by Pamela Morsi
D.J. never really came up with an answer. The nurse quickly undid the button and zipper and instructed her to plant her right foot flat on the table.
“Help us raise your bottom up,” the nurse told her. “And we’ll pull the jeans down over your hips.”
The “we” in her scenario included Scott who was given the duty of right leg removal. It went fairly easily. Once over the hips, they skimmed down quickly.
The movement took a lot out of D.J. She lay back on the pillows, exhausted, her face pale.
Scott leaned close and whispered. “Cute panties.” He hoped the teasing would add some color to her cheeks.
It worked. She blushed.
“I always wear nice ones in case I’m in an accident,” she replied with a valiant attempt at sarcasm.
“So this must be your lucky day,” he said.
“Or yours. I can’t believe they let you help me undress.”
Scott grinned. “I do admit that I’ve daydreamed about getting your pants off. But somehow it was never quite like this.”
D.J. managed something near to a smile.
Dr. Kim cleared his throat. “Did you bring the CroFab?” he asked. His tone was stern.
“It’s in the van. I’ll go get it.”
As he flailed for the opening in the curtain, Dr. Kim spoke to D.J. reassuringly.
“We’re going to have you back on your feet in no time,” he told her. “We’re going to start some antivenom infusion and we’re going to get you some pain medication for all that nasty burning sensation.”
“Thank you,” he heard her answer.
Stepping out of the door, Scott broke into a run. His van was still double-parked in the entry. With Karl standing right beside it, he was pretty sure he wasn’t getting a ticket.
He retrieved his bag from behind the seats and gave his keys to the deputy.
“Could you move it for me?”
The man nodded.
Back inside, he spotted Dr. Kim washing up at the sink. The curtains were closed up around the area where he’d left D.J.
“Here’s the CroFab. How’s she doing?”
“She’ll feel better after the pain meds kick in,” he answered.
“What can I do?” Scott asked.
The doctor held up an IV bag of normal saline.
“Do you want to mix it?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“We’re going to do four vials to start.”
It was good to have something concrete to focus on. Scott washed and gloved and spread what he needed out on an empty counter. With a 30ml syringe he drew out the correct amount of saline from the bag and injected it into each vial of powdered anti-venom. Gently, turning the little bottles upside down and back up, he allowed the powder to suspend in the solution. When there were no loose particles of anti-venom visible, he used the syringe again to withdraw the liquid mixture and add it back to the bag.
When the IV was ready, he took the label from the anti-venom and attached it to the bag. He carried it over to the curtained alcove and made his way inside.
The nurse and doctor were both there, but Scott’s eyes were all for D.J. She lay back on the table and appeared to be sleeping. She’d changed into a hospital gown and was tucked in warmly with a white blanket. She was hooked up to monitors that kept track of her vital functions. And an oxygen tube stretched across her face.
The nurse doubled-checked the label against the orders and then against D.J.’s wristband before hanging the anti-venom on the stand.
The doctor spoke to Scott. “We’re going to start at 50cc per to see how she tolerates it. If we don’t get any anaphylactic reaction after the first ten minutes, we’ll up the dose to 250ml.”
“Sounds good,” he said.
As he spoke, D.J. opened her eyes. “You’re back,” she whispered.
“I’m here,” he assured her.
The doctor spoke to her, a bit more loudly this time, “Are you allergic to papaya or any of the papain proteins.”
“Uh...no.”
“Are you, or could you possibly be, pregnant?”
“No.”
“That’s good,” Dr. Kim said.
“Yeah,” D.J. said, groggily. “My boyfriend only likes necking.”
Scott grinned at her.
“Are you the ‘boyfriend’?” the nurse asked.
“I guess so.”
She turned to the doctor. “I hope that’s not a privileged piece of conversation is it, Dr. Kim? Suzy Granfeldt is in my Sunday School class and this is the kind of news the woman lives for.”
Scott refused to be embarrassed. In truth, he was buoyed. If the caregivers were joking, then the situation was not as bad as it could have been.
The ten-minute trial passed with no untoward reaction. Dr. Kim sped up the delivery of the anti-venom.
“How’s that pain medication?” Dr. Kim asked her.
“Better,” she answered.
“It’s okay if you want to take a little nap,” he said. “This medicine is going to take some time to get inside you and you could probably use the rest.”
“Okay,” she agreed sleepily. Then her eyes popped open. “Scott?”
“Yeah, baby, I’m here,” he told her, grasping her hand.
“Check on the library,” she told him. “James will be all alone and he won’t know what’s happened to me.”
“Sure, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of James.”
She sighed heavily in relief and then closed her eyes. A minute later, her mouth opened slightly, and he knew she was sleeping. He watched her for several minutes, trying to get his mind around his feelings.
He was seeing only D.J. now. He knew that the whole resemblance to the girl from South Padre had confused his reaction to her. But it was the real person, not the remembered fantasy, who lay here sleeping. It was the real woman whose fear and pain cut into him like a self-inflicted wound.
He went outside to give his mother an update.
Viv was sitting on a bench beneath the overhang. She had the dog on the leash and seemed to be talking with the peppy fur ball.
“Is that the best conversation you can get around here?” he asked her.
She looked up and smiled at him. “He’s a very good listener.”
Scott chuckled.
“So how is D.J. doing?” his mother asked.
“Right now she’s sleeping. I think it looks very positive so far,” he answered. “Half of the snake bite went through her shoe. That kept it shallower on that side. And getting her infused in less than an hour, that’s big.”
He sat down next to her. Bent forward with his elbows on knees he wiped the tiredness out of his eyes. Then resting his jaw on his hands he let out a huge huff of air, as if he’d been holding his breath.
“It scared the crap out of me,” he admitted.
“Of course it did,” his mother agreed.
“Damn, it was that same helpless feeling I had when Dad was so sick,” he said. “You go along thinking you have all the time in the world to say things and do things and share things and then suddenly you don’t.”
His mother’s brow was furrowed. For a moment he was sorry he’d brought his father up. Dad always seemed like the elephant in the room these days. Still he attempted to explain.
“I will be forever grateful that we had the time we did,” Scott told her. “I mean at the end. I’m so glad that I was able to talk to him when we both knew he was dying and that everything that ought to be said, got to be said. That was truly a gift.”
Viv seemed even less pleased with that statement than the subject matter in general. Instead of disputing his words, however, she changed the subject.
“Fortunately, D.J. doesn’t appear to be in danger of dying.”
Scott nodded. “Rattlesnake bites are only rarely fatal. And even when they are, it’s more often panic and a heart attack that does people in.”
“Still, it is scary,” she said. “I think most people have had
an unhealthy fear of the creatures since the Garden of Eden.”
Scott nodded. “And I should have warned her to keep an eye out for them after the cutting.” He shook his head guiltily. “Wow, that scream D.J. let out. That certainly got our attention.”
Viv chuckled. “Yes, now I know what people mean by bloodcurdling.”
“It was definitely that,” he said.
His mother reached over and patted his hand as if he were still a little boy. “I know you’re beginning to have feelings for her.” He didn’t respond and Viv hesitated. “You are beginning to have feelings for her, aren’t you?”
Scott shrugged. “Maybe. I think so.”
His mother seemed to be waiting for more.
“I like being around her. She’s got a good sense of humor. She’s very smart and she’s interesting.”
“That seems promising.”
He nodded. “But she reminds me of someone else and that makes it kind of weird.”
“Really? Who does she remind you of?”
“A girl I met in college. Nobody you know.”
Viv hesitated. “Well, I’m sure our D.J. is nothing like that other girl.”
“No, I guess not.”
“I think she’s been lonely much of her life. Her parents mostly left her with nannies and babysitters until they were able to send her away. It was almost as if they didn’t want children.”
Scott nodded. D.J. had said as much herself. Then suddenly he realized that D.J. had also said she never talked about it.
“How do you know that about her?” he asked his mother.
Viv looked up, a little startled. “Oh...I don’t know, I suppose she told me.”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“Well, maybe I heard it from someone else,” his mother suggested.
“No,” Scott answered, shaking his head. “D.J. doesn’t talk about it.”
“Someone like Suzy could have gotten it out of her.”
He didn’t believe that. D.J. was far too private to have things coaxed out of her. Suddenly, as clearly as if he could hear her voice, he remembered his sister’s words.
“You hired the private detective to find out stuff about D.J.”
Viv didn’t bother to deny it. He hadn’t even posed it as a question.
“If you’re going to hire somebody on the internet, you’d certainly want to check them out.”
“Mom, you vet people, you interview them, you contact their references, you don’t have them investigated.”
She shrugged with unconcern. “It’s more than simply hiring for a job. It’s inviting a new person into a tight-knit community. I think that you should see it as positive that I’m a bit more cautious than to trust my own judgment.”
“It wasn’t about bringing her into our ‘tight-knit community,’ it was about bringing her into our family,” he said. “You really did hire her to fix me up.”
“Well, you need somebody, and I haven’t got forever to wait.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Believe it. I found her. You like her. So are you going to complain about it now?”
Scott wanted to. But somehow, he didn’t.
“Mom, what’s done is done,” he said. “In the future, I would appreciate it if you would stay out of my personal life.”
She smiled broadly at him. “I am completely done with that,” she assured him. “From here on out, you are going to be totally on your own. I promise. Now, are you going to spend your day around here? Would you like for me to open the store?”
“I promised I would check on James,” he answered.
“That’s a very good idea,” she said. “You go to the library and Mr. Dewey and I will see what is needed in the drugstore.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll get Dr. Kim to call me with updates of how things are going.”
Forty-Four
795.6 Games of Chance
The front door to the library was open and inside the lights were on. Behind the circulation desk a short person sat up expectantly.
Scott cursed under his breath. He’d completely forgot about the little girl. But he supposed if an eight-year-old was going to be unattended, there were few better places to be than an empty library.
“Hi, Ashley.”
“Hi. D.J. is not here. She hasn’t shown up all morning.”
“I know,” he answered. “She’s at Dr. Kim’s clinic. She got bit by a snake.”
“Oh, wow! A big snake?”
“Pretty big.”
“Is she all right?”
“She’s going to be fine,” he told her. “Are you here by yourself or have you seen James?”
She looked warily toward the stacks and leaned forward to whisper. “I haven’t seen him. But I hear him in there.”
“Okay. I’ll go back and check on him. I need you to do something for me.”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“Call your mom at work. Tell her about D.J.’s snakebite and that it’s probably not great for you to hang out here with me and James. Tell her that my mom is at the drugstore and would probably love to have your company if it’s okay for you to walk over there.”
The little girl’s brow furrowed. “Can I take my book?”
“Do you know how to check it out?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Then check it out to yourself. And call your mom.” Ashley nodded.
Scott went looking for James. Typically, the guy was not easy to find. What he did find, however, was a bit surprising. James had been moving the books. Using the plan that D.J. had set out, he was temporarily storing each shelf grouping in the reading room. The sticky notes with their identifying future locations were visible atop each stack.
Scott was impressed. The guy had gotten a lot done and it wasn’t even noon.
“James. James, are you here?”
“Yes.” The answer came from the shadows.
“Did you hear me tell Ashley what happened to D.J.?”
“Yes.”
“She probably won’t be in to work for a few days.”
“No.”
Scott didn’t really have any idea what to say beyond that.
“You’ve really gotten a lot done,” he settled on finally.
“I don’t like it,” James said.
“But you’re doing it anyway?”
“She wants it done. So I can do it,” he answered.
It was a couple of simple declarative statements, but Scott realized there was a lot of power in them. James was willing to make changes he didn’t want to make. He had no idea what D.J. had done to inspire James’s loyalty, but he knew from where his own stemmed.
“You’re right,” he told the guy. “We can do it.”
Scott fished the phone out of his pocket and called his mother. She picked up on the second ring.
“Hi, Mom. Everything okay there?”
“It all seems to be in order. No one waiting. No notes on the door and not many people around.”
“Good, I’m sending Ashley Turpin over to you,” he said. “Do you think you can keep her occupied until it’s time for her to join her mother?”
“Certainly.”
“I’m going to stay here, and James and I are going to keep the work going on D.J.’s library rearrangement.”
“Oh, what a nice idea. I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”
“But we could use some help,” he told her. “So if anyone shows up, finished with harvest and looking for something to do, send them over.”
At the busiest time of the year, there were not a lot of extra hands to be had. But by midafternoon his mother showed up herself with Edna Kievener and Lola Philpot in tow. Mr. Dewey watched as the senior ladies and their eight-year-old mascot knuckled down in a team effort to remove the books.
It was a little after four when Dr. Kim called.
As soon as he said the doctor’s name, all work around him stopped. Everyone stood there, listening, waiting.
“We’ve gained control of the advance of the venom. She’s got some localized swelling and blistering, but no evidence of any significant coagulopathy. I think she’s due to make a full recovery.”
“That’s great.”
“I’ve sent her off in an ambulance to the hospital in Hays. I want them to keep an eye on her for the next day or two. It’s precautionary.”
“Is she awake?”
“Off and on. We’re trying to keep her pain level low to counter the stress. She’s mostly past our worries about that, but I gave her something to make her ambulance ride more comfortable.”
“Should I go to see her in the hospital, then?”
“She probably won’t get there until perhaps 6:30 or 7. Then she’ll have to be checked in to her room. Visiting hours are over at eight. You might want to wait until tomorrow.”
Scott had no intention of waiting.
They worked for another hour. They’d unloaded everything but the range closest to the windows.
He thanked everyone for their time. His mother took Ashley to the Brazier, and James assured him that he could lock up the building. Considering how secure he kept his rusty old bike, Scott had no doubts on that score.
He drove to his mother’s house, took the shower that he’d missed that morning and put on real clothes. He was antsy to get on the road. Anxious to see her.
His mother was in the kitchen when he came out.
“I’ve packed you a sandwich to eat on the way,” she told him. “And you should probably take this.”
She indicated a familiar-looking, businesslike gray handbag.
“I found it in the driveway. Or more accurately, I guess I’d say that I found it all over the driveway. The contents were spilled out, but I think we got everything. I’m sure they’ll be needing her insurance cards and such.”
“Right. Good idea.”
“It’s a first step back into normal,” she said. “When a woman wakes up in a strange place, she looks around for her purse.”
“Got it,” he answered as he headed out the door.
On the road he took a phone call from Amos. He was grateful for his friend’s inquiry and passed on the doctor’s update.
“I should have warned her about snakes coming in from the field,” Scott said.
