Page 182 - Sweet Embraceable You: Coffee-House Stories

170 Jack Fritscher

“When the doctors say you’re ready.”
Lies. Lies. Lies.
*

Megs came to visit her mother on her fourth day at St. Mike’s. She
had left her invalid husband and flew to her mother’s side. She
manicured Nanny’s nails and brushed her hair. They drank tea in
the dining hall and ate all the crackers on the surrounding tables.
Megs was her only hope, but Nanny wouldn’t tell her about Nora,
because Nora’s victory meant her failure as a mother. She hated
that she finally had become another one with an unspoken secret.
“Get me out, Megs,” Nanny Pearl begged. “You live far away,
and Georgie is so sick, but you must get me out.” She was embar-
rassed at the tone in her own voice. She had never begged, but these
children with their lives defeated what she had always called her
“Irish.” They had her surrounded. Her control was gone completely.
“I can live with you and help take care of Georgie.”
Megs held her mother tight and close. “My plane is leaving
soon.”
“Get me out.”
“I’ll talk to the doctors.”
“Dear God,” Nanny Pearl said. “Give Georgie my love and
prayers.”
“I will, Mom.”

*

Seventy-two hours after Megs left, on her seventh day at St.
Michael’s, Nanny Pearl awakened and looked at the ceiling. The
phone had not rung. She had received no mail. “No one will ever
come,” she said.
The old woman sharing the room asked, “What did you say,
dear?”
Nanny Pearl, resolved, said nothing else.
She rose from her bed, crossed to the small table where her

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