Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker Read Free Book Online Page A

him Jay, and he called Mr. Spaulding Stephen. They talked entirely to each other in a language I couldn’t follow, much less understand, until finally I coughed and reminded them in the firmest possible way that this was my brother we were talking about.
    “I’m sorry, Miss O’Brien,” Dr. Phillips said.
    This man’s “I’m sorry” wasn’t appealing. He didn’t sound sorry; he sounded like he thought I was too much of a nincompoop to bother talking to.
    We were standing in the waiting area. Over on the left, I could see a pair of swinging doors that obviously led somewhere important because doctors and nurses kept going in and out of them. I was feeling very bold now that I knew Jimmy was here. I was about to see my brother for the first time since he left twenty-one months ago.
    I waited until Dr. Phillips and Mr. Spaulding were talking again, and I made a break for those doors.
    “Dorothea!” Mr. Spaulding scolded, as both men started after me. But tough toenails, as Grandma used to say. I wasn’t going to stand there listening when I could be putting my arms around Jimmy. I broke into a run.
    They caught up with me, but not before I’d gone by a large white board that listed Jimmy’s name and his room number, and not before I managed to get down the hall to where I stood right in front of room 328.
    The door was locked, but I pressed my face to the small square window and there he was, wearing the same green hospital dress I’d seen on other patients being wheeled around in the halls; so skinny, his beautiful red hair a tangled mess, but otherwise the same boy I’d always known. I started pounding on the glass and he saw me too. And then he did something I never expected from such a brave person as Jimmy, something I hadn’t seen him do as far back as I could remember. He started to cry.
    Still, I did not cry myself, not even when that horrible man Dr. Phillips told me I couldn’t hug my brother, I couldn’t even speak to him. “You are not allowed down this hall,” he said, panting a little from trying to catch me. “It’s a violation of hospital policy for a relative to barge in like this.”
    “But why?” I said.
    He gave a list of reasons that seemed to make sense to Mr. Spaulding, but made no sense at all to me. I raised my hand to pound on the glass again, and Dr. Phillips grabbed it and pulled me away from the window.
    “You have to tell her she can’t do this,” he said to Mr. Spaulding. He looked me up and down with a sneer. “I don’t know who she thinks she is.”
    Mr. Spaulding said gently, “Dorothea, please.”
    “But why can’t I see my brother? He’s crying. He needs me.”
    “They’re keeping him for observation. It’s standard procedure in cases like these.”
    “Keeping him? Can they do that?”
    “In this case, yes.” Mr. Spaulding took a deep breath. “He’s tried to hurt himself. They have to watch him until they’re sure he won’t do it again.”
    “What do you mean, ‘hurt himself’?”
    “It’s not as bad as a suicide attempt, but he did come in here with a serious infection.”
    “But he looks fine.”
    “Take another look, Dorothea.”
    Dr. Phillips said that wasn’t allowed, but Mr. Spaulding convinced him to let me, primarily by telling Dr. Phillips I was very stubborn and I wouldn’t give up until they did.
    When I looked this time, Jimmy smiled at me through his tears. I smiled back and I kept my face just like that even as I finally saw what they were talking about.
    Before, he’d been sitting with his left side facing me, and I hadn’t seen his right arm. I hadn’t seen the gashes all over it, healed enough to be out of bandages, but not out of stitches.
    “It doesn’t look that serious,” I said.
    “Because you can’t see his naked body,” Dr. Phillips snapped. “When he came here, he had four-inch-deep lacerations on his arm and his stomach and his chest. He had taken so many chunks out of himself that he needed a blood