by D. Gideon
Coming back down the stairs with the long contraption of padding, rods, and velcro straps, she saw that Jax still wasn’t sitting in front of the screen door. Dropping the brace on her writing table, she opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.
Dan, Cathy’s husband, was squatting at the edge of his yard, using both hands to give Jax a belly-rub. There was a huge smile across his face, and he was using that funny deep voice that men do when they’re telling a dog she’s been a good girl.
“I didn’t think you liked dogs, Dan,” Dotty called, and he looked up, flinching. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” she added.
“Just…wasn’t expecting it,” he said with a weak smile. Jax scrambled up and ran back to her, and he stood and followed.
“I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute, Miss Dorothy?” He looked up the street, towards town, and back. “In private?”
“Of course you can, Dan. Come up here on the porch and let me get you some sweet tea,” she said, turning for the door.
“No, not on the porch,” he said. “If she pulls in and sees me…how about we talk over the back fence?”
“Out in the sun?” Dotty asked, eyebrows raised. “And standing? Dan, I’ve had a hard morning. I need some shade, some tea, and a nice soft seat.” Then she caught the first part of what he’d said. “What do you mean if she sees you? Who? Cathy?”
He nodded. “She’s pretty angry about last night, and if she sees me talking to you…well, I’ll never hear the end of it.” Before Dotty could respond, he pulled a sheet of paper out of his back pocket.
“If you don’t have time to talk, I wrote a note,” he said quickly. “But I’d just rather say it in person, if I can.”
Dotty blinked at him. She’d never talked to Dan much, really just a wave across the yard here and there, nods to acknowledge each other at church, and some pleasantries if they ran into each other at the store. She didn’t know what to make of this. Was he trying to get her alone? Out of sight?
You’re letting what happened this morning make you paranoid, she thought. Stop it.
“How about we sit on the back porch?” She offered. “Cathy won’t see you if she pulls in.”
“I’d still have to get around the fence,” he said, looking down and chewing his lip. He snapped his fingers. “I’ll tell her I was putting the can back. Meet you there in a minute?”
“Okay,” Dotty said, still confused. “I’ll get you some tea.”
He trotted off towards his trash bin, and Dotty walked back through the house. She grabbed the jug of tea and another glass on the way through, and stepped onto the back porch. It was cooler back here, with the sun having moved to the front of the house. She’d just finished pouring his glass of tea when he came up the back steps and knocked on the screen door.
“Well come on in,” she said, smiling. “I wouldn’t invite you back here and then make you stand out on the steps.”
“It’s not polite for a man to just walk into the room without knocking when there’s a woman inside,” he said. He took the tea she offered him and sat down. Hearing his voice, Jax pushed open the back door and trotted over to sit next to him, her head on his knee.
“A screened-in porch isn’t exactly a private room,” Dotty said, then shrugged. “I’m not complaining, mind you. I’ve just never heard of that before.”
Dan took a sip of the tea. His eyes widened, and he turned the glass up and took a few deep swallows.
Dotty laughed. “If you like it that much, I can ask Bill to make you some.”
He put the glass down and sighed. “I had forgotten how good sweet tea tasted,” he said. “Haven’t had any in-“ he cocked his head and thought for a moment. “Five years?”
“Diabetic?” Dotty asked. He shook his head.
“Diet,” he corrected. “Before Weight Watchers, we were vegetarian. Before that, it was the Feingold Diet. Nothing with dyes or sugars. The sugar part stuck.”
“But don’t the Weight Watchers meals have sugar in them?”
He nodded, looking down and rubbing Jax’s head. “She says they’re okay because everything is measured. Honestly I’m just glad to have some sugar and meat to eat again. It’s torture exercising an hour every morning and then again every night before bed without sugar.”
“I couldn’t imagine,” Dotty said. She picked up the jug and topped his glass off. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “I wanted to thank you for the food you left this morning, and I wanted to apologize for last night. I didn’t hear what was said, but I’m sure-“
“Don’t you sit here and apologize for her,” Dotty said. “Even if she didn’t mean what she said, that’s her place to say it, not yours.”
Dan shook his head. “No, no, I know she meant every word. I know exactly how she gets. I was going to say I’m sure it hurt your feelings, and I’m sorry for that. You’ve always been so nice to us, Miss Dorothy.”
“I appreciate that, Dan,” Dotty said. “But it’s my fault, too. She might have been right about me being selfish. I-”
“She said you were selfish?” He said, eyebrows high. “With all the food you’ve tried giving to us over the years?”
“That’s one of the things, yes,” Dotty said. She cocked her head. “She didn’t tell you?”
Dan leaned back in the chair and shook his head. “She said-“ he stopped himself. “Well, she said a lot of things that aren’t repeatable or kind. But she didn’t tell me the conversation.”
“I see,” Dotty said, and decided to take a drink of her tea before her tongue could say anything further.
“I went down to the hardware store this morning, like you suggested in your note, and bought a propane stove,” he said. “Just a little one. Uses those little cans.” He measured the size of a 2lb can with his hands.
“I know the ones,” Dotty said. “That’s probably the perfect size for just the two of you.”
“Well, for me, anyway. I made some soup with what you gave us, and she won’t eat it, of course. But I put in half a cup of each thing except the berries, just like you said, and it…” He paused and ran a hand over his face, and blew out a breath.
“It was delicious. I haven’t felt that full in a long time. I had to come over and thank you, Miss Dorothy.” He wouldn’t look up. He was staring intently at Jax, stroking her head. Dotty stayed silent for a minute, watching him.
“Cathy won’t eat it?” She asked. Not accusingly, but softly.
He shook his head, still looking down. “Normally she throws out anything you leave on the steps. Says she won’t eat dirty food.”
“I wash all of the food before I bring it over,” Dotty said.
“She doesn’t mean that kind of dirty.” He said, almost in a whisper. He ducked his head more, his hand still smoothing out Jax’s fur.
“Oh,” Dotty said, more of a breath than a word.
They sat quietly for a few minutes. In the distance, she heard a generator start up. A car drove by on the street, its engine seeming abnormally loud. Dan tensed, then relaxed when it continued down the road. A strong breeze pushed through the garden, rustling the corn stalks, and Dan looked up at the sound.
“I love that sound,” he said, looking up. He pointed to a spot on the fence. “I stand out there at night sometimes and just listen to the wind in your garden. Jax comes up to the fence and keeps me company.”
“I was wondering why you two seemed like old friends.”
He blew out a breath. “Well, I should go. She could be home any minute.”
“Where is she?”
“She went to Princess Anne to try to switch phones. If T-Mobile isn’t open there, she might try going to Salisbury. Left about a half hour ago. I had to promise I’d try to get the toilet working to get her to go without me driving. Just wanted the time to write this and sneak it over here.” He pulled the paper out of his back pocket again and put it on the table. “Then when I hear
d you pull up, I had to come over in person.” He looked up at Dotty. “It was important that you knew I meant it when I apologized and said thank you.”
She started to tell him, again, that it was okay, but he held up a hand.
“I just want you to know I’m not like that. I never have been. When we came to look at the house, before we bought it, you weren’t home. That girl from next door…Jennifer? She was in your backyard, picking berries. We thought she lived here. When we were moving things in and you came over with water and cookies, Cathy went ballistic. But we’d already signed the papers.”
Dotty didn’t know what to say, so she stayed quiet. She guessed the day wasn’t done shocking her.
“I’ve always wanted to come over, every time you invited us. But she won’t allow it. What would our friends think if they saw us there, she says. I can’t have my friends thinking my husband associates with—well.”
“I don’t understand,” Dotty said. “She comes over here and talks with me now and then.”
“Only when it’s dark, or when there’s someone else here,” he said. “You didn’t notice that?”
“No, I…I never thought about it,” Dotty said. She blew out a breath. “But that shouldn’t stop you from coming over, Dan. You’re welcome to come sit and talk with me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t, Miss Dorothy. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I have to live there, and-“ He stopped, listening hard as another car passed by. “Well, thank you again. You don’t know how much it means to have real food—at least until the power’s back on.”
He pushed through the screen door and started around the house.
“Dan,” Dotty called, standing up. He stopped and turned.
“Get water out of your pool and pour it into the back of the toilet tank to make it work. But only flush it when there’s…solids…in it. And if-“ she stopped herself, then took a breath and continued.
“If you start runnin’ low on soup fixins, you find a way to let me know. I’ll leave more there.” She pointed at the spot he’d indicated on the fence. “You can just tell her you haven’t used up all I gave you today. It’ll be our secret.”
He blinked at her, surprise evident on his face. “You’d…you’d still do that?”
Dotty crossed her arms and looked towards her garden. She was tempted to say she’d do it only if she knew that not even a mouthful of that food would cross Cathy’s lips, but once she gave it away, it wasn’t hers anymore. She couldn’t dictate what someone did with it.
She looked back and nodded. “I’d still do that.”
He stared at her for a moment, mouth working as if trying to choke out words. Finally, he simply nodded and walked away.
Dotty sighed again, crossing to sit back in her chair and finish her tea. Jax stood and stretched, then trotted to the door to go back into the house.
“Oh, you’ll come out to see Dan, but you won’t stay sittin’ out here with me? I see how you are,” Dotty said, leaning back and pulling the screen door open enough to let Jax through. She finished her tea and set the glass down on Dan’s note to keep it from sliding off of the table. The breeze was getting stronger. She sniffed and nodded. Rain was coming, she could smell it.
The banging of plastic against metal pulled her attention to Dan and Cathy’s house. Dan had come out the back door, two small mop buckets in his hands. He crossed their pristine concrete patio, weaving between the huge planters of flowers, and headed for the pool.
“If I couldn’t get out to John’s, at least I helped somebody today,” she said. Standing, she picked up the empty glasses. The note skittered across the table, and she caught it. She was tempted to open it and read it, but just stuck it into her back pocket. No need to pour more salt in that fresh wound.
Switching both glasses into one hand and taking the jug of sweet tea with the other, she went back into the house. She really needed that nap.
“Thankfully, there’s no signs of a concussion—but watch that. They could show up later. I drained some of the fluid out of the area around his knee. I’m giving him instructions to cool it off once an hour or so as best as he can—with ice if you can get it. And of course keep it elevated, and take ibuprofen. He’s been through this before; he knows the drill,” Dr. Butcher said, tightening the velcro straps on the leg brace.
“Keep it immobilized for a couple days, massage the muscle, blah blah,” Thomas said.
“So his leg’s not broken?” Dotty asked.
“I don’t feel a break, but I can’t run an X-ray to confirm that. Our generator won’t power the machine. I’m hoping he just twisted it and aggravated his old injury rather than tearing something, but time will tell.”
“It doesn’t feel like a break,” Thomas said. “There’s no…heat. Know what I mean?”
Dr. Butcher nodded and handed Thomas a pair of crutches. “Yep. Got a break flying off of a dirt bike when I was a kid. Felt like someone had stuck a hot water bottle right here.” He pointed to the center of his forearm. “Now, I know my desk isn’t as comfortable as a bed, so you should have plenty of incentive to get down from there and try walking.”
“You didn’t tell me to bring crutches, Thomas, and I didn’t think of it,” Dotty said.
“It’s okay Grams. I’ll just use these to get to the truck,” Thomas said, wincing as he scooted around and lowered his feet to the floor. “Does it have to be that tight? Even with you draining it, it feels like there’s a cantaloupe under there.”
“Do you want it the size of a watermelon? If so, I can loosen it up,” Dr. Butcher said.
Thomas made a growling noise and stood up on his good leg, balancing on the crutches.
“If it’s not feeling better in 24 hours you should think about heading up to the city. I don’t know if the hospital still has power but if they do, they can do a lot more than I can here. There could be a fracture that won’t show up without an X-ray. If you needed to be cut open, I’m your guy. But for what seems to be a soft tissue injury…” Doctor Butcher shrugged.
“Nah Doc, I think you’re right,” Thomas said. “I wanted to just go straight home and put on my brace, but my paramedic buddies insisted the Deputy bring me here. I’ll see how it goes. Sorry about taking up your desk.”
Doctor Butcher shrugged. “Sorry we didn’t have enough beds for all of you. With the short board, I guess it didn’t matter though; you wouldn’t have been comfortable anywhere. We’re just not set up to have multiple emergencies like this.”
A nurse stuck her head in the door and tapped gently. “Craig, the preacher and your dad are back.”
“We’re gimping out right now,” Dr. Butcher said, and scooted out of the way as Thomas half-heartedly swung a crutch at his ankles. “Hopefully they’ve got some good news.”
They walked into the crowded lobby of the town’s small med center. Sheriff Kane stood by the reception desk, talking to Pastor Bill and an older, softer version of Dr. Butcher. Betty sat near the doors, looking out into the parking lot with a lost expression.
Dr. Butcher saw the small group and looked around, confused.
“Where’s Kendra? Is she already checking the patients?”
The three men stopped talking and looked at each other. The older version of Dr. Butcher frowned and shook his head.
“She wasn’t there, son. Nobody was.”
“Maybe they just didn’t hear you knocking,” Craig said. “Did you go around back?”
Sheriff Kane spoke up. “Frank knew where she and her husband kept their spare key. He went inside. Said it looked like the place had been tossed. Dr. Scott’s gone, Craig. Took off.”
“Without telling us? She must have left a note or something, saying how long she’d be gone-“
“No note,” Simon said. “Just picked up and left. I’m finding out that there’s a lot of that going on. People not showing up for their shifts, trucks not showing up for their deliveries-”
“Let me get your paperwork together, Thomas,” the nurse sai
d, walking by and patting him on the shoulder. “I’ve got to write it all out so it’ll take me a bit. Why don’t you sit down?”
“I’ve been sitting on the doc’s desk for hours,” Thomas said. “I’ll just stand. But thank you, Mrs. Macy.”
She looked him over with a critical eye and frowned. “You need to sit down and elevate that.” She pointed at his leg brace and then at a chair. “Sit there, prop your leg up on another chair. Now.”
“No use arguing with a redhead. Sit down,” the elder Butcher said. “You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.”
Dotty slipped past Thomas to sit beside Betty, and pulled a chair over for Thomas to prop his leg on. He sat down on her other side and lifted his leg to the chair, wincing.
The men continued talking and Dotty turned to look at Betty.
“Betty, how were they?” She asked.
“We had a list of twenty. We lost six,” Betty said, not turning her head. “They all lived alone. I guess no one bothered to check on them and they just…” She fluttered her hand.
“I’m sorry,” Dotty said, putting her hand over Betty’s. At the contact, Betty finally turned her head.
“We nearly lost three more. All elderly. They don’t drive anymore, and with the phones out they couldn’t call for help. Why don’t people just check on their elderly neighbors, Dotty? Why is knocking on the door and saying ‘do you need anything’ so hard to do?”
“I guess they just got caught up in taking care of their own things,” Dotty said. “Look at us. We didn’t even think of checking on anyone until this morning.”
Betty sighed and nodded. “Jim didn’t think of it until this morning, either,” she said, gesturing at the older Dr. Butcher. “We got here just a few minutes after him. It’s a good thing the doors were still locked, or he’d have already been gone.”
Dotty frowned. “What do you mean, locked? And why were you coming here at all?”
Betty’s face turned angry, then she blew a breath out of her nose and shook her head. “That kid manning the fire station wouldn’t let us have the list. Patient privacy, he said—and I can understand that. But then he wouldn’t come with us either, and I can understand that too; somebody needed to be there to turn on the sirens and call the other boys in. It was just frustrating. So we came here to see if maybe Dr. Scott or a nurse could use their list and come with us. Dr. Scott’s supposed to be here by 8am, you know.”