She lay in bed on her back. There was a large bandage wrapped around her head. An IV was hanging from a pole connected to the bed, with a large needle sticking in her vein. Gauze tape was wrapped around it to keep it in place. Suddenly her eyes opened. The ceiling lights were rather bright, and her eyes became watery. There was a curtain to her right, and she could hear the sound of a respirator from behind the curtain. Then she noticed the cast on her left arm. Her gown was pulled aside at her right leg, and there was a bandage around her knee. It was a strange feeling; her head felt like it was pounding, but she also felt heavily sedated. There was a queasy, nauseous feeling in her stomach. Suddenly the room lights dimmed, and a woman was standing over her. She was wearing a nurse’s uniform. She bent over and looked at her.

“Can you hear me?” she asked.

She tried to answer but her throat felt very dry.

“Nod!” the nurse said.

So she nodded. She tried again to speak.

“I feel sick,” she said.

“It’s the pain medication. We’ll give you something for the nausea.”

The nurse left and then returned with a syringe in her hand. She injected something into the IV. Before long, she didn’t feel the nausea as much.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“Don’t worry. You’re in the hospital. You were in an accident. But you’re stable. There’s someone here to see you.”

The nurse left again, and suddenly a familiar figure was standing over her.

“Hi, Tammy, dear. It’s so good to see you awake! You’ve been out for over a day now.”

Her back was hurting, so she shifted onto her side. “Hi, Aunt Elizabeth,” she said with a raspy voice. “What happened? Where’s Mom?”

Aunt Elizabeth took Tammy’s hand. “Don’t worry about that now. You need to rest. Just lie still.”

The medication for the nausea had fully kicked in. The nurse came back with another syringe.

“This will help her relax,” she said, injecting another syringe into the IV. Then she looked at Elizabeth. “Come with me.”

Outside in the hall, the nurse asked her if there was anyone else who needed to be contacted.

“No. She’s adopted. My sister and her husband adopted her when she was two. Mom and Dad died when Angela and me were young. Doug left Angela years ago. There’s no one else.”

******************************************

“Talk to Tammy. She knows…” Randy’s voice trailed off.

“She knows what?” Lindsey asked.

“Look. Take the bass. It’s yours now.” Then Randy gave her Tammy’s address.

“But…” Randy cut her off.

“Knock on her window; it’s around back. Don’t go to the front door. Oh, and the car’s yours too. Dad keeps the key in the kitchen; in the drawer with the knives.”

“But I can’t drive,” Lindsey said, barely audible because of her sobbing.

“Tammy can; she’ll show you. And take anything in my room you want.”

There was a long pause.

“Take care of yourself, Linz. I know you will. I’ll talk to you later.”

“But Randy, I…” The phone went dead.

Lindsey set the phone down on the counter. She wiped her eyes and then picked up the bottle of vodka and hurled it across the kitchen. It hit the pantry and shattered, and glass and vodka went everywhere. Then she walked to Randy’s room, picked up the case with his bass in it and left through the front door. Tammy didn’t live far away, so she began walking, crying as she went. When she got to Tammy’s house, she noticed that the garage door was up. She peered inside and saw that Aunt Elizabeth’s car was gone. So she walked around back and saw a window with the curtains closed. She went over and knocked on the window. It suddenly slid open, and Tammy stuck her head out.

“Oh, hey Lindsey. You have the bass!”

“Yeah, Randy said to…”

“Go to the side door; I’ll let you in. Auntie left a while ago. And I’ve got beer!”

As it turned out, Lindsey never heard from Randy again. Lindsey would return home after school and go to Tammy’s to jam. She met Tammy’s aunt, who would bring them cookies as they played in the basement. It seemed strange to her that she didn’t mind the music, since Tammy insisted on playing loud. And she didn’t seem to mind the beer sitting in plain sight.

Elizabeth Gillan

She is most commonly known in the story as Tammy's Aunt Elizabeth. She was the daughter of Harry and Lucretia Maddox, and older sister of Angela Maddox, later Angela Hedrick. Both girls were born in Indianapolis, where Harry had a sizable Cadillac dealership. Lucretia was a housewife, who spent her time raising her daughters and working as a volunteer at a local hospital. Harry died of a heart attack when Elizabeth was eight years old. Her father’s car dealership was saddled with debt, so following Harry’s death, Lucretia found herself working two jobs. When Elizabeth was 14, Lucretia came down with a cold. She developed a bad cough and was soon unable to get out of bed. Elizabeth wanted to call the doctor, but Lucretia insisted that it was just a cold. As her mother grew worse, Elizabeth contacted her aunt, Carol Styles. Carol was married to Marvin Styles, a man much older than herself, and a life-long naval officer. He would later die at the Battle of Midway. By the time Carol, who lived in Kansas City, arrived at the Maddox home, Lucretia had died.

Carol and Marvin took Elizabeth and Angela into their home. Elizabeth and Aunt Carol developed a close relationship, something that Elizabeth would prove significant later in life. Angela Maddox went on to marry Douglas Hedrick, a Baptist preacher who had contracted malaria while serving as a missionary in Africa. The two were unable to have children, and so they adopted Tammy Porter, who then bore the name Tammy Hedrick. Elizabeth married Quentin Gillan, a local butcher. Carol had arranged for Elizabeth to work as a secretary while she was still rather young and she continued working as a secretary after she was married. Quentin died of a burst appendix a few after they married. Elizabeth then moved in with Aunt Carol. Following Carol's death, Elizabeth moved to Westbridge, where she worked as a secretary for Herb Mecklin, owner of Mecklin Plastics and Industrial Chemicals. She was paid well, and soon lived in a nice two-story house. She also traded in her Cadillac for a new one at the beginning of each year.

The marriage between Angela and Doug slowly broke down. Doug frequently blamed Angela for the fact they couldn’t have children. Then he suddenly disappeared one Saturday evening. Earlier that day he told Angela that he was going to the seminary school library to do some research for his Sunday morning sermon. When he didn’t return, Angela called the police. They located Doug’s abandoned car 50 miles outside of town, the doors open, his empty wallet lying on the front seat, and a commentary on Thessalonians lying on the side of the road. A detective told her that he believed Doug had given someone a ride. The local police were investigating two similar disappearances. When she was shown the books, she recognized the commentary on Thessalonians, which had a large bookmark sticking out of the top. Opening the book to the bookmark, she found 2 Thessalonians 2:7 underlined in dark marker. She told the detective that Doug had staged his disappearance. Angela later found out from a friend that Doug had become involved with a woman at church.

Angela died in the terrible car accident that left Tammy prone to headaches for the rest of her life. Elizabeth took Tammy into her home. Tammy referred to her as Aunty. Unlike the other girls in the band, Tammy lived in a stable, caring home environment. Although Elizabeth had adopted Aunt Carol's strong disapproval of the Demon Liquor, she allowed Tammy to drink beer in the house after Tammy explained to her that it was the only thing that helped her headaches. Elizabeth even bought Tammy guitars and amplifiers, and allowed the band to play in her basement until the neighbors complained. Tammy remained close to Elizabeth for the rest of her life. Elizabeth frequently bragged about her niece, the rock star. Eventually, Elizabeth’s home was full of Tammy Hedrick rock music memorabilia...much of which was quite valuable decades later. Tammy visited Elizabeth often and Tammy’s own children referred to Elizabeth as Grandma Lizzy.

Tammy smiled at him. “Sure. You can come over and play. I got two new bitchin’ guitars! Aunty bought them after I came home from the hospital.

“I’ll walk home with you if you want.”

Tammy got up and put her arm around Randy. “You know what Randy, you can be a star too! I’ve heard you’re a kickass bassist.”

The two walked home together that day. Tammy’s aunt lived just down the street from Randy’s house. As time went on, they were jamming together regularly. Tammy kept her guitars and amp in the basement. It was a small basement, and they had to sit on stools not far from Elizabeth’s washer and dryer. There was a small refrigerator where Tammy kept her beer. He was surprised to find out that Aunt Elizabeth was a really nice person. She brought them cookies while they played, and she didn’t seem to mind Tammy’s beer.

They played for about two hours one day. Randy actually kept his bass and amp at Tammy’s house for a while. The steps to the basement were bare wood, and Elizabeth wore shoes that made a distinctive clomping sound when she walked down the stairs. He still felt compelled to hide the beer sitting in a cooler by Tammy when he heard Elizabeth start down the stairs to the basement. When she reached the basement, she had a plate of cookies.

“Here you go; help yourself, Randall,” she said.

Tammy stopped playing, looked up and laughed. “Yeah, Randall.”

He grabbed some cookies off the plate. Tammy handed him a beer. Elizabeth walked over to the washing machine and put a load of clothes in the dryer.

“I don’t know that beer goes good with chocolate chip cookies,” Randy said.

“Beer goes good with everything,” Tammy said as she started playing again.

Tammy kept playing until she heard Elizabeth reach the top of the stairs. Tammy played guitar very fast, her hand racing up and down the neck of the guitar. She preferred the heavy distortion setting on her amp. Randy noticed that she would suddenly play a really cool riff, followed by a short, explosive solo. He asked her once how she came up with the riffs. She told him that she didn’t know; she just played them. Once the door at the top of the stairs closed, Tammy got up, went over to Randy and kissed him. Then she smiled.

“Have to be careful though; Aunty is old-fashioned about some things.”