by Dale Mayer
“And probably we could leave him overnight in the yard he just came out of,” Stan said.
She nodded and said, “Maybe, but I feel better having him inside. I’ll meet you in a few minutes at the pool.” And she headed off to her on-site apartment. She smiled at the thought. She had been very lucky to land this job and even more so to have free room and board added in as huge perks on top of her generous salary.
Nothing like a swim at the end of the long day, especially in a place like this. She couldn’t wait until her brother arrived. And maybe, just maybe, they could move past all the problems that they had themselves. They would definitely have more time together to work through those. And face-to-face. That had to be better, right?
After all, nobody here was problem-free, including her.
Iain sat on the bed, almost in too much pain to even hear the words from the owner-manager of the place. Dani reached out and in a firm voice said, “Lie back down again.” He looked at her, wanting to glare at the woman, but he didn’t have the strength. She just gave him a clipped shake of her head. He eased back down and closed his eyes, feeling the trembling running throughout his body. That was never a good sign. Of course he knew what it meant. You’ve overdone it. Again. You’ve got to learn to ask for help.
“I understand that you came by truck,” she said, “and I get that. You’re not the first one. You won’t be the last one either, no matter how we try to talk you military guys out of this. But I can tell you that it sets you back at least a day or two. Maybe more. That’s for your doctors and your PT specialist to determine. Now, if you just relax and don’t do a whole lot for the next couple days, we should be able to minimize the damage.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. “I just couldn’t stomach the idea of arriving by ambulance.”
“I get it,” she said softly. “I do.”
And, from her tone, he believed her. He smiled. “You’ve seen everything, haven’t you?”
“Well, I think so,” she said cheerfully. “And then somebody does something that surprises me.” She handed him an Apple tablet and, pointing, said, “Besides your mandated bed rest, for the remainder of today, you’ll need to go over paperwork, and your team and others will come in here to visit and to talk with you. Your schedule is in the tablet too. But I’ll start first with one of your doctors and some pain meds.”
“I still have a few,” he said. “They’re in my pocket. I can take those now and then later, when the doctor has a chance to assess my condition.”
“That’s fine,” she said, “as long as they are standard-issue.”
He grinned. “Yes.” He pulled them out of his pocket, shifting with a little bit of awkwardness. “This is all they are.” And he handed her the medicine bottle.
She looked at him, studied the label, opened the bottle, checked that the inside matched the outside, and nodded. “Okay. I’ll get you some water,” she said, walking into his en suite bathroom. When she returned and watched him take two of his pills, she added, “I’ll go get your doctor now.” As she walked to the doorway, she turned. “In the meantime, take a look at what I’ve given you.”
As she walked out, he flicked through the tablet, amazed at the technological level at which they were operating, but he realized, of course, it was necessary in today’s day and age. His body was still on fire, but the fact that he was in a bed had taken the pressure off his spine, and the rest of him was holding. He kept telling himself that he had a strong back, but he kept putting it under so much physical strain and stress that he wondered if his back was still strong enough.
He looked at the data regarding the members of his medical team and who had been assigned to him, but none of the names meant anything to him. He had a doctor, two nurses, a therapist, and a psychologist. At that, he frowned.
Dani walked back in and asked, “What’s the frown for?”
“Psychologist?”
“Everyone here sees a psychologist,” she said. “Him or her, we have two on staff.”
He looked up at Dani. “And how often?” He hated how that little bit of suspicion was evident in the back of his voice, but, of all the medical professionals Iain didn’t trust, they had to be at the top of the list. Something was just so off-putting about knowing that people were trying to read something into or glean something from every word he said, and that made him not want to say anything.
She smiled. “We’ll start with once every couple days, until the doc has a chance to assess your condition. Then it’ll ease back to once a week, maybe once every couple weeks,” she said cheerfully. “As long as you’re making progress, as in you’re doing well emotionally, as in you’re stable and sound, then there’s no reason to suspect you need more than that.”
He winced. “You’ll really put me through it, won’t you?”
“I so am,” she said. “Remember. You came here for the whole package, not a partial job.”
“And if I want to change my mind?”
She laughed, and he knew that she hadn’t taken him seriously.
“I get that,” she said, “and I understand. But that time’s past. It’s a whole different story though, now that you’re actually here.”
“I guess,” he said, giving in. “It’s just weird to think of anybody poking around in my brain.”
“No, that’s the brain surgeon,” she said. “These guys poke around in your mind.”
He just glared at her, and she laughed. “Now I’ve already given you the rules, and I’ve told you all about how the system works. It’s after five, but you are not coming down to the cafeteria for dinner tonight,” she said.
His frown deepened. “And yet I’m hungry,” he said, worried he’d miss dinner.
“Good,” she said. “I will take it upon myself to see what’s for dinner. I’ll come back and give you an idea of the choices, so you can tell me what you want.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Don’t you have better things to do than look after me?”
She stopped midway to the door. She turned and looked at him and said in a very calm, quiet voice, “I have nothing better to do than to look after you and every other patient in this building.” And, on that note, she walked out the doorway.
He laid here in bed, listening to her as she walked down the hallway, her strides casual yet determined. He realized then what was unique about being here. He’d never felt like he’d mattered to anybody else in any of the other centers he’d been to. He had always been just a number, and every number meant more money to the institution.
Obviously it meant more money here too, but he never had that same heartfelt reaction, that sense of belonging, or that the sense of being someone who mattered. He took a long, slow breath and let it out. Then he picked up his phone and sent Bruce a message. Thanks again for bringing me here, he texted. I can’t go to dinner myself, but they’ll bring me something, and I’ve been put on bed rest to recover from my travels.
Bruce answered almost immediately but this time with a phone call. “Are you okay?” Bruce asked. “I didn’t want to leave you there, but it seemed like I was in the way.”
“You couldn’t stay at that point, but you do get to come back, if you’re around and available for a visit,” he said.
“I’ll do that,” he said. “You know I’m gone for the next ten days anyway. But after that …”
“Hopefully after that, I’ll have moved on and forgotten that lovely drive. Especially that pothole,” he said with a short laugh.
“You would be the one to remind me of that,” Bruce said with a chuckle.
“Well, I just wanted to say thank you again,” Iain said. “I know you’ve got to get home and to get ready for your trip, but I wanted you to know that I’m fine.”
“That’s all right,” he said. “We’re living and breathing change right now for both of us.”
“Exactly.” Iain knew his friend had just separated from his wife and was still trying to patch things up. They were doing a trip
to sort things out and to see if they could make it work. “Good luck on your trip. You know I wish you the best.”
“Yeah,” Bruce said. “You know I care about you too, buddy. You continue to do the best you can, and I’ll be there for you.” And he hung up.
Caught up with emotions, he wanted to send Bruce’s wife a message and tell her what a great guy she had, if she’d only smarten up and find a way to figure that out. Then Iain realized it wasn’t his job. No matter how much Bruce might have told him, his wife hadn’t told her side of the story. And it just wasn’t Iain’s place. He really liked Laura too. But it was up to them to work it out, not Iain.
Just then he heard footsteps nearing his door. Dani walked in, a piece of paper in her hand. She held it out and said, “We’ll try and get the cafeteria guys to post the menus online sometime soon. It would save trips like this.”
“Trips like this?” He reached for the piece of paper and smiled. “Seriously, you’re having a Mexican night?”
“For those who like Mexican food, but other options are offered as well.”
“I love Mexican food. And, if you’ve got enchiladas, I would be happy to have some.”
“You’ll need your plate one-quarter full of vegetables too,” she said. “We don’t chintz in the food department, and we expect nutrition to be a high priority.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I love vegetables,” he said mildly. “So either a plate of hot vegetables or a big salad on the side would be fine.”
“When you say big …?”
He smiled, held up his hands in a circle, like for a midsize bowl, and said, “I don’t know how much I can eat after that trip, but I am hungry, and it seems like I could use a good-size bowl.”
“Good. I’ll send Dennis down in a little bit when he catches a break at the line,” she said. “He’ll introduce himself. He runs the cafeteria. So, anything you want, you can have.”
“Perfect,” he said in surprise. He settled back against the bed, just happy to have his muscles relaxing a little bit.
“And one of your medical doctors will be in fairly quickly,” she said. “He wants to check you over and see how those muscle relaxants are working.” As she stopped in the doorway, she smiled at someone down the hallway and said, “Dr. Burgess is here now.”
Iain could feel himself tensing before the older gray-haired man in a white lab coat stepped in. But his smile and friendliness were sincere and caring. At that, Iain relaxed, knowing that, although he might be in trouble for pushing his body too far today, he didn’t think Dr. Burgess would interrogate him.
Chapter 3
Several days later, the man she’d seen arrive crossed Robin’s path again. She was walking around the ground floor with one of the big new cats in her arms. This one was missing a leg, but his temperament was being tried out as a therapy cat. The staff had found that having the formerly injured animals around gave the human patients in the facility additional hope and that they would bond in some way, furthering their rehab efforts.
So, this was Max. He had a patch of fur missing off his hip that had refused to grow back, but apparently he was doing much better. He was mobile—a little too mobile to be let loose right now—and happy, and, as soon as you even looked at him, that diesel engine of his kicked in. She was going from room to room, asking the human patients on the floor above the vet clinic if they wanted to say hi. She hadn’t met anyone saying no yet. Even those with that initial stay away from me vibe instantly broke into a big grin, their walls completely down. It was amazing to watch, each and every time.
As she approached the next room, the door was open, so she stuck her head in and said, “Hey.”
A man looked up, and she was surprised to see who it was. The new arrival she had seen. She smiled and said, “I have Max here, if you’d like to say hello.”
He looked at her in surprise, then at the cat in her arms. “Wow,” he said, “can you actually carry that thing?”
“He is on the heavier side of twenty pounds,” she said, “so part of his rehab includes losing weight.” She walked in, held Max out, then placed him gently on the bed.
The patient looked at her—held his gaze there for quite a while—smiled, and said, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.” He reached out a hand. “I’m Iain. I arrived a few days ago.”
She nodded. “I’m Robin. I’m one of the vet techs downstairs.”
He grinned. “Well, that explains why I haven’t seen you.” He reached down to pet Max. “Wow, look at this guy.” Max immediately walked up his chest and butted him in the head. Iain chuckled. He wrapped his arms around the cat and said, “The advantage of a cat being this big is you can really hug them,” and he held Max close for a moment, just letting his face rest against the big cat’s head. Max took it for a long time. “His temperament is beautiful,” he muttered.
She smiled and reached down to pat Max. “We’re testing him out as a possible therapy cat,” she murmured.
He looked at her with interest.
She shrugged. “We work with a society in town, and they work with animals that can go to children’s wards in hospitals and also to visit with terminal patients—difficult cases where anything like this might put a smile on their faces.”
“I love hearing that,” he said warmly.
She studied him, her smile growing bigger. “Besides, Max put a smile on your face, didn’t he?”
He winced. “Yeah. … Did it look like I wasn’t too happy with life when you first came in?”
“Not so much,” she said. “But it’s obvious you’re not lying here relaxed and comfortable.”
He looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged. “I deal with animals all the time. Humans are just bigger animals.”
“That’s the truth,” he said. “Sometimes we’re easy to deal with, and sometimes we’re not.”
“The same for all animals,” she said.
Max, not liking to be ignored, immediately head-butted Iain again. He chuckled and scratched the big guy under his chin. “He looks like a tabby with those big rings, but he’s so much larger.”
“We’re not exactly sure what other breed is in Max,” she said, “but his previous owners had him declawed, and that’s not a good idea when around other animals and, of course, never when outside. They have no way to defend themselves if they are attacked.”
“Well, as a therapy cat,” he said, “it would probably be okay.”
“Well, for the moment, I’m mostly carrying him around, or he would get away from me really quick,” she said. “I’ll have to get him used to a harness though, for that kind of therapy work.”
“That should be fun,” he said, laughing. “Anytime anybody needs a chuckle, you should grab a group of us and put the harness on Max in front of us all, so we can watch this guy get out of it in two seconds flat.”
She grinned, loving his humor. “Are you settling in okay?”
The smile fell off his face, and he nodded. “Yeah. I had a rough arrival,” he said.
“You’re not the only one to say that,” she said. Max stood up and walked down to the end of the bed, sprawling down where Iain’s left leg ended. She walked over to him, picked him up in her arms, and said, “I’ll take him to visit somebody else now.” She walked to the door and smiled at Iain. “Take it easy.”
“You too,” he said with a lingering smile.
Iain was incredibly surprised by the visit but was also heartened by it. Robin, … well, she radiated warmth. A special kind that he was not used to. And Max? He laughed at the thought. Robin and Max’s visit highlighted how different Hathaway House was. Yet again. One of the things that he missed in his life was not having pets. He’d been raised in a family with lots of kids and lots of animals. Only his human family remained, but nobody knew how to deal with him right now. He’d given them the same joker personality treatment, but they’d already known that was the fake Iain, and so he’d avoided them at all costs, since they
kept asking him questions he would rather not answer. He should have taken a picture of Max to send to them, as they would have understood Iain’s joy in seeing and holding a pet again.
Only they would have also seen that he was in bed still, with a sheet over his legs. Leg, he kept reminding himself. He had one, the whole right leg now. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that he had one leg and that he should be grateful to have that. How it had been touch-and-go and how he could have lost that one too. Something he didn’t really want to focus on. For that matter, he had to be grateful that he had like 75 percent of his left leg.
As he relaxed here, he looked up to see Shane, standing at the doorway, studying him for a long moment. Of course they had met on his first day here, but Iain’s full medical team soon found out he was in no shape to start his recommended PT rehab plan. Not yet. And he wouldn’t recover in two days’ time either, despite what Dani had said initially. That may have worked with the others before Iain, but he had really done a number on himself this time.
Shane asked, “So, on a scale of one to ten, how’s the body?”
“Three.”
“Right. That trip of yours caused some inflammation and swelling on your spine,” he said. “Plus the leg joint is not too happy. I was thinking about the pool or hot tub to ease the swelling a bit. What’s your preference?”
“Either would be great,” Iain said instantly. “I figured the pool and the hot tub were rewards for after I’d done some hard work, not after a mistake like this.”
“I think just getting you down there and getting you mobile in the water, where we can get some of the joints moving without any weight on them, would be a good place to start,” he said. “Do you have swimming trunks?”
With dismay, Iain shook his head. “No, I don’t. I didn’t really consider the pool as an option for me.”
