by Dale Mayer
“If you get a laugh, can we make it twenty-five?”
“Nope, no more deals,” Shane said. “I’ll be right here. I’ll grab you another towel too. We didn’t bring one from your room today.”
“That’s because we came straight from PT,” he said. “You didn’t let me get to my room.”
“Nope,” Shane said. “And I’ll also bring over Jeff. He’s one of our newer specialists on staff, and he’ll work with you while you’re in the water.”
“Crap,” Heath said, opening his eyes to glare up at Shane. “When am I off duty?”
“When were you off duty when you were in the navy?”
“Basically never,” he said.
“And now you’re recovering from your injuries until you’re 100 percent, so the answer is basically never here too.”
Heath hated to hear it, but he also understood the reasoning behind it. He just wished there was some get up and go that could be pumped into his system, so he didn’t feel like everything was a waste of time, energy, and effort, because well, … at the core, of course, he didn’t feel like he deserved any of it.
When he opened his eyes the next time, he felt an inner sense of being watched. He saw a young man, olive-skinned and heavily muscled, standing and staring at him, his hands on his hips.
“You better be Jeff,” he said.
“Oh, I’m Jeff, but you sagged into that spot on the hot tub as if your bones and your muscles won’t hold you up anymore.”
“They won’t,” Heath acknowledged. And, true to form, he just let his body float up until the water churned around him, and he floated on top of the bubbles.
“Interesting,” Jeff said, as he walked around the large hot tub, studying Heath’s body.
“Interesting in what way?”
“Even floating, you’re favoring your full-leg side.”
“Well, doesn’t that make sense? There’s less of me to float on the right side,” he said. “So I’m floating higher there because less weight’s pulling me down.”
At that, Jeff laughed. “Nope, that’s not it at all. But you’re still pulling away from your injured side.”
“I would think that’s normal.”
“Some people pull away, and some people roll toward it,” Jeff said. “Some people are more protective of that side, whereas other people still refuse to acknowledge that the injured part exists.”
At that, Heath’s eyes flew open, and he stared up at the bright sky above him. “Well, that sucks.”
“Why is that?”
“Because that’s me,” he said. “I’m still pretending it doesn’t exist. And, if I don’t acknowledge it, maybe I don’t have to actually live with it.”
“Maybe,” Jeff said, as he squatted down, still studying Heath but from his foot position. “It won’t work long-term though.”
“Well, apparently it didn’t work short-term either,” Heath said in disgust. “Don’t you guys let us have any illusions?”
“No,” Jeff said. “I used to run PT in the military.” He shrugged. “Not a whole lot I haven’t seen before.”
“You don’t look old enough to even have made the grade to get in,” Heath said in disgust.
“That’s because I’m healthy,” Jeff said with a surprising answer. “I haven’t been through a major trauma like you have. So the lines, the worry, and the stress aren’t etched into my skin yet. I’ve lived, but it’s been relatively easy so far.”
“For that, I hate you,” Heath said, his tone quiet and barely audible above the bubbles.
“No, you don’t,” Jeff said. “You’d like to be me, but you also know that your time is past.”
“Yeah,” Heath said. “A long time ago.”
“But that doesn’t mean,” Jeff continued, “that you can’t still be a whole lot better than you are.”
“It doesn’t feel like it,” Heath said. “It feels more like I’m heading into the backside of sixty.”
“If you don’t get fixed up soon,” he said, “you’ll hit a body age of sixty very quickly. In the meantime, we can do a lot to keep your body improving to the point of being in its thirties again.”
“Meaning, I’m already forty or fifty, per my body?”
“Yes, unfortunately,” Jeff said bluntly, not pulling any punches. “Just like with any physical trauma, it ages your body. But it’s the mental decline and that emotional stress which ages the rest of you so much faster.”
Heath groaned. “So what do I have to do?”
“Get started, Heath. We have a lot to work on.”
Chapter 8
The next few days followed a simple pattern. Hailee would get up, shower, and then head to the cafeteria to grab a coffee, presenting herself at Dani’s office by eight. The first morning, Dani was there on time to show Hailee where her new office would be, as well as her new computer and their filing system. As Dani walked out, she said, “Get yourself familiar. We’ll have a ton of work soon enough, and I won’t always be here at the same time. I’ll start horseback riding in the mornings again, as much as I can.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Hailee said. “You should take more time off.”
Dani tossed her a bright smile. “That’s why I hired you.”
Hailee just rolled her eyes at that. “Glad to hear it,” she said.
“I do have a bunch of employee benefits materials and reimbursement stuff for you,” Dani said. “We’ll get to that in a bit. I’ve got a meeting here at nine. A phone conference.” A secretive smile split her face as she headed back to her office. But then Dani was involved in a lot of different things. Not to mention trying to jump up funding for the several beds that she kept open for people who didn’t have money.
It was one of the reasons Hailee really appreciated her friend’s life philosophy about making sure that everyone helped others in need. No one person could help everyone because bills still had to be paid, but it was essential to help someone when you could. Like Dani was doing for Hailee.
But Hailee fully intended to give Dani excellent value. If Hailee hadn’t lost her first accounting job, right after Jacob was born, she’d still be working at that same place, where she’d already worked for seven years. When they realized she was draining their medical benefits, she’d been laid off in a very suspicious manner. She couldn’t seem to fight that because, according to them, all of a sudden, they’d lost several big clients and needed one less accountant.
She understood why they’d done it from a strictly numbers perspective, but it had been heartbreaking for her, along with too many more heartbreaks at the same time. And so disloyal to a long-term employee like her. It was highly illegal too, but, when Hailee’s lawyer said that he could only do so much pro bono work for her and asked her if she wanted to go after her employer or try to get the medical debt reduced, she’d immediately gone for the reduction in her medical debt.
She sent him a quick email, telling him that she now had one full-time job at Hathaway House and gave him a new work email address where he could contact her. He sent a quick response, telling her that he was really happy for her and that he expected to have some news here within a week or so. She smiled and typed, I hope so. I’ve lost weight because I can’t afford to eat.
She added a happy face because, now that she was here at Hathaway House, she could eat. Speaking of which, she hadn’t had food yet. She frowned at that and wondered just what the deal was. She didn’t want to take any food from Dani if it wasn’t allowed and neither did she want to abuse the eight-to-four work system by eating on the job.
When the new girl at the front, Caitlin, hopped up and came around the corner, she stopped when she saw who was behind the desk in Hailee’s new office. Caitlin smiled and said, “Wow, that’s perfect,” she said. “From cleaning lady to an accountant.”
“Well, technically I was a cleaning lady and a bookkeeper, working two jobs to replace my original accountant’s job, now back to being just an accountant,” Hailee said with a chuckle.
“I’m not proud. Workers work.”
“But a very different paycheck,” Caitlin said with an eyebrow raised.
“Absolutely,” she said. But she didn’t offer any information to clarify how she’d gone from the highs to the lows and back to the highs again.
Caitlin motioned down the hallway. “I’m getting coffee. Do you want one?”
Hailee smiled and hopped up. “Maybe. I’ll come with you. I’m not exactly sure how the system here works.”
“Oh, that’s easy enough,” Caitlin said, as she filled her in. “For lunch, we try to give way to all the patients. We have more time available to us to get there because we can come and go as we need to. The breakfast bar opens at six in the morning, but I’ve never really made it that early, so don’t hold me to that. Maybe ask Dennis. And then dinner is between five and seven, I believe. I don’t eat breakfast, but I’ll often pick up a muffin and take it back to my desk.”
“I wondered if we’re allowed to eat on the job,” Hailee confessed. “At my old job, I was allowed a cup of coffee but no food because of the possibility to drop crumbs into the keyboards.”
“I think everybody here would starve then,” Caitlin said with a laugh. “But you’re right, that was like my last job too. Dani doesn’t mind, and her only restrictions on the food are, if you take it, please eat it. Because they don’t want to waste any food. Here, the kitchen is very good at using up leftovers, and that has gone a long way to keeping her food costs down. Plus I see a lot of the staff willingly eating the leftovers for their meals.”
“Makes sense to me,” Hailee said. “I’m happy with leftovers too.” She walked into the cafeteria to see Dennis with a big smile on his face.
“There you are. I’ve seen you in the evening, in the afternoon, and now in the morning.”
“And you’ll see me a little more often now,” she said. “I’m working as the new accountant.”
“Perfect,” he said with a beaming smile. “I didn’t see you here for breakfast though.”
“I wasn’t exactly sure what the protocol was.”
“If you work here, you eat here,” Dennis said with a fat smile. “That doesn’t mean necessarily I won’t give you leftovers …”
She chuckled. “I’m pretty sure your leftovers are way better than no leftovers.”
He chuckled, and she headed straight for the coffee, but he frowned at her. “Too much caffeine on an empty stomach is not good.”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but I just started. I don’t really want to ruin my job already.”
At that, Dani came up behind Hailee and said, “I should have gone over that with you anyway. I’m glad Dennis just said something. I often come in and do some work, and then I’ll take a break and have breakfast. Put in the hours, get the job done, and I won’t bother you about when you work and where you eat.”
At that, Dennis handed over a beautiful omelet to Dani.
Hailee smiled and said, “Now this looks great.”
Dani snagged an orange juice and some cutlery, and, with a wave to everyone, headed back to her office.
Caitlin said, “See? That’s what I mean.”
Hailee looked back at Dennis. He lifted up a second omelet and said, “One of the guys ordered it and then decided he didn’t want it,” he said coaxingly.
“But what’s in it?” Hailee asked, eyeing the omelet.
“Steak and mushrooms,” he said. She stared at him in surprise. He nodded, walked over, added a few hash browns and a couple fresh orange slices, then gave it to her. “Now eat up. You can’t do the job if you have brain fog.”
She chuckled. “Does that argument work for you?”
“Well, you’re holding the omelet right now,” he said, “so I guess so.” He chuckled and headed into the kitchen, then turned and said, “Lunchtime starts at eleven and finishes at two. If you come a little later sometimes, it’s better because it can get really crowded in here. Otherwise aim maybe for early.”
“In other words, if it’s busy, just come back?”
“Patients come first,” he said, “but the staff is a very close second. Dani would tell you that she can’t help the patients if she doesn’t have a pleasant staff.”
“I understand that philosophy,” Hailee said with a big smile. “Besides, Dani is a sweetheart.”
“She is,” Dennis said. “And, because of her, this place does very well.”
“Good to know.” Carrying her omelet and coffee, she followed Caitlin back to the office area. As Hailee walked behind the receptionist, she asked, “Does anybody worry about getting fat here?”
“Well, I haven’t worried about it,” Caitlin said. “But, if I stay here much longer, I might have to.” She held up the cinnamon bun she was taking back to her desk. “At least your meal is nutritionally sound. Mine’s food for the soul. Yours is food for the body.”
“Well, if my body wasn’t so starved,” Hailee said, “I’d have gone for soul food too.”
And they both chuckled and headed to their respective desks.
Several days later Heath sat in the outdoor dining section on the deck, letting the sunshine bathe his face. He was still gathering the energy to go back inside and get food. He’d gotten his coffee, and he was working on a second cup when Dennis had come around with the pot. Otherwise, Heath wouldn’t have that still. The heavy massage sessions with Shane and the heavy workouts in the hot tub with Jeff had slowly built up some of Heath’s muscles, but the pain and exhaustion had really whacked him out. He still wasn’t sleeping at night. In fact, it was getting worse.
As he sat here, he thought he heard a familiar voice—the cleaning lady. He turned his head and listened intently to make sure. He twisted ever-so-slightly, mindful of his back and his neck, turning to see if he could put a body with the voice. He noticed one of the women from the front offices and another superslim, almost too slim, woman with dark hair and curls down over her shoulders, wearing a simple pair of white capris and a flowery blouse. She held a plate of food, and she had a big smile on her face.
He studied her for a long moment, but he couldn’t hear her voice anymore. Disappointed and frustrated, he shifted back, staring outside past the deck. His cleaning lady was supposed to take two days off but hadn’t come back in like a week now. And since then, he hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep. Something was magical about whatever they’d had before, and he needed that back.
Yet he could hardly ask some stranger to come and mop the floors at nighttime for him to sleep. Talk about a dependency issue that made no sense. As he sat here, wondering if he would make it to the cafeteria line or not, Dennis walked over and placed in front of Heath a platter of fried potatoes and eggs with ham and sausages. Heath looked at it, then up at Dennis in surprise.
“Saved you a trip,” Dennis said. And he disappeared.
That was one of the things about Dennis. He saw things that other people didn’t recognize, and he acted without other people needing to say anything. Heath didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but, as far as he was concerned, Dennis was solid gold. Somebody who saw a need and handled it without being told was an exceptional individual.
Heath dug into his breakfast with gusto. He may not have chosen quite the exact same things, but it didn’t matter because it was fresh and hot, and it was in front of him. By the time he pushed away his empty plate, he was more than happy that he’d chosen to just sit and relax. Sometimes you had to stop and smell the roses instead of rush, rush, rush.
And it would have been a rush to get in before the long lines started, and then he would have felt self-conscious for stumbling forward on his crutches in front of a big crowd. He was getting a prosthetic foot for his right leg, and he knew he’d have to learn to walk all over again with it, but he was up for that. The crutches made life difficult, but it also made a hell of an improvement to being an invalid in bed or in a wheelchair. He had to make note of these tiny stages of success. If you didn’t mark every one, they were easy to
miss. Then it wouldn’t feel like you were making any progress at all.
He’d been grateful, so grateful to get into a wheelchair, so he could buzz around independently. But, when he got out of the wheelchair and onto the crutches, standing upright—like homo sapiens were meant to be—was something completely different. He’d loved it for a long time. Yet, all of a sudden, his crutches just weren’t enough. And he found himself struggling with that too.
It seemed, once you got something you wanted, you turned around and wanted something else. He was pretty sure it was human nature that made him so contrary, but, at the same time, it was also human nature to reach for something, to achieve it, and then to create a new goal and to reach for that. He just had to make sure he kept reaching. Because pretty darn soon, if he didn’t make an effort, he would stop reaching, and he didn’t dare do that. He was trying hard to progress.
However, his continued lack of sleep each night was killing him.
And somehow he had to get rid of those damn nightmares. And the guilt.
That ever-residing guilt.
Slowly moving, he stood, wavering ever-so-slightly, using the table for support. Then he grabbed his crutches and wobbled back down the hallway to his room.
He stopped, thinking he heard that voice again. He moved forward ten feet to where two hallways joined up and heard it again. Then he walked forward a step, yet leaned back. He looked down both hallways and saw Dani and Caitlin at the front reception area, standing with another woman. The same tall dark-haired one he’d seen earlier. They were talking together, but he didn’t recognize the one woman’s voice.
Then again the women were laughing, not whispering in the dead of night. The nearby office door read Accountant. Obviously this unknown woman wasn’t his cleaning lady. Not here in the middle of the day. Not here chatting with other office workers. Something was wrong here. His feelings and hopes dashed, he slowly turned and walked back down the hallway.
He didn’t know who his cleaning lady was, but he sure wished she’d come back, if only for him to get another good night’s sleep.