Read Online A Beautiful Fall by Chris Coppernoll - Free Book Online

father, Samantha, Christina, and Michael. She could just dig up the precious jewelry box she’d buried in the cool South Carolina mud and show them all what lay inside.
    Her heart raced at the thought. Then she said the words out loud.
    “I’m not that child anymore. I won’t be afraid any longer.”
    On route SC59 between downtown Juneberry and home, Emma’s cell phone rang. She picked it up off the vinyl seat and answered it.
    “Hello?”
    “Emma? Hey, it’s Colin.”
    “Colin?”
    “Yeah, you sound surprised. How is everything down there?”
    “Everything’s fine,” she said, adjusting to one far-off world intruding into another. “Thanks for checking on me. Are you at the office?”
    “No, I’m in my car. I just bought a new cell phone.”
    “I thought you just bought a new cell phone in July?”
    “I did, but I didn’t like it. This one’s a PDA, but it still feels like a cell phone, plus it plays video, too. So tell me, what’s going on with your father?”
    “There’s good news. He’s coming home today.”
    “That is good news. The sooner he’s home and settled in, the sooner you can get back where you belong.”
    The signal from Colin’s phone was remarkably clear. It sounded like he was calling from across the street.
    “I’ll need to keep an eye on him for a few more days. Sorry to employ such an old cliché, but I’m taking this one day at a time.”
    “Those old clichés work for a reason. How are you doing with all this?”
    “That’s a good question. In lots of ways, I prefer the law. Its a lot harder when you have to humble yourself and make things right with people.”
    “What?”
    “Sorry,” she said. “I’m not making sense. There’s a lot on my mind, I guess.”
    “Couldn’t you bring in a home-care nurse?”
    “No, it’s not that. I was referring to a much older story.”
    “Do I detect some history?”
    “Maybe.”
    Emma turned Old Red onto Mills Road, or as Christina always called it, “Madison Avenue.” Just a half mile more and she’d be home.
    “At least you’ve got your friends. Someone to talk to about it, right?”
    “Right,” she said, as if her talks with Samantha and Michael that morning had both gone well. “It’ll all work out.”
    “I want you to know I’m here, Emma. I mean, if you need anything. I’m just now pulling into my building. I know from experience that the signal goes out when I’m underground so I’m going to let you go.”
    “Thanks for calling, Colin. I appreciate you checking in with me, and I wouldn’t mind talking again sometime if you …”
    Emma listened for a few seconds until it was obvious the line had gone dead.

~ Six ~
    Every time I hear a buddy say
he’s put lots of dust and clay
between him and yesterday,
I get the fever.
    —B ILL A NDERSON
    “I Get the Fever”
    The elevator doors opened and Emma stepped out onto the fourth floor at Wellman Medical. The hospital didn’t feel so foreign anymore after being there most of the day before. Dena Johnson greeted Emma.
    “He’s all ready to go home.”
    “You do good work around here,” Emma replied. “I had no idea he’d be coming home so soon. It’s quite a relief.”
    Dena made her way around the open end of the crescent-shaped workstation. She was dressed in another cheerful smock, this one a Tweety Bird print.
    “He’s been chomping at the bit to get out of here, but the process is actually going faster than normal. Usually a patient’s moved off ICU before getting released, but it worked out in this case just to release him home.”
    “Dena, I’ve been so delighted with the care he’s received, both from you and his doctors. I don’t know how to say thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. He’s been a great patient. Wish they could all be that way.” Dena smiled, then paused before continuing. “Do you have a moment?”
    “Sure,” Emma said. Dena led her away from the nurses’ station to a private corner in the hall.
    “I don’t