by Ali Vali
There were another two people sharing the room Dianna was in. She looked up when the door opened and found Tyrell filling the opening. Clutched in his right hand was a bouquet of flowers and there was a smile on his face. The other two patients in the room were napping so they never saw the visitor enter and close the privacy curtain around Dianna’s bed.
"I told you to stay away from here until tomorrow night Ty. What if somebody sees you, I don’t want to have to worry about this surgery and you at the same time." She looked around nervously. "I’m just planning to sit here all day and read some of the magazines you bought me yesterday, I’ll be ok Ty."
"Aren’t you even going to thank me for the flowers I brought you woman before you start fussing at me?" Tyrell smiled wide enough that his sister saw his dimples appear. Ever since their father had died in a work related accident when they were young, Tyrell had been looking out for her. Tyrell had done everything within his power to help his mother make sure neither of them ended up like so many others in the inner city. The one blessing that had come from the aftermath of Tyrell’s killing of Dianna’s boyfriend was their mother had died before watching her only son being sentenced to life in the state penitentiary.
"Thank you Ty, now get the heck out of here. And remember that I don’t want to see you until tomorrow night. I promise that I’ll ask Dr. Basantes to call you and let you know how I’m doing." Tyrell stood next to her bed and pointed down to the front of the gown she was wearing.
"What’s that?"
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"Bacon."
"Why is there bacon on your plate?"
"Because I like bacon." Harry tried honesty since she knew nothing else would work. Desi had gotten a hold of her last cholesterol numbers and had become a hound after Harry for her eating habits.
"Get into the shower before you get into any more trouble Harry." Desi pointed toward the bathroom after pulling the plate away from Harry’s reach. "I want you around for a long time honey, that means watching what you put in your mouth." She looked into the twinkling blue eyes just dying to say something, but cut her off before Harry could knock her comment out of the park. "Nothing Harry, you say nothing."
An hour later Harry was dressed and standing back in her kitchen. She had given Roger and Oscar the use of the sunroom to make some calls and found them still working when she walked through. Rachel had decided to spend the morning with Desi and the baby knowing her older sister was going to have a hard time keeping Jack happy with all the noise filtering through the house.
"She didn’t let you eat that bacon did she?" asked Mona.
"Nope, don’t rub it in."
"I’m not going to rub it in hardhead, I’m just going to give you the bran muffin your little muffin bought for you." Mona held up the bag and laughed that much harder when Harry glared at her.
Byron watched her toss the bag in her hand into the passenger side of the SUV and waited to see if Harry was indeed leaving. Not one of the workmen or anyone in the house had noticed him in the yard. The tree that had lost a branch to the roofline had been partially blocking his body and Byron thought it best to just lean against it until the opportunity opened for him to get up the ladder not that far away from him.
Harry noticed the downed limbs littering most of uptown as she drove to the hospital. A call to her service told her that all the tests had been completed on Dianna Lagrie and she would be ready for surgery in the morning. The state had fought her on the MRI she had ordered, but the test confirmed what she thought she might find. Nothing made Harry angrier than doctors who gave less than half of their best because the patient was indigent, and that was what she figured had happened to Dianna.
The first thing Harry saw when she entered the room was the bouquet sitting on the windowsill. Bright wild flowers looked out of place not only because it was cold outside, but also because of the drabness of the room they sat in. "How are you feeling?"
"About the same as the last time you saw me doctor. My world doesn’t change much, just what I get to look at sometimes."
"Well I think we are getting ready to change that for you Ms. Lagrie. I can’t eat bacon, but I’m confident that I can fix what ails you." Dianna looked at the tall doctor trying to decipher the last comment she had said getting Harry to laugh. "My wife won’t let me eat things she thinks are bad for me, so for now, bacon is off my list. I’d offer to share my muffin with you but I moved up your surgery time and we are going to roll in just about an hour. Where’s your brother, I figured he would be hanging around somewhere close?"
"You just missed him," Dianna said in a low whisper. The fact Harry was moving up her surgery probably meant that she had found something worse than she first suspected. "I’m not going to die am I?"
"One day yeah, it happens to all of us, but that’s not going to be today." Harry grinned at her patient. "I just looked at all of your results Dianna, and called to rearrange my schedule at the other hospital. You and I have a date for the rest of the afternoon. Is there something you want before we begin?"
"Could you call Tyrell for me? I promised him I would ask you to do it tomorrow so he won’t get into trouble for coming here." Diana handed Harry the number where Tyrell could be reached before the orderlies came in with a stretcher.
"I’ll take care of it Dianna. Now just relax and I’ll see you down in the theater." Before they transferred Dianna to her gurney to go into surgery, a nurse walked in and handed Harry a syringe. Harry wiped the medication port of Dianna’s I.V. with a swab before she punctured the end with the needle and pushed in the contents. "Just a little something to relax you for the ride downstairs."
The phone on Tyrell’s hip started emitting a low ring as he was taking the stairs to the first floor.
"Yeah?" He didn’t recognize the number and didn’t want to give away to much information about himself before he knew who was calling him. Tyrell listened to what the caller had to say as he quickened his steps.
"When did this happen?" Tyrell stopped walking and listened to what the caller was telling him. This was a definite change in plans. "Don’t worry I’ll be there as soon as I can."
Harry pressed the end button on her phone looking at it with an amused face before scanning to the first number in memory and connecting a new call. "Hey baby."
"Hello good looking, are you on your way to Mercy?" Desi was glad for the respite of noise from the chainsaws timed perfectly with the ringing of the phone.
"No, that’s why I’m calling. I getting ready to take Dianna into surgery and I’m not real sure how long that’s going to take. So don’t worry if I’m a little late getting home today."
"Did something happen that you are going a day early?" Desi put another blanket on the sleeping Jack and moved back toward the sofa to join her sister. They had spent their morning talking and Rachel had offered to fix her sister’s hair.
"No, I just saw the extent of damage the poor woman has and couldn’t see having her suffer another day if she didn’t have to." Harry moved into the elevator and pressed the second floor key. Her staff had taken care to round up her students and by the time she arrived in the surgical suite she used, they would be waiting for her.
"Harry if I didn’t know any better I would have to say that you are the sweetest person alive. Did you eat your muffin?" Desi gripped the phone tighter and smiled at the restraint Harry was showing.
"Yes I did, and we will have a long talk about that when I get home. If I’m that sweet then I should be allowed to eat bacon."
"Harry I refuse to have this conversation with you again. Get your cholesterol level under 220 and then we’ll talk. Have a good day honey and do good."
"Thanks sweetheart, I’ll try my best." Harry slipped the phone into her lab coat and hung it in her locker. Dianna was stretched out on the operating on her stomach trying to relax and let the medicine they had given her do its job. There was some soft music playing in the roo
m and she found herself humming along.
The hand on the back of Dianna’s head made her want to try and turn her head to see who it was. "Don’t worry it’s just me, Dr. Harry. How are you feeling?"
"I’m confident that you are going to fix me doctor. Ty wouldn’t have done all he did if he didn’t believe in you. If I haven’t said it before, thank you for doing this for me." Dianna finally did relax feeling the warm hand on her that would be responsible for taking away her pain.
"That’s why we are here. What is your favorite kind of music Ms. Lagrie?" The anesthesiologist started his job as Diana was thinking of an answer for Harry’s question. Her limbs felt so heavy and her mind couldn’t focus on the name of any songs much less a type of music. "That’s ok, how about some easy listening today?" Once the music started playing again Harry got to work.
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With precise cuts they got the largest problem area clear so that they could start the cleanup in earnest. Pointing to the newly exposed area their teacher decided to ask for opinions and diagnosis of the damage. "What would you do?" The teacher pointed to the first student to the right.
"I would cut away and start from the untouched part."
"What would you use to patch?"
"The old stuff looks like cypress so that’s what I would use on the new section we need to build. It will take it a while before it hardens to the point of the rest of this stuff, but it will give it the same stability the roof line has had for over a hundred years is my guess." Quint had been an apprentice with Stephen for over four years and had counted himself lucky to learn from the master carpenter.
"Good work Quint. The reason the whole structure didn’t come down in last night’s storm was because of the materials the original builders used. Cypress gets hard as cement as it ages and is the only thing dense enough that our little termite friends find unappetizing. Call the lumber yard and tell them I’ll be down in two hours with the order." Stephen pulled out his tape measure now that the massive oak limb had been reduced to firewood and the extent of the hole was evident. They would cut away at the splintered wood like Quint had suggested and start at a place where the seams would cause no future leakage.
Down below them one man watched the activity in and around the attic while another watched him closer to the fence. Each waited for something to happen to make their move. Mike was closer to Desi’s studio and when he wasn’t watching his brother by the large oak tree, he was watching the windows in the kitchen to see if there was any activity in the house. The only one he had witnessed moving around on the main floor was a black woman who looked like she was cooking a meal.
As the afternoon progressed the sky became more and more overcast, driving the temperature down even further. There was no more rain but there was a dampness in the air that made being outside miserable. Byron got to the point that he couldn’t really feel his feet and fingertips, but was loath to move now that the inside of the house was becoming more defined from his vantage point. At a little after six in the afternoon the hole in the roof was closed and the workmen started packing their equipment. There was still plenty of work ahead of them before the job would be complete, but at least there was a barrier between the upstairs ceilings and the elements.
Byron stood leaning against the tree trying to figure out how he was now going to get into the house when the object of all his planning walked into the kitchen with Rachel in tow. His sister-in-law was carrying a bundle against her shoulder and she was running her hand along its length in a methodical fashion. He focused so much of his attention on watching her and Desi that he forgot the cold and the smoky breath that was coming out of his mouth in shorter spurts.
Desi looked so different to him and to Mike, who wasn’t that far behind him. Her hair was lighter and shorter, her body looked fuller and she couldn’t seem to stop laughing at whatever the maid and Rachel were saying. Byron was mesmerized as his wife took the bundle from Rachel and unwrapped the blanket covering her son. From where he was standing it looked like a large baby with big hands that he was waving at his mother.
"I know what you want big guy, just hold on. Rachel would you please fix me a glass of water while I give Jack his dinner?" Rachel moved to get her sister some water unaware of being watched. With her back to the window Desi unbuttoned her blouse and lowered the flap on one side of her bra. Jack latched on with a small whimper and started feeding with his mother running a gentle finger along his head. "You look so much like Harry it’s amazing to me." Desi ran her finger through black hair that she was sure would start to curl eventually and then dropped her hand to pick up one of his smaller ones. "Do you think Harry’s hands looked like this when she was his age?"
Mona looked up from the pots she had going on the stove and answered Desi’s question. "I didn’t know Harry at this age, but to hear Maria tell it this little sucker is the spitting image of a certain doctor we all know and love. She told me once when I was screaming at the troublemaker for taking apart the vacuum cleaner, that Raul took one look at her hands when he first held her and declared they would work miracles. Damn if he wasn’t right." Mona tapped the spoon she had been stirring the pot with along its rim and turned the fire down. The fact Harry wasn’t home for all these feedings made her heart heavy sometimes. Her old friend would miss a couple of Jack’s firsts, but she was confident they wouldn’t be many.
"What happened to your vacuum cleaner Mona?" asked Rachel.
"She was seven at the time I think and after she apologized to me, she put it back together. There were six screws left over when she was done, but I swear the thing worked better without them. I kept them in a box that I still have in a drawer upstairs somewhere. Sort of a memento to show her whenever that little boy there gets into trouble one day." Mona pointed to Jack who was getting a little drowsy after his initial feeding frenzy. Desi ran her finger along his cheek to get his attention focused back on his meal.
"Not yet little man, you have to finish, if not you’ll be hungry again in an hour." Desi got him eating again and looked back at Mona with a crease in her brow. "If she was seven, why keep them all this time? There was no way you could predict the future."
"Desiree Basantes I don’t need a crystal ball to tell me the future. Harry was never going to end up alone without a family. It wasn’t in her nature."
"What’s Harry’s nature Mona?" Mona’s smile after her question made Desi tear up from the emotion of it. She knew that Maria had given birth to Harry, but Desi always figured that the one person that knew her partner the best, besides her, was the wise woman standing in her usual place cooking dinner. This is the one person in the world Harry had told all her secrets and desires to and knew them to be safe.
"That is a complicated and easy question to answer. As a doctor it is to heal what she can and make bearable what she can’t. That’s the hardest part for me to answer because I don’t always understand what’s she talking about when it comes to that. The easy part is the three of you and the rest of her family. Harry’s nature is to love those who are fortunate enough to share her life. You two are her family along with that baby and she will love you forever." Mona smiled at her again and went back to her pots.
"And she’ll be mine forever." Byron muttered to the wind outside as he watched Desi switch the baby to the other side after Rachel had burped him. He was close enough to hear the phone ring and watched as Rachel answered it. Whoever was calling had her laughing within moments after she picked up the receiver and when she handed the phone to Desi he knew who it was.
"When will you be home?"
"Give me an hour then I’ll be walking through the door. I’m just waiting for my patient to wake up then I can be on my way. What’s happening with the house?" Harry was working on a stack of patient files as she talked with Desi. Dianna’s surgery had lasted over seven hours and Harry’s eyes had gotten fatigued by the end. The delicate sutures she had put in had required
the use of optical enhancements and looking into the eyepieces for that long always did that to her.
"It’s no longer raining in the attic and Stephen says it will take about two weeks before we are back to normal. That’s because once the roof and attic are done the ceilings in rooms over that part of the house will need replastering and painting. The good news is that since they held the water and didn’t leak, the floors don’t have to be redone."
"How did you do with all that hammering today?"
"I did fine, Jack on the other hand gotten thrown off his schedule a bit, but again Stephen says it won’t be that bad from here on out. I have a surprise for you when you get home." The break in the suction on her breast let her know that Jack was done and Desi handed him back to Rachel while she got her clothes back in order.
"What?"
"Harry if I tell you it won’t be a surprise. Call it an incentive for you to come home earlier. How did Dianna make out?"
"Poor woman, after getting an eyeful of what the damage was, no wonder she was in pain. There was so much scar tissue pressing on the nerve endings in her back, no amount of painkillers was ever going to do the trick. It was a bitch but I’ll be willing to bet she’ll be feeling much better when the swelling goes down in a couple of weeks."
"How did her brother take the news?"
"That’s the funniest part of all this." Harry leaned back in the chair in one of the dictation rooms forgetting about the files for the moment.
"What do you mean? He didn’t threaten you again, did he?" Desi was about to cross her arms over her chest when she remembered it wasn’t the most pleasant of feelings and chose to mimic Harry’s pose on the other end without knowing it.
"No, I have never been able to get in touch with him. I called him a couple of times before we started and just got a busy signal. Maybe when I get home I’ll try him again. It just seems funny to me since the guy is always so concerned about his sister and now that she needs him the most, the guy pulls a disappearing act on her. Think Roger and Oscar caught up with him?" A nurse from recovery tapped on the door before going in. Seeing that Harry was on the phone she waited to deliver her message.
