Not My Solution

by T. E. Killian

  “When can I see him?”

  The nurse looked at her wristwatch. “The surgery should be over about now, and he’ll be in recovery for an hour. He won’t wake up for probably thirty minutes so you can go up there and wait until they will let you in.”

  The nurse left them, and Nicole pulled a tissue from her bag and wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked up at the sheriff and realized he hadn’t told her anything about what had happened.

  “What happened Sheriff? How did Nick get shot?”

  “Floyd.”

  She nodded and motioned for him to answer.

  “Well, your brother was apparently out in your backyard to get some fresh air and when he turned to go back in the house, one shot was fired. And as the nurse said, the bullet hit the door facing first then went into his right side.”

  “Do you know who did it?”

  He shook his head. “No, not yet. We think the shot was fired from the alley behind your house. There were some fresh footprints there by your trash receptacle but no brass.”

  “Thank you, Floyd, for coming to get me and bringing me here. I need to call my parents now and tell them.”

  “If you’ll be all right here by yourself, I need to get back out there and see if they’ve found anything else.”

  He handed her his card. “When you’re ready to go back to the school to get your van just call me. Okay?”

  “Yes. Thank you, Floyd.”

  He left and there was nothing else she could do but call her parents. She dreaded it. She looked at her watch, four o’clock. Her mom was probably at some sort of function and wouldn’t answer her cell phone. That left her dad. He always had his cell phone with him and on. He’d answer no matter where he was.

  Then she remembered she didn’t have a phone she could use. Now what? She was even there without her van.

  She was about to despair when she looked toward the entrance and saw Roger coming through the automatic doors. Great.

  * * *

  Roger had no trouble finding Nicole. Unlike the rest of the people in the waiting room, she had her own chair and probably didn’t even realize she was sitting in the middle of the room away from all chairs. But she saw him, and he could tell she had something to say to him as soon as he got to her.

  So, he stopped in front of her and leaned over so she could talk without raising her voice which he was sure she didn’t want to do.

  “Roger, I’m so glad you’re here. Floyd brought me here in his patrol car and I need to get home to call my parents on my Captioned Phone.”

  “I’ll be glad to do that Nicole, but don’t you think your parents would want to know sooner than that?”

  “Yes, but …”

  “Why don’t I call them, and you can relay your message to them through me?”

  She seemed to think about that for a moment then reluctantly nodded her head. He could tell she didn’t really want to do it that way.

  “Okay.”

  She called off the number for him and he punched it into his cell phone.

  “That is my dad’s cell phone and I need to tell you a little about him before you call him.”

  She looked away then back at him. “He’s the president of a rather large investment firm that he founded in Kansas City. He’s used to telling everyone else what to do and I’m sure he will give you a hard time.”

  She seemed to be thinking again.

  “Tell him you are my attorney and you’re calling because I’m not near my special phone. Then tell him that Nick has been hurt and that I will tell you and you’ll be passing it on to him.”

  He smiled at her. “Sounds easy enough.”

  She laughed. “I don’t think you’ll be saying that when you finish talking to him.”

  “Okay, I’ve been warned. Are you ready?”

  She nodded her head with her eyes focused on his mouth as usual.

  He punched the call button and waited. The phone rang three times before a gruff voice answered. “William Fuller.”

  “Yes sir, this is Roger McCracken I am your daughter Nicole’s attorney, and she wanted me to call you since she’s not near her special phone to talk to you herself.”

  “Well, what does she want?”

  “Nicole wanted me to inform you sir that your son Nick has been injured but will be fine.”

  “Roger, tell him …”

  He held up his hand as her dad was yelling at him through the phone. “Tell her we’ll be there in four hours. Is the hospital in that hick town?”

  Roger already didn’t like the man. “Yes, sir, it is. It’s on the west side of town as you come in.”

  “Tell my daughter we’ll be there in four hours.”

  With that he hung up.

  Roger turned back to Nicole. “I’m afraid he didn’t want to hear any more. He said to tell you they would be here in four hours.”

  “Oh drat! That’s what I was afraid of. Do you think I could stay with your parents for a few days?”

  He laughed then realized she was serious and stopped. “Are you serious?”

  She frowned and nodded. “I’m afraid I am. I don’t really get along with my parents.” She shook her head. “No, I try my best to get along with them. I think it’s more accurate to say they don’t get along with me. They second guess everything I ever do and they’re always trying to tell me what to do and where to go. They forget that I’m thirty-one years old not fifteen.”

  Roger didn’t know what to say to that tirade. He’d never seen Nicole get emotional about anything before. And after listening to her dad cussing and yelling on the phone, he tended to believe she was not exaggerating at all.

  “I’m sure my mom would take you in without a second thought.”

  She waved a hand through the air between them. “No, even though I would dearly love to do that, I can’t. It would only make matters worse. It would also cause Nick to fight with them to defend me. No. He doesn’t need to know any of this.”

  Just then, a tall nurse in scrubs came over to where they were and spoke to Nicole who wasn’t looking at her.

  Roger touched her arm to get her attention then he spoke to the nurse. “She can’t hear you, but she reads lips.”

  The nurse seemed to take that into stride and stepped around and leaned over Nicole. “Miss Fuller, your brother is awake now and you may go see him for a few minutes.”

  Nicole looked up at Roger. “Will you go with me? Please?”

  Roger felt uncomfortable going with her, but he didn’t hesitate. “Sure. We’ll get there faster if I push you.”

  He didn’t make a move until she finally looked up at him and nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  They followed the nurse to an elevator. She turned around and made sure Nicole was looking at her. “Take this elevator to the third floor and turn left when you get off. Recovery will be a short way down on your right.”

  With that, she left them, and Roger didn’t know what to say so he stayed quiet until they got off the elevator and he had pushed her to a desk on the right.

  A small woman in street clothes looked up at them and spoke directly to Nicole. “You must be Nicole Fuller. Your brother is just in there, third cubicle on the right.”

  Roger kept pushing until they were outside the curtained off cubicle.

  “Would you like for me to wait out here?”

  He forgot to let her see his face before talking. So, he stopped the wheelchair and stepped around in front of her and repeated his question.

  She seemed to be indecisive for a moment.

  * * *

  Nicole was indecisive for one of the few times in years. Then she realized that the reason she’d asked Roger to come upstairs with her was that she didn’t want to be alone. Wow! What a revelation. She’d been alone almost all the time since she graduated from high school thirteen years ago. Why was it suddenly bothering her now?

  She thought she knew, and it had a lot to do with the man standing in front of her. He made her want
things she’d never had, things she thought she’d never have. Not now! She would have to think all that through later, alone.

  “No, Roger. If you don’t mind, I would like for you to go in with me. You’ve already met Nick.”

  She reached out and parted the curtain and Roger pushed her through the opening. There lay Nick stretched out on his left side facing them, but his eyes were closed. Now what? Should she wake him or not?

  He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “Hey Laine. Are you okay?”

  “Me? Why wouldn’t I be okay? You’re the one who was shot. How are you?”

  He kept grinning at her. “I feel fuzzy right now. They said my side will hurt later but right now, I feel no pain.”

  His grin got sillier, if that was possible. Then he saw Roger. “Hey lawyer man. How you doing? You helping my sis?”

  Before Roger could answer, Nick’s grin disappeared. He looked down at Nicole. “What’s he doing here?”

  “Nick, you know he’s a friend of mine and he’s helping me out right now.”

  “Oh. Okay … I guess.”

  “Dad said he and Mom would be here in four hours.”

  “No! Call him back and tell him you don’t want them to come here. I don’t want them here.”

  She shook her head. “Too late. You know how Dad is once he decides to do something. Nothing can stop him, not even Mom.”

  Nick blew out a noisy sigh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But I’m not hurt that bad. They wouldn’t have even done surgery on me if the bullet hadn’t stayed in my side.”

  It was quiet for a moment then he seemed to think of something. “What did they tell you?”

  “Just that the bullet ricocheted off the door facing and hit you.”

  A nurse stepped in to check his monitors and turned to them. “You need to let him rest now for at least an hour. He’ll be in room 278 which is on the south end of this floor.”

  Nicole reached down to grab her wheels but felt her chair moving backward and realized Roger was still pushing her.

  Once they were out in the hallway, Roger leaned over her again. “Why don’t I take you to your van, so you’ll have that here?”

  “Yes, thank you Roger.”

  She thought about the man pushing her chair as they took the elevator down and then on out to the parking lot. He seemed to be turning up every time she needed help of any kind. How could that be? Could he actually be interested in her, a wheelchair bound deaf person?

  Chapter Eight

  After taking Nicole to the high school to get her van, Roger didn’t know what to do with the rest of his day, or evening since it was already dark. He decided to stop at a fast-food restaurant and grab some tacos to eat when he got home but Floyd called first.

  “Hey Roger. Where are you?”

  “I just left the high school and was planning to stop and get some tacos for supper.”

  “That can wait. I just saw Robertson go into Earl’s place. He met that teacher who accused Nicole of stealing school money and they went in together. Now they’re sitting at a table with a man I’ve never seen before. Why don’t you come over here and see if you know him?”

  “Okay. I’m not far from there right now.”

  When Roger walked into the bar five minutes later, he saw Floyd immediately and was relieved to see he was wearing jeans and a jacket over a t-shirt. Even without a tie, Roger was overdressed for the crowd which sometimes got a little rough.

  He slid onto the barstool next to Floyd and waited for his brother to turn toward him.

  “They’re at a table toward the back.”

  Roger looked where Floyd indicated and saw Robertson right away. He also remembered the Chadwick woman. He then took a good look at the man sitting with them.

  The guy was average size with brown hair that was cut short, almost like a military cut. Then as Roger watched him, he noticed the way the guy sat and moved. Military all right and probably a Marine.

  He finally turned back to Floyd. “I’ve never seen him before, but I’d be willing to bet he’s a Jarhead.”

  Floyd laughed but not his normal loud, booming laugh. Roger was sure he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Floyd motioned for the waitress to come over to them. When she did, Floyd pulled back his jacket to reveal his badge then read her name off her name tag. “Kelly. I want you to do me a great big favor okay?”

  She nodded tentatively and Roger felt sorry for her. She was visibly shaken by Floyd’s presence.

  “I would like for you to go to that table back in the back where two men and a woman are sitting.”

  She looked where he was looking and nodded her head again.

  “They’ve all just finished a round so I want you to get their empties and make sure you keep the young guy’s beer bottle separate from the rest and bring it to me. Would you do that for me please? It will be a big help for me.”

  She nodded again and headed for the table right away. The poor girl hadn’t uttered a word. She had to be frightened of the big sheriff.

  Less than a minute later, the waitress came back toward them but went behind the bar and placed the glasses from Robertson and Chadwick in the sink but brought the bottle over to them and set it on the counter in front of Floyd like she was serving him a beer. Good.

  “Thank you, Kelly. I sure appreciate it.” He tossed a twenty on the bar and turned to Roger. “I think we’re done here for tonight.”

  He took a napkin off the bar, picked up the beer bottle and placed it in his jacket pocket.

  Then he headed out the door with Roger close behind him. He didn’t stop until he reached his Cherokee. When he did, he turned to face Roger.

  “I’m sure glad I was in this instead of my Tahoe and in civvies to boot. It’s also a good thing this is cold weather, and the cold bottle didn’t sweat the way it would have in the summer. The lab boys ought to get some good prints off this thing. And if we’re right and the guy is or ever was a Jarhead, then his prints will be on record.”

  Roger didn’t know what to say to that, so he waited for Floyd to say more.

  “Well, I need to get home to my family.” He grinned. “You don’t know how good it feels to be able to say that.”

  Yes, Roger did know. In fact, he was feeling more and more at a loss because he couldn’t say that too.

  He stood there for a few minutes after Floyd left, just staring into the darkness where his taillights had disappeared.

  Finally, he slowly made his way over to his car and as he approached it, he decided that he was either going to get a pickup or a jeep tomorrow. That car had never really been big enough for him. He almost bumped his head on the ceiling, and he knew that wasn’t good in an accident.

  Well, at least he’d made one major decision today. Now, on to the tacos.

  * * *

  Figuring she had time, Nicole went home and fed Snowball then forced herself to eat some leftovers she had in the refrigerator. She wasn’t really hungry but knew she needed to eat.

  Curiosity drew her to the patio door where Nick had been shot. There was a gap in the door facing where the bullet must have hit before it ricocheted into Nick’s side. It frightened her to realize how close he had come to being killed.

  Then it hit her that she was probably the one they wanted to shoot.

  As soon as she could, she was back in her van headed for the hospital. All the way there, she kept thinking about how close Nick had come to being killed and the fact that it could have been her too.

  When she wheeled her chair into Nick’s room, the head of his bed was up, and he seemed to be watching something on TV. As soon as he saw her, he grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.

  “Hey Laine, did you bring me some real food? They won’t let me eat anything solid yet.”

  “No. But, I thought they said the bullet didn’t hit anything vital?”

  He laughed. “They did at first, but they said wh
en they got in there, they had to sew up a tiny tear in my intestines and they don’t want anything solid going through there yet.”

  He pointed at a Styrofoam cup on the swing around table. “They let me have some ice cream a little while ago and it was great, but I want a big greasy cheeseburger with the works on it.”

  She laughed. “Well, I’m glad to see that the rest of you is back to normal.”

  “Yeah, right. What’s normal?”

  “I guess you have a point there. I don’t think either one of us has ever been normal.”

  They laughed together, and it brought tears to Nicole’s eyes thinking they might not have still been together to be able to laugh.

  Nick sobered up first and gave her a look she knew meant something big was coming so she leaned back in her chair to get a better look at his face and especially his mouth. She didn’t want to miss anything important.

  “Remember the other day when I said I had enough income off my investments to retire?”

  She laughed thinking he wasn’t serious again. “Yes, I remember but don’t you also remember that I said you’re too young to retire. You’d go crazy with nothing to do.”

  He held up a hand like a stop sign. “Hold on a minute and let me get all my thoughts out at once then we’ll talk about them.”

  “Okay.”

  She crossed her arms and waited.

  He blew out a sigh. “Well, you may also recall you asked me how I could work for Dad all these years.”

  He didn’t wait for an answer this time. “Well, I’ve been thinking about both of those things and I decided that I don’t want to work for Dad anymore especially since I don’t really have to depend on a high-paying job.”

  “Nick, are you saying …?”

  Just then they were interrupted as the door banged open and William Fuller burst into the room with his usual steamroller flair.

  He stopped at the foot of the bed and Janice Fuller almost literally flew in and landed on the side of Nick’s bed. Fortunately, it was on the opposite side from his wound. She grabbed his face in her hands and smothered him in kisses.