'Hospital,' I said before Leon reached the next intersection. He glanced at me in the mirror. 'I have a place.' 'Not a place. An open door with people working behind it.' Daniel sat rigid beside me, keeping his coat beneath my arm. Ruth turned from the front seat and looked at his face. 'Hospital,' she said. Leon slowed for the intersection. Behind us, Mercer's headlights slowed too. Then Leon turned toward the brighter part of town instead of the waterfront.
Every rough patch in the road traveled up my arm. I kept my teeth together and watched the lights behind us. They stayed close enough to find us but not close enough for me to read Mercer's expression. Leon began saying something about a side street. 'Keep going,' Ruth told him. She had both hands flat against the dashboard. None of us wanted another dark yard. Leon settled behind a delivery truck and stayed there until the hospital signs appeared.
The emergency entrance had a covered drive and a pair of glass doors. A woman in pale clothing stood inside beside a wheelchair. I had never been so glad to see somebody doing an ordinary job. Leon pulled against the curb. Before he stopped, Daniel reached across me for the latch. My arm slid off his coat, and I cried out. He drew back as though he had struck me. 'Open it,' I said. 'That's all. Just open it.'
Ruth got out and went straight to the doors. They parted, spilling cool light across the pavement. She spoke to the woman with the wheelchair and pointed toward us. Daniel stepped out, then turned to help me. I shook my head. 'Go with her.' Mercer's vehicle entered the drive behind us. Its headlights washed through the sedan and lit the backs of Daniel's hands. I pushed his wrist away gently. 'Please.' He hesitated, then followed Ruth through the staffed doors.
I climbed out using the roof edge for support. Leon started around the front of his car, but I waved him toward the entrance. 'Stay with them.' Mercer stopped a few yards back. His engine remained running. Through the windshield I saw him watching the glass doors, then me. I stood beneath the canopy, rain dripping off my coat onto clean pavement. Inside, the woman brought the wheelchair toward Daniel. He shook his head and pointed back at me.
Mercer lowered his window. 'Get in, Ellis.' His voice was quiet enough that the people inside might not hear. I took one step away from Leon's sedan so Mercer had a clear view of me. 'I'm staying.' A man pushing an empty cart came through the doors and slowed beside us. Mercer looked at him. I looked at him too, grateful for his untidy stack of blankets, his squeaking wheel, his complete lack of interest in our old arrangements.
'You need that chair?' the man asked. 'In a minute.' He glanced at my dangling arm and stayed where he was. Mercer could have called again. Instead he raised his window. I waited, afraid that walking inside would bring him after me. The sedan blocked part of the drive, and another car came up behind his. A horn sounded. Mercer edged forward. For one sick moment I thought he meant to stop beside me. Then he drove past the canopy.
I watched his rear lights reach the street. He turned without signaling and disappeared behind a passing bus. I could not know whether he would circle back. All I knew was that he had left this entrance, and Daniel and Ruth were inside it. The man with the cart touched my good elbow. 'Let's get you sitting down.' My knees had begun to shake. I let him guide me through the doors, where the light seemed too white after the yard.
A clerk asked my name. Another worker brought the wheelchair, and this time I sat. Ruth was across the room drinking water from a paper cup. Leon stood near her, holding his hat in both hands. Daniel was at the admitting counter. Someone asked whether we had come together, and I said yes before thinking about what that might mean to him. He turned his head. I wanted to explain the road, the annex, all the choices that had arrived too late.
Instead I said, 'Ada needs to know you're here.' Daniel nodded once. The clerk offered him a telephone and asked about arrangements after he had been seen. I began reaching for the money beneath my shirt. He watched the movement, then stepped closer to the counter, away from my chair. I could pay something. I could sit where somebody told me and let them examine my arm. Those were useful things, but they bought no claim on him. Daniel told the admitting clerk he would not leave with me.