113 Katama Rd

by Katie Winters

  Chapter Sixteen

  At one a.m. at the hospital the following evening, Camilla watched as a thunderstorm rolled over the island. Lightning flashed its jagged formations across the waters, and rain splattered against the window panes. Another nurse, Rhonda, flew past her in a hurry and said, “I just ran out to my car and now I’m totally drenched! It’s really coming down out there! Batten down the hatches!”

  Due to the frantic nature of the storm, the island seemed ripe for accidents. Ambulances screamed in every half-hour or so, and Camilla found herself rushing head-long from room to room. Nothing seemed overly serious, but everything required immediate attention. She almost felt the urge to check to see if it was a full moon.

  Nearly an hour into the storm, Camilla found herself in a brightly lit room. A boy of about seven had broken his leg, and he sat propped up in bed, his face completely pale with shock. Adorably, he still wore his T-Rex pajamas, as his mother explained that he had gotten up in the night and slept-walked himself down the stairs. The mother was tearful and panicked; her hair was tousled in five different directions. Probably, she would never sleep through the night again.

  Suddenly, Doctor Oliphant appeared in the hospital room. He carried his clipboard as though it was a weapon, and his bright, “Hey there, Sport” was entirely off.

  The mother of the boy glowered at him as she splayed her hand across her son’s forehead.

  “Sounds like we’re going to check out that bone of yours and then put a cool cast on it,” Doctor Oliphant continued. “How does that sound?”

  The boy just blinked at him as waves of pain and fatigue overtook him. Brett arched his brow at Camilla as though he couldn’t understand why this mother-son duo didn’t want to play along with him.

  “Anyway, you have one of the best nurses in the entire hospital at your disposal,” he continued. “Camilla will help me every step of the way. Won’t you, Camilla?” He winked at her.

  The wink sent shivers up and down Camilla’s spine. She suddenly detested him. She couldn’t fully understand why, though.

  Still, he did know this Casper guy. They seemed pretty chummy. Was it possible that Brett didn’t know all the illegal dealings Casper was involved with? Of course, he did. She was certain he had said they’d been friends for decades. She couldn’t imagine one of her best friends hiding such a tremendous element of their personality or dealings from the rest of them.

  Once Camilla had helped with the casting of the poor boy’s leg, she practically leaped away from Brett en route to the break room. Unfortunately, she felt his presence hot behind her; his eyes seemed to burn a hole into her back. When she reached the break room, she continued just walking on, heading to the bathroom, finding another way to escape. But before she could, Brett tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Hey. Camilla.”

  He wouldn’t let her get away from him at all.

  She turned and said a bright, “Oh, hi, Doctor. I didn’t realize you were right behind me.”

  Brett’s eyes glowed with curiosity now. She was reminded of a hunter ogling his prey just before he shot at it. He tilted his head toward the vending machine and said, “Can I treat you with a snack? Cup of coffee? It’s a wild one out there. I want to warm up.”

  Before she had a chance to answer, he bounded for the coffee machine and poured them both cups. She took one of them with a shivering hand.

  “Uh oh. Epilepsy?” he asked with a horrible laugh.

  This was one of the more offensive things Camilla had ever heard. Her fake smile fell.

  “You know, I can’t help but think something,” he said as he flicked through his pocket on the hunt for change for a candy bar. “I can’t help but think that you’re trying to avoid me for some reason.”

  Camilla’s nostrils flared. “I haven’t been.”

  “Of course. I knew it was all in my head,” Brett said as he pushed a quarter into the machine menacingly. “I mean, our date — you remember we went on a date, don’t you? — our date went so well. I thought to myself, now that is a lady I would like to really get to know.”

  His eyes glittered. Camilla felt like a mouse; he was the cat. How had she allowed him to be the cat?

  “So say it.” Brett pushed another quarter into the machine as he gazed at her. “Say you’ll go out with me again.”

  Camilla’s jaw clenched. She flashed her eyes toward the window. Another lightning bolt darted out from the dark sky.

  “I don’t mean to be rude,” she began. “It’s just that I—”

  “Rude? You don’t have to be rude. All I want is another few hours with you.” Brett lifted his hand to Camilla’s upper arm. His thumb traced a tender pattern.

  Camilla wanted to smack him across the face, just for touching her.

  She stepped back as heat rushed to her face. “I’m currently in the middle of a separation and it’s been quite difficult, to say the least. I don’t know if I can date anyone, to be honest with you. Not right now.”

  A Snickers bar fell from the top row of the vending machine. It thudded loudly. Brett bent down and lifted the candy from the mouth of the beast. When he rose again, he tore it open and took an enormous, disgusting bite. Again, Camilla wanted to smack him across the cheek.

  “Camilla. You know that I’m a doctor, right?”

  Camilla’s throat grew tight. She crossed and uncrossed her arms. “Yes.”

  “You know that I didn’t even have to become a doctor to be rich? That I already was? But I went into the medical field out of the goodness of my heart?”

  Camilla had no idea what to say to that. She glowered at him.

  “You know that I have countless women after me, don’t you? That all I have to do is snap my fingers, and about fifteen women in this very hospital would drop their panties.”

  Camilla’s lips parted in shock. Hatred buzzed through her head and her heart.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Doctor Oliphant seemed surprised that she’d answered him. Apparently, he was accustomed to bullying people into stunned silence.

  “I’m sorry. Because it sounds like, to me, you were on the verge of verbal sexual assault in the workplace? Or am I incorrect about that?”

  Not even fazed by her words, Brett took another horrible bite of his Snickers. The caramel eased between his teeth as he chewed.

  “I never should have wasted a single minute on you,” Brett continued icily.

  “Tell me everything about your friend, Casper Jennings.” Camilla continued to glare at him. He no longer looked like a man to her. He looked like a scared little boy.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “What is Casper Jennings doing with his investment company? Montlake Investments? What is that, exactly?” Camilla’s words came fast and hot. “And don’t you know that he’s conned several families here on Martha’s Vineyard out of their savings?”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “I think you do. I bet you and Casper meet at the golf club and talk about it. I bet you whack your stupid little white balls across the green and talk about all the families Casper has wronged. And then, you go and drink cocktails and talk about it some more. Don’t you, Brett?”

  Camilla had never tried to intimidate anyone before. In these moments, she found that it suited her.

  Brett ticked his head back and forth in shock. After a long pause, he scoffed again and said, “I can’t believe I thought you were anything but an idiot. Look at you. A conspiracy theorist. I should really tell the head nurse about this.”

  “What exactly will you tell her?” Camilla demanded. “That I don’t want to date you anymore? Try and take me off my shift? Good luck. I’ve known Ursula since I was twenty-five years old. I’m pretty sure she knows what kind of nurse I am. And, as nurses, we know exactly what we have to deal with when it comes to arrogant doctors like you. Maybe I should have a chat with our administration about your sexual advances?”

  The si
lence that fell between them was proof that Camilla had given Brett no room to say another word. She tightened her arms over her chest and turned on her heel before she stormed out into the hallway again. She worked the next hours of her shift in a flurry of anger. Every time she passed Brett in the hallway, she cast him a look of total resentment.

  What. An. A-hole.

  When Camilla left the hospital the following morning at around nine-thirty, she dialed Susan Sheridan immediately.

  “Susan? I have someone you might be interested in interviewing about this whole Montlake Investments situation,” Camilla said as she gazed out across the glistening waters of the Nantucket Sound. “His name is Brett Oliphant. And he’s been friends with Casper Jennings for decades.”

  “Wonderful,” Susan said primly. “He’s a doctor at the ER, isn’t he?”

  “He is, actually,” Camilla said as she clutched the steering wheel harder and raced her car back toward Katama Rd. “He’s a brilliant doctor but one of the worst people I’ve ever met in my life.”

  Susan laughed good-naturedly. “Can’t wait to meet him.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Camilla drove her car up Katama Rd., she spotted a familiar truck stretched out toward the far end of her property. The back of the truck had been lifted, and there, within the bottom of the overhang, one-half of Jonathon disappeared. Camilla’s heart pounded with confusion. She parked her car in the middle of the driveway and stepped out in her scrubs. As she placed her hands on her hips, Jonathon reappeared from the darkness within his truck. In his good hand, he held a pair of shears.

  “Jonathon?”

  Jonathon waved the shears as he stepped back and then used his arm to swing the truck bed closed. Camilla walked over to him, her brow furrowed. If she wasn’t mistaken, his cheeks had a bit more color to them than they usually did and his eyes seemed more alert.

  If she was honest, it was such a relief to see him just then, after what she had gone through over the night with Doctor Oliphant. Some small part of her screamed out that he was her knight in shining armor and there he was, ready to save the day.

  “I noticed the other day that the bushes needed some trimming,” Jonathon said before even giving her a proper hello. He seemed sheepish.

  “You didn’t have to come over to do that,” Camilla offered.

  Jonathon shrugged as he raised his bad hand. “I don’t have a whole lot else to do right now.”

  “You can really shear the bushes one-handed?”

  Jonathon wagged his eyebrows and showed her how he could stick his bandaged hand into one of the holes while he used his good hand to guide the shears evenly.

  “Impressive,” Camilla said with a laugh.

  “And I noticed some of the flowers out front are on the verge of dying,” Jonathon continued. He headed up toward the flower beds, his shoulders back. Camilla could do nothing but follow him. Her stomach twisted with shame. After all, she had been the one to put the flowers in grave danger. “They’re salvageable for sure, but they need to be watered and weeded. Badly,” he pointed out.

  Camilla tilted her head as confusion fell over her once again. Why had Jonathon come to tend to her flower beds? Why did he want to shear the bushes? These weren’t his responsibilities. And yet, seeing him there, in the front yard, bright-eyed and ready to work, she swam through feelings of longing. This had been her reality for years; it had been his, too.

  “Let me get changed, and I’ll help you,” Camilla said.

  “Don’t be silly. I know you’ve been working for the past twelve hours. You should go in and sleep. I’ll be out of your hair when you wake up.”

  But Camilla just shrugged. “I’m not very sleepy right now. Not yet, anyway.”

  Camilla hustled inside and changed into a pair of jean shorts and a halter top. She glanced at herself in the mirror, then donned the slightest hint of eyeliner. Her breasts swelled beautifully beneath the halter top, and she kidded herself, internally, for attempting to “woo” her soon-to-be ex-husband while doing yard work. If that wasn’t an over-forty-year-old problem, she wasn’t sure what was.

  The following few hours sizzled with life, electricity, laughter and joy. They started out on the bushes — shaping them, having little arguments about the ways in which Jonathon had shaped them in the past, then accidentally shaving a few of them too far down so that they shrugged and said, “Well, I guess they’ll grow back. That’s the thing about bushes.”

  Jonathon entered the backyard and discovered that she also hadn’t kept up the vegetable garden, which they had committed to together years ago.

  “Gosh. Remember two years ago? We had enough tomatoes to feed the whole neighborhood.”

  “I remember. I still have cans and cans of salsa. I swore, if I saw another tomato again, I would throw it out the window,” Camilla said.

  They blinked at the barren wasteland of weeds, which now made up the spot where their garden had been. Camilla’s heart stirred with sadness and, admittedly, guilt. Sure, Jonathon had a whole lot more to feel guilty about, but she’d had her hand in some of their marriage trouble, too. They’d lost all form of communication. The garden was just another side-effect of that.

  “Maybe it’s not too late for some things. Like pumpkins or squash.” Jonathon looked contemplative as he bent down and touched the soil, which was dry and crackly from the June sunlight. “Beets. Zucchini. Carrots. Potatoes. Those too.”

  “You know it’s just Andrea and me here. There aren’t so many mouths to feed. Not that there ever were.”

  Jonathon nodded sadly. Camilla regretted her words almost instantly. A long, long time ago, they had discussed the possibility of having more children. Andrea’s birth had been difficult and then, they had fallen easily into a pattern of three. They hadn’t needed anyone else. The Franklin family had felt whole.

  “Then, I guess, we could plant grass seeds over it,” Jonathon tried then as he stood up again. “No reason to keep this big patch of dirt here if it isn’t going to be used.”

  Camilla’s throat tightened at the thought. Was this their version of the divorce papers? Filling in the garden?

  After another pause, Jonathon turned toward the back porch, where he pointed at the stairs that curved down toward the patio. “Remember when Andrea busted her lip on those stairs? I thought she would never stop bleeding.”

  “How could I forget? There was blood everywhere.”

  “You were so calm, but I lost my mind,” Jonathon said with a laugh. “I was like, you’re a nurse! Do something! And you were just like, Jonathon! Calm down!”

  Camilla giggled and stepped toward those very steps. “We all ate popsicles for dinner that night. Andrea loved it. She was a little bit too old for it, but we babied her something silly that day.”

  “But I never thought we spoiled her too much,” Jonathon said.

  “No. I don’t think so, either. And I can see it in everything she does. She works really hard and doesn’t have an ego about it, either. Just nose to the grindstone, just like her dad.”

  “AND MOM.”

  Camilla then led Jonathon into the house. He stood half-awkwardly in the kitchen while she poured them each a glass of lemonade. They both smelled of soil, grass, and greenery. It felt pleasant to have sweated out beneath the sun for a change rather than in the white halls of the hospital. Camilla thought about telling Jonathon about what had happened the previous night at the hospital and that maybe, she knew someone who could give even more power to their case.

  But that would have opened up a whole can of worms.

  Camilla sipped her lemonade and glanced at the clock. Somehow, it was already one-thirty. Her stomach threatened to eat itself.

  “Why don’t I make us some sandwiches? We can sit on the back porch and eat before you head back to your apartment.”

  Jonathon’s look was difficult to read. Maybe the idea of his apartment, and the fact that some hour soon, he would have to return to it, had reminded him of th
e terrible hole he’d dug for them. Or maybe he was just hungry.

  But in any case, he agreed to the sandwiches.

  Camilla shooed him out of the kitchen so he could rest. As she smeared mayonnaise over a slice of bread, she heard the familiar sound of a vinyl record beginning to creak beneath the needles. In a moment, an old folk album began to play. Camilla’s heart swelled.

  A few minutes later, Camilla arrived on the porch with two plates of sandwiches, sliced pickles and cheese. Jonathon had his head lifted toward the sun; he’d closed his eyes against the penetrative rays and looked completely content. Camilla wasn’t sure the last time she and Jonathon had had such a pleasant day together at their house. It was like a day outside of time.

  “These look great,” Jonathon said when he finally realized Camilla’s presence. “Wow. Roast beef! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had roast beef.”

  Camilla smiled warmly. Since Andrea had returned home from New York, Camilla had prepared food for her only a few times. It was intimate to make food for people. She couldn’t avoid this feeling that she wanted to continue to take care of this man.

  “So Andrea’s working for that boat tour company? And other jobs as she finds them?”

  “That’s right. She has a lot of funny stories about horrible tourists,” Camilla said. “She sometimes acts out the stories for me when she gets back. It’s good she has such a good attitude about it. I mean, I know, as a nurse, I deal with some of the most horrendous tourists. They want to belittle you and they also want to demand all your attention at once. It’s exhausting.”

  “You and Andrea are basically saints, in my book.”

  Camilla took a tentative bite of her roast beef and chewed slowly. After a long pause, she finally said, “It’s been a difficult year. But I can feel Andrea and I getting stronger because of it. I guess that’s the thing about growing older, isn’t it? You’re never really sure what will happen next. But you have to have the courage to deal with it. And I guess that’s what we’ve learned to do. Create that courage.”