Prairie laughed knowing she was partially right—at least the part about having a bad day. “Gwen, if you knew this pain-in-the-ass you’d know she won’t lift a finger to help herself, and will lay there all night if she has to—until someone else comes along to do it for her.” Prairie’s tone quickly changed from lighthearted to serious. “I just had to show her I’m not going to take her shit anymore, and I’m not willing to lose my reputation over her, y’know?” She stabbed an innocent potato wedge with her fork and immediately devoured it.
“Sure, but just leaving her there—”
“Sometimes I just have to get tough with my patients, Gwen,” Prairie interrupted with her mouth full. “It’s reality, and I usually don’t mess around with them more than a few sessions before I put my foot down. That’s one of the reasons I think I’ve been so successful—I don’t mess around,” she emphasized. “The other reason, I think, is that I truly care about my patients.”
“And that’s probably why you have such a great reputation, honey.” Gwen began to systematically fill in the little squares and triangles with tiny little hatch marks. “Of course, that’s before you stranded a helpless cripple,” she teased.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I do have a great reputation which is why I got her. I was specifically requested by her base commander, for chrissakes. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It means something,” she said softly, more to herself. “Dammit. It’s so much pressure.”
Prairie stabbed another potato and a piece of asparagus but let them hang mid-air, suspended on her fork while she vented.
“Jesus. It’s just that with her, I, okay, it’s like this… It’s not like she’s had a knee or hip replaced because she’s old, or lost a leg from diabetes or had corrective surgery from an old war injury or anything. She’s different. I mean, don’t misunderstand me, Lovey. Some of the guys I’ve worked with have had some ghastly war injuries I’ve had to get them through, and most of ‘em had no choice in the matter either, ‘cause they were drafted, right? They gave a lot for our country—physically and mentally in some cases. But, maybe I’ve just been easier on her because she had this horrible accident and her life has changed, and people died.”
Prairie shoved the morsels into her mouth before what she said computed, then snorted, “As if war is any less traumatic. Ugh. I’m pathetic.” Prairie sighed. “She’s just so damn… sad. Pitiful. I don’t know. You tell me, Lovey. Maybe I’m just being sexist. Maybe because she’s a woman I can’t do what I have to do. It’s just been really hard to get tough with her—even though she is a royal pain-in-the-ass. I don’t know.” Prairie dug around in the leftovers consisting of red potatoes, asparagus and baked chicken breast, but suddenly lost her appetite.
“I just don’t know.” Prairie heaved a great sigh. “I feel as if I did the right thing, but for the first time in my career, I’m not one hundred percent certain about my decision. Ugh, I feel terrible. Not for leaving her necessarily, because she needed me to leave her ass there, but… I don’t know. Yeah, I guess for leaving her. Because, maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“Oh, I doubt that. Hmmm.” Gwen pondered the situation for a moment. “Ever consider the possibility that you have more empathy for her than sympathy?”
“In what way?” Prairie put the cover back on the container, burped the top and put it on the corner of her desk as Gwen explained herself.
“I’m saying it’s probably easier for you to put yourself in her shoes and know how she feels, than it is to do the same for one of your male patients who received their wounds in battle. For them, you have sympathy—you’re sorry for them. With her, you may have more understanding and perhaps maybe even more easily identify with her. You could have been in that car.”
“Yeah.” Prairie considered Gwen’s reasoning for a moment, then conceded, “Sure, that may be it. Okay, I can see that. I do find myself identifying with her sometimes—especially when I want to ream her a new one but I can’t ‘cause I almost know how devastated she’d be if I did. She doesn’t need that from me on top of everything else.”
“Sounds reasonable to me, pumpkin.” Gwen began making circular designs around her triangles.
“See? That’s why I love you so much, Lovey.” Prairie quickly glanced at her wristwatch. “Shit, what time is it? Gah! I forgot to wind my watch again.”
“Almost one.”
“Well, hell,” Prairie replied as she set her watch and began to quickly wind it. “Maybe I’ll scurry back over to Rehab and see if my little turtle has righted herself yet.”
“That would be a nice thing to do, honey.”
“Okay, well, thanks, Lovey. I hope I didn’t interrupt you too much.”
“Not at all, sweetie. I’ll see you tonight. I’m making a special dinner tonight so don’t be late, ‘kay?”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Barbie and I are celebrating the fifth anniversary of our first date.”
“Oooh. Romantic. Shall I dress for dinner?”
“It’s your choice, dearie. Clothes are optional, as always.”
“Ha ha. ‘Bye ‘bye.”
“Toodles.”
9.3—The Prize
Richard Treadway let himself into his one room apartment located near the hospital. He closed and carefully locked the apartment door before he allowed himself just the glimmer of a smile. It had been an extremely productive day. He haphazardly dropped his keys on the multipurpose table amidst the old newspapers, dirty dishes and junk mail, and headed straight for his bed. He knelt down, reached under the unmade twin bed and pulled a tattered suitcase from beneath. In one fluid motion he hoisted the suitcase onto the worn and stained sheets and sat down next to it.
Carefully, as if it might explode upon opening, he lifted the metal latches and slowly lifted the lid, revealing the contents. His eyes grew wide with excitement as he viewed the precious cargo—four hundred and eighty three hospital wrist bands neatly arranged in chronological order. He lightly dragged his index finger over each one. Slowly, methodically, he remembered. Beginning with the first until he reached the last, he touched them all, finally achieving a full erection.
He unzipped his white hospital trousers to release the small penis that was straining against the material and watched for a moment while it visibly throbbed. He wanted so badly to touch himself, to relieve the tension and experience the ecstasy he knew was lurking like a hungry beast in his groin, but he would wait. He forced himself to wait. Soon there would be cause for celebration—a new addition to his collection; the prize of all time—and the attainment would be that much more satisfying if he waited. This one will be outstanding, he thought. The one he’d been looking for since the beginning. And now he was certain he wouldn’t have to wait for long. By tomorrow he would have his prize.
9.4—Boogie Man
“Wake up, honey. Prairie, honey, wake up,” Barbie said in a hushed voice as she lightly shook Prairie’s shoulder, trying to roust her from her slumber. “There’s a phone call from the hospital—some kind of emergency. Come on, come on—wake up, Prair.”
“What?” Prairie said as she rolled over and squinted up at Barbie in the semi-darkness of her room. “What’s going on, Barbie. What the hell time is it?”
“Three-thirty. You have to wake up. Come on, there’s an emergency at the hospital. Your boss needs to talk to you—he’s on the phone—so come on now.” Barbie tugged gently on Prairie’s arm.
The seriousness of the moment registered with Prairie as she sprang to life, leaping out of bed and pushing past Barbie down to the living room and the waiting phone. She grabbed the phone’s receiver off the end table and demanded, “This is Prairie. What’s going on, Kurt?” She paused, listening. Her eyes grew wide as she gasped. “Oh my god. When? How the hell? Jesus. Okay, I’ll be right there—twenty minutes, maybe—thirty, tops.”
~/~/~/~/~
Prairie arrived at the hospital uncombed, unbrushed and barely dressed with less than fiv
e minutes to spare. She screeched her car to a halt, leapt from the vehicle and sprinted across the parking lot, past the three police cars and their flashing lights, and into the building. Down the long hallway, hurdling over the power cord to the maintenance man’s floor polisher, and to the bank of elevators at the end of the corridor she ran. By the time she reached the fourth floor she’d barely caught her breath before she began yet another sprint down the north wing of the hospital to her destination.
Bursting into the hospital room, she found her direct supervisor, Kurt Dever, his supervisor, Lynn Krane, the night charge nurse and three uniformed police officers huddled at the end of the unoccupied bed next to Em’s, involved in a serious, low-toned discussion.
“Hey,” Prairie said, in a breathless, though hushed, voice. “What the hell happened?” she asked as she joined the huddle. She looked over at Em in her bed—in an obvious sedated state—and then to her boss.
“Thanks for coming, Prairie,” Kurt said. “Your patient was apparently molested by a day orderly, one Richard Treadway, about two a.m. this morning.”
The tiny hairs all over Prairie’s body stood on end as she exclaimed, “What!?” She pivoted around to look at Em.
“Well, I mean, he attempted to molest her. He should have been successful because she’s normally knocked out pretty good every night with sedatives. For whatever reason, she woke up just as he was about to—well, I’ll leave that to your imagination, but if she hadn’t…”
The night charge nurse broke into the conversation, adding, “All of a sudden, there was a commotion, not screaming, but something, you know? I came running and that, that, monster knocked me flat down on my keester, practically flying out of her room. She was hysterical when I got in there, trying to cover herself.” She shook her head with sadness and repulsion.
“But he didn’t…” Prairie’s mind was swirling, and the knot forming in the pit of her stomach had the potential to double her over.
“No, no,” said the lead officer as he began to answer Prairie’s question. “We already had a kit run on her just in case, but it was negative. There’s no evidence of any sort of physical ummm, you know, penetration.”
“Well,” Prairie began, “what about this guy, this…”
“Richard Treadway,” Kurt interjected.
“Right. Well, what about him, have you arrested him? I mean, what the hell? How did this happen here?” She looked desperately around the room to each person.
“Ma’am, we have apprehended him,” said another, younger, officer. “Actually, about twenty minutes ago at his apartment. Some evidence was confiscated that leads us to believe he is a serial sexual offender. Looks as if there may have been over four hundred other victims.”
Astounded, Prairie leaned in with disbelief. “Four… hundred?”
The third, slightly portly officer added, seriously, “Yes Ma’am. Four hundred. He’ll be going away for a long, long time. Listen, we’re finished with our end, so just call the station if you have any questions. We’ll be in touch if we have any.”
“Thanks fellas, I’ll walk you out,” said Kurt and added as he and the night charge nurse followed the officers out of the room, “Lynn, Prairie, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Sure, Kurt.” said Lynn. Prairie nodded her head in acknowledgement.
“Lynn,” Prairie began, “I just don’t understand how this could happen. I mean, this is awful. How is she going to feel safe here in the future? After this?”
“Well, Prairie, you know she’s the only female patient on the floor and, well, the night shift is understaffed, so…”
“So? So what, Lynn?” Prairie fumed. “I don’t mean any disrespect, Lynn, but this is pure bullshit. She’s already been so traumatized, and has such… incredible… trust issues.” Prairie put her hand to her forehead in distress. “Oh god, this is terrible.” She began to pace.
“I know, I know,” Lynn woefully admitted. “At this point, I don’t know. Do you think she’s mobile enough to be an out-patient?”
“No. Maybe.” Prairie shook her head. “No. It’s barely been two weeks since the stabilizer was removed. Possibly in another two weeks I’d feel more confident about saying yes, but…” Prairie was at a loss. She knew Em was probably going to shut down over this incident, and it was making her feel physically ill.
“If she had another patient in here, it would be safer for sure, but the odds of getting another female patient in the next hour or so, well you know…”
“What if I stayed here with her,” Prairie interjected. “Y’know, became her roommate? At least until I can get her to out-patient status?”
“That’s, I… You’d do that?” Lynn sighed. “Isn’t that a little extreme, Prairie?”
“Look, Lynn,” Prairie replied, “I don’t want to lose her. Unless I do something really drastic, I’m never going to regain her trust—in me, or this hospital. I’ve put too many hours into her rehabilitation to lose her now. If I’m here every night, she might feel safe and protected. So.” Prairie exhaled heavily. “Yeah, I’d do it.”
Lynn thought for a minute, quickly weighing the pros and cons, and then agreed. “Okay. Okay. Let’s try it out. But if she doesn’t feel safe, reassure her that we’ll try something else—whatever we need to do to ensure her safety.”
“Okay Lynn, then I’m going back to bed,” she said, eyeing the unoccupied bed next to Em’s. “Could you have a nurse wake me up around six? I’m going to have to run home and change before I come back into work.”
“Why don’t you sleep in? Just go on and come in at one. You should be around when she wakes up, anyway, and we don’t know when that’ll be. I’ll have Kurt deal with your scheduled appointments. That okay with you?”
“Hey, I’m not one to argue against sleeping in.”
“All right then, I’m going to head home. Thanks for getting here so fast, Prairie. I wouldn’t have called you in, but she insisted you be here.”
“What?” Prairie was taken aback. “She did?”
“Yeah. Actually, that’s all she would say, ‘I want Prairie.’ Kept insisting she wanted you here. Right about when we called you, she had worked herself into such an hysterical state, we had no choice but to sedate her.”
“Wow. I didn’t realize. I thought…” Prairie shook her head with disbelief.
“I think you came up with the right solution—seems to be a bond between you two, and your presence will obviously be a comfort to her. Anyway, I’m out of here. I’ll let Kurt know what we’re going to do on my way out. Thanks again for coming in right away, Prairie.” Lynn squeezed Prairie’s shoulder, turned and walked briskly out of the ward.
“G’night, Lynn,” Prairie said, then looked at Em. Prairie sighed heavily then crawled into the vacant bed next to Em’s and immediately fell asleep.
~/~/~/~/~
“Prairie! Prairie!” Em yelled. “Where’s Prairie!” Waking from a drugged state, all Em remembered was being attacked and wanting Prairie. She was frantic. “Prairie!”
Prairie immediately leapt out of the hospital bed next to Em’s, despite having been pulled out of a deep sleep, and was at Em’s side within seconds.
“I’m here, Em,” Prairie soothed, her body buzzing from having been awakened so abruptly. She looked into Em’s barely open eyes that told Prairie she was still under the influence of some heavy sedatives, and took Em’s hand in hers. “I’m here, Em. You’re safe.”
Em began to cry weakly, and clung to Prairie’s arm. “Prairie… Prairie… He… he, tried to…” she sobbed. “I was so scared. Why? Why did he…?”
“I know, I know. I don’t know. I’m so sorry, Em,” Prairie said as she sat on the edge of Em’s bed. Overwhelmed with emotion for her patient, knowing how frightened she must have been, Prairie pulled Em to her and wrapped her arms around her. “Come here. There, there. It’s okay, Em.”
“Don’t leave me, Prairie,” Em whimpered as she collapsed into Prairie. “Don’t leave…”
>
“I’m here. I’ll be here with you every night. Okay? No one is going to hurt you. They’ll have to get through me first, and that’s not going to happen.”
Prairie spoke softly to Em in an attempt to calm her as Em continued to weep in her arms. Moved beyond words, Prairie was taken aback at how vincible Em was, and could not reconcile the woman in her arms with the beast she’d been trying to rehabilitate for the last several weeks. More than anything, Prairie couldn’t believe she had actually managed to pierce the armor in which Em had shielded herself. She continued to hold Em in her arms, talking quietly to her, waiting for her to return to a blissful state of drug-induced sleep. Though she was happy, ecstatic, that Em had obviously begun to trust her, Prairie was also filled with angst that something so dark and horrific was necessary to facilitate such a radical change in their working relationship.
Prairie gently laid Em back down, resting her head on the stack of pillows, then went and crawled back into the extra hospital bed. Right before she fell back asleep, she made a mental note to request counseling for Em. She was probably going to need it.
TEN
No Sleep
10.1—Are You Sleeping?
“Hey, Prairie… Prairie… Prairie… You awake?”
Prairie struggled to open her eyes as she was being gently shaken by some unknown source. Where was she? The room was dark but for light coming through the door from the hallway.
“Wha… what?” she answered groggily. “Who’s that? What’s wrong?”
“Hey, Prair, sorry to bother you so early, but…” Jim, Prairie’s clinic assistant, began in a hushed voice. “I can’t find the paperwork for the new guy coming in from Ramstein, and he’s due to arrive any…
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