Free Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott

nods. “Exactly. But she insisted I was the only person in the world who hadn’t. Stubborn, stubborn woman.” He sighs. “I miss her.”
    “We should go,” Eli says, and Clement looks at him and says, “No harm in missing someone.”
    “Shouldn’t we go?” Eli says to me, a hint of desperation in his voice, and maybe he just wants to get away from Clement and his stories. But maybe he also wants to see Tess.
    The thought doesn’t quite lift my spirits like it should, so I make myself grin at Clement and say, “He just met Tess and look at him. When she wakes up, you’ll never get him to leave her and go back to the gift shop.”
    Clement looks at Eli, and then back at me, something measured flickering in his gaze. “I suppose the gum will be safe, at least.”
    I smile and wave good-bye as Eli and I get on the elevator. Eli doesn’t do either.
    “You shouldn’t let Clement bother you,” I say. “He’s not that bad for an old guy, really. I wonder what his wife looked like. I had no idea she was—”
    “What, black?”
    “No, the kind of person who’d actually leave Milford and visit Ferrisville,” I say, my voice rising. “But thanks for assuming I’m racist.”
    “I—it’s just that everyone in Milford makes a huge deal of acting like it’s not a big thing whenever someone who isn’t white shows up.”
    “Oh.” I glance at him. “Really?”
    “Yeah,” he says. “It sucks.”
    The elevator stops, and the doors open. We get off, and when we’re almost at Tess’s unit, I turn to him. “I—sorry about yelling at you. And about Milford.”
    “Me too,” he says, and when I nod and start to turn away he stops me, one hand on my arm. He even has beautiful fingernails—not all chewed off or jagged or anything. Mine always look like someone’s taken a rusty knife to them. “I—this must be so hard for you. Is there anything I can, you know … um, do to help you?”
    I nod, acknowledging him but nothing else because if I say anything I am afraid I will start to cry. I turn away, my eyes burning, and start to punch in the code so a nurse will unlock the doors to Tess’s unit.
    He touches my arm again. “You’re using your right hand,” he says. “You punched the code in with your left last time.”
    “So?”
    “So shouldn’t you—doesn’t it feel weird to do it with the wrong hand? Shouldn’t you start over?”
    “No, it’s okay, see?” I say, and open the doors as the buzzer sounds, signaling that we can walk in.
    I do, but he doesn’t. I glance back over my shoulder.
    “Come on,” I say. “Tess’s waiting for you.”
    He’s got his arms crossed over his chest all tight-like, and he actually looks kind of sick, but he follows me through and heads straight for Tess’s room, practically marching behind me.
    I sit down, and hear him do the same, but when I glance at him, he’s tapping the fingers of one hand against his chair like he did yesterday, only harder and faster, and it’s almost as if he’s counting or something under his breath too.
    “So, Eli,” I say, wondering if being around me is somehow really pissing him off before I look back at Tess’s closed eyes. “Tell me about yourself.”
    Nothing. Not from Tess. Or him.
    I look at him, and he’s still just sitting there tapping away.
    “Seriously,” I say. “I want to know … um.” What do I want to know about Eli?
    No, not going there. I don’t need to know anything about anyone. But what would Tess want to know? What college he wants to go to, what kind of car he drives, and what sports he plays. Easy. And I can always pinch myself to stay awake if he rambles on and on.
    Okay, I’ll start with sports.
    I really mean to do that, but end up saying, “What were you doing when I came into the hospital?” instead, and his fingers pause.
    “What?”
    “When I came in, I saw you with a notebook. What were you doing?” I say, mentally kicking myself for asking. And for noticing in the first place.