At first the news took Miriam aback, but she quickly regained her composure. “Of course, you did nothing wrong. If he should call again, please tell him that I am at the hospital and give him the phone number. I’m in Room 359.”
“I’ll make sure he gets the message. Be well, Mrs. Walton.”
“Thank you very much. I expect to be seeing you soon.”
CHAPTER 37
Nathan Walton was fuming; nothing seemed to be going right. First, his cell phone charger went missing and then his connection at Logan was out of service with no replacement in sight. He was sitting in a bar at the airport nursing a Rusty Nail, his favorite drink. The Public phones had long lines. I’ve got to calm down. All this stress is no good for my blood pressure.
He turned, for what must have been the twentieth time, to check the lines at the payphones. They were still at least ten people deep. What a time to be without a charger. Then it hit him, there must be a cyber shop in a big airport like this. I’ll buy a charger or if need be, one of those throwaway phones.
Thirty minutes later and seventy dollars poorer, he had a new battery pack and a charger. Relieved, he placed a call to the Owensburg Inn.
“This is Nathan Walton. I called earlier about my wife Miriam who is a guest there.”
“Yes, of course, sir. I believe that you spoke with me then. I have news for you. Your wife called a short time ago. Apparently, she was injured at the show out at the park and is in the Owensburg General Hospital. She called to make sure we were holding her room and I informed her about your earlier call. She asked me to give you the telephone number at the hospital and her room number.” He relayed the information to Nathan adding, “I hope we will see you both, soon.”
* * *
Satisfied that Miriam was safe, he returned to the information booth near his previously scheduled departure gate. The “closed” sign continued to tell the story. He crossed the aisle to the bar, got a small table in the corner where he got maximum bars on his cell and had a clear view of the gate. He ordered another Rusty Nail and settled in to call Miriam.
It took a while for the call to go through.
“Hello, Precious. How are you?”
Miriam was half asleep when she answered the phone. Groggily she muttered, “Nathan is that really you?”
“It’s me, but unfortunately I’m still a thousand miles away. What’s going on with you?
The man at the hotel said that you were injured.
What happened?”
“Oh, it’s the damnedest thing. There was a terrible accident at the show I attended. This monstrous stage collapsed onto the audience. Luckily, I was far enough away when it fell, but the crowd stampeded, and I got knocked down and hit my head. I lost my purse and everything I had in it. That’s why I didn’t have them call you. All my phone numbers are in that damn phone. There’s something wrong with the way we depend entirely on something so expendable. Anyway, they say I have a Grade 3 concussion, whatever that is. Apparently, it’s serious enough for them to keep me until tomorrow for observation. I feel okay; just have a slight headache.”
“Thank, god. Did the doctor say when you will be able to travel? I know that you’ll be glad to get back home after that ordeal.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Miriam had to think quickly, but the effects of her injury made concentration difficult. Finally, she spoke, “Look, I’m going to be alright. You don’t have to cut your visit short.”
“Nonsense. I need to be there for you. The main objective of my trip was accomplished today. The rest was just going to be public relations. I can’t help thinking that if it hadn’t been for that trip, I would have been with you at the park and you wouldn’t be in a hospital bed.”
“Or you might be in the bed next to me or in another hospital, entirely. So, count your blessings. What’s the story about your trip back?”
“It’s an absolute disaster. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. I expected to be there by now and I would be, except the connecting plane developed mechanical problems and is out-ofservice. So, I’m stuck here at Logan Airport in Boston. There is no information about a replacement plane, so it looks as if I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning before I can get out of here.” He sighed, and continued, “I thought about renting a car, but it’s a ten-hour drive at least and I am really beat. The last thing I need is to fall asleep at the wheel and land up in a ditch somewhere or kill somebody. Anyway, the next flight is at 6am tomorrow morning and I’m booked on it. It’s coach, but any port in a storm, as they say. I should be out there between 8am and 9am, unless through some miracle, the rocket scientists solve the plane problem before then, but I’m really not holding out any hope of that happening. I just thank god it’s a relatively short trip.”
“Well, why don’t you find a bar and have a few of your Rusty Nails and a nice, thick, juicy steak. That always helps you feel better and it will help you wile away the hours.”
“You know, that sounds like a great idea,” he said, as if he needed any prompting in that direction, “I’ll have a good meal and try to catch a nap later. At least the chairs by the gate are well padded. It won’t be the first time I’ve slept at an airport.”
Knowing that Mike was on his way, Miriam needed to cut the call short. “I should go now, sweetie. I’m sharing the room with several others and they want us to get all the sleep we can get. Give me your cell number in case I need to call you.” She wrote it down and added, “I love you my dear Nathan and I can’t wait to hold you again.”
“Same here. Sleep well, my Precious.”
Miriam returned the phone to its cradle. A sudden feeling of dread flooded her body as she realized that in less than half a day her husband, who was totally unaware of the search for her son, would be there wanting to whisk her back to the safety of their home.
Where the hell is Mike? I got to know about Thomas.
CHAPTER 38
Dr. Jensen led the group to the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. As they approached the window Room 333, Jensen reminded them about the rules. “Please remember everything I said downstairs. This is probably going to be the most difficult visit you will have to make. Over time, some of the wires and tubes will be disconnected and you will get to see more of the
Thomas you are familiar with.”
They stepped up to the line and looked in on the figure prostrate on the bed with dozens of tubes and wires connected to him. Two nurses were in attendance checking the monitors. Emily gasped, and Walter reached over to support her arm. Louise’s knees gave out and Mike wrapped an arm around her waist, for support. He led her over to a nearby bench. She looked up at him, “Thanks Mike, I thought I was ready to see him. I know I saw the picture, but since it wasn’t a picture of Thomas, I was expecting something less upsetting.” Her eyes switched to Dr. Jensen. “Are you sure that that is Thomas in there?”
“Very certain, Ms. O’Neill. Please remember what I said before. Many of the tubes and wires you see are only there to monitor Thomas’s condition during the first 72 to 96 hours. If everything goes as planned, the next time you see him some of them will be gone and the time after that still a few more. In cases such as these, we prefer to err on the side of too much monitoring rather than too little.”
Emily joined Louise on the bench. She put her arm around her and held her close for several minutes.
Walter took Dr. Jensen’s arm and they stepped aside. “Look, Doctor, I can see that visiting Thomas like this is very difficult for the ladies.
Hell, it’s taking all the self control I have to stop from breaking down in tears myself. You’ve been through this a lot of times. Do you have any advice for me on what to say and do? I sometimes put my foot in my mouth when it comes to talking with the fairer sex and I don’t want to make matters any worse than they already are.”
“I understand what you’re going through. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Ther
e is no right or wrong when it comes to circumstances like this. As far as I know, none of you have ever been in a situation like this, so just try your best to be supportive of whatever the others want to do. Things tend to be overly emotional in the beginning, but that improves over time. Just play it by ear. Remain the calm, reasoning one; the rock.
They will listen to you as long as you show you understand where they are coming from. Let them vent and be slow with any criticism. That’s about all
I can advise.”
“Well, that’s a lot, but it makes sense. Thank you, Doctor.”
“You’re welcome.”
Emily got up and returned to the red line, followed by the others. Looking in at Thomas she asked, “My poor baby, why did this have to happen to you?”
Walter squeezed her shoulder and she looked at him with tear fill eyes, “Whatever it takes, we’re going to help him get through this.” Another squeeze followed.
Mike stepped away from the line. “I’m going to go back to Miriam’s room to bring her up to date. She must be going nuts having to wait like this.”
Emily touched his arm, “You shouldn’t have to do that alone, Mike. Why don’t we all go back together?” She looked at Walter and Louise and they both agreed.
Mike looked relieved, “I sure would appreciate that. I’m not too good at this sort of situation and I sure wouldn’t want to mess it up. I’ve dealt with failed searches galore and many disappointed clients, but his is another thing entirely.”
The men shook Dr. Jensen’s hand and the women gave him a hug. Somewhat embarrassed by the gestures, Dr. Jensen’s face changed several shades of red.
“We’ll be in touch with you Emily as soon as we know anything more about Thomas’s condition.
“Thank you Doctor, for everything.”
Walter got out his keys. “Well, let’s get going then. The sooner we can relieve Miriam’s anxiety the better.”
What the four of them just experienced may well turn out to be the easiest part of this ordeal. We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?
CHAPTER 39
The minute they entered the room, Miriam snapped out of the reverie she had slipped into.
“How is he?”
Mike fielded the question as the others gathered chairs from around the room. “We couldn’t see much of Thomas because they’ve got all these wires and tubes hooked up. You heard what the doctor told us. It was exactly as it was in the picture he showed us.”
She looked around her bed at each of them.
“I guess it must have been hard seeing him like that. Did the doctor tell you when they will bring him out of the coma?”
Emily spoke up, “The doctor can’t tell us that yet. Everything depends on how well his body responds to the operation they performed and their success at treating the secondary injuries he received.”
“I don’t like the fact that they operated on Thomas without any of us knowing anything about it; especially such a serious operation. It doesn’t seem right.”
Emily reached out and took Miriam’s hand. “We all felt that way at first, but Dr. Freenold explained that it was a life or death situation. The good news is that he also said that it looked as if the operation was successful.” Changing the subject, she asked, “Have you heard anything yet about when you will be released?”
“Not yet. If it wasn’t for the fact that beds are in short supply, I’d think that they were keeping me here just to make a few bucks. Something else happened while you were gone. My husband called me. He called the hotel right soon after I called them to tell them I was here. When he hadn’t heard from me he cancelled his trip and headed here. He’s stuck in Boston right now because of a plane shortage and won’t get here until tomorrow.” She suddenly stopped talking and her eyes teared up.
Louise asked, “Why do you seem so unhappy about that? I would think you would be happy to see him.”
Miriam answered, “Yes, one would think so, but the problem is that Nathan doesn’t know about Thomas.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That’s okay, dear. You had no way of knowing. I thought that since Nathan was going to be abroad for at least two weeks, I’d have time to meet Thomas and figure out where we would go from there. Now I have to figure out how to deal with him when he gets here tomorrow. He was talking about me being released and the two of us returning home. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not going to leave Thomas.” Her voice quivered as tears flowed down her face.
Emily grabbed a tissue and handed it to Miriam. “Maybe I can help you with that. I know it won’t be easy, but I’m willing to spend some time with you now, if you want to fill me in on the details.” She turned to her husband, “Why don’t you take Louise home while Miriam and I have a long talk. It may take a while, so I’ll call you when we’re finished.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I need to check in with the office, anyway, and I’m sure that
Louise could use some private time.”
Louise nodded affirmatively. “This has been a very trying day.” She looked at the ring box and added, “I need time to let this all sink in and a long nap on a soft bed wouldn’t hurt. That concrete bench I was on last night left me numb in a few places.”
Mike gave a quick wave to Miriam. “I’ll go check out the cafeteria. I can use a strong cup of coffee right now. Maybe I’ll even try out some of that notorious hospital food to go with it.”
“Don’t expect much, if it’s the same as they served me, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Mike turned to Emily. “When you two are through, call my cell. I’ll give you a ride home, so Walter doesn’t have to come all the way back here.”
Walter looked at Emily, saw an okay, and thanked Mike. He gave his wife a quick kiss and he and Louise left for home. Mike left the room with them, leaving Emily and Miriam to work out a plan to explain Thomas to her husband.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
CHAPTER 40
Emily pulled her chair closer to the bed so that their conversation would not be overheard.
Miriam spoke first. “This is going to be the most difficult thing I have ever done. Nathan and I have never kept secrets from each other. Now here I am with a whopper like this.”
“Are you certain that he will be upset? After all, you’re in the hospital with a concussion, lucky to have escaped serious injury. Your son is in an ICU with a serious head injury. How could he be upset with you under those circumstances?”
“You’ve got a point there. He will be very thoughtful at first, but what I fear is what happens when the initial feelings wear off. That’s the Nathan I don’t want to face. We’ve had a very happy marriage for the most part, but there is a dark side to Nathan that comes from his childhood and especially from his relationship with his mother. Apparently, she never wanted children and made no effort to disguise it. Loyalty is very important to him. We’ve had some real donnybrooks over the years and they were mostly about relationships. He highly values our union and doesn’t want to share it with anyone. Would you believe that he even felt that way about a cat I rescued? He made me take it back to the shelter because he said that the cat was cutting into our ‘alone’ time.”
Emily looked shocked. “You poor woman.” “Oh, I didn’t mean to paint a totally bleak picture about our marriage. When we’re alone Nathan is the gentlest man I know. He is thoughtful and considerate as long as no third party is involved. He can, at times, blur the lines of civility and get downright cruel, especially if he feels that he has been betrayed. He’s done it with members of his family and with a previous business associate. So, you can see why I’m concerned. Having Thomas in my life threatens to destroy my marriage, but I can’t see any way to avoid it.”
“Do you think it would help if Walter or I, or perhaps both of us were here when you tell him about Thomas?”
“Oh, no, I think that would just
muddy the waters. He’ll have enough to handle with me being in the hospital and then with the news about Thomas. I can’t get you involved in my web of deceit. I’ll just have to deal with it as best I can and hope that his love for me and sense of decency are stronger than his hurt feeling. He’s really a wonderful man.”
“Well if you change your mind, the offer stands.”
“That’s very sweet of you Emily. No, I got myself into this mess and I’m going to have to live with the consequences, no matter what they are. It’s helped a lot talking with you about it, though. I think I know how I’m going to approach the subject of Thomas with Nathan.”
A smile replaced the frown on her face. “I feel much better now. You’re a very kind person. I’m so glad that Thomas grew up with you and Walter. You did such a wonderful job with his upbringing.”
Emily smiled, “Careful now, you’ll give me a swelled head. Are you certain that you’re going to be okay?”
“Yes, I’m certain. Go now, Walter and Louise are going to need you.” She stopped for a second and added, “She’s such a lovely young woman, isn’t she? Thomas has such good taste when it comes to women; his future wife as well as his foster mother.”
“That’s so kind of you to say and I certainly agree with you about Louise. Okay then, I’ll go home, but remember I’m just a phone call away.”
“How could I forget my new BFF?”
Emily smiled as she gathered up her coat and bag. She waved as she left the room but waited until she was in the lobby before calling Mike for a ride home.
CHAPTER 41
“E-Coli, are you certain?” The question came from a dumbfounded Director of the Owensburg General Hospital, Dr. Philip Owens. “How could that happen, we’ve never had a problem in our commissary?”
Tenderly Beats the Lonely Heart Page 12