by Dianne Drake
December
“IT’S going to be all right,” Anna said, pushing back the little girl’s blond bangs. She’d sustained major injuries—both legs broken and repaired by surgery, both arms broken, too, but healing nicely. A serious fall on the ice, and now she was ready to begin the long road back.
“Can I see Dr Mitch?” she asked. “Please?”
“In a few minutes.” The kids liked Mitch. He always had candy in his pockets for them. It was often part of the therapy, making them reach in for it, or even unwrapping it. For little Kelly that was quite a way off, but she never got slighted. No one did in Mitch’s rehab hospital. Their rehab hospital.
“Do you have some candy?” Kelly asked, none too shyly.
Anna smiled. “Nope. That’s not my job.”
Administrative nurse was her job and it still had a strange ring to it. Sure, she didn’t get to do as much patient care as she would have liked, as she was still limited physically. Up on crutches a lot more, and still in her chair, too. Maybe the way her life would work out, or maybe just a passing phase on an even longer road to more recovery. No promises, but with Mitch, no fears either.
“So, what have my two favorite girls been up to?” Mitch asked, stepping into the room.
“I wanted some candy, but your wife doesn’t have any,” Kelly said, her eyes focused on Mitch’s goody pocket. “She never does.”
Mitch bent to give Anna a kiss on the cheek, and at the same time he fished a small candy bar out of his pocket. “You like chocolate, Kelly?”
Her eyes lit up. Everybody’s eyes lit up when Mitch came into the room, including Anna’s. He was in his element here, a place where he belonged. And he was happy. Anna was, too. Working with her husband, plus being a nurse again. It didn’t get any better than that.
“Can I have it?” the girl squealed. “Please, Dr Mitch?”
“Sure you can have it, but you’ve got to reach for it.” He held the candy above Kelly, made her reach up to take it. She struggled to lift her arm, encased in a cast, but once she got it into the air Mitch unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. “Good girl. When you’re done, I have one more piece just for you, but you’ve got to use your other arm to get it.”
“You never bribed me with candy,” Anna said outside in the hall, pushing the wheels of her chair as hard as she could to keep up with him. These days he didn’t coddle her. She either kept up or got left behind. And most of the time she kept up.
“I bribed you with Ralphie, remember? Had to pay five hundred bucks to get that dog for you, and now you’re telling me a little bit of candy would have worked?”
“No, but this would have.” Grabbing hold of his hand, Anna stopped Mitch long enough to pull him down and give him a kiss on the lips. A kiss and a promise of more to come…later. After Izzy and her dad ducked in for a quick goodbye on their way to the next protest rally, wherever that was. Later…and these days that was very, very good. Definitely no disabilities in their bedroom.
“Can I try something like that on my next patient?”
“If you ever try that with anybody but me, you’ll be the one needing this chair.” Still holding hands, Anna and Mitch entered their next patient’s room together.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5817-7
NURSE IN RECOVERY
First North American Publication 2005
Copyright © 2005 by Dianne Despain
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