Part 99
In their room, Sarah rushed to the bathroom where she began to throw up again. Howie followed her and held her until she was done. Then asked, "Angel, are you gonna be okay?"
"Oh…god…no! This is SO much worse than I had the last time."
"Why don’t you stay here? There’s no need for you to go to the ball park."
"I want to be with you though."
Howie smiled, "We’ve got thirty days, Angel. Stay here and be thinking about where you want to go on our honeymoon."
That made Sarah feel better and she asked, "We can go anywhere?"
"Anywhere your heart desires, Angel. Just name it and we’ll go."
"I like the sounds of that. I do need to go to a doctor though. I guess that’s first on the agenda."
"Yeah…I’d say so. I’ll be back later. Get some rest, Angel."
Howie gave her a kiss and helped her to the couch where she lay down. He handed her the remote for the TV and fixed her something to drink before saying goodbye.
***************
Sarah had hoped to spend the time Howie was gone sleeping and she’d even dropped off before the phone woke her. Sleepily, she answered it. "Hello."
"Baby girl…" came the gruff voice.
"Daddy? What’s wrong?"
"It’s your mother…"
Suddenly terrified, Sarah sat up, "What about Mama?"
"She’s…she’s had a massive heart attack…she’s…"
Afraid to ask the next question, Sarah managed to get it out. "Is she alive?"
Her father never answered because her brother Dusty took the phone from him. He said, "Sarah, I now you’re in Boston and Howie’s in the middle of the tour but…"
"We’ve got an unexpected break," she said flatly. "Where’s Mama?"
"ICU…at Roanoke Memorial. How soon can you get here?"
"I don’t know. Howie’s gotta go to New York tomorrow and we can leave from there."
"I’m not sure she’s gonna hold on that long."
"I can’t come any sooner, Dusty. Something’s happened here that Howie and the guys have to take care of before we can do anything. I’ll be there as soon as we can get there."
"I know. I’ll call you if anything happens. Do you want someone to meet you at the airport?"
"I don’t know. We may have to come on the bus. Howie’s not here right now so I can’t tell you anything positive. Dusty…"
Softly, he said, "She’s in bad shape, Sarah. I wouldn’t have called you. We’ll look for you tomorrow night."
"Give her a kiss for me, Dusty!"
"I will."
Sarah hung up and looked at her watch. It would be another couple of hours before Howie came back. God…what was she going to do? She needed Howie to hold her. She looked at her watch again. Damn…Alex, Ali, and Denise are probably gone. She curled up again on the couch and began to cry. She cried herself to sleep and Howie found her on the couch with the tearstains on her cheeks.
Kissing her softly and brushing her hair back, Howie said gently, "Angel, wake up. I’m home."
Sarah woke slowly. "What time is it?"
"Almost seven. What happened while I was gone, Angel? Why the tears?"
Sarah remembered the phone call. "Daddy called here tonight. D, my mother’s had a massive heart attack and is in ICU."
"Angel…I’m so sorry. Is she going to be okay?"
"Dusty doesn’t seem to think she’ll make it until we can get there."
"Why don’t you catch a flight down tonight then?"
"Not without you, D. I can’t do it without you. I told him we’d be there after you finished in New York tomorrow."
"Okay. We’ll go to Virginia tomorrow. I’ll get us a flight out of New York and they can take the bus back without us."
Sarah began to tremble and Howie took her in his arms holding her as she began to cry. He rocked her as he held her and whispered softly to her until she calmed down.