Jack Who?

CHAPTER 15

     The feel of Jack’s lips gently brushing hers had her quickly pressing the screen.

     “Hi!” As she spoke, she held up a polite finger, not the one she wanted after seeing her mother’s frown, and took the call to the privacy of the hall.

     “Hey!” The smile in his voice carried through the cell towers. “Coast clear yet?” Heaving a sad sigh, she responded to the negative, and he replied, “I don’t mind meeting them, you know. I was just hoping, I guess I was just thinking that…” He dwindled to a pause, and as she absently watched a patient being coaxed to walk along the hall, she heard a barely audible sigh from his end. “Is this even the right time for me to meet Tristan? Should I wait until he is not feeling so… Mariss, I don’t know what to do.”

     “Well it’s not the right time to, you know, to tell him.”

     With as much frequency as that last kiss between them, the various possible scripts of explaining to Tristan who Jack was to him, danced in her mind. The hospital was not one of those scenarios.

     “But he’s feeling really good. I’m amazed at how good. So if you wanted to come by, hang out…My parents are about to leave.”

     Spectators shouldn’t be at this momentous event. Squaring her shoulders when Jack affirmed, she resolved to rid the room of the audience. Returning to the room, she found her mother helping Tristan with his juice box, and surprisingly, not an eyelash batted when Marissa related a version of the truth.

     “A friend of Tristan’s is coming by, and I’m thinking he should get some rest until then.”

     A knowing look passed between her parents, and her father hastily agreed and then curved a pleased smile when her mother did the same. Obviously, they had conferred while she was on the phone, and for once, her mother was going along with his advice.

     “Who’s coming?” Tristan promptly asked, as soon as hugs were dispensed and his grandparents were out of the room.

     Thinking his interest was on the tv, she had kept her voice low when speaking to her parents, but as always, nothing got by him. Gently running a comb through his hair, she explained, “A new friend. The one who brought Bandit while you were in surgery.”

     “The one who plays the music?”

     “Hmm?”

     This question unbalanced her, and she scrutinized his tiny face wondering how he could know ‘this friend’ was a musician.

     “The one who plays the music when they call on your phone.” Tristan was obviously feeling himself, because the usual vexation at having to explain himself was strong.

     Confusion still riddled her brain. Although she now knew he was speaking of Jack’s ring tone, she was becoming suspicious that Tristan did not know exactly what a ring tone was, and that in his four-year old mind, he visualized the caller making the sound in real-time.

     A nurse bustled in humming as she checked his vitals and fussing over him with attention as most staff did. Jack rang back, and when Tristan darted a look over as she answered, she resolved to show him ring tones soon.

     “You said Tristan likes Oreo Blizzards? Are they letting him eat that stuff today?”

     The frozen treat conjured in her mind, and she smiled finding it sweet that Jack remembered the little things about Tristan and wanted to perk up his hospital stay. Confirming to Jack that Tristan was on a normal diet, she stepped aside for the nurse to exit and then turned to find her son’s expectant gaze avidly watching as she spoke into the phone.