Package Deal (76 page)

“Gotta go
, Mike
. One of my best girls just walked in.
” He put down the phone and looked at Cecelia. “
Where’s your mother?
And, h
ow’d you get
past those nurses
who
say you’
re too young to come in here and
pester
me?”

“
She’s talking to the
m
.
Mom said to just walk right
in
, and that’s what I did.” She
beam
ed. “
I brought
lots
more
books
for you to read when I’m in school
. If you read them, you’
ll feel better. It’s what I did when I was here.
Remember?
”

“Aren’t you the expert
on
getting well
.Ok
ay
. Show them to me.”

“They are all the ones you know—except for this one, but
Mom said you would like it. It won
a
n award—see the sticker? It says ‘
Newberry Award
.
’
” Cecelia handed him the titles
one at a time
, all by Marguerite Henry, except for the last one.

“Hm
m
.
Island of the Blue Dolphins
, by Scott O’Dell.That is a great
book! I read it a few years ago,
when I was a kid.
Do you think
I’ll like
reading
it
again
,
now that I’m
a
ll
grown up
?”
he asked.

S
he nodded, her
pigtails
bouncing. “
I’m sure of it. Now, which one should we read today?”

“How about we
continue with
King of the Wind
?
We were
just getting to the
good part
when
your mom
said
you had to go home
.”

She pursed her lips and
looked at him
for a moment
. “I was hoping you would pick that one. You go first.”

He
opened the book
and
began
reading to Cecelia, who climbed onto the bed and was leaning against his
knee
s when Amanda entered the room.

“Are you supposed to be on the bed
instead of next to it
, Cece?”

“She’s
just fine—keeps my legs warm.
Stay
right
where you are
,
Cecelia.”
He
winked at Amanda.

She smiled back at him.
“I thought I’d let you know that your chairman has good news for you.”

“What’
s that?”

“Your publisher—of the Ernie Pyle masterpiece—
has accepted the book in its entirety
. No
revision
s
necessary
. Congratulations!
” She leaned toward him
and deposited a kiss on his forehead
,
then his lips
.

He grinned at her. “I just remembered.
I was going to tell you
I got a request for a short piece on ol’ Ernie—from one of the magazines I approached
.
That’s what
I called you about before—”
he looked
in
Cecelia
’s direction
“
—
before the recent unpleasan
tnes
s
at your office
. But what I’d
really
like to hear is
when
I can go home. I’m tired of this place. The food’s boring and the nurses are t
ired o
f playing games with me. T
h
ey make me go to bed before
nine
o’clock.”

“Even if you’re good?” Cecelia asked
, her blue eyes
wide
as she looked at him
.

“
I’m alwa
ys good, Cecelia! You know that.” H
e
smirked in her direction
. “Besides, don’t you have a soccer game coming up? How can I cheer
for your team
if I’m stuck in this old bed?”

The doctor walked in. “If you promise not to try running a marathon
for at l
east two
month
s
, I’ll
let you go
later this week
. Y
ou lost a lot of blood. We don’t want you losing any more
.
And
I’ve ordered a visiting nurse for you.
”

“When can I go back to work?
I have students to see.”

“ How about the week after you go home
,
assuming the nurse tells me you’re following orders
? I suggest you sit down wh
ile
you lecture. No dramatics in front of the class. You’re going to be pretty sore if you
try to do too much walking. And
you’re going to
find
that
you tire quick
ly.
Your
body
needs time to heal.
But you can grade all the papers you want and hold seminars—that sort of thing
—sitting down most of the time
. Just nothing strenuous.”

Marcus saluted. “
Yes, sir
.”

“He’ll be good. I’ll remind him,” Cecelia stated.

“Good for you,
young lady,
” the surgeon replied.

“
I’m going home soon.
Whoop
ee!” Marcus shouted.

“
Whoop
ee!” Cecelia seconded.

A
nurse stuck her head in the door. When she saw who was in the room, she smiled and
left
.

“Cece
, it’s almost time to set the table. Could you please come downstairs?”

Cecelia
walk
ed
into the kitchen
, Skipper at her heels,
and began putting knives and forks on either side of the plates
while her mother spooned the mashed potatoes into a bowl
.

“When you’re done, you have a letter
here
. It came today.”

“For me?”

“For you.”

Her mother
drizzl
ed the raisin sauce over the mashed potatoes. The chicken was almost
ready
. “Come eat. You can look at your letter when we’re done
eating
.”

After dinner,
Cecelia
opened the
business size
envelope
, began reading it to herself and looked up
.
“
It’s from Marcus. I’ll read it to you.”
She began.

Dear Cecelia:

I have loved your
mother from the very first day
we met.
I should have told you that—when you
first
asked me. Frankly, I was so surprised at the question that I wasn’t thinking clearly. That is no excuse, but
I am telling you now because I know you don’t want her to cry or to be hurt
anymore
.
I don’t
,
either.

Her mother
sat down at the table. “Is that all he wrote?”

“No. There’s more.
”

Do you know one of the
most important
reasons I love your mother? It’s you. When a m
om
raises a daughter as smart and as strong and as wonderful as you, she has done something beautiful, something more valuable than
anything else she could do
.

Cecelia
looked up from the letter in time to see her
mother
reach
for a
tissue
.
“Are you sad, Mom?”

“No. I
’ve
got something in my eye.”

Cecelia
nodded.
“He said I was smart and strong and wonderful. That’s nice. I’ll have
to tell Sam what he said about me
.”
She was silent for a moment. “
There’s more.”

I want to be a father to you, Cecelia. I know you haven’t had a
dad
in your life for a
long time
. I would like to be that person—someone you can come to with your questions, like you did that day when we we
nt
camping
and I showed you how to skip
rocks on the water
. Someone to walk you down the aisle when you marry the man you fall in love with
after you graduate from college
—and he had better be worthy of you or I will
make
him
go
away!

“Mom, he wants to be my dad!
Can he do that?”

Her mother
was weeping. “Yes,” she sniffed. “He can do that.”

“He says the man I fall in love with
has to be
worthy—what’s that mean?”

“It means
Marcus
will make sure he is a good person.”

“If he isn’t worthy, he’ll
make
him
go
away. That’s what Sam’s dad did with Brittany’s old boyfriend. I saw him.
He smoked cigarettes behind the garage and smelled stinky when he said hi to us.
Sam and I decided he was a loser before her dad
figured it out
. We were glad he wouldn’t let Brittany
go out with
him anymore.”

Her mother
nodded and
reached
for
another tissue
.

“
This is a long letter
.”
Cecelia
read the last section to herself
,
frowned
for a moment then
bit her lip
.
“
B
ut I can’t read this last part to you. I have to
think about this
for a
while
before I
write him back.”

“Do you want to do that now or later?”

“No
w. I need to do this in my room.
I need privacy.”She took the letter to her room
and read the last part again
, her arm around Skipper, who lay beside her on the bed
.

But I can’t be a father to you if you won’t let me love your mother.
I do love her and
I want to marry her, but I can’t ask her if you don’t approve.

Will you please write me back and
tell
me if you approve?

With
much
love in my heart for both of you,

Marcus

Cecelia
sat on the bed and re-read the letter. She patted Skipper before
telling him to get down off the bed and pointing to his crate
. Then she
reached for the stationery box her grandmother had given her a
t
Christmas
. She
walked around the room, looked at some of the pictures
she had drawn
, especially the one when she and her mom and Marcus
had
gone camping. She
studied what he had written and
sighed. Then she sat down at her little
table
, the one Marcus had brought for her to use after she came home from the hospital, and
wrote her answer
, struggling with
some of
the words she had to say
.
When she was done,
she
folded her letter and placed it in the envelope.
She took it downstairs.

“What’
s Marcus’
s
address
—where he lives
? I can’t remember
. Y
ou know, where he has the porch swing
.”
She added the address her mother dictated.
“I answered his letter. Can we mail this tomorrow
on the way
to school?”