by Etta Foster
Jacob scoffed but didn’t have a chance to say anything in his defense when Luanne continued talking. “I shall admit that I fancied you upon my arrival.
“But after seeing your mannerisms around my sister and Richard, I have learned my lesson and shall not repeat it.”
Now she was just insulting him. His hands balled into fists as he glared at her. But she hardly noticed his frustration as she eyed him warily. “You still chose to stay here,” he pointed out.
“I wouldn’t dream of fancying you anymore. Even in my nightmares.” She flipped her hair again. “I cannot stand your company.
“I shall continue to keep to myself and you had best do the same. That way, when my sister and your brother return - which they will - then we don’t need to worry about anything. Understood?”
Luanne whipped around and stalked her way down the hall to her bedroom before Jacob could formulate a response.
His eyes followed her every move from the swishing of her skirts to the tumbling of her hair over her shoulders.
The young woman never glanced back at him.
His chest tightened over the conflict inside his mind. He thought of how he had treated Richard and Luanne, embarrassed for himself. But he didn’t appreciate Luanne’s blunt honesty.
All he had wanted was some time with her. Maybe a kiss or two.
What else were they supposed to do together in the house?
Jacob took a step back as he scratched his head and tried to think.
He didn’t know what else to do with his time. He didn’t want to spend it with Mrs. Pennyworth.
Luanne made sense, but now her words threw him off and he wasn’t certain what to do. While she made valid points, it still didn’t explain why she had chosen to remain here with him.
She could have gone anywhere. She could have returned home. But she had stayed.
Slowly, Jacob turned around.
He wasn’t going to inflict himself on someone who clearly had no interest in talking to him.
She had called him a rat.
That had definitely bothered him, but he didn’t know what to do about that. It didn’t feel like there was anything he could do but prove her wrong.
Confused and annoyed, he headed out of the house.
A ride in the open air would do him good. There was still some light out. And he could even take his brother’s horse since no one else was here to ride the creature.
That made him grin. Maybe he couldn’t have everything his brother had, but he could have a few things.
And he could worry about the rest later.
Chapter 32
The night passed slowly.
It might have been the strange room. It might have been the humid weather. Or it might have been the noise from people carousing out in the streets for the entirety of the night.
Richard wasn’t certain what exactly had kept him awake, but he stared at the ceiling all night with his hands clasped firmly over his chest.
It was a small room, perhaps half the size of his back on the ranch. There was a small door and a large window. He had a fireplace but could not bring himself to crawl over to tend the dying flames.
So it dwindled into nothing. He stared at the ceiling a little bit longer.
He couldn’t recall ever leaving Oklahoma.
While he remembered the small house before his parents bought the ranch, there were few memories of the life before the sprawling territory that his family had grown.
Oklahoma had been his entire world.
This was Louisiana.
Though Louise had attempted to explain the area to him during their train ride, he hadn’t exactly been listening. There had been a few words that caught his ears, certainly, but he couldn’t imagine any place different than his home.
Yet he had been wrong from the moment they arrived in Gramercy.
Even the folks spoke differently with certain mannerisms that confused him. There were different food and people everywhere.
He had experienced that on Sundays in town when everyone came together. Even at parties and dances, they were fairly crowded.
His town was nothing like Louisiana.
If he listened carefully, he could hear his neighbor to the left snoring away. People pounded away on the ground level, and people sang loudly in the streets all through the night.
It didn’t make sense to him and he wondered how anyone lived in this manner.
The moment he felt certain that the skies were beginning to brighten, he sat up. Richard was done biding his time. He grabbed his clothes and once dressed, he washed his face in the cold water found on his nightstand.
With a deep breath, he pulled himself off the bed and down onto the ground. He fell with a soft thud and paused to see if anyone was nearby.
He tugged his body over to the door and peeked out. No one was in the hall.
Already the heat was climbing up his neck to his cheeks. He could feel it. He hated it. But he couldn’t do anything about this trouble.
Not yet, at least.
Richard forced himself to swallow his pride, and then he crawled out the door. He locked it behind him and after setting his legs in front, slowly moved himself down the stairs.
“I thought I heard you on the stairs.”
Ray came around the corner of the stairs with a toothy grin and his wheelchair.
He hadn’t thought he was loud. It was too early for most folks to be awake, and so he wondered what she had been doing.
He paused, eyeing her warily before nodding.
The older woman chuckled. “Get yourself in. I’m not judging and I’m not listening, honeybee.
“Old Ray here doesn’t sleep. Get, get. Where’s your sweetheart?”
He hesitated after pulling himself awkwardly into the chair. The process never seemed to get easier. “Still asleep, I’m sure. It’s early.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to bother her.”
Part of him wanted to tell the woman that Louise wasn’t his sweetheart. But then he wasn’t certain what Ray would think of the two of them. So he swallowed and decided not to bring it up. “I have to go.”
“She told me about the treatment,” Ray hummed lightly.
“Of course, I knew that the moment I saw you. We’re awful close to it,” she pointed out when he jerked his head up at her. “You aren’t the first and you aren’t the last one to stay here for such a reason. Now hold on a moment so we get some food in that belly of yours.”
She ran off for a moment, leaving him by the stairs. Richard considered leaving right then and there. But that’s when he realized who she reminded him of.
Though Ray was louder and a little odder, she had the sweet nature of Mrs. Pennyworth.
Richard had just finished situating himself more comfortably in the chair when Ray tossed something in his lap.
“It doesn’t smell good,” she warned as his eyes widened, “but it’ll taste just right. Now get. And move to the left-hand side of the street. That has a smoother path.”
He obeyed, soon out on the street. It was still terribly dark outside, but not as dark as it had been a short while ago.
Richard was used to rising early, and the clinic had let him know that they had their doors open to him during all hours.
Breathing carefully through his mouth, he kept moving. The path on the street was narrow and rocky, but by keeping to the left, Richard found it a little easier to push himself along.
There were callouses already forming on his hands in a way that he’d never experienced them.
He couldn’t help but think back to all those years of farming. Would they have all been for nothing?
Shaking his head to get out of his thoughts, Richard continued on his way until he reached the building.
They had stopped by the other day to start setting up times for his appointments. But this was the day where he could finally talk with a doctor and discuss treatment plans.
“Staying with Ray, hm?”
T
he woman looked over the desk and grinned at him.
He glanced down and nodded as she said, “That woman is a character. That means she cares deeply for you. Now come on. It’s early but you’re lucky.
“You’re working with Carmichael, yes? The man is already in. I’ll take you to him.”
The facility was perhaps twice the size of his ranch house, but that felt small to Richard.
From the halls, to the small waiting room, he wondered how they managed to work with over twenty patients every day.
People came from all over the neighboring territories to seek relief at this very clinic. He would take what he could. But he still wondered.
“Good morning, Richard.”
He looked up to find himself back in Dr. Carmichael’s office. The older man had white hair standing in every direction, a white goatee, and large blue eyes.
His smile was wide and his long fingers were always clasped together whether he stood or sat.
Richard nodded. “Good morning. I hope I’m not too early. But I’d like to get started.”
He could do this. He had to do this.
They had discussed the other day a few possibilities. But this was the day they would decide for certain if he had any hope of walking again.
His heart hammered in his chest as the two men sat and talked in the office.
This was going to happen. He could feel it in the rushing blood throughout his body.
He had already managed to pull himself down the stairs and get himself all the way to the clinic.
It wasn’t very far, but that was proof that he could do something all on his own. And if he could do that, then certainly he could figure out how to walk again.
After a few warnings were provided that Dr. Carmichael could not provide miracles and human bodies were capable of working or not working on their own time, it was at that point that the tests needed to occur.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable,” Dr. Carmichael explained. “But not overtly painful.
“We have to test exactly what sensations your legs can feel to see what nerves are working, where they are working, and how they are working. This will include a few utensils including needles.”
Richard didn’t like needles. He gritted his teeth but forced himself to nod.
“Sounds like a plan,” he offered. “I’m ready when you are.”
The doctor beamed. “Right this way,” he instructed.
Then the two of them headed down another hall. The man talked as he walked, explaining his history with the clinic and the improvements he had seen in the lives who came here and worked hard to improve their bodies.
“It’s hard work,” Dr. Carmichael sighed. “I’ve had a fortunate life where I haven’t suffered much myself in the way of physical ailments.
“But I have seen children dance again and seen others find peace with where they are at. As long as people leave here happy, I consider this a success.”
Richard hesitated. “But I will be able to walk again?”
If he could, then everything in his life would be better.
He knew what it was like to walk and wanted desperately to experience that again. The lesson had been learned and he would never take for granted the ability to use snowshoes and run through the grass.
He changed his clothes as requested. Then Carmichael brought another doctor, one in training, to join the pain and sensitivity test.
The statement about it causing no pain was a lie, but Richard gritted his teeth through it.
Any feeling was a good thing. The numbness was continuing to wear off.
“Do you feel that?” Carmichael asked repeatedly. “On a scale of one to five, how would you rate it?”
“Three,” Richard forced himself to breathe. Then he inhaled sharply. “Maybe a four.”
The doctor laughed. “That’s good to hear. It shouldn’t hurt that much,” he added after a moment, still wearing a smile, “but it is to be expected.
“The nerves in your body are clearly relearning how to act. They are extra sensitive right now and should eventually begin to wear down to their normal state. When did you say you could feel your legs again?”
Richard watched his doctor and the young man beside him clean and put away the kit.
There was a droplet of blood running down his calf, but no one seemed to mind.
He sighed and rubbed his head, trying to focus. They had poked and prodded him like he was only a cow.
Hopefully this was the first and last time.
“Three weeks ago,” he explained. “To the day. I was getting some help sitting in my chair and realized I could feel the cold hands through the socks.”
Carmichael made a note on his desk. “Ah. And what were you doing when that happened?”
“Sitting,” Richard shrugged.
“Before then. Had anything happened just before you felt that?”
His mind flashed back to that wolf.
He could feel the weight of the animal on him again. His hand slipped over to his arm that was healing nicely.
Richard nodded slowly. “There was… well, I jumped out of my chair. Onto the ground. There was a wolf trying to attack us,” he added when the doctor in training raised his eyebrow.
The young man had no name at the moment and hadn’t said a word. But Richard could feel the judgement from across the room.
“A fall.” Carmichael rubbed his chin. “You took a fall where you were paralyzed. Then another fall… it could do with the alignment of your spine.
“We can study the vertebrae. If only we had more equipment to really know… Ah, but we’ll work with what we have. You, take this back to the front desk.”
The nameless doctor in training accepted the tray and left.
Richard watched him go before turning back to Dr. Carmichael.
“Well?” he asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. “What do you think? Will I walk again?”
Taking a seat, Carmichael shrugged. “Yes. No. Perhaps. The damage is not as severe as I had been worried it was.
“Your spine looks to be in place for the most part. And all that feeling in your legs is certainly promising. If things go just right, there is a chance you won’t need the chair anymore.
“Perhaps a cane. I would think you could be walking in about a year or two.”
His heart stopped. “Two years? That’s… a long time.”
“Just because the accident happened in a moment does not mean that is how long the healing process takes,” his doctor reminded him gently. “Your body needs to relearn itself and understand what it means to walk.
“Twenty years ago, and no one would even try to help you walk again. But with my methods, I believe that you will eventually be able to stand and walk again. Is that enough for you?”
Richard inhaled deeply as he considered the man’s words.
They weren’t exactly what he had been hoping to hear. After all, he hadn’t expected to stay beyond a few weeks.
Perhaps a month. But a year was impossible to imagine.
But he could feel that itch in his soul. He wanted to walk again.
He needed to be able to walk again.
Richard thought of Jacob and the ranch, of Mrs. Pennyworth, and of Louise. Nodding, he accepted his fate.
“Then let’s get started,” he announced.
Chapter 33
The blankets were rough. They were threadbare and tickled her cheek.
That’s what woke Louise up from her dreams.
Upon opening her eyes, she realized she had slept late. Startled, she sat up to stare at the window.
“What time is it?” she asked.
There was no one to answer. Louise frowned and looked around in confusion. The morning sleepiness stretched for her from the back of her head. But she gave her head a shake and forced herself to focus.
They were going to be late to his appointment.
Louise gasped, starting again.
This time she jumped out of the bed, u
ntangling herself from the sheets. She hurried about to wash her face and brush her hair.
Every couple of seconds, she ran to the window to check on the rising sun.
