“Great. Let’s say eleven thirty.” She checked with James.
He shrugged. “I’ll come, but you don’t have to treat me to lunch.”
“Perfect.” Elena scooted around to Anabelle’s side of the counter. “You’ve got to come too, Anabelle. You’re so smart and levelheaded, we need you to work out the details of my plan.”
Once again, Anabelle eyed her over the top of her glasses. “You’re trying to butter me up.”
“Of course I am.” She grinned and her eyes sparkled. “But I still need you. Ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease.” She dragged out the word like a fishing line pulling a tantalizing lure through a deep pool filled with trout.
“Oh, all right. Now will you let me get my work done?”
“Praise the Lord! I’ll see you all at the Corner.” All but jumping in the air and clicking her heels together, Elena dashed off to the Intensive Care Unit and her patients.
With an amused grin, Candace went to log in on the station’s computer.
James waited a moment, then said to Anabelle, “I gather the puppy business isn’t going well.”
“An unmitigated disaster.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
She leaned back in her chair and took off her glasses. “First, while we were at Christmas Eve service, the little scamp bit a hole in Cam’s rubber boot.”
“Ouch.”
“Then, that night when we left him in the mudroom, which he’d already half destroyed, he cried so loud we couldn’t go to sleep. I had to go sit with him in my lap so he’d be quiet. Every night,” she emphasized, “since I brought him home. I’m exhausted.”
James hooked a hip over the edge of the desk. “Maybe he’ll adjust in time.”
“There’s more,” she said grimly. “During Christmas dinner, he somehow got out of the mudroom and into the backyard. Cam built a small greenhouse and put it up near the barn. He’d spent all of Christmas morning planting perennials for the spring.”
“And the dog dug them up.”
“An unmitigated disaster,” she repeated. “As soon as it’s a decent hour, I’m calling Diana. She’s got to help me. I don’t know what to do with him.”
James assumed she meant the dog, not Cameron. In either case, all he could do was wish her luck.
James was a little late arriving at the Corner for lunch. He’d had to settle a post-op hip-replacement patient in her room. The elderly woman had been in a lot of pain. Getting her meds authorized by the orthopedic surgeon took time, which annoyed James. In his view, a doctor should make sure his patient was entirely stable before moving on to his next surgery.
A nativity scene had been painted in bold colors on the diner’s large front window, nearly hiding the cheery yellow café curtains behind it.
When he pushed open the diner’s door, the scent of roasting coffee, pumpkin pie and sizzling hamburgers greeted James. Today’s dinner specials posted on a chalkboard were turkey and stuffing or honey-baked ham and sweet potatoes. He’d stuffed himself on all of that and more at his mother-in-law’s house.
Elena waved at him from one of the dark green vinyl booths along the front of the diner.
He slid into the seat next to Anabelle, who had exchanged her lab coat for a heavy winter coat. Her hospital ID tag, which she wore on a lanyard around her neck, had become tangled with the chain attached to her reading glasses.
Candace, sitting across from James, wore her scrubs decorated with tiny Christmas wreaths. Three mugs of coffee steamed on the table.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said.
“No problem,” Elena said. “We just ordered.”
He looked around hoping to catch the eye of Lindy Yao, the young waitress who usually served him. She was busy with the customers at a table in the back of the diner.
He turned to Anabelle. “Did you get ahold of Diana?”
“Yes, she’s going to make a house call this afternoon after I get home, thank the good Lord. I hope she has the magic touch with that puppy.”
“We all do for your sake, as well as for Cam’s slippers,” James said.
Lindy cruised by their table. An attractive Asian American who was saving money to go to college, she had black hair and dark brown eyes. “Your usual coffee?” she asked him.
“Coffee, black, and a turkey sub with everything except onions, and fruit instead of fries.”
“You got it.”
Elena took a sip of coffee, then set the mug back on the table. “Okay, here’s my idea. When the hospital board threatened to sell Hope Haven to that big hospital corporation, the whole town got up in arms.”
“And the board reversed their decision,” Candace finished.
It had been Elena’s idea to create a Wall of Hope in the courtyard as a fund-raising project. People bought engraved commemorative bricks, and their contributions had been one of the things to help stave off the sale of Hope Haven.
Lindy brought James his cup of coffee, and he thanked her.
“So are you thinking we should build another wall?” James asked.
“I think we need a different approach.”
“Like what?” Candace asked.
James noticed Anabelle staring off into the distance and not paying attention to the conversation. She had to be extremely distressed by the puppy fiasco. It wasn’t at all like her to opt out of important discussions about Hope Haven.
“I made some notes.” Elena placed a yellow notepad on the table. “The hospital’s income is divided fairly evenly among three major sources: payments from insurance companies and individuals, contributions from the public and charitable foundations and government sources.”
“I doubt if we can squeeze any more out of Medicare,” James noted.
“We don’t have to.” Turning the notepad around for him to read, Elena circled two items. “I’ve talked to a couple of other hospitals in our general area. Based on our patient hospital days, we’re not getting our fair share of money from either the state of Illinois or Bureau County, and we’re receiving no funds from the city of Deerford.”
Lindy arrived with their lunches. James sat back, mulling over Elena’s surprising revelation while the waitress placed their meals on the table.
When Lindy left, James bowed his head to say grace. Then he leaned forward again. “So how do you propose we appeal for more government funding? They’re all broke themselves these days and laying off employees. It would be tough for them to justify reducing their own staffs in order to keep our pay intact.”
“There are many people just thankful they have a job at all these days,” Candace commented.
“True.” Elena sat up straighter then flipped to the next page of her notepad. “But people need to know that this pay cut affects everyone—we’re in danger of losing our very best staff members, nurses and doctors who will go in search of better pay. I know I’ve heard murmurings of people looking elsewhere.”
“Me too,” Candace said.
“I actually started making calls,” James said. When he noticed his friends’ looks of alarm, he quickly added, “It was only going to be part-time to supplement what I earn at Hope Haven.”
“It really wouldn’t be good for Deerford to have more people transferred as far away as Chicago to receive the care they currently receive here. Near home,” Anabelle said, her attention having returned to the conversation at hand. “I feel very strongly about that, especially after Kirstie’s accident.”
“What we need are strong allies consistently championing for the hospital and its top-notch staff in public. We could start a letter-writing campaign to elected officials and newspapers to try to get them to take up Hope Haven as a cause.”
“You’ve been doing some serious thinking,” James said. “There’re no guarantees, of course, but your idea might work.”
“It will. I know it will.” Elena continued down her list. “A politician, for example, could appear before the city council and meet with county board members and the area’s representatives in the s
tate legislature.”
“That’s going to take a lot of man hours to accomplish all that,” James commented.
“Hope Haven has more than a hundred employees,” Elena pointed out. “I’ve written up some talking points so people will know what to say in their letters. I know, with the Lord’s help, we can do this if we all work together.” She handed each of them a copy of the talking points.
“And you want us to spread the word,” James said.
“To every employee, your neighbors, friends at church. We need to build a group of supporters who want to keep our special community intact.”
To James, considering the current circumstances, that sounded like a very tall order.
After lunch at the Corner, as the four of them were climbing the stairs to the second floor, Candace noticed Heath Carlson coming down the stairs from radiology. She hung back from the others, waiting for Heath on the landing.
“Hi,” she said. “A belated Merry Christmas to you.”
His grin dimpled his cheeks. “Right back at you. Did you have a good holiday?”
“A quiet one,” she admitted. “The highlight of the day was Howie trying out his new sled.”
“Great.” He glanced down the stairwell. “I’m headed for the cafeteria for lunch. Have you eaten yet?”
“We all went to the Corner. In fact, we were there discussing ways we could help the hospital secure more income so we won’t all have to take a pay cut.”
Heath seemed interested, so Candace showed him the paper outlining Elena’s talking points.
He read over the list, then handed it back to her. “Those are good points to make. If you can get me a copy of that, I’ll make sure everyone in radiology gets one.”
Pleased he’d volunteered to spread the word, she said, “Let me check the Birthing Unit to see if we’ve got any mommies about to pop.” So far it had been a quiet day. She suspected the OB/GYNs were still recovering from their busy pre-Christmas baby boom. “When I get a minute, I’ll make copies and bring them upstairs to you.”
Saying he’d see her later, Heath continued down the stairs and Candace headed to the Birthing Unit. Heath was such a solid, reliable man, she knew he’d be able to persuade his co-workers to get on the bandwagon writing letters.
She frowned as she walked down the corridor as she thought of Brooke. It would be at least another week before Tony returned home and could schedule Brooke for a counseling session.
Seeing Brooke feeling so down was like having a toothache. Candace kept worrying the problem. She couldn’t get it out of her mind.
There wouldn’t be a solution until she got her little girl some help.
Anabelle hurried home after work to be there when Diana arrived. She found Cam restoring the damage the puppy had done to his greenhouse. The puppy didn’t appear to be anywhere around.
“Hi, honey,” she said. “How did your day go?”
He looked up from his kneeling position. “Fine. And yours?”
“It was pretty quiet. We had a couple of heart attacks admitted in the past day or two. Too much excitement and too much food.”
He returned his attention to the bedding soil.
Anabelle got an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The puppy was nowhere in sight.
“How’d you get along with the puppy today?” she asked.
“Fine.”
Generally speaking, Cameron was a bit more articulate than he was demonstrating at the moment.
“Where is he?”
He sat back on his haunches. “In the mudroom. I think he’s sleeping.”
“Oh. I guess that figures. He was awake half the night.” She’d been as well, but she’d had no opportunity to take a nap. “I’ll just go see how he’s doing.”
She went inside via the back door. The puppy raced over to greet her, jumping and spinning around like a top. The mudroom had been totally cleaned out except for his doggy bed and dishes, plus his toys and plenty of newspapers.
Anabelle squatted down on the floor. He leapt into her arms, giving her a considerably warmer welcome than her husband had.
“Hi, sweetie. Glad to see me?”
All wiggle and waggle, the puppy nuzzled up under her chin and licked her face. She couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. She wondered if Cam had paid him any attention at all and feared he hadn’t.
The doorbell rang. Still wearing her jacket and carrying her purse, Anabelle went to greet Diana. But the moment she opened the door into the kitchen, the puppy shot past her. He raced toward the living room.
“Come here, you little scamp!” She hurried after him, but he was much too fast for her and scampered away.
Anabelle reached the door and pulled it open. “Diana, you are just in time. I can’t do a thing with—”
The puppy reappeared, barking and dancing around Diana, leaping against her legs, pawing at her slacks and her sensible shoes.
Diana calmly knelt beside the puppy, holding him firmly. “Sit,” she said in a composed voice.
When he failed to comply, she said sit again and pressed down on his rump. The puppy sat.
“What a good boy!” Diana gave him a little treat.
She stood up. The puppy jumped up as well. “Sit.” He did, and she gave him another treat.
“I am so impressed.” Anabelle beamed at the puppy as though he’d just been awarded first prize in a doggy competition. “How did you do that?”
Closing the door behind her, Diana walked into the living room. “Puppies instinctively want to please their owners. We have to let them know what that is, and let them know repeatedly until the idea is firmly established in their minds.”
“I thought dogs had to be at least six months old before you can train them.”
“Oh no. In fact it’s important they learn the rules right away; the first week is ideal.”
Anabelle blanched at the thought of beginning to train the rambunctious puppy right away.
“Where do you usually keep him?” Diana asked.
“In the mudroom. Cameron cleared everything out today so the puppy couldn’t get into any more mischief.”
Diana followed Anabelle to the mudroom and immediately began the puppy’s training. She went through sit and stay a dozen or more times, never raising her voice and always rewarding the dog with a treat when he—probably accidentally—did as he was told.
To help alleviate his jumping on Anabelle, Diana had her issue the sit and stay commands.
Eventually, Cam’s curiosity got the better of him. He came into the house to watch the action.
“Consistency is extremely important,” Diana said. “Give the command, if he obeys he gets a treat. If not, give the command again.”
“What can we do about his crying at night?” Cam asked. “Ever since she brought him home, Annie has barely gotten any sleep at all. She’s been down here with the dog, keeping him company. She’ll be worn out if that keeps up much longer.”
Pleased that Cam was concerned about her health, Anabelle listened to Diana’s instructions about leaving the puppy alone for short periods of time to get him used to their longer absences.
An exercise in what to chew—and what not to—came next.
Finally, the puppy appeared exhausted from his training. He simply lay down, his head on his paws and looked at the three humans through heavy eyelids.
Diana laughed. “I think we’ve worn out the poor little guy.”
“I’m still not about to let him out in my garden without a leash on him.” Cameron had a bitter edge to his voice, the puppy still unforgiven for his greenhouse episode. “He’d dig up our entire three acres, given half a chance.”
“There’s actually an easy way to stop a dog from digging where he’s not supposed to,” Diana said. “Find a spot where he can’t hurt anything, loosen the soil a bit and hide some of his chew toys in the dirt. He’ll spend days trying to find them even after he’s dug them all up.”
“Really?” With Skipper, exce
pt for getting him housebroken, she had been relatively hands-off as the kids descended on him and made him part of the neighborhood pack.
“Well, maybe when we get a couple of feet of snow, I’ll let him run loose in the yard,” Cameron conceded. “With my supervision. Come spring, though, I’ll give your advice a try.”
“Which reminds me, do you have a name for him yet?” Diana asked.
“I’ve been calling him scamp, but I don’t think that’s a very good name.” She glanced at Cam, who was leaning against the doorjamb.
“He reminds me of a sergeant my dad had in the army in World War II. They stayed in touch for years. The guy had the biggest feet I’d ever seen. Long legs too. Kind of clumsy but likable.” Cam lifted one shoulder. “We could call him Sarge.”
Anabelle’s smile traveled from deep inside, quickly working its way up to her face. “Sarge. I like that. Makes him sound like one of the good guys.” She knelt and petted the puppy. “What do you think, Sarge? Will that work for you?”
He wagged his tail once, then closed his eyes and went to sleep just like a toddler worn out from a day of play.
Best of all, since Cameron had chosen the puppy’s name, Anabelle suspected that would encourage him to bond with Sarge.
Now if she could convince him to do some of the training while she was at work, things between them would go smoothly.
She hoped.
After Diana left, Anabelle went upstairs to change clothes. When she came back downstairs to see to dinner, Cam was in the kitchen setting the table. Sarge trotted in with one of Cam’s slippers in his mouth. He looked up at her, his tail wagging proudly.
“Oh, Sarge, Cam isn’t going to like that.” She reached for the slipper, but Sarge dashed under the kitchen table. “You’re still a little scamp, aren’t you?” She got down on her knees. Sarge scurried out the other side.
“I got him.” Cam scooped up the puppy, took back his slipper and put the dog down again.
“I’m sorry, Cam. He’s certainly fond of your slippers.”
He examined the toe of the slipper, which seemed to have survived intact. This time. “So am I.”
Before Anabelle knew where Sarge had gone off to, he returned with Cam’s matching slipper.
Strength in Numbers Page 12
