Keith

by Dale Mayer

  “That’s our warehouse room where we keep our stores,” she said. “Plus we have walk-in coolers and freezers.”

  “Could I get some juice and even some water?” he asked.

  She hopped to her feet. “Perfect. I’ll be back in five.” She walked toward the kitchen. Everybody must have intentionally ignored her as she walked through. She just shrugged and didn’t say anything and headed to the fridge. Pulling out two cold bottles of water and a cold bottle of juice, she turned and walked back out again. Complete silence followed her.

  Once outside, she handed him one of each. Popping the cap off the juice, he took a big long drink. When he was done, he smiled. “Somehow that makes everything seem so much better.”

  “Now, chase that down with water,” she instructed.

  “You worried about my blood sugar?”

  “Only if you tell me there’s a reason to be worried about your blood sugar,” she said, studying him carefully. “Is there?”

  He laughed. “Nope. No blood sugar issues.”

  “That’s good,” she said, “because your diet would need to change if there were.”

  “I know. No sweets, minimal carbs, and definitely no refined carbs.”

  “And up the protein and veggies,” she said.

  He drained half the bottle of water and then relaxed enough to sit back with a happy sigh. “It’s really nice out here,” he said. “I know it’s a parking lot with traffic coming and going, but, because we’re a little bit elevated, it gives us a nice view of the whole pasture area and the animals.” He pointed out the horses. “I have yet to ask anybody about those.”

  “Generally they’re Dani’s horses, but she also brings in a few rescues to be helped out. That’s how the llama, Lovely, got here. Seems it was really good friends with the Appaloosa down there, who goes by Appie, by the way. The two came together.”

  “Well, at least they’re here, and they’ll have a better life. I have no clue where they were before this,” he said, “but I’m sure it wasn’t anywhere near as nice as the life they have now.”

  “I’m certain you’re right about that,” she said. Laughing, she added, “See that little strawberry-blond filly down there? Somebody was keeping her as an inside pet.”

  He looked at her in horror.

  She nodded and went on. “Obviously she grew too big to be indoors. Her hooves were in really bad shape. It’s taken a long time to get them straightened up, but Stan has been working on it.”

  “I would love to make it down to where my sister works and spend some time with the animals. She brought this monstrous rabbit into my room.” He shook his head and laughed about it.

  “Hoppers?”

  He turned to her. “Yeah. Have you met him?”

  “I think everybody has,” she said. “She walks him around on a leash quite a bit.”

  “That’s pretty amazing,” he said. “She seems happy here.”

  “Every time I’ve seen her, she appears to be. She has hardships too, I’m sure. But nobody likes to be in a place where they can’t help somebody else.”

  “True. But, in a place like this, I doubt you get very many deaths.”

  “It’s happened,” she admitted. “Not because of something done here but underlying conditions. Still, it’s hard to say goodbye when you had such hope and investment in someone’s progress.”

  He winced at that. “I didn’t even think of anybody passing away here, but I imagine it’s fairly traumatizing for everybody. This is a place of hope, of healing, not walking away or letting go.”

  “Exactly. But it is what it is. Maybe go hunt your sister up after lunch. If they’re busy, they’ll tell you,” she added thoughtfully. “I’ve gone down there a few times. Most of the time it’s all good, but, once in a while, it’s just a nuthouse.”

  “I’d like to avoid the nuthouse part,” he said. “I’m doing okay when I’m out here, but it’s not that easy to maneuver if tons of people are there or if I have to navigate among dogs on leashes.”

  She looked at him thoughtfully. “I can see how that could be a problem. But still, it’s well worth going down there. We’ve all been roped into feeding kittens and looking after injured animals that they’ve had to keep for a few days to a week. Most of the time it’s absolutely delightful, and, of course, it’s the middle-of-the-night stuff. They have to handle it anyway, so getting anybody to pitch in really helps.”

  “I can see that,” he said. “You’re right. Maybe I should go after lunch.” He pulled out his phone and sent his sister a message, while Ilse watched. When the answer came back immediately as a yes, and asking if he wanted her to come and get him, she smiled.

  “See? You just have to reach out a little, and asking for help doesn’t necessarily have to hurt.” With that, she hopped up and said, “I’ve got to go back inside and return to work.”

  “Have you had lunch?”

  She turned, looked down regretfully, and said, “Yes, I did. But make sure you get yourself something.” With that, she headed back inside.

  Keith sadly watched her go. He had been hoping that maybe she hadn’t had lunch. Once he’d seen her with the big delivery truck, he realized that, like everybody else in this place, they all had jobs and responsibilities, something that filled their life outside of physio, shrink visits, and medications. He didn’t want to feel like he was useless, but it was definitely a different working path he was on right now.

  He didn’t want to think about what he would do in the future, but, for the moment, his job was working on himself. But that wasn’t her job. Her job was running the kitchens, and it looked to him like she was doing a great job. He’d been hoping she’d see him out here, and of course she had. And their ten-minute visit was great. He’d given her his empty bottles, so he stood up slowly and grabbed his crutches.

  Mindful of loose gravel, he made his way to the bottom of the large ramp, which went up to the front reception area. On his first day, he’d been pushed up that ramp in a wheelchair, with someone else pushing, so it had been quite easy to maneuver. He wasn’t sure how he would handle it now on crutches, but he was determined to try. He started up slowly, and, about halfway, he got tired.

  He wasn’t sure what the answer was, but he stopped, rested, and then went a little bit more. He stopped and rested again, and then he went up a little bit more. Before he realized it, he was at the front door. Beaming with the flush of success, he pushed the button to open the door and wandered inside.

  One of the girls at the front desk looked up at him and smiled. “Isn’t it a beautiful day out there?”

  He looked at her and smiled. “It sure is.” Tired but happy, he headed down the hallway to his room. He really should go get some food, but he wanted to switch over to the wheelchair. After that climb up the ramp, walking more on crutches was just a little more than he thought he could do.

  Back in his room, he grabbed his wheelchair, slowly lowered himself into it, and feeling everything inside just relax, knowing the strain of what he had just done was over, he headed down for lunch. Now that he’d built up an appetite, he couldn’t wait to fill up. With any luck maybe he’d meet somebody to have lunch with him.

  Even as he had the thought, he had to wonder. Wanting to be around people? Where did that come from? Was it good or bad? As he wandered in, the lineup was gone.

  Dennis looked over at him. “Hey, there, are you hungry?”

  “Actually, I really am,” he said. “What have you got?”

  “All kinds of good food,” he said. “Come on up here, and let’s get you set up.”

  As soon as Keith had a tray full, he headed out to where he normally sat. It was near the doors, and, when they opened, he loved the fresh air. Shane and a bunch of the other physiotherapists were off to the right, and it looked like another group of staff was having an impromptu meeting at a table just ahead of Keith. He sat down at an empty table, wondering at his choice once again.

  Just then, somebody at the table b
ehind him spoke. “Hey, you don’t have to sit alone. An empty spot is here, if you want to join us.”

  He looked at him in surprise, turned to look at the spot, and said, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  The other guys all smiled. One said, “Join us, please. We’ve been here so long that we’re sick of each other.” They all chuckled.

  Keith replied, “I haven’t been here long enough to know who you are, so it’ll be a change for both of us.” And, with that, he set down his tray, and, for the first time in a long time, he had lunch with a group of men. Men who understood what he was going through, where he’d been, and what he was heading for. He thought to himself that maybe this was where he belonged.

  Chapter 11

  The next few days were harried as several of her staff fell ill. Ilse arrived this morning, earlier than normal, more or less running past everything. She didn’t get coffee, didn’t have a chance to deliver coffee, and by the time the three days were up, she was done. On the fourth morning, she walked in early, not yet knowing if this would be another shorthanded day like the others or not. But, when she walked in, one of her sick men was back to work. She looked at him with joy. “Well, thank heavens you’re back, Mike.”

  He nodded. “Really sorry about being gone. I would have been here if I could have.”

  “I know,” she said, “and we don’t want you in here sick anyway. It’s best to stay home.”

  He nodded. “But I’m doing pretty good now,” he said. “I’ve got all the prep started for the breads,” he said, “so, if you need to take a few minutes, I’ve got at least my job covered this morning.”

  “Well, unfortunately,” she said with half a laugh, “you, Tom, and Stefan were out all at the same time.”

  He looked at her and winced. “Okay,” he said. “Well, I’m back doing my job, but I guess we still need to cover for them too, don’t we?”

  She nodded. “That’s why I’m here. I’ll get the stock ready, and I have to prep the meat,” she said.

  “Well, hopefully somebody else will be back in soon too,” he said.

  “It would be lovely if they were all back today,” she said, “but there’s no telling when that’ll be.”

  As she prepped the meat, piercing it with little slices and popping garlic cloves into each slit, she put four huge roasts into the oven, so that she had sandwich meat at lunch and also had some leftovers that she needed for other recipes.

  With the roasts in the oven on low, she turned her attention to getting breakfast items ready. She had lots of bacon to be laid out, cheese to be sliced, and sausage to be cooked. As she turned around, Stefan walked in too.

  She crowed. “Yes! It’ll almost seem like it’s normal again,” she said. “With three of you out, now two back, it’ll be like a holiday.”

  They just laughed at her. “You could take the day off,” one of them said.

  “Well, if all three of you were back on today,” she said, “I might do that, but I really don’t trust that just yet.”

  “Trust what?” they asked, with feigned innocence.

  She smiled at them. “Trust that it’ll all work out. I want to make sure we’ve got lots of staff here,” she said. “We’re behind on our desserts. We even had to cut back to two choices every day.”

  “I bet nobody noticed either,” Stefan said.

  “Maybe they didn’t,” she said, “but I did.”

  They just nodded because nobody in that kitchen was anywhere near as fanatical as she was when it came to the quantity of what she needed. But that’s the way it was, and, with them back at work, she wanted to make sure that everything was ready and that the deliveries were on track. Then she made herself a pot of coffee and grabbed a cup. When she realized what time it was, she grabbed a second cup and walked to Keith’s room. His door was open, and his light was on, but he looked up at her in surprise.

  “I wondered what was up with you,” he said. “I haven’t seen you in days.”

  She nodded, walked over with two cups in her hands, and placed one for him on the nearby night stand. “I had three guys out sick at once,” she said, wiping her fluffy hair off her forehead. “I’ll drink this coffee, and then I’m heading back to my place for a couple hours.”

  “Ouch. Three gone at once sounds pretty rough.”

  “We all have to pitch in and do the job,” she said. “It can just make for a really tough time of it when it goes on that long.”

  “Yeah, I would think so,” he said. “Are they all back now?”

  “Well, two are for sure,” she said, “and I’m hoping the third one will too, but I haven’t seen him yet, since he doesn’t normally show up for another hour.”

  “Perfect,” he said. “Sit down and rest a bit.”

  She smiled with a nod. “That’s why I brought two cups with me.”

  He laughed. “Well, I wondered if you were making up for having missed out on a couple days.”

  “Well, I was hoping you’d understand that, if I was here, I was here, and, if I wasn’t here, it’s because I couldn’t make it.”

  “Exactly,” he said with a smile.

  She studied his face. “You looked pretty well rested.”

  “I did a bit too much, and we backed off some of the workouts, so, if I’m looking a bit rested, it’s because I’m not doing as much now because I overdid it earlier,” he confessed.

  “Hey, there’s worse ways to do something wrong,” she said. “It seems like you’re quite a bit happier right now though.” As a matter of fact, he looked more settled, calmer, and the pain didn’t appear to be twisting his insides up the way it was before. He just looked more at peace with himself all the way around.

  “I’m feeling better,” he said, “and seeing progress that I hadn’t really expected to see. I’m not completely out of the weird moodiness, but I am feeling better as I look forward.”

  “Look forward to what?”

  “To whatever comes after this,” he said. “For the longest time I could only see this. And now I realize there’s so much more.”

  “There is, indeed,” she said, “and I’m glad that you can finally see something after that. What about your sister?”

  “Well, I went down to the vet’s office,” he said with a bright smile. “They had dogs and cats and a huge macaw that was just gorgeous.” He smiled and shook his head. “I hadn’t realized how colorful my sister’s life was.”

  “Isn’t it nice to see what she created for herself?” Ilse said.

  “It is, indeed. I’ve never seen her work, and it’s not what I thought. You know? When you think vet tech, I figured, surgery, helping the vet, taking temperatures and changing dressings and such, and she does that too, but she also bathes the animals, cleans their cages. It’s not what I thought she would be doing, yet she loves every minute of it.”

  “Well, I think it’s a very unusual place here,” she said, “not just for the men and women whom we have working there but also because of the vet clinic being here as part of Hathaway House.”

  “Agreed. I met Racer, and a cat named Thomas,” he said with a big smile. “It was just nice to grab a cat and hold it.”

  “A cat would let you do that?” She shook her head. “I’m more of a dog person but that rabbit? Man, if I had room for him, I’d take him home in a heartbeat.”

  “He’s pretty darn big,” Keith said. “If you had a fence, you’d probably be fine. But, if you have a dog around, you’ve got to make sure it’s one that gets along with the rabbit because I’m not sure, if they went toe to toe, who would win the fight.”

  She chuckled. “You’d always assume the dog would, but those rabbits have pretty vicious back legs.”

  “This guy’s back legs are huge paddles,” he said, “so I don’t know who would win.”

  “Exactly.” When her coffee was gone, she looked at it regretfully. “I should have brought a flask with me.”

  “That just makes you sound like a coffee addict,” he teased.
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  “Well, I’m definitely addicted to something,” she said. “I just don’t know if it’s good or bad yet.”

  And, on that note, she stood, gave him a small wave, a smile, and walked out.

  What did she mean, she was addicted to something? Keith racked his brain, with the usual addictions coming to mind. He’d never seen her with an alcoholic drink, but then she was on the clock here. He didn’t get the sense that she smoked—even cigarettes—so he doubted she used recreational drugs. She was addicted to coffee, of course, but then so was he. More than that, he was addicted to her visits.

  The last few days he’d felt bereft, wondering what was going on with her, but then had heard from Dennis that the kitchen was under siege with so many people out sick, and Keith figured that either she was one of the sick or she was just working constantly, trying to keep up with her kitchen. And that had to be tough, since clearly she was already dedicated, arriving first thing in the morning, staying until everybody else was gone. The fact that she lived on the property and had access to go home and have a midday break helped too, but it said much about her life, that she was here cooking all the time. It appeared that she didn’t have a lot of time for a life outside of her work. And that was something he worried about. If he were to leave, how would he maintain a relationship with her if she was always working? Surely chefs typically had morning shifts or evening shifts, didn’t they?

  He wasn’t sure what to think of that. But, as he was spending all his time healing and doing all the work he had to do, she was spending all her time doing the work that she had to do. It’s just that he was doing it for himself, and she was doing it for a paycheck. Not that he wanted to undermine her passion and what she was doing because it was obviously very valuable and because she was good at it too. But he did wonder what she would be like if she had a full-time relationship but was so busy all the time at work too.

  His morning was slow, but he was off slightly on his sessions with Shane, even though he tried hard to pick it up now that he knew that Ilse was around again. But Shane was frustrated with him.