Claudia and the Sad Goodbye Part 2

Chapter 5.

I don't know if what Mary Anne wrote is corny - I'm not good at English-cla.s.s stuff like that - but it sure was true. Every kid who had been at the lesson the week before was back. And when Mary Anne and I told them about the puppets and how to make them, you should have heard the excitement: what Mary Anne wrote is corny - I'm not good at English-cla.s.s stuff like that - but it sure was true. Every kid who had been at the lesson the week before was back. And when Mary Anne and I told them about the puppets and how to make them, you should have heard the excitement: "I'm going to make our Cabbage Patch doll," announced Gabbie.

"But why? We already have one," Myriah pointed out. "Caroline Eunice."

"Well, we should have two." Gabbie paused and then said graciously, "You can have the doll for keeps and I'll take the puppet." (The doll is Myriah's anyway.) "Okay," agreed her sister. "And I'm going to make a rabbit."

"I'm going to make a witch!" said Marilyn Arnold gleefully.

"A s.p.a.ce monster ... grrr!" growled Jamie.

I had a signing session with Matt to make sure he understood what we were doing, and finally he grinned and signed that he was going to make a baseball player.

The ideas flew - except from Corrie, who merely looked thoughtful.

"Corrie?" I said after awhile. "Do you know what you'd like to make?"

"Nancy Drew," she whispered.

"Really? Nancy Drew?" Nancy Drew?" I I couldn't help exclaiming. "You like Nancy Drew?" couldn't help exclaiming. "You like Nancy Drew?"

"Yes!" said Corrie, in the most enthusiastic voice I'd ever heard her use. "You like her, too?"

"Sure," I said. "Nancy Drews are my favorite books."

Corrie beamed. And it was then that both Mary Anne and I realized that some sort of bond was growing between Corrie and me. A bond like the one my friend Stacey used to have with Charlotte Johanssen, a kid our club sits for a lot.

So, with the kids' ideas flowing, Mary Anne helped me set out bowls of water, strips of newspaper we'd cut up the evening before, a jar of flour, and a big tin for dipping the strips into the papier-mache once it was made.

Then we handed each child a balloon.

"Baby balloons," Gabbie noted.

"She means they're not blown up," Myriah interpreted for us.

"What are they for?" asked Carolyn Arnold.

"Those balloons - after we blow them up - will be the puppets' heads. Well, the forms for the heads," I said. "Then we'll cover them with papier-mache, then - "

"Claudia! My Claudia!" called a voice.

It was Mimi. She was standing at the top of the steps to the bas.e.m.e.nt. What was she doing there? She wasn't even supposed to be out of bed.

"Mimi!" I called back. "Don't try to come down the stairs." Where was the rest of my family? I knew Mom was at the grocery store. But what about Dad and Janine? Why weren't they keeping an eye on Mimi?

"Don't come down," I said again, but it was too late. Mimi was already halfway down the stairs, and not even holding onto the banister. Had she simply forgotten. how teetery she could be?

"Why can't she come down?" asked Myriah.

There was ho time to answer her question. Mary Anne was das.h.i.+ng up the staircase to Mimi.

It seemed easier to help her the rest of the way down than to try to turn her around and get her back upstairs. So that's what Mary Anne did in her gentle, understanding way. She led Mimi to the art cla.s.s.

"Claudia and I are giving art lessons," she said. "The kids are making puppets."

"I'm going to make a.. grrr ... monster!" said Jamie.

I took over with Mimi and walked her around the table. "We're making papier-mache," I told her.

"See," said Mimi, nodding wisely.

Since Mimi seemed okay, and the kids who knew her well - Myriah, Gabbie, and Jamie - liked her a lot, I decided it would be okay to let her stay for the cla.s.s.

"I'll get you a seat, Mimi," I said, eyeing a lawn chair that was folded up in a corner of the bas.e.m.e.nt.

I was struggling to pull the chair out from between the wall and a bicycle, when I heard Mary Anne scream.

I spun around.

Mimi was slithering to the floor at the foot of the stairs. She had fainted again. Luckily she didn't hit her head or anything. The kids looked on in horror, especially Come, who kept glancing from Mimi to me. I think she knew somehow that Mimi and I were very close.

And Jamie cried, "Mimi!" and ran to her.

But Mary Anne caught him in her arms and held him in a bear hug for a few seconds to keep him from going near her.

Everything was happening at once. Mary Anne put Corrie, the oldest of the kids, in charge of Jamie. Then she ran to Mimi's side while I dashed upstairs to find my father. As I reached the top step, I could hear Mary Anne say, "Corrie, can you be my helper and take all the kids over to the other side of the room? Ask Jamie to teach you guys his funny song about the big blue frog. Myriah, you help sign to Matt, or he won't understand."

It was amazing. Every kid followed every direction. I know because they were singing and signing, "I'm in love with a big blue frog," when I came back down to the bas.e.m.e.nt with my father.

I had found him in the garage, cleaning up an oil leak from one of our cars. He'd had no idea that Mimi was out of bed, much less dressed and in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

When I found him, I'd cried, "Dad! Dad!" (In my panic, I think I might even have called him "Daddy" like I used to do when I was little.) "Come quick! Right now! Mimi's in the bas.e.m.e.nt and she fainted again."

Dad jumped up in a flash, leaving the oily rag on the floor of the garage. He took the steps down to the bas.e.m.e.nt two at a time, something I'd never seen him do before. When he knelt by Mimi's side (she was still out cold) he began giving orders.

"Claudia, call the paramedics, then find your sister. Mary Anne, take the children home."

He might have sounded cross, but he wasn't. Not really. Just a little panicky.

Mary Anne wisely led the kids out our back bas.e.m.e.nt steps, to our side yard. This turned out to be a good decision for two reasons. One, the children didn't have to step over Mimi. Two, they were so fascinated by climbing the flight of dank cement steps, watching Mary Anne push apart the heavy double doors, and emerging into our yard, that they nearly forgot about Mimi.

For the next half hour or so, two things were going on at once. Mary Anne was dealing with the children, and I was dealing with Mimi. I'll tell you what was going on with Mimi first.

I did just what Dad had told me to do. I ran to the phone in the kitchen and called the paramedics. I was getting pretty good at that. Then I ran through the house, shouting, "Janine! Janine! JANINE!"

"What?" she called. Her voice came from upstairs. She was probably in her room, working on that computer of hers.

"Come downstairs! Mimi's sick again! The ambulance is on its way!"

Sometimes you can't pry Janine away from her computer with a crowbar, but when I told her about Mimi, she came flying out of her room as fast as Dad had left the oil leak in the garage. Then we raced to Mimi.

When Dad saw us coming he said briskly, "You two stay with her, I'll go wait for the ambulance. I think I'll tell the paramedics to use the stairs Mary Anne and the kids used. It'll be easier."

Janine and I stayed with Mimi. I covered her with a blanket that was folded up on the was.h.i.+ng machine, and we held her hands and talked to her, just in case she could hear us.

When the paramedics arrived, they lifted her gently onto the stretcher and carried her up the stairs. I kept waiting for the stretcher to tilt and Mimi to slide off, but somehow the men kept it level.

Meanwhile, Mary Anne and all the children had walked first to Jamie's house and dropped him off, explaining to his parents what had happened. Then they walked back to our neighborhood, where they took Myriah and Gabbie home. Finally, Mary Anne waited outside her house with the remaining kids. It was about time for them to be picked up, and since Mary Anne was just across the street from us, she knew that the parents (or Haley Braddock) would see the children at her house and not come bother us.

However, the children saw the paramedics carry Mimi around from the back of my house and into the ambulance. Mary Anne was glad Jamie and the Perkins girls were at their houses, because they would have been upset. The Arnold twins and Matt were merely curious. But Corrie began to cry.

Mary Anne put her arm around her. "It's going to be okay," she said.

Corrie cried harder. "Claudia must be very sad," she replied.

And Mary Anne thought again that Corrie seemed to be getting awfully attached to me. She had plenty of time to think about it, too, because it was a good forty-five minutes later, long after the ambulance had left, and Marilyn, Carolyn, and Matt had been picked up, that Mrs. Addison finally arrived.

Mary Anne considered discussing Corrie's and my relations.h.i.+p with me - but not then. Only when things got better. She knew I had plenty to worry about besides Corrie.

Chapter 6.

Guess who rode to the hospital in the ambulance with Mimi? I did. Dad decided to take the car, and Janine stayed behind so she could tell our mother what had happened as soon as Mom came home. Janine offered to go with Mimi, but I really wanted to and there was no time for arguing.

I've been in an ambulance before. The last time, I was the patient. I had broken my leg badly. But this time, I was just a pa.s.senger. Sometimes the paramedics make the pa.s.senger ride up front next to the driver. Sometimes you can beg to. sit in back with the patient, which is what I did, and again, no one took the time to argue with me.

I sat on a ledge across from two paramedics, Mimi on the stretcher between us. While the attendants took her blood pressure and stuff, I just kept holding Mimi's hand and talking to her.

About halfway to the hospital, Mimi woke up and realized what was going on. She was so embarra.s.sed that she tried to make up for it by acting like a grand lady.

"Do I not know father?" she said to one of the attendants. "The honorable Mr... Mr... um ..."

"I - I don't think so," replied the man. He fiddled with the gauge on the blood pressure instrument.

"But sure. Yes. Live Bradford Court years long ago."

"No, ma'am."

"It's okay, Mimi," I said.

"Oh, my Claudia. You here," said Mimi, turning her head.

"Yes, I'm here." I squeezed her hand a little harder.

"Dinner is not ready," Mimi told me distinctly.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "It's only lunchtime."

"And I never have enough money for payment. Car loan."

I almost pointed out that Mimi hadn't owned a car in years, but decided not to. Besides, we'd reached the hospital. Here we go again, I thought.

Things were pretty much the same. Mimi got another private room and, by later in the afternoon, our entire family was crowded into it.

Mimi was already better because, remembering her last stay in the hospital, the doctors had given her some new blood.

"Vampire!" exclaimed Mimi, and we laughed, mostly because if Mimi could joke, that was the best sign of all that she was feeling better.

I laughed, too, even though I was madder than I'd ever been. Not at Mimi, not at anyone else in my family, but at the doctors and nurses. Want to know why? I'll tell you why.

This is what happened when Mimi was first taken to her room. She had seemed to be okay in the ambulance and rolling through the hallways of the hospital on the way to her room, but as soon as the attendants transferred her onto her hospital bed which, really, they tried to do as gently as possible, Mimi screamed.

"Oh! Oh!" she cried.

Her entire body stiffened with pain. Dad and I were standing on either side of her bed and we each grabbed one of her hands and held on tight.

"Will someone please get her some painkillers or something?" my father shouted to whomever was in the room.

Everyone scurried out, but no one came back except a nurse's aide, who took off Mimi's dress and put on a hospital gown instead. She didn't even bother to close the door to the room, so I gave her a dirty look and did it myself.

Mimi's pain seemed to have gone away by then, but Dad asked for the painkillers again anyway.

"I'll see what I can do," the woman replied.

But the next people who came in were Mom and Janine, Mom looking very upset.

"Mother!" she cried, and ran to Mimi. She bent over her. "How are you feeling?"

I think Mimi was about to say, "Fine," when suddenly she went into another one of those awful spasms of pain.

Mom burst into tears.

Dad and I each grabbed one of Mimi's hands again (it was all we could do), and I signaled to Janine to take Mom out of the room. The last thing Mimi needed was to see that she'd upset her daughter. I'm not sure she would have noticed, though. When the pain came, she would arch her back and squinch up her face, closing her eyes.

That darn nurse's aide hadn't put Mimi's hospital gown on very well, I soon realized. Each time Mimi arched her back, the gown slipped further and further down her chest until she was half naked. And Janine had forgotten to close the door behind her when she took Mom out. Anyone in the hall could see right into the room, see Mimi arching her back and squinching her eyes and crying out, with her gown around her waist. I tried to remember her other ways. I imagined her fully dressed, jewelry and all, smiling at me from across the kitchen table as we shared special tea.

After three or four more spasms of pain, Mimi suddenly lay quietly on the bed. I fixed her hospital gown and drew the sheet up to her chin while Dad rang the bell for a nurse for the eighty-eighth time.

"Hey, you guys," I called to Mom and Janine in the hallway. "Come on in. And close the door."

My mother and sister reappeared, Mom with a paper cup full of coffee she'd gotten from a vending machine. She looked an awful lot calmer, even though coffee is supposed to make you hyper or something.