The Distance Between Us

said, now that she has a private room, you’re welcome to stay. You can even sleep in the room if you want.”
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    As I’m preparing to reenter the room, I see my grandparents round the corner. Why isn’t my mom awake to deal with this? These people are strangers to me. I rub my arms and then give a small wave.
    “Caymen, right?” Mrs. Meyers? Grandma? The woman says.
    “Yes. Hi, I’m Caymen.”
    She covers her mouth for a moment as she takes a small breath of air. “You look so much like your mother did at your age.” She touches my cheek. “Except you have your father’s eyes. You are so beautiful.”
    I shift from one foot to the other.
    The man grumbles at her under his breath then holds out his hand to me. “Hi, I’m stranger one and this is stranger two. Are you uncomfortable yet?”
    I give a half smile.
    “The only thing that is going to make her uncomfortable is your twisted sense of humor, Sean. He’s kidding, honey.”
    “I know.” Could a sense of humor be genetic? I point to the door. “She’s not awake yet, but you’re welcome to see her.”
    The woman takes several deep breaths followed by several rapid ones.
    “Should I get you an oxygen tank, Vivian, or are you going to be okay? I’m sure there’s an extra one lying around.”
    She hits him on the chest. “Just let me have a minute. I haven’t seen my daughter in seventeen years, and now I’m going to see her in a hospital bed. I need to let that sink in.”
    “The doctor thinks he knows what’s wrong and said she’s going to be . . .” I started to say, “okay,” but then realize he hadn’t said that. Maybe she’s not going to be okay.
    “Caymen,” Sean says. “Can you point me in the direction of this doctor? I have some questions for him.”
    “Sure. That’s him, actually, talking to the nurse.”
    “Thank you. Go on in without me, you two. I’ll see her in a minute.”
    He leaves, and Vivian stands at the door, doing her weird breathing. “You should go in by yourself. I’ll wait out here for a while,” I tell her.
    She nods but doesn’t move. I hold open the door for her and that sets her in motion. Will my mom be mad if she wakes up to see her mother sitting by her? After the way she crumbled in the doll store when I told her about her parents last night, I have a feeling she’s wanted this for a long time.
    My gaze drifts down the hall to where Sean is talking to the doctor. I’m glad to have someone else on my side dealing with the important things. If Sean is as shrewd as Xander and his brothers described then I know he can take care of business.
    My grandparents are rich. Weird.
    Soon Sean is back by my side. “So how long do you think she needs to work through seventeen years of issues?” he asks, looking at his watch. “Do you think ten minutes was long enough?”
    I smile. “My mom’s asleep so that will probably cut some time off.”
    He breathes in through his teeth. “No, Vivian is really good at arguing with herself.” He turns to me. “They probably need more time. Have you eaten yet?”
    “Don’t you want to see her? You haven’t seen her in seventeen years.”
    “I haven’t seen you in seventeen years either.”
    My eyes sting and he gets blurry, but I’m able to blink back the tears.
    “I have some time to make up, don’t I? Will ten minutes be enough?”
    “I was thinking five, but we’ll see how you do.”
    He smiles. “Ah, so you’re my granddaughter after all.”

Chapter 39

    T he rest of the day is spent watching my mom go from sheer happiness to anger to tears to happiness again. It’s quite a cycle and the doctor doesn’t like it. He kicks us all out by the afternoon even though he had said I could spend the night. My mom doesn’t fight it, though, which makes me realize she probably needs the rest.
    “That went well,” Sean says out in the hall.
    Vivian shoots him a look. “Caymen, we live a few hours away. Do you think we could stay with you while your mom is recovering?”
    “We could get a hotel room if it’s too much trouble,” Sean adds quickly.
    “Our place is really small. I don’t know how comfortable you’ll be there. I’m sure you’re used to much bigger.”
    Sean throws his hands up. “She thinks we’re spoiled, Viv. We can’t have that.”
    “Stop,” Vivian says. “We’ll be fine either way, honey. What would you prefer?”
    I’d prefer they stay at a hotel but that sounds so rude and maybe company