The Sunset Matinee: 2

Read: Part 1

The boys expected to find the hospital in chaos, with nurses and doctors rushing frantically around Grady. Instead, they walked into sterile white indifference. Grady, pale but otherwise looking the same as always, smiled at them from his bed.

Grady’s mother was there too, her enormous girth swallowing the chair beneath her as she held her son’s hand. She turned to smile at the boys, tears glimmering in her eyes.

“I knew you’d be here,” she said. “Such good friends.”

The boys squirmed, awkwardly picking at their clothes or running hands through their hair. Compliments were foreign to them, so the rare praise that they received left them feeling like animals in a zoo.

Grady saluted crisply. The boys, still shuffling around in discomfort, saluted back.

“Mom, can I talk to the guys alone for a bit?”

“Of course, honey,” Grady’s mother said.

She grabbed hold of the gurney and struggled to her feet, grunting and sucking in air as she went. Once standing, she waited a few moments to catch her breath. On her way to the door, she patted Doug’s arm.

“Good boys,” she said.

The friends blushed and hung their heads.