if he ever hurts her, I’ll rip his balls off.
“Hey, watcha thinking about?” Cadence asks, pulling a chair to sit by the bed. Cadence is Sebastian’s fiancee and a collaborator on our last two albums.
“About Marius’s balls,” I tell her, honestly.
“Sure,” she nods, “I mean, I guess it’s your turn. I thought about them yesterday,” she jokes.
“Wha?” Sebastian yells out, from his perch on the end of my bed as he flicks through the channels on the TV.
“It’s okay, babycakes, it’s your turn tomorrow.” She reaches out and pats him on the back before turning back to me.
“You ready for today?”
I’m not surprised she’s the one to ask me, having adopted the role of mother hen since she came into our crazy little group. Truth is, I’m not really sure how I feel. I don’t really want to admit to her how much time I’ve spent wondering if there’s no coming back from these injuries. And that while they’re still wrapped in these casts, I can pretend that everything is going to be okay. There’s no hiding from the truth though, once they come off.