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mother close behind. Her blond hair was uncharacteristically mussed, and she had a panicked air about her as she ran right into his arms. She was obviously upset. They all were. They’d just witnessed one of the most important people in their lives choking himself purple, and there was nothing any of them had been able to do about it.
    Ed gave Tatiana a quick squeeze, and then she pulled back, her blue eyes flicking left and right. “Where is Gaia?” she asked, adjusting the strap of her shoulder bag.
    â€œShe got sidetracked,” Ed replied.
    â€œSidetracked? How? Her father is in the hospital!” Tatiana’s mother, Natasha, cried, throwing herhands up. Her face was red, and her eyes were swimming in unshed tears. Natasha was clearly on the verge.
    Ed reached out and put both hands on the older woman’s shoulders. “She’ll be here,” he said firmly, looking into her eyes. He and Natasha had recently spent a full night together waiting for Gaia, and Natasha hadn’t been shy about the fact that she had no patience with Gaia’s behavior. But this time it was different. This time he knew for sure she was coming. Gaia wouldn’t let anything get in the way of being here for her father.
    Not even the truck man I left her with, Ed thought, indulging in a wave of nervous uncertainty. He glanced at the glass doors. Where exactly was she?
    Natasha took a deep breath. “Where is Tom?” she asked, glancing toward the nurse at the desk, who was now dealing with the arguing Arab men, about as interested in their plight as she had been in Ed. Natasha twisted her one silver ring around and around and around, like she was trying to unscrew her finger from her hand. “Did they tell you anything?”
    â€œHe’s in one of the exam rooms,” Ed said calmly. Someone around here had to be calm. Suddenly Ed felt like the solid, responsible, in-charge manly man. He stood a little straighter.
    â€œWe will go see him,” Natasha said, starting past Ed.
    â€œHold on,” he said, stepping in front of her so quickly, her head hit his raised arm. “I think maybe I should go back there alone.”
    Natasha’s face scrunched up and hardened all at once, and for a moment Ed thought she was going to go into a full rage right there in the middle of the emergency room. This was exactly why he didn’t think she should go back there. She was in no state to be dealing with doctors and nurses.
    â€œYou don’t tell me what to do!” she said. “I need to see him.” She turned a deeper shade of red than he’d ever seen on a person. Realizing suddenly that he might have just overstepped his bounds, Ed looked to Tatiana for help. She caught his eye and then stepped up behind her mother, wrapping her slim fingers around her mother’s arms.
    â€œEd is right,” she said. “You can’t go back there like this. First we’ll sit and calm down, then we’ll be able to see Tom.”
    Natasha seemed to instantly deflate as she allowed Tatiana to lead her over to one of the chairs along the wall. All in all, Ed thought, he’d handled himself pretty well so far. He’d established himself as Tom’s son and defused a potentially volatile situation with Natasha. Gaia would be proud.
    Now all he needed was to find good news behind that curtain. That was what Gaia really needed.
    Please just let it for once be good news. . . .
    Compulsively Shined Shoes
    HE WAS ABLE TO HEAR EVERYTHING . After months of being trapped in this cold, white cell, he had trained himself to hear it all. Every turn of a key in a lock. Every click of a door. Every footstep. Every word. Every sneeze. Sometimes he even heard a breath. With nothing to see, nothing to smell, nothing to feel, his hearing had become honed. Like that of a bat. Or a mouse. Or the lab rat he was.
    There was something going on. New sounds. New words. New tones. Things were