Gregory

by Dale Mayer

  She was lovely as always. Inside and out.

  Unlike him. He stared down at his broken body and shook his head, then maneuvered himself to the edge of the bed, and, with his crutches, he slowly made his way to the bathroom, albeit very shakily. When he was done, he was done in more ways than one. As much as he wanted to go to the cafeteria under his own steam, he would have to use the wheelchair tonight. Back out of the bathroom again, he slowly made his way to the wheelchair, clumsily collapsing into it.

  Catching his breath, he carefully laid the crutches across the bed. One of the biggest challenges was having what he needed available when he wanted it. Like his crutches. He needed to have them on hand, and invariably they were just out of reach. He would see about getting a sling to carry them on the back of his wheelchair or whatever was the current update for that. He wouldn’t need either for long. At least not full-time. He had high hopes for a prosthetic and knew that was possible here at Hathaway House.

  Finally, he wheeled his way slowly to the doorway of his room and looked around the corner, and there she was, walking toward him.

  A smile lit up her face. “Hungry?”

  Gregory didn’t answer immediately. He sank back into his chair, realizing that, for the first time in a very long time, he might actually get through this. Meaning, reconnecting with her and getting his body as healed as was possible. He smiled back at her. “Absolutely. I’m starved.”

  With that, he slowly turned the wheelchair down the hallway, hoping she wouldn’t offer him any assistance. There were only so many dents to his pride that a man could take. But she walked at his side quite comfortably as he slowly maneuvered his chair. He appreciated her slower pace, so that he wasn’t pushed into rushing. He didn’t think he could handle that right now. Then again, she was probably used to being around people like him. She dealt with broken men all the time.

  Chapter 3

  As far as Meredith was concerned, this was one of the strangest feelings she’d had. It was as if not only had time had disappeared so that they were once again walking together but also had disappeared in a way that neither was acknowledging.

  They hadn’t left on the best of circumstances, and yet, they were also not meeting in the best of circumstances, and they were both ignoring the great big span of time between those two emotion-filled points. Inside, she didn’t quite know what to say or how to act, so, as donning the mantle of professionalism, she gave him information regarding the Hathaway House cafeteria as they walked along. “If ever you’re hungry outside of normal mealtimes,” she said, “you can contact Dennis at any time. There’s also always coffee and muffins and tea and hot water. … Things like that are available all hours too. And there’s a big refrigerator full of juices and dairy products, if you can eat dairy.”

  “Good to know,” he said, his tone noncommittal.

  She slid a glance his way, but his gaze busily darted around in all directions but hers. When she noted that, she sighed. “You should be very comfortable here,” she said suddenly. “A lot of people are here for similar conditions, a lot of people at various stages of rehab, … various stages of healing. Most of them have quite the story, but they’re all here with one thought in mind, and that’s to get better and to go home.”

  He nodded but didn’t add to that.

  Sensing the same yawning uncomfortableness between them, Meredith didn’t want to walk any faster because he was in his wheelchair. Still, the doors to the cafeteria couldn’t come fast enough. “These doors are almost always open. If you see them closed, they are automatic. So, as soon as you put pressure on this”—she stood on the sensor—“they will open.”

  “That’s convenient,” he responded.

  “When you consider we have people in all states of mobility, it’s pretty necessary.” When they got to the large area, she said, “There’s seating inside and outside. Where would you like to go?”

  He pointed to the far back corner, out on the deck. “Depending on how hot the sun is, I wouldn’t mind some sunlight,” Gregory said. “After being in rehab for so long, that’s in short supply. I’m probably completely vitamin D deficient,” he joked.

  “That sounds good then. Do you need a hand at the cafeteria end?” She tapped his shoulder to point to the other side, and he immediately changed direction.

  “I think I can manage. It’s similar to what I’ve had to maneuver through before,” he said.

  Meredith smiled.

  “But hopefully the food here is much better.”

  She didn’t make a comment on that, but she knew that was often a complaint about various centers from the people who transferred in to Hathaway House.

  As soon as he got up to the front of the line and saw the food selections, his eyebrows shot up. “Well, it looks good.” He breathed in deeply. “And it smells wonderful.”

  She got him a tray off the stack and then smiled at Dennis behind the counter. “Dennis, this is Gregory,” she said. “He’s a new arrival.”

  “One of several, I hear.” Dennis gave a big smile to Gregory and said, “Welcome to Hathaway House. What kind of food do you like?”

  “Well, meat and potatoes would work nicely,” Gregory joked, smiling up at the big face behind the buffet-style offerings from the kitchen.

  Dennis returned his smile. “We’ve got lots of that here. Chicken, roast beef, fish. … What’s your choice?”

  “Roast beef,” he said. “Does it come with gravy and mashed potatoes?”

  “It certainly can,” Dennis said. “Do you want green vegetables of any kind?”

  Meredith saw Gregory scrunching his nose, like he was obviously contemplating saying no, so she nudged him gently. “Remember. You’re here to heal.”

  Gregory shot her a half-sulky, half-annoyed look, making Dennis laugh heartily.

  “How about a side salad?” Dennis offered.

  “Not a whole lot of nutrients in a small side salad,” Meredith chipped in, totally unfazed by Gregory’s look.

  Very quickly Gregory had a large plate of food in front of him—and, yes, he had steamed green vegetables too. Meredith came behind him, holding her dinner tray. He could see that she had chicken with steamed vegetables and a salad on the side. As they made their way to the other side of the room, Meredith spoke. “You can have coffee now, or you can come back for it later.”

  “How busy does it get?” he asked, looking around.

  “At the wrong time, very busy.” She laughed. “We have hundreds of patients and staff here. It’s a pretty busy corner of our world. There are lots and lots of seating, but still, the seats will fill rather quickly if we come at rush time.”

  He nodded. “It doesn’t look too bad right now, so maybe I’ll risk the coffee a little bit later.” With the tray on his lap, he wheeled outside ever-so-slowly, trying to navigate through the tables full of people. He didn’t recognize anybody; they all seemed to be seated with friends or staff. Lots of laughter and conversations floated around him.

  He made his way to the far side of the deck, where he found an empty table out in the sun. He sat here for a moment with his face up and then realized that he hadn’t really asked her if she was eating with him. He turned around, searching for her, and, not seeing her, his heart sank before he saw that she’d stopped to talk to somebody. And, with a wave goodbye, she looked up, saw him waiting for her, nodded and walked toward him.

  His own anxiety had brought on that sense of rejection. She should reject him. It would be the right thing to do. After all, he’d rejected her and everything she stood for.

  Then she’d done the same thing to him.

  He busied himself moving chairs and getting his wheelchair up to the table and then removed everything from his tray. There was just something about cafeteria-style dining that he hated. He always took his food off the tray, even if it was more work to clean up afterward. It seemed more like a real dining room and not an institutionalized cafeteria if he did it this way.

  He sat here,
unrolling his cutlery from his cloth napkin, and realized he should have got some water. Glancing back, he noticed it was by the coffee, large glasses poured already. He frowned, considering whether he should make the trip, when Meredith arrived, placed her tray down and said, “I’m going to get water. Do you want a glass?”

  “I was just wondering if it was worth making the trip for.”

  “I’ll grab you one,” she said and disappeared again.

  He should have sat on the other side of the table, so he could look at the people, but he would much rather sit on this side by the railing, where he could look at the acres of green grass and the animals dotting the landscape.

  It was a stunning location, plus having the vet down below was beyond interesting. From what Gregory had seen, the animals were a lovely addition, and he knew his own myriad emotions and his heartbeat had calmed considerably when he had met Chickie. And he’d met Thomas the cat but had yet to see Helga—he thought that was her name, but he wasn’t sure. A Newfoundlander dog would be hard to miss.

  As he stared out across the meadow, waiting for Meredith before he dug in, he saw something black wandering along the fence line. When Meredith returned, giving him a glass of water, he motioned to the fence and said, “Would that be Helga?”

  She looked over the rail, nodded and said, “Yes, indeed, it is.”

  “Do they get to run around on their own like that?”

  “They do. The grounds are fenced, so, once they’re on that side of it, they can’t leave the property, but there are miles of open fields for them to run in and romp around,” she admitted. “Still, they’re all very attached to their people.”

  Gregory laughed at that. “I’d love to make a trip downstairs and see the rest of the clinic.”

  “You will. You just arrived, so give it time.”

  “Do I need permission to go down there?”

  “No,” she said. “Not really. We just need to allow for a little bit of time to make it happen. Overtaxing yourself at the outset is the worst thing you can do. And it happens all too often with new arrivals.”

  “Right,” he said. “I’ve been told that before.”

  “Still as stubborn as ever, I presume,” she said in a teasing voice.

  He shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “Guilty as charged.”

  “Well, your team will work on that. Stubbornness is good sometimes. … It’s just not good all the time.”

  “It’s what got me here,” he said quietly. “I didn’t think I’d ever make it this far.”

  “Well, I’m glad you were wrong,” she said with a gentle smile. “We’ve seen many success stories here. Some conditions get completely turned around in the end. Just because a doctor says something will happen doesn’t mean that’s what ends up happening. Miracles can and do happen all the time.”

  “I’m starting to realize that.” Gregory stared at her long enough to make her feel uncomfortable, then looked at his food and said, “If this tastes as good as it looks, that’s a miracle right here.”

  At that, she laughed out loud. “Our kitchen’s one of the best. We all enjoy the food here. We are constantly complaining about getting fat.”

  He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t seen anybody fat yet.”

  “No, it’s not exactly something we encourage, among the staff or the patients,” she said. “We do tailor an exercise program when needed, and, if we have to, we can curtail a patient’s diet, but we try not to.”

  “Of course. Most of the people who you have here were active servicemen at some time, weren’t they?”

  “Yes,” she said, “but, on occasion, exceptions have been made to accept civilians as well. Dani has a wide network, and sometimes people call in favors to see if they can get friends and family in, and almost always she does what she can to accommodate them.”

  “How do you stay active?”

  “I like to jog,” she admitted. “And I spend a fair bit of time in the pool, usually in the evenings though.”

  “Does it get busy?” Gregory stared around the railing, down at the far side below, where the pool was, but he couldn’t quite see it from where he sat.

  “No,” she replied. “To accommodate the number of people we can have here at any given time, it is a big pool, but not very many people around the place seem to have an interest in it. Or at least not at any one time, a fact I’ve always appreciated.”

  “Of course,” Gregory agreed as he tackled his dinner with gusto, stopping about one-third of the way through before speaking again. “Wow, this is really good food.”

  “It is, isn’t it?”

  He nodded and then, knowing that he was still dancing around their own issues, asked, “How long have you been here?”

  “A few years,” she said noncommittally.

  He nodded. “So what did you do when I left?”

  She took her time answering. “I went back to work at the same job, but I was struggling, and I desperately wanted a change of scenery, something to help me heal.”

  Just then Dani walked up to them and interrupted the conversation. She smiled down at Gregory. “Looks like you’re settling in just fine.” She motioned at his very full plate.

  “Dennis was very generous,” Gregory said, smiling.

  “Dennis runs a tight ship. And he’s been here since forever and thoroughly enjoys his work and the people.”

  “It shows,” Gregory admitted. “It’s nice to see someone who truly enjoys his work.”

  “Well, the potatoes are real,” she said, laughing, “and the desserts are really made from scratch, so, whenever you’re done with round one, feel free to go get round two.” She winked at Meredith and left.

  Chapter 4

  Meredith appreciated the break in the conversation. She wasn’t ready to get into their history, and she was in no way ready to get into their future. She motioned at his plate. “Are you likely to eat more?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Hard to say. … I’ve got rather a lot here. But that’s not the same thing as dessert.”

  “Right, dessert is a back-tummy thing.”

  He chuckled. “Absolutely. Besides, you know I’ve always had a sweet tooth.”

  At that, she stopped and then shrugged. “Well, the person I knew a few years ago is different from the person I’m with right now,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t remember that you had a sweet tooth.” Immediately after she said that, the conversation froze again. When somebody called her name from the far side, she looked over to see Stan walking toward her.

  “Here comes the vet,” she said, “so, if you want to ask any questions about downstairs, this is your opportunity.” She looked at Gregory to see the frustration on his face. Good, that’s how she felt inside too. She didn’t know if he felt that way because they were always being interrupted or because they weren’t ready to have a conversation on their history. She didn’t really know that she wanted to have that conversation either.

  Everything about his reappearance in her life was just so much out of the blue that she found it confusing. He had arrived in her world years ago and had taken up every moment of her time, and then she’d ended up losing him almost as fast. Now she was stuck wondering if she even wanted to open any doors again.

  But she needed to be friendly. Professionally speaking. For his sake and her own. It was also very important for his healing, and, although she had a hard time with his decision back then, she was as much to blame as he was, and she supposed they did need to clear the air. Otherwise, it would be hard for both of them to move on.

  But it was all happening so fast that she wasn’t having any chance to reassess or to consider the implications of his presence now.

  He was a good person, … a really good person, but, if he wasn’t for her, she would be fine with that. At least she had been fine all these years in his absence. Professionally, she wanted to make sure he got back on his feet, but personally, she wanted to see him move forward as a happy, h
ealthy, well-adjusted male, entering a new stage of his life.

  Then maybe she could too.

  She wanted to think that she had nothing to still deal with in regard to their relationship, but she knew that there was. As it stood, she was determined to be as much of a pro as she could possibly be, to do what she needed to do to help him heal and to stay friendly but to not get involved.

  Now, if only she could trust her heart to follow through with her plan.

  “What’s with the serious thoughts?” Stan asked as he arrived, a big smile on his face.

  She looked up at him, gave him a half a smile and said, “Stan, meet Gregory. He’s a new arrival.”

  Gregory reached up to shake his hand only to see that he had something small and rust-colored in his arms. “And who is that?” he asked in delight.

  Stan chuckled. “This is Morgan. He’s got some long ridiculous pedigree name.” Stan smiled. “But this little guy has abandonment issues right now. His mom was supposed to be here to pick him up a couple hours ago, and she got a flat tire and is delayed, so, if he’s in his cage, he hollers and whines and breaks my heart. Therefore, I’m wandering around, introducing him to everybody.”

  Immediately Gregory reached out to pet the little rust-colored Maltese. “He’s adorable.”

  “And not really appropriate to bring around food, what with all his long hair,” Stan said. “I came to grab a coffee, and I was going to take him outside for a bit, but then I saw lovely Meredith here, and I know how much she loves puppies.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything that wears fur that I don’t love,” Meredith confessed, pushing her empty plate back and adjusting her chair slightly. “May I hold him?”