When I Found You Read Free Page A

said. “But they wouldn’t tell me anything. They said I’m not blood family.”
    “Yeah, they’re like that. Swimming in their rules. Now, me, I guess I figure you’re as close to family as that little beggar has got. So I’ll tell you. He’s still with us. Call back in the morning and talk to Dr. Wilburn. I’ll tell him you’ll be calling. First twenty-four hours will be the most crucial. If the kid is still alive in the morning … mind you, it’s no guarantee. There are no guarantees in this business. But if he’s still kicking when you call in the morning, that’ll be a very good sign.”
    •  •  •
     
    Nathan closed his door and lay, fully dressed, on the bed. Tomorrow he had a morning appointment with the recently widowed Mrs. MacElroy. Helping her work out the financial details of her sad new life. That was inconvenient timing, but as soon as that meeting was over, he could begin to make his calls. Find out if the child had a social worker yet. Learn whom he should talk to, and how to proceed.
    Then he chided himself for thinking of his meeting with the widow MacElroy as inconvenient. After all, her inconvenience was certainly greater than his. It wasn’t like him to think so much of his own needs or place them above those of others.
    He would have to watch that.
    He listened to the occasional creak of Flora’s squeaky board, and noticed it sounded lonely. Or maybe that was just him.

3 October 1960   
The Day He Lost You
    Flora was asleep when he rose the next morning. Which meant there would be no coffee.
    Never sure about the coffee situation, other than his role in drinking it, he felt hesitant to take on the job. It seemed better to make instant coffee for himself, even knowing it would be dreadful. That seemed preferable, somehow, to anticipating good coffee and then being disappointed by his own failure in that department.
    The instant coffee was even more dreadful than he had imagined, though, because he didn’t allow the water to boil fully.
    He took two or three tentative sips, made a face, and poured it down the sink drain.
    Then he called the hospital and spoke to Dr. Wilburn. Deeply braced against potential tragedy.
    “Ah, yes,” Wilburn said. “I’ve been expecting your call. Well, he’s breathing. And that’s good. Trouble is, we don’t really like
the way
he’s breathing. We’re going to suction out his lungs and see if the situation improves. He’s awfully young to survive pneumonia. If that’s what’s going on. But he’s still kicking. What can I say? He’s practically a miracle already. But complications are a definite possibility, and I’m afraid they’re beginning to rear their ugly heads. Sorry to say he’s not out of the woods yet.” A long pause, then a huge snort of laughter. “Well, at least he is
literally
. Sorry. I know you probably think it’s not very funny.”
    “Thank you, doctor,” Nathan said. Not betraying his thoughts on the subject.
    Then he rang off.
    Mrs. MacElroy usually offered him a cup of coffee, and when she did it was always superb. He made a wish that today would be one of those days.
    •  •  •
     
    “Oh, Nathan,” she said. The moment she opened the door. She’d only recently taken to calling him by his first name, since her husband’s death, and he found it mildly unnerving. “Tell me. Was it you?”
    “Excuse me?”
    She stepped back to allow him in.
    She was a handsome woman, Nathan felt. More handsome than traditionally beautiful. About Nathan’s age, she had a dignified way of dressing and carrying herself, and he admired that. None of this mincing about, pretending to be a woman half her age. She had some sense of decorum.
    He stepped into her living room.
    “I just had a feeling it might have been you. Just an intuitive feeling, I guess. Of course, you did tell me you were planning on going duck-hunting …”
    Nathan briefly grieved his lack of morning coffee. The resulting absence of mental