Winners

by Danielle Steel

  And then Bill had an idea. “What would you think of a live-in center for spinal cord injury kids, on a high-end scale? Does that sound insane to you?” Bill asked him out of the blue, and Steve looked intrigued.

  “You mean like Craig?”

  “Yes, and no. Same patient base, but younger and not as broad. Only spinal cord injuries, not brain injuries, and not all the hospital-based medical features they offer, and for younger kids, the ones who don’t qualify for Craig now. We wouldn’t hospitalize them during their recovery, but only for rehab. I mean a real inpatient learning center for young kids and adolescents, and maybe kids in their early twenties, entirely geared to them, a major sports program, arts, music, as well as rehab, and everything they need to know about how to reintegrate back into school or college, and find internships in the mainline workforce, everything for kids, only they’d have spinal cord injuries. I want it to have everything a noninjured kid would want, only designed just for them. Craig is geared for slightly older kids and adults, although they do a fantastic tic job, and I like the fact that they add so much fun to it. They have an incredible recreational program. But I would want ours to be only the activities that appeal to kids.”

  “You mean sex and drugs?” Steve quipped, and they both laughed.

  “No, I mean good clean fun. But their kind of fun. Craig has to offer a much broader range to appeal to everyone. I know there are activities there that Lily won’t be interested in, although they offer a lot that she’ll like too. I just want to narrow the focus here and lower the age. They have an incredible family facility too, and that takes a lot of space and real estate, and I don’t want to go there yet. Maybe with the young kids, we can have double rooms where their moms could stay with them, but it would take too much space to set up a family facility like Craig’s. They’ve been at this for forty or fifty years. I don’t want to compete with them, I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t want to. That would be pointless. I want to add some of what they can’t or don’t do, or do less of. And for the right patients, we could just refer them to Craig. And maybe they would want to send really young kids to us, other than for what’s offered at Children’s Hospital here in Denver. We could try to offer something different and more than either facility provides. I don’t know. Joe suggested it, and I thought about it. I got inspired last night. I just wondered what you think of the idea, and what kind of facility it would take.” Bill had no idea, but that wasn’t stopping him now.

  Steve looked intrigued as he mused about it for a minute. It was an extraordinary idea, and he could sense that Bill was the kind of man who could deliver on it and who followed his dreams. The house he lived in, and the career he had had, and his enormous success, were proof of that, more than Steve even knew. Joe knew Bill more intimately and had no doubt that he would follow through if he fell in love with the project. To Bill, the dream was already real.

  In Bill’s mind, it was not unlike a school, where you had younger children, older ones, middle range, high school, and a few college age, and maybe kids like Lily and others mentoring them, to show what you could achieve. They could have a program set up with Craig, where their patients could volunteer with the younger ones to give them hope.

  “You can build anything you need, of course, from scratch,” Steve said thoughtfully. “We can design whatever you want and conceive of. You could get operative a lot faster, though, if we could use an existing structure and adapt it to your needs, rather than building it from the ground up.” And then he thought of something. “Have you ever been out to the La Vie resort?” Bill shook his head. He’d never heard of it, and had no idea what it was. “It was kind of a cool idea. It’s called La Vie, but their motto was ‘La vie est belle.’ Life is beautiful. It was built by a Frenchman. I met him a couple of times. He had a vision of a spa in the States, kind of like something in the Alps. I think he originally thought about building it in Wyoming or Montana but decided on Denver because it was easier to get to.

  “It’s a rambling place, on thirty acres, and he spent a fortune on the structures. There are some gorgeous houses on it, big ones. He was intending for people to just come there and rest for an extended period of time. There was a fabulous spa, an enormous gym, some smaller houses, a good-size office complex that doesn’t look like one. I think he built it to house fifty or sixty guests at a time, and he wanted the spa and sports facilities to be a membership-only setup, like a health club for locals. It was a great idea, kind of nirvana in the mountains. He sank a bundle into it.

  “And then the economy fell apart, here and in France. They closed a few months after they opened. It was really a shame, I loved the idea, and the structures are beautiful. It looks like a private estate. And it was standing empty the last time I heard. I’m not sure, but I think the bank was going to foreclose on it. I don’t know if it has by now. Last I heard he had hung on to it. I don’t know if it changed hands in the meantime or not. I always thought it would make a beautiful home for someone with a lot of adult kids, kind of like a family complex, or one of those art or writing colonies, something like that. Anyway, it’s an amazing place. If it’s right for you, it would be a great start and save you a lot of time. I don’t know who owns it now, but I could find out.” Bill looked mesmerized by what he said.

  “I’d like that very much,” Bill said quietly, and Joe smiled. He could see the wheels of Bill’s mind turning a thousand miles an hour. “Where is it?”

  “About ten miles out of town. I don’t think anyone ever realized it was there. It was a gorgeous piece of land, and it opened and closed so fast, no one ever knew about it. Kind of like Brigadoon. I’ll check it out. If nothing else, it’s a valuable piece of property, with some beautiful houses on it, and at the right price it would be a great investment. It may have been overpriced if he tried to sell it, which may be why it hasn’t sold. I think the French guy got the land fairly cheap at the time, but he spent a fortune on it, with beautifully built structures. It was his dream apparently. It’s a shame it didn’t work out. Bad timing more than anything, I think, although he sank so much into it, I don’t know how he would ever have amortized the investment. People do that sometimes, and get carried away, and then the bottom falls out.”

  Steve had seen that with houses he had designed for people, where they just spent too much on it, and never got their money out when they sold. He tried to keep his clients from doing that, but some people had big dreams, and didn’t have the money to back them up. He knew that wasn’t the case with Bill. “If I remember correctly, the guy who built La Vie had a spa in France, and a hotel in St. Bart’s, so he should have known what he was doing. Maybe it’s different in the States, where a lot of people lost money on investments when the market plunged. I’ll let you know what I hear. And I’ll send the plans over for your remodel in a couple of days. It’s going to be great,” he said with a warm smile. He was sorry to hear about his daughter’s accident, but Bill was doing wonderful things for her, while respecting the look, feel, and quality of the house. There was going to be nothing institutional-looking about it. It wasn’t going to be depressing, just practical for her, and beautiful to look at. Steve was excited about the job, and so was Bill. But Bill was already thinking about what Steve had said about the defunct spa called La Vie. He couldn’t stop himself. As soon as Steve left, Bill called Hank Peterson, a commercial real estate broker he knew, and asked him to check it out.

  He was working at his desk, when the broker called him back two hours later. “Interesting place you found,” he said to Bill. “I don’t know why I never heard of it. It could have a thousand uses. And it’s on a fair amount of land.”

  “Who owns it?”

  “I’m not sure. Apparently the bank was going to foreclose on it a year ago for unpaid mortgage, and the owner came up with the money at the last minute. I don’t know where it stands now. I think the original owner still owns it, although no one’s been there in three years. They closed almost as fast as they opened. I haven�
�t seen it, but someone in my office has and says it’s quite a place. It’s a little off the beaten track, but not that far. Do you want me to check out the status of the ownership?”

  “Yes, I would,” Bill said coolly, not wanting to show too much interest, but his heart was pounding as he listened. He knew this was the right place, for a project he hadn’t even known he wanted to undertake a day before.

  “Do you want to take a ride out to look at it?” Hank suggested.

  “Sure,” Bill said, feigning a calm he didn’t feel. He felt like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams when he hears the voice that says “If you build it, they will come.” He was usually more practical than that, but he felt as though it was destiny that Steve Jansen had told him about La Vie, at this particular moment in time.

  “When do you want to see it?” the broker said casually.

  “I’m free now. If you have some time.”

  “I can meet you there in an hour.” He gave Bill the directions, and Bill went downstairs to find Joe, who was on his computer, writing to his sons, to let them know he was in Denver with Bill. He said he hoped they were well, and he was having a good time. He told them both about Lily’s accident, to explain why he’d come out. One of his sons had written back immediately to say how sorry he was about Lily.

  “Want to go for a ride?” Bill asked him offhandedly. Joe smiled at him—he knew him better than that. Bill had something up his sleeve. He had a look on his face like a cat that was about to pounce.

  “What are you up to?”

  “I want to take a look at that spa Steve talked about this morning. The French guy still owns it. Or the broker thinks he does, he’s not sure. It must be costing him a fortune to service the mortgage. The bank almost foreclosed on it last year. Let’s take a look, before I get too wound up about it.” But they both knew he already was. And there was another call he wanted to make before he went out there.

  “I’ll come with you,” Joe confirmed, as Bill went back to his office.

  He sat down at his desk and called Jessie. He figured she was probably busy with a patient or in surgery, and he was surprised when she came on the line very quickly.

  “Is Lily okay?” She sounded worried.

  “She’s fine, or at least she was when I saw her last night. Thank you for taking my call so quickly.”

  “I thought something might have happened.” Jessie always assumed the worst now, ever since Tim, especially about her kids.

  “A friend of mine suggested something to me last night, and I wanted to talk to you about it.” He went right to the point. He knew that she was busy. “It sounds crazy to talk about, but I can’t get it out of my head. What would you think about a residential rehab center for SCI kids, really young ones, and adolescents, younger than the ones they take at Craig, and with their low age range as our higher age, with very specific focus and everything geared just for them? Not a major medical facility combined with it, like Craig, but just rehab, with everything a kid, teenager, or college age kid could want. Not with all the bells and whistles Craig can offer, that’s a real medical facility, but straight rehab with whatever medical care is needed, but no ICU facilities, for instance. If we needed acute medical care, we could transfer them to Craig or another hospital. This would be pure rehab for kids and young people, state of the art, high tech, with everything we could offer. What do you think? Other than that I’m crazy, I think that’s a given.” He laughed at himself, and she joined him. She was bowled over by everything he had just said.

  “It’s an incredible idea.” And he was right, it didn’t duplicate what Craig was doing or even the local rehab hospital for children. It was just different enough to be interesting, particularly for younger kids, who were much harder to place in rehab. Most rehabs needed to focus on older patients, but there were plenty of younger SCI patients, and even at Lily’s age, some of the programs were too serious for them, in order to have wide appeal to all ages.

  “I’d also like to offer free scholarships to those who need them, can’t afford to pay, or aren’t covered by insurance.” She liked that idea too. There were plenty of people who could not afford extended stays in rehab, or to go at all, if they couldn’t pay or make up the difference, or justify it to their insurance. And facilities like that were expensive. “So what do you think?”

  “I think it would be a remarkable gift to the SCI community if something like that existed. Craig is the best one of its kind we use, and some patients don’t fit their profile, although they’re very reasonable about who they take. I had a nine-year-old patient last year who didn’t work out at the children’s rehab where we sent her, whom we had a terrible time placing. We just couldn’t get the right fit, and something as individualized as you’re describing would be a tremendous asset in treatment planning. Some parents even try to do the rehab themselves. I think what you’re talking about would be a terrific solution. Beyond amazing. Are you really thinking of doing something like that?” She could tell he was, or he wouldn’t have called her.

  “I wanted to know what you think.” He had come to respect her more and more, particularly after his tour of other neurosurgeons with Lily.

  “I think it’s a very ambitious project, because I can’t imagine how you would do it, and it would cost a fortune. But I love the idea.” She sounded excited as she said it.

  “I have friends here whose daughter had juvenile diabetes,” he said. “They built a hospital for her, which is now one of the best diabetes facilities in the country. Sometimes a project like this is what you have to do, or all you can do, if you can’t change what happened.” His voice was filled with emotion, and she understood. But there were very few people who could afford to make such a grand gesture, to include others in the same situation. She suspected that Bill could afford to, and might even have the drive to do it and see it through. He seemed like an incredibly creative and determined person, and she had come to respect him a great deal. He had made a heroic shift in his thinking, once he accepted Lily’s situation.

  “I think what you want to do is admirable,” she said, sounding moved, and somewhat dazzled. It was hard to imagine achieving what he hoped to do, or having the money to do it. But that was the easy part for him.

  “The problem is that I have no idea what I’m doing. All I have is heart and money. We would need expertise in order for this to work. I would want to hire the best doctors and therapists in the country.” And then he asked her a question she didn’t expect. He was full of surprises. “If I do this, would you run it and be the medical director?” She was stunned when he asked the question.

  “I’m a surgeon, not an administrator,” she said honestly. “You could get someone a lot more competent than I am for what you want to do.”

  “You could practice in Denver, and still do surgery in a hospital here. But this would need someone absolutely tops to run it, who really knows what’s needed.” She had to admit she loved the idea, and his excitement about the project, but it was impossible for her.

  “I couldn’t do it to my kids. They’ve already been through so much, losing their father. I couldn’t move them away from here. Besides, they’d kill me. This is their home, they love it here, they grew up in Tahoe. And it’s a good place for them to be and for me to practice.”

  “I had to ask,” Bill said apologetically. “I would have been a fool not to.” And he was no fool. He was one of the smartest men she had ever met. And she loved what he was trying to do. “Will you help me find the right people to run it, if I actually pull this off? Which remains to be seen. Right now it’s just a crazy pipe dream.” But she thought it was a good one.

  “I’ll do my best. I’ll think about it.” She was going to mention it to Ben, her partner. His situation was less complicated than hers, he had no ties except to Kazuko, and no children. And Kazuko might even like to work there. Bill didn’t need a neurosurgeon to run it, although it might have been better. A good orthopedist could work too. But there were other neu
rosurgeons she could suggest. The problem would be finding someone who would be willing to relocate to Denver. She wasn’t, and couldn’t. She was too tied in to Squaw Valley. And even if Tim had been alive, she couldn’t have done it. He loved Lake Tahoe as much as their kids did. He would never have been willing to move, nor would her children, she knew. They all thought Lake Tahoe was the best place on earth.

  “I’ll let you know how I’m doing,” Bill said. “I’m going to see a property this afternoon. This may all come to nothing, but it’s worth a look.” And she knew that building a rehab center for kids was part of his process of acceptance of what had happened to his daughter, just on a much bigger scale than most people could consider or even conceive of. But it was a healthy sign that he was thinking in this direction, even if his project never happened. It was a noble thought.

  “Keep me posted,” she said, and they hung up. She didn’t expect to hear from him again anytime soon, or maybe ever on that project. But she was intrigued by it, and mentioned it to Ben late that afternoon, after she saw her last patient of the day. She told him what Bill had in mind and that he had asked her if she would ever move to Denver and run it, and she had said she couldn’t.

  “That’s some wild idea he has there,” Ben said, looking at her. She seemed so worn out these days, she was burning the candle at both ends, working too hard, and no longer had Tim to share the load with the kids. She looked sad all the time now, and he hated to see it. “He must have more money than anyone on the planet if he’s considering something like that,” Ben said, visibly impressed.