Chapter 1
The ringing of the phone woke me and my wife up at 3:43 in the morning. I know, because when I opened my eyes, the time was the first thing I saw. Whitney picked up the phone.
“Hello?” she said grumpily. She was yawning and rubbing her eyes. But then her body tensed and she jumped out of bed, suddenly wide awake. I had no idea what was going on. “I’ll be right over,” she said to someone and clicked off the phone.
I looked at her with worried expression on my face. “Who was that?” I asked.
“It was the hospital. It’s my brother,” she said, her face very pale, as she was trying to find her panties that I threw somewhere on the floor last night after I released her from them. She finally spotted them on make-up desk and put them on.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, getting up in the bed.
“They-they said he’s lost a lot of blood and that he needs a blood transfusion,” said Whitney, and gave up on looking for her bra, putting an old tee shirt over her head, and jumping into the first pair of jeans she saw. “I’m probably the only type that’s compatible with him.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked, but I was already getting out of bed. I was still naked, just like Whitney, because we didn’t bother to put clothes on last night after we had sex. Well, to be precise, about three hours ago.
“No, it’s fine, Brent, I’ll go by myself, honey,” she said.
“Where is your brother anyways?” I asked suddenly, remembering that he lived in New Orleans. “You’re not driving to Louisiana, are you?”
Whitney stopped, her hands shaking as she was trying to find her walled and her driving license. “No, no... he’s in Houston.”
“What is he doing in Houston?” I inquired, maybe a little tactless. I found my boxers and I put them on, and I started looking for a shirt. “I mean, it’s better than driving to Louisiana at four in the morning, but Houston is still three hours away.” We lived in San Antonio, Texas.
“I know Brent, but I’m just really scared right now and I just want to make sure that my brother is okay, no matter how long we have to drive there,” said Whitney, and tears rolled down her face. My heart broke when I saw that I upset her, so I went to her and I wrapped my arms around her small body.
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” I told her. “And I bet we can make it there in less than three hours if you let me drive.”
“What about the kids?” she asked. “We can’t just leave them alone.”
“We will call Mrs. Laurie from across the street. She has a key from the house, she can make the kids breakfast and explain to them where mommy and daddy went.”
Whitney looked at me with loving eyes.
“What will I do without you, baby?” she said and I kissed her deeply, before letting go of her to go find the car keys and my wallet.
We got to Houston in two hours and eighteen minutes. It was 6:10 AM when we arrived at the hospital where William was admitted. Whitney asked for him, and the nurse said that they needed to get her to donate blood right away because Will was barely holding onto his life and he needed transfusion immediately. Whitney left without any ceremonies, and I sat down on the bench, waiting impatiently. Thank God it was Saturday, that way I didn’t have to take sick days from work. I work in an office, dealing with paperwork every day. I don’t really like my job, but it pays well and feeds my family, so I put up with it.
I don’t really know William, even though he is my wife’s brother. I met him during the engagement party, and then I met him at the wedding. He was one of my best men, even though I barely knew the guy. Whitney told me that he was a very reckless teenager, full with angst and resentment towards his family. I automatically disliked him. I was born and raised in Texas and in my family thought me to respect my parents and all the elders, no matter who they are. Rebellious teenagers is something I never understood. I was a teenager and I still respected everyone around me, and never talked back to my parents or anything of the sort. But I guess people are raised a little bit differently in Florida.
Whitney wasn’t like that, though. I think that’s why we hit it off. She was a very shy girl when I met her. With her big glasses and her Jane Austen novels, she was perfect. The best part about her – she was gorgeous and she didn’t even know it. So when I asked her out the first time, she told me no. Later on, she explained to me, that she thought I was pulling her leg. She didn’t think that I jock like me would be interested in a girl like her. But something about her just drew me in, and I enjoyed showing her how beautiful she was, until she realized it herself, and I was deeply in love with her.
We got married when I was twenty-four and she was twenty-three. My parents tried to tell me that I was too young, but it’s been nine years and I still wasn’t regretting my decision. William was only sixteen when we got married, so he was probably twenty-five now. Which meant I haven’t seen him in nine years, even though he was basically family. He would sent birthday cards every now and then to our kids, but he was never actually around. I was kind of offended that he was in Houston and he didn’t even call or asked if he can stop by. But then I thought about it and I remembered that Whitney didn’t look all that fazed when she heard that he was in Houston. I guess they did keep in touch, but Whitney never shared that with me. I never told her, but I think she sensed that I didn’t like her brother very much.
After about twenty minutes, which seemed like an hour, Whitney stepped outside in the waiting lobby, with a patch on her left arm where they took the blood from. She looked a little pale, but okay overall.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, standing to hug her. “What did the doctor say?”
“He was in a car accident, and he lost a lot of blood. He didn’t break anything, somehow, but he has a pretty severe head-wound and that’s where he’s losing most of his blood. They’ve stopped the bleeding, but by the time the paramedics got to the place where the accident occurred, he had already lost a lot of it. They think that my donation is going to save his life, but we just need to wait and see.”
“What’s his blood type?” I asked. I didn’t even know my blood type.
“He’s O-negative, which is the most versatile blood type out there. So am I, that’s why they called me. And also because I was listed as his emergency contact.”
I kept quiet for a second. “Do you think I can donate blood to help out?” I asked.
“Depends, honey. I’ve never thought about asking you that, but what’s your blood type?” Whitney asked me, looking at me with her green eyes.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” she asked me, raising her eyebrows.
“I’ve never checked,” I said.
Whitney got up on her feet. “Well, let’s go find out if you can maybe help save Will’s life, baby.”
Turned out, I could. My blood type was O-negative, just like Whitney and William’s.
“That is pretty fascinating,” said the nurse, shaking her head. “I wish you folks lived in Houston and were regular donors. God know we always need more blood in this city.” She seemed to be saying that last part more to herself than to us, as she walked away from us. They put a patch on me and they let us go back to the lobby to wait.
“I will go call Mrs. Laurie and check up on the kids,” said Whitney. “Do you want me to grab some coffee?”
“Will you please?” I said and I smiled at her.
“I’ll be right back,” she said and walked towards the hallway. I sat back down and I thought about what I just did. Something about giving my blood away to save another human being felt magical to me. I know it was just medicine and people have been doing transfusions for a long time, but it’s just one of those things that I never thought about. And now I did it and my blood is going to help my wife’s brother in his battle about his health. I really hoped everything was going to turn out great.
Soon after, Whitney returned with the coffee. She said that the kids were fine and that Mrs. Laurie was letting them watch Sing again (for the billionth time!) and that they were pretty happy. She assured Whitney that it was no trouble to take care of our children until we come back. After the doctor walked out and told us that William’s condition was stable and that he was going to live, I asked Whitney if she was ready to go home.
“No,” she said to my surprise. “I think I’m going to stay until he wakes up. I’ll get a room in a hotel.”
“I thought you were coming back with me,” I said, my eyebrows raised. “But I guess I can stay here with you.”
“No, no,” said Whitney. “You go home and get some rest. Plus, we can’t have Mrs. Laurie watching the kids all day long. But I just want to be here for Will now. He needs me.”
I didn’t understand what was going on, but I didn’t want to ask any questions. After I hugged and kissed Whitney goodbye, and told her to call me with any information that she had, I got in the car and started driving back to San Antonio.
