“Can you—can you call me whenever you get settled in Atlanta?” Lisa asked, looking up at him. “Let me know how you are—how your daddy’s doing?”

He brushed a tear from her cheek and nodded.

Lisa slowly pulled away from him. “I guess I’d better go. Judy’s waiting.”

“Your sister drove you over?”

“Yes. Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Yeah. I’ll be okay.” He walked her into the hospital corridor, where he had to stand and watch the girl of his dreams disappear into a tunnel of white tile, gray walls, and cold fluorescent light.

six

Peyton was a bundle of energy, tapping his foot against the loading dock as if his own rapid motion might make everybody around him move faster. By the time Lisa left the hospital, his mother had made all the arrangements for Atlanta. Now, they were about to move his father, and so much had to go right.

Chief Bramlett pulled his mother’s car around back to the service entrance, where the hospital parked ambulances that weren’t in use. A rapidly emptied laundry truck had been backed up to one of the rear exits. Doctor Eli Roth and Peyton’s mother helped Nurse Buck lower Marshall’s hospital gurney into the back of the truck and lock the wheels. Peyton’s mother and Doctor Roth climbed in, each taking a seat on metal laundry bins turned upside down on either side of the gurney. Nurse Buck handed the doctor his medical bag and gave each of them a thermos of coffee and a paper sack filled with whatever food she could quickly muster. The chief’s wife had also sent along a sack of sandwiches.

“I wish I were going with you,” Nurse Buck said.

Peyton’s mother reached out and squeezed her hand. “So do we, precious Ida. So do we. Thank you for everything.”

“We ready back here?” the chief asked as Nurse Buck stepped away from the truck.

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Doctor Roth said.

The chief closed the truck’s rear doors, their small square windows cracked for ventilation. “Peyton, I reckon it’s time for you and me to saddle up,” he said. They climbed into the cab of the truck, making ready for the trip to Atlanta. An orderly would drive an ambulance in the opposite direction, followed by a blonde student nurse in Peyton’s mother’s car, all in an effort to hide his father’s destination from Uncle Julian’s prying eyes.

As the chief pulled away from the loading dock, Peyton ducked down out of sight. A couple of days ago, the deputies had spotted a man who looked out of place in Savannah. He turned out to be a private investigator from New York, hired by Uncle Julian.

“Any sign o’ that guy?” Peyton asked as the chief gave him the all clear.

“Drove right past him. I don’t know how he expects to slip around, dressed in a black suit in the springtime. Sticks out like a preacher on Bourbon Street.”

It was late afternoon when they turned onto the main highway. The sun was softening, the sky still clear and blue. For days, Peyton had longed to escape the numbing neutrality of the hospital. But now, getting doused in color just reminded him of all he was missing—a lost summer with Lisa. That was selfish, he knew, given what his parents were going through. Still, the thought of endless days in an Atlanta hospital made him feel desolate.