Wink of an Eye

by Lynn Chandler Willis

  “Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to college? Maybe Daddy can give you the money—”

  “I’m not goin’ to ask your daddy for money!”

  “Gypsy—you’re being unreasonable.” Her voice was getting louder, competing with the thunder.

  “Unreasonable? What good would going to college do if shoveling horse shit’s the only job around? Even with a college degree, I’d have to go somewhere else to find a decent job.”

  “But you don’t have to go anywhere else. There’s plenty of other jobs you could do here on the ranch.”

  God! She could be so frustrating! I stormed away from her and stood outside in the rain, hoping it would cool my rising temper.

  “I just don’t understand what it is you’re looking for,” she said, arms flaying in the air.

  “Claire,” I yelled, “I can’t stay in this town another day. I don’t want to be one of those old men in the diner talking about the things they wished they’d done.”

  “What is it you want to do?” She’d stepped outside, too, standing a few feet from me, the rain clinging to her lashes.

  “I don’t know … but there’s got to be something more. There’s got to be.” The rain was coming down harder now, soaking through my clothes. “Come with me … one year … that’s all I ask. We’ll travel, we’ll sleep under the stars, we’ll see what’s out there. If we can’t find something better out there, we’ll come back. One year, Claire … that’s all I’m asking.”

  “No!” She screamed and covered her ears with her hands, shaking her head back and forth.

  I grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her ears. She was going to listen to me whether she wanted to or not. “We can do it, Claire. I’ve got money saved. I can work odd jobs when that runs out. We can go to San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas. I’ll even take you to Montana. Wouldn’t you like to see Montana, Claire?”

  She jerked away from me and took off running, away from our own private storm and into nature’s fury. I took off after her and finally caught her nearly a hundred yards from the barn. The ground was rain slick and muddy and I scrabbled to keep upright as I hooked one arm around her waist. “Are you fucking crazy?” I screamed. “You’re going to get killed out here!”

  She fought to get free and despite every attempt to not fall, I went down, taking her down underneath me. She was sobbing and gasping for air as she grabbed my face between her muddy hands. “Please don’t leave me, Gypsy. Please don’t go.”

  I’d never loved her more. Or hated her more. My mouth found hers in a fury of passion. I jerked her skirt up as she tore open my jeans. We came together at the same time in an explosion of ecstasy, the rain washing over us, the storm at its peak.

  * * *

  At first I thought it was a bird chirping. The high-pitched beep beep beep droned on for what seemed like hours. I forced my eyes open to get a look at the source of the annoying sound, wishing I had the Glock with me. If I had, whatever was making the noise would be history.

  Then my mother came into a blurred view as she moved around the end of the bed and twiddled with one of the machines I was apparently hooked to. The beeping stopped. “His antibiotic’s out,” she said, poking her head out the door of the room.

  The whole left side of the room was glass, giving a front-row view of a massive nurses’ station on the other side of the glass wall. Mom turned and padded quietly back toward the bed, then froze as she caught sight of me watching her. “Well, glory be. Welcome back to the world,” she said, her lips parting into a broad smile.

  A nurse in pink scrubs came in carrying a replacement bag. “He’s awake,” she said, smiling almost as broadly as my mother. “I’ll let Dr. Merrick know.”

  As she replaced the bag, Mom moved around to the other side of the bed and scooted a chair closer. “How’s your pain? On a scale of one to ten.”

  I wasn’t feeling much of anything other than an incredibly heavy head. I tried to say “not bad” but all that came out was a dry, raspy whisper. On second thought, on a scale of one to ten, my throat was pushing a twelve. “My throat…” I whispered.

  “That’s from the ventilator.”

  “I’ll get him some ice chips,” the nurse said. She replaced the bag, then did a quick check of the array of monitors. “Need anything else?”

  I shook my head slightly. Everything was still hazy at the moment, but I was certain given an hour, I could rattle off a list.

  “Well, I’m Laurie. I’ll be your CCU nurse tonight and if you need anything, just press the button on the side of the bed rail. But I think you’re in pretty good hands. She hasn’t left your bedside.” She winked at my mother. She then pulled a heavy curtain across the windowed wall before she left.

  “CCU?” I said, painfully, then forced myself to swallow.

  “Critical Care Unit. You’ve been in a drug-induced coma for three days. They just removed the ventilator yesterday and started weaning you off the drugs this morning.”

  I nodded, afraid to try and say anything more. Laurie came back in the room with a small Styrofoam cup of ice chips and handed it to my mother. Mom scooped out a tiny bite with the plastic spoon and placed it carefully in my mouth. “You gave us quite a scare.”

  I held the ice in my mouth until it melted, then slowly swallowed. The cold actually felt good going down. I opened my mouth for more like a newborn bird.

  “What happened?” I managed to squeak out after the third round of ice chips.

  “You had a reaction to the shot of Dilaudid they gave you in the ER. You stopped breathing, then went into respiratory failure, then full cardiac arrest.”

  Wow. They shoved a tube down my throat and used the paddles. Fuck the advance directive.

  Mom pretended to brush the hair off my forehead, but I think she just needed to touch me. “Father Sean O’Reilly gave you last rites. And we gave Rhonda valium.” She laughed.

  I held back a chuckle myself, envisioning the chaos I knew my kid sister could cause. And then I remembered the reason for the chaos. Panicked, I grabbed the sheet and jerked it away from my leg, fully expecting to see nothing but a bandaged nub. But my leg was there, and my foot was there, and five swollen toes were all still there. I dropped my head back on the pillow and fought off the urge to cry. I was not going to cry in front of my mother.

  A doctor in a white lab coat came in, winked at my mother, then poked around on my leg. He was old enough to be experienced, and still young enough to be up on current medical procedures. “I’m Dr. Merrick. It’s nice to see you awake. You’re a lucky man, Mr. Moran.”

  “My foot…”

  “Your foot’s going to be fine. The envenomation was quite minimal given the severity of the toxin. You’re going to have two nice, rather large fang scars, but other than that, give it a few weeks and you won’t even know you were bit. The pain should be controllable now with a pain reliever.”

  I nodded, relieved. “I’ve never been in so much pain in my life.”

  “It’s understandable. Rattlesnake bites are incredibly painful to begin with but in your case, you’re both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunately, for your foot and ankle, the toxin went straight to your nervous system. I can say without a doubt, it saved your foot. Probably your whole leg. On the flip side, because of the neurotoxin, you suffered some serious pain, and had some pretty severe complications. Inducing a coma was the only way to control the pain. It gave your body time to settle back down into its own rhythm.”

  “They gave you eleven vials of antivenin,” Mom added. “They had to fly some in from Dallas because we used all we had. You do have insurance, don’t you? That stuff’s a thousand dollars a bottle.”

  I would have choked but my throat was too sore.

  “Rhonda was talking about maybe doing a fund-raiser—”

  “Whoa!” I really did choke. After I caught my breath, I set my mother straight. “No one’s doing any kind of fund-raiser. I have insurance. Very good insurance.” Consider
ing the fact I was self-employed and in what the insurance agency liked to call a somewhat “dangerous” occupation, it was rather expensive, too.

  Dr. Merrick smiled, probably relaxing now that he knew he was going to get paid. “I’m sure we can work all that out later,” he said. “Right now, I want you to stay in CCU tonight, then we’ll see how you’re doing tomorrow. If all goes well, we’ll move you to a regular room for a day or two, then send you home. You may be on crutches a few weeks, depending on the swelling.”

  I nodded but was not real happy with the idea of staying in the hospital another couple of days nor hobbling around on crutches. I guess, given the alternative, I still had my foot and Father Sean O’Reilly’s services were no longer needed, so I wasn’t going to complain. As long as this thing didn’t drag on too long. I had a job to get back to. Whether I was getting paid for it or not. I wondered if this qualified for workmen’s compensation?

  Dr. Merrick excused himself, saying he’d check back in the morning. My mother watched him leave, then, once sure he was gone, leaned in closer to me. “I think I can get him to reduce his bill.” She winked at me.

  “Mom—really … I have insurance. Quit worrying about the bill.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just saying … neurologists don’t come cheap. If I can get his services for free, what’s the harm?”

  I glared at her suspiciously. I knew of professional courtesy, but there were always limits. She smiled a wicked smile. “He’s asked me out a couple times.”

  Oh my God. My mother was going to prostitute herself to pay my hospital bill. “Mom, really … I have damn good insurance.”

  She patted my hand. “You don’t worry about a thing. I’m goin’ to run down to the ER for a little while and get a couple hours in.”

  I forced a smile and slowly nodded. My head was starting to hurt. I didn’t know if it was from the snake bite, the coma, the thought of my sister planning a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser, or my mother doing it with my doctor.

  The sooner I could get out of here, the sooner life could return to normal. Whatever that was. I had no idea where my cell phone was but there were calls I needed to make. I didn’t know whose wrath at getting stood up was going to be worse: Sophia’s or Claire’s. At least I knew what to expect from Claire. Sophia was still a mystery.

  Just as I was about to call for the nurse to see if my phone was even in the hospital, Rodney poked his head in the room. “So you are alive?” He was grinning ear to ear. He came in and went around to the chair Mom had sat in earlier. “Saw Mom in the hallway and she told me you were finally awake.”

  “No offense, but next time you and I go anywhere together, I’m going to go ahead and file workmen’s comp.”

  He laughed. I was halfway serious.

  “How’s Rhonda?” I asked as he sat down.

  He bobbed his head up and down. “Doing better. When they removed the ventilator yesterday and you didn’t croak, I think she was finally convinced you were going to be okay. Enough about Rhonda … boy, that Sophia Ortez … that is one hot mama.” He waved his hand like he was fanning a flame.

  I stared at him, wondering what I had missed in my three-day coma. “And just how did you meet Sophia?”

  “I remembered you said she was going to have someone in Odessa run a comparison on the tire tracks for you. I found her number in your phone and called her to let her know what happened. After a pretty chilly reception, she warmed up a little and did ask if you survived.”

  Ahh … so she was concerned. I couldn’t help but grin. “Still doesn’t explain how you met her,” I said, all the more curious.

  “I took your camera over to Odessa so she could pull the pictures off. She’s not the friendliest woman in the world, but by God, she just might be the best looking.”

  Thoughts of Sophia in her low-cut blouses and that gorgeous bronze-colored skin suddenly took a backseat to a more urgent thought. “Where’s my camera? That’s a three-thousand-dollar camera, Rodney.”

  “She’s got it. She said she’d run the comparison then bring the camera back when you were out of CCU.”

  I had no reason not to trust her, but I still wasn’t comfortable with my camera in the hands of someone I knew so little about. I didn’t need a complete background check but I would at least like to know where she lived. That little desire probably wasn’t totally business related but I had a headache from hell creeping up the back of my neck so I pushed those thoughts to the side.

  “What did you do with the rope?” I asked, remembering what got me into this mess in the first place.

  “Well, that’s kind of interesting.”

  “Where’s the rope, Rodney?” I almost died for that damn rope. It better be in his possession.

  “Well, actually, we got more than we thought we did. Remember how you said one end was frayed and looked like it had been cut? Well, it had. And the second piece was coiled up in the bigger piece.”

  My heart skipped a beat and I don’t think it had anything to do with the snake bite. “The noose?”

  He nodded and smiled. “We think. Sophia’s having the lab in Odessa run some tests on it. I haven’t heard back from her yet.”

  “And if they find skin on it, we can do a DNA comparison.…”

  “We’ll need to get a hairbrush, a toothbrush. Anything we can pull a DNA sample from.”

  I sighed and laid my head back against the pillow. “If Denny’s not in control, I’d like to know what they’ve got on him.”

  “In due time. You just concentrate on getting out of here.” He stood up to leave. “And oh … Claire called. She called your cell about ten times so Rhonda finally called her back.”

  The creeping headache found its way into my brain and exploded into a giant throb. I hit the nurse call button in dire need of a pain pill.

  “Rhonda was actually very nice to her. She told her she’d keep her updated. I think she called her last night to tell her you were off the ventilator. She said it’d be awhile before you were up to visitors, though.”

  I’d die of old age before Rhonda would tell Claire I felt up to visitors.

  CHAPTER 17

  The next morning I was moved to a regular room. My barbaric mother checked in on me before her shift. She ripped every hair on my chest out by the root when she tore off the little sticky pads the CCU nurse had left on, just in case. Just in case what? I wasn’t planning on flatlining again and I sure wasn’t interested in keeping them as a souvenir.

  Rhonda had brought my cell phone, along with a pair of cargo shorts and a T-shirt. The lovely little hospital gowns with the open back weren’t exactly my style.

  “I don’t think you’re allowed to wear regular clothes,” she said, turning her head while I slipped the shorts on.

  “What are they going to do? Throw me out?”

  My foot was still the size of a deflated basketball and it hurt like a bitch to put any weight on it. I unsnapped the shoulders of the hospital gown and dropped it to the floor. I stared at the IV tube still connected to the back of my left hand. Putting the T-shirt on was going to require some thought.

  “I’m going to need a little help,” I said as I took the IV bag down from the hanger.

  Rhonda turned around and stared at me with a scowl on her face. “Gypsy … why can’t you just once follow the rules?”

  “I’m supposed to start walking down the hall today with crutches and I’m not wearing a gown that shows my ass. Hold the bag.”

  “You show your ass all the time.”

  I smiled sarcastically, then fed the bag through the sleeve of the shirt.

  “What happened to your chest? You’ve got little red blotches all over it.” She poked at one of the round blotches.

  “Remember how mom used to rip off Band-Aids?”

  “Ouch.”

  I had my left arm with the IV line through the sleeve and was fighting to get the shirt over my head when Rhonda stopped helping and said, “Oh. Hello.”

  “Hi.
”

  I recognized that voice. I hurriedly pushed my head through the shirt, then smiled sheepishly at Sophia.

  “Well, damn. Looks like you’re going to make it,” she said. “I thought I was going to inherit myself a pretty nice camera.”

  I pulled the shirt down over my red, blotchy chest, then introduced Rhonda to Sophia.

  “Oh. So you’re Sophia,” Rhonda said. I detected a slight bit of uneasiness in her voice. “My husband’s told me a lot about you.”

  Like what? The only thing Rodney knew about her was how damn good-looking she was and if he had at least one brain cell in his head, he’d keep that opinion to himself.

  “Speaking of my camera…”

  Sophia patted a leather book bag slung over her shoulder and smiled. “Haven’t let it out of my sight.”

  Now that my mind could rest a little easier, I could bask in her glorious glow. I took a minute to soak up every ounce of her before getting down to business. “Feel up to working a little?” I got up, hobbled over to the bed tray, and pulled it over to the bed, my portable desk.

  “You’re asking me if I feel up to it? What about you? You’re the one who was snakebit.”

  I laughed. My foot was killing me but in Sophia’s presence, I was going to man up. “He may have got me but there isn’t much DNA left of him.” Then the pain from hobbling got to me. It was time for a pain pill. I wanted to cry. Maybe Sophia wouldn’t stay too long. Male pride wouldn’t let me even grimace in front of her.

  Rhonda sat down on the side of the bed and scooted over to my portable desk. Sophia and I both glanced at her, then at each other. I shrugged. Sometimes it was just easier to not put up a fight against the Moran women. Sophia grinned, then pulled up the guest chair. She unloaded the camera, which I was overjoyed to see, and several eight-and-a-half-by-eleven color photos.

  “First off,” she said. “They’re a perfect match.”

  I knew they would be but it was still nice to hear it. We examined the pictures closely as Sophia pointed out something that the naked eye missed. “The rear passenger tire has a screw or maybe a nail embedded, which is causing a slow leak. With each rotation, you can see where the tread skips.”