by Renee Carr
Figuring that the mashed potatoes were probably the safest, I picked up my fork, ready to eat. Just then, the door creaked open and Libby, dressed in regular clothes, backed into the room as if she were sneaking back into her parents’ house past curfew. She looked absolutely beautiful, dressed in a button-down, pink, flowered dress, with flats. Her long hair was pulled back on each side with small curls that cascaded into the rest of her hair. Her cheeks were rosy and her lips were painted a light pink. She looked like an angel, and if I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought it was my time.
She wrinkled her nose when she looked at me. “The thought of letting you dine on another absolutely horrendous dinner eventually caved me. I can be cruel, but I don’t think I could ever be that cruel.”
I scooted over in the bed and pushed the tray to the side using the controls to lift up the back so I could sit up straight. “If I had known you were coming, I would have put on something a little bit fancier. As it is, you get hospital gown number 43. I can’t promise that no one has died in this hospital gown before me.”
With a giggle, she pulled a chair up and the table over between us. “It’s okay, they wash them.”
We both laughed as she lifted a bag of food up on the table and began to pull things out of it. “I figured if I was going to have to eat with you, I was not going to share your hospital food. I stopped at one of the local restaurants that I like the most. I hope you like fried chicken and real mashed potatoes. I also got some gravy and biscuits and some green beans. It was always my father’s favorite place to eat.”
It smelled great, but the company was even better. I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant about her father, but from the look of sadness in her eyes, I decided not to ask. I knew if she wanted to tell me, she would tell me in her own time. After putting the food on the plates in front of both of us, she took a deep breath. “Now, tell me about yourself, Christian. Beyond living in a little house and owning your shop, what goes on in your life?”
My eyes went wide. “Well, aren’t you in for a story.”
We both chuckled. She took a bite of her mashed potatoes. “I like stories. They make the time go by. Without them you never really know someone, right?”
“Well, I was born and raised just a little bit from here, by my father and my mother, and my two little brothers came along shortly after.” I began telling her my story.
I told her about my mother, a solemn moment, and then turned to stories of my brothers and me out in the woods, growing up and being ridiculous. We laughed and laughed, so loud at one point that one of the nurses came in to check that I was okay. It looked like it was a friend of Libby’s and she just winked at Libby and left the room. As Libby talked about herself, I couldn’t help but think about how perfectly this girl fit into my life. Her nerves had calmed and she talked with enthusiasm and excitement.
“…yeah, so you can imagine just how excited my father was to find the Jell-O outside and a pack of crazy squirrels all around me,” she said with a loud laugh, telling her story.
Bellowing gleefully, she reached over and put her hand on mine. When our skin touched, it was like fireworks and we both quieted, staring at each other once again. Quickly, I put my hand on hers, keeping her from pulling away. I didn’t want her to go, but by the time we were done, I was feeling very worn out and sore again. She could tell without me even saying anything. Her lip pouted out and she squeezed my hand, rubbing her thumb back and forth across the top of it.
No matter how tired I was, I would have stayed awake forever if it meant she wouldn’t leave that spot. But she knew better, and her smile turned to a pout. I let go of her soft hand and she quickly packed up the rest of the food and ducked out to the nurses’ station. When she came back, she had some medicine to help me sleep. “Get some sleep, and I will be in first thing in the morning. I had a lovely evening with you. Thank you for the fancy black-tie affair.”
As the medicine began to hit me, my eyes opened and shut, trying to keep her in my vision as long as I could. “It was my pleasure. I look forward to seeing you for breakfast.”
There was something inside of me, something that surged through my whole body telling me to stay close to her. It was almost like a voice in my head. And even as I drifted off into dreams, I could see her there with me, visions of her calming everything in my body. I didn’t know whether it was emotions, or something telling me that she was exactly where I needed to be.
8
Libby
“Have any of the tests come back any different from yesterday?” I asked the doctor, just getting in for my morning shift. “I know that he’s dying to go home, and I don’t blame him.”
The doctor sighed and handed me the chart. He shook his head. “I wish I had better news. I know that staying here isn’t exactly what he wants, but he needs to at least be close to here and unfortunately, he doesn’t have any relatives or family here to take care of him. He would need to be watched most of the time just in case he has another seizure. We need to know that he’s better, or we need to figure out what’s wrong with his system before we can release him.”
I thought about it for a moment. “What about Galena? They have a hospital there. What if we were to give them all the information about what happened and give all of the tests over to them?”
The doctor shook his head again. “I wish, but unfortunately they don’t have the ability to research his ailments in Galena. So, he would need to be close to this facility. They just aren’t equipped for things like that out there, just as we barely are. I’ve even considered sending him to a larger city so that he would have more options. But in reality, between the tests we sent out and the tests we did in-house, there’s not many more options for him. We have all the main testing equipment that he would need to have major tests run on him, so there’s not much more a bigger hospital could do except pay less attention to his needs.”
I don’t know what came over me, I don’t know whether it was desperation or something else, but the words just kind of rolled out of my mouth. “You know, I do have a guest house behind my mother’s home. If he was wanting to get out of here, but we wanted to keep him close, I would be more than happy to put him up in the guest house. I know that we need the beds here, and I know that having him here is going to get pretty expensive after a while.”
After the words had vomited out of me, I was almost terrified to look at the doctor. To my surprise, he didn’t seem to really think it strange at all. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders. “I think that would be all right, if you check on him regularly, and bring him in here at any sign of distress. You can take home some of the monitoring systems that we keep here for transferring patients. They have a wireless connection and you’d be able to monitor his heartbeat, and other stats, from inside your mother’s house. That way you wouldn’t have to be right there with him at all times.”
I smiled, holding back the excitement because I didn’t want the doctor to think strangely of me. “I’m sure this will make him very happy. I will go let him know it’s an option and see what he thinks.”
Trying to act as nonchalant as possible, I walked toward his room and opened up the door, almost skipping inside. I closed the door quietly behind me, not knowing whether he was sleeping or not, at least until I heard his voice. “She sneaks into my room, right before breakfast. It’s like you could read my mind.”
I smiled and turned toward him. His reactions were definitely growing on me. In fact, I started to look forward to them. “I think I found an out for you. The doctor has agreed that if you come and stay in the guest house behind my mother’s home, and wear your monitoring system so that I can keep track of your stats, then he will be okay with you leaving the hospital, at least until we figure out what’s wrong with you.”
He lifted his eyebrows, and then began to waggle them up and down. “I knew you would find a way to take me home.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him, walking over and opening the cabi
net. “Would you like me to prepare your things?”
He had a grin on his face, and I could tell that he was happy about this, but then again, so was I. “Thank you. This is really awesome of you. You really don’t have to bring me home to your own private place. That kind of goes above and beyond.”
I shrugged my shoulders, trying to be nonchalant like him. “We tend to go above and beyond here. You can thank me later.”
We had some friendly banter back and forth as I packed his things and then helped him get dressed. His skin was incredibly warm, but when I took his temperature just to make sure, it seemed to be sitting in the normal range. It was strange how hot he felt to the touch. Then again, I couldn’t be sure that maybe it wasn’t my temperature rising as I was attempting to help him into his clothes.
Once everything was packed up and I had acquired the equipment to take him home, I wheeled him out to my car parked out front. He was a little bit weaker than I think he anticipated, so I helped him into the front seat. As I helped him in, I noticed just how tall he was, and how if I were to hug him, my face would sit right on his upper chest. It was almost inviting, but I stopped myself. Reaching across, I buckled his belt in, pausing just inches from his face. I didn’t look at him, but I could feel his warm breath trickling down my neck. I gave in for a moment, keeping my hand on the seatbelt and closing my eyes as his nose touched my cheek.
The sound of an ambulance pulling in made me jump, and I hit my head on the ceiling. Wrinkling my nose and rubbing my head, I pulled back out of the car, feeling more embarrassed than anything. He winced and then laughed. “She’s beautiful and graceful. The silver lining to this terrible situation.”
I quickly folded up the wheelchair and moved to the back of the car before he could see my entire face go red. Putting the wheelchair in the trunk, I glanced through at him sitting in the front seat of my car. I felt relieved, comforted by the idea that I could take care him, be there for him at all times. I didn’t understand it, but I wanted to do everything I could to keep him healthy and safe.
Closing the trunk of the car, I took a deep breath to center myself and hopped in the front seat. I only lived a few minutes away from the hospital, or my mother did, so it didn’t take us long to get there. I had called my mother and let her know what I was doing, and she was excited to have someone stay on the grounds. She thought it was very kind of me to offer the opportunity for him. When we got there, I pulled out the wheelchair and wheeled him into the house. My mother was waiting with a smile on her face.
When I introduced them, I hadn’t thought about the fact that I might want to warn him that she was in a wheelchair, but he didn’t skip a beat and didn’t even seem to notice that she was wheelchair-bound. He had impeccable manners, and either he really didn’t notice the difference, or he was just that good at being a decent human being. Either way, he warmed my heart. Especially when he started to joke around with my mother and complimented her on all the flowers that were cut, sitting around the house in vases.
“If you need anything, you let me or her know,” my mother said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone here that I could baby. My daughter over here likes to act tough.”
Christian laughed. “She does like to act tough, doesn’t she? Well, I think she’s a bit softer than we all like to give her credit for. But that’s a good thing.”
My mother winked at him. “That is a good thing. Feel better and I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other soon. “
As I pushed Christian toward the door, he gave my mother the thumbs-up. “I hope so, because I would love to try that lemon meringue pie you just told me about. It sounds absolutely delicious.”
It was like music to my mother’s ears. I knew that the first thing she would do the next day would be baking a lemon meringue pie. I didn’t mind, though—it was a motivation for her that I hadn’t seen in a while, and I liked to see her happy.
When we got over to the guest house, I was glad that we had implemented a wheelchair ramp for my mother. I wasn’t sure if he would’ve been able to carry himself up all those stairs; he was quite a bit bigger than I was.
“This is a beautiful guest house,” he said as he looked around, sitting in his wheelchair. “You really don’t have to do all this for me. I can make the bed.”
I spread the blanket out across the bed and smiled. “It’s all right. Besides, I don’t need you falling on the first day that you’re here. It’s just the blanket that needs to go on top. I keep this house pretty tidy because I sleep here quite often. It’s just easier when I have things to do with my mother.”
As I walked toward the door, he put out his hand and touched my arm. “Are you leaving?”
I nodded my head, feeling completely frozen by his touch. I turned my hand over and took his into mine, looking down at the bruises left by the IVs. He pulled me closer, until my thighs touched his knees and my eyes had nowhere else to look but into his. It took everything in me to get my words to come out. “I have to go fix dinner. My mother hasn’t always been in a wheelchair, and I have to take care of her. Well, I don’t have to take care her, that sounds terrible. I take care of her because I love her.”
He nodded his head as he listened to me, and even though I hadn’t told him the whole story yet, he never really asked questions. I liked that about him. He let me tell him things at my own pace. He bit his lip as if he wanted to ask me something.
I was still clinging to his hand, and lifted my brow with a half-grin. “Go ahead, what do you want to ask me?”
He smiled. “Do you think that maybe I could eat with the two of you? I’ve been by myself for a while now and I think it would help my morale if I had someone I could talk to.”
I thought about it for a second and bit my bottom lip, nodding almost excitedly. “Sure, I don’t see why not. I’m pretty sure you’re not contagious, and there’s no reason for you to eat by yourself. Besides, I’m positive my mother’s in love with you at this point.”
He chuckled as I turned him around and we headed back out of the guest house for the main one. There was a feeling of disappointment in my chest, and all because I had to let go of his hand. “I’ve always been good with other people, especially older people.”
I wheeled him back in and set him at the table with my mother. She was ecstatic to see he was coming to eat with us. I went to work in the kitchen, cooking, leaning my head over and watching them at the table talking about the different flowers. I couldn’t help the warm feeling rising in my chest. It was absolutely adorable how he interacted with her. He was gentle and patient with her, but he talked to her as if she were anyone else. That was one thing my mother had always hated, that when she was in her wheelchair, people often talked to her as if she were a child. That was not something he did.
We all ate dinner together, and it was really nice. My mom talked about the gardens and about me as a child playing in them. She managed to stay away from almost every embarrassing story that she had on me. All throughout dinner, Christian and I exchanged glances. At first, they were playful, then sweet, and eventually, just as we finished dessert, they turned lustful. It had been a very long time since a man had looked at me with desire, and it was the first time I had returned the look.
Afterward, I began to clear the dishes. “I’ll take you back over to the house before I do the dishes. That way you can get comfortable.”
He wheeled himself over next to me at the sink. “Nope. Hand me a towel and I’ll do the drying. I’m not eating and then not helping to clean up.”
I looked back over my shoulder as my mother wheeled herself out the door. She turned around and winked at me with a smile. We went to work cleaning dishes. As he dried them, he stacked them carefully on the counter. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
I glanced down at him. I was actually relieved that he wanted to ask me questions. Before, I wasn’t sure if his lack of curiosity was because he wasn’t interested, or because he was just a good guy. From the look
s, the hand-holding, and his nose softly nudging my cheek earlier, I was pretty sure he was a good guy… a good guy that was very interested in me. “No, not at all.”
“What exactly happened with your father?” he asked.
I shrugged. “We really don’t know. He went fishing, just like he always did; everything was fine as it always was. He and my mother were madly in love, and we had no family problems. And then… he just disappeared. We looked for him for months—the police looked, friends looked, everyone looked. But he was just gone. It was just a couple of days later after the search ended that my mother ended up in that accident and was wheelchair-bound. Everything’s been really hard on her, so I make sure that I’m always here to help. As far as my father is concerned, the situation is just so mysterious to us. To everyone else, it seems like he just got up and left, but that would never happen. My father would never just get up and leave us like that.”
As I handed down a dish, our hands brushed against each other. There was a spark between us, and there was no way that I could deny that. He was an absolutely amazing man, and he was so supportive, listening intently to me. I pulled my hand back up with a smile, but as I did, he abruptly released the dish and it smashed against the floor. He crumpled over, holding his stomach. I immediately dropped down to eye level and began looking him over.
“Are you all right?”
He nodded his head, putting his hand up. “I think I’ve just done too much today. And look what I did. I broke one of your plates.”
I shook my head and began to pick up the pieces of the shattered dish on the ground. “It’s really not a big deal. I break these plates all the time. Did you notice how my mother didn’t even come in to see if I was okay? Let’s get you back over to the house, and see if we can’t get you to feel better. You’ve been sitting up far more than you normally do.”
He nodded his head, lifting his shoulders back. “I think maybe that’s the best idea.”
