“Isabel, I can only make suggestions. You have to do the work. Besides, I’m not here to punish you. I’m here to help.”

Doesn’t Ed realize that Frank is the one who needs the help?

Frank’s Hospital Room

Frank’s Hospital Room

White
windowless
two beds
two boys
too many scars.

First Visit

First Visit

I try not to stare at Frank’s roommate. Shiny pink patches and red scars cover his face.

Ed tells Frank he should have told him that he had two pretty sisters. Frank doesn’t smile, but there’s something different about him in his eyes. Even though he won’t look at me for very long, he seems like he’s really here, out of the trance.

Ed takes Frank’s roommate for a walk while Frank and I visit. He props the door open before they walk away.

“I brought the ukulele,” I say, holding out the case.

“Thanks.” He doesn’t reach for it, so I put it down on the floor.

I’m standing, arms folded, the case at my feet, speechless. I try to think of something to say, but I can’t think of one word.

“Sit down,” he says. Frank is sitting at the foot of his bed, so I settle close to the headboard. Finally, I think of something.

“I’m sorry Tata hasn’t come by.” Of all the words to be taking a spin inside my head.

“He has. He comes every day.”

“He does?”

“In the afternoon. He never stays long. Never talks about anything except fishing.”

Maybe Frank didn’t ask Tata for the ukulele because he was afraid what the answer might be.

“Are they nice to you in here?”

“Yeah, but the food stinks.”

“Sorry.”

He scowls. “Why are you sorry? You didn’t make it.”

I stare at the other bed. “Do you like your roommate?”

“He’s okay. He picks his nose, though.”

“Yuck.”

“He thinks I don’t see him, but I do. I don’t shake his hand or anything.”

I can’t help but smile. “What’s wrong with his face?”

“He likes to play with matches.”

Frank scratches his toe. I feel so strange in this room with my brother. I want to blink and make him little again, as little as Mary Kelly’s baby brother. I’d watch him real careful this time and keep him from turning into a boy who has to stay in a white room with a weird stranger and eat food that stinks.

Missing One Ukulele

Missing One Ukulele

Tata waits for us in the kitchen. I’m hoping he wants to ask about our visit with Frank, but he says, “We’ve been robbed.”

I look around the room. Everything is in place. Though there isn’t anything in here worth taking.

“Someone stole your mother’s ukulele.”

I don’t hesitate. “I took it to Frank.”