“Oh, yeah.” Louis sat back down on the cooler and the lid creaked ominously. “I wanted to run something by you. Well, it’s sort of... well, it ain’t exactly a problem. I’m afraid ya’ll ’a laugh at me.”
“Naw, we wouldn’t laugh at you, Louis.” Mike butted him off the cooler to get himself a fresh drink. “Me ’n Tyler done discussed it and we think you ought to go for the gusto.”
“You do?!” Louis was totally bewildered. “How in hell do you know what I was wantin’ to do?”
“Why, it’s wrote all over your face, Louis.” Mike shook his head and got comfortable in his chair again. He plopped his hat back on his head. “I got a sense for that kind ’o thing.”
“You do?!” Louis was shocked. “That’s downright uncanny. If that’s so, then tell me how I might go about it.”
“Just get up the nerve and ask,” Mike laughed. “hell, you ought to know what needs to be done. It ain’t like its the first time you done somethin’ like that, is it?”
“As a matter of fact, it is,” Louis frowned. “I have no idea how to start.”
“Well, just grab a root and growl,” Mike pulled his cap back down over his face “you’re in a better position than either one of us. You can just pretend like you’re on police business, you know? Ask a few ’fficial questions and then one thing leads to another and then you just sort of pop it into the conversation. See what kind of reaction you get. Test the water, as they say. Should work. First thing you know, ever thing will be goin’ your way.”
“Yeah.” Louis sat staring across the lake at some distant point. “I guess you’re right. What do you think, Tyler?”
“Whatever you want to do.” Tyler had no idea what they were talking about.
“Then it’s OK with you guys?” Louis perked up.
“It’s your business, Louis,” Mike told him. “It don’t matter to me.”
“Yeah, whatever you want,” Tyler chimed in. He really didn’t want to get pulled into whatever Louis was planning. He’d just as soon stay out of it.
“Well, boys.” Louis got up and hitched up his pants. “Thanks for the advice. I guess I’d better be gettin’ back to town.”
“Yeah, right.” Mike waved one hand at him. “See ya.”
“Right.” Louis walked back up the pier whistling to himself. He was astounded that Mike’s famous ESP had kicked in on his plan to rebuild the flagpole monument. He’d just bring it up to the guys down at the station and kick it around with them. See how they reacted to the idea. hell, maybe they could make it a project for the Department. They usually did something for the community every year anyway. His spirits were greatly improved by the time he reached his truck.
Tyler turned to watch him go and then reached over to goose Mike.
“What the hell was that all about?” He asked. “Sounds serious.”
“He has the hots for that Aliger woman,” Mike told him. “But I can’t understand why he thinks he needs our permission.”
Chapter Eight:.
“You can come in now, Mr. McDaniels.”
The nurse beckoned to Tyler from the door marked L.T. Peterson, MD. He got up slowly and laid his magazine on the chair next to him. He had already prepared himself for the worst possible news just as he always did. His aunt had been waiting for a whole week for the results of her latest barrage of tests. What would it be this time? Kidney stones? Kidney failure? Cancer? Dialysis? The list was endless. He closed his eyes and then straightened his belt before entering the office. The short pudgy man behind the desk was swallowed up by the expansive teakwood in front of him. Aunt Mary sat primly on one of the chairs in front of the desk dressed in her Sunday best. Her white hair was done neatly in a bun at the nape of her neck. She smiled up at him nervously as he took the chair next to her.
Dr. Peterson stood up and, with great difficulty, reached across the desk to shake his hand. Tyler was always surprised by how soft the man’s hands were.
“Tyler,” the doctor nodded and sat back down. “How’s the wife?”
“Still joggin’.” Tyler forced a half-hearted smile. He didn’t like doctors in particular and he didn’t understand medicine at all. He refused to think about it. It seemed to him that unless you already knew what was wrong with you, it didn’t make any sense to go to one and let them start guessing what was ailing you. They’d start running tests and the next thing you know, you end up in the hospital with something you can’t even begin to pronounce, much less live through. If it couldn’t be cured with an aspirin, he didn’t have it. Paula Anne on the other hand, did not mind going to doctors. She’d been hounding him for years to get himself checked for sterility. She had always blamed him for her inability to get pregnant after she had lost the first baby, but he’d always considered it a blessing. The last thing he wanted to do was lose another baby whether it was his fault or hers. He didn’t want to know and he didn’t want a doctor poking around in his private life... or parts.
“Good! Good!” Dr. Peterson nodded and then picked up a sheaf of green, pink and yellow papers with incomprehensible graphs and charts all over them. “Your aunt would not go home until I promised to tell you firsthand what is going on. She said you would never believe her unless I confirmed it.”
“Believe what?” Tyler felt himself growing more nervous, but Aunt Mary just stared straight ahead with a peculiar look on her face.
“Why, nothing short of a medical miracle.” The doctor smiled broadly. “You realize that your aunt has been suffering for some time now from a combination of symptoms which indicated serious kidney problems, not the least of which could have resulted in complete renal failure. Swelling. Difficult urination. Pardon me, Mrs. McDaniels,” he said as she cleared her throat. “Among other things. Back pain. Dizziness.”
Tyler nodded.
“I was hoping that she had an infection or possibly kidney stones. Something we could treat with minimum medications. The lab tests showed that her kidneys are in remarkably good shape in light of her... youth. The swelling is down and she said her other complaints have all but cleared up over the past several days. In fact, her cholesterol is down, her blood pressure is down and her blood sugar levels are well within normal range for her age. What I’m saying is that the problem has all but disappeared without medication and without a trace. She also tells me that her arthritis is better and that her fingers and shoulders haven’t been bothering her as much lately. I’m curious. Have you been experimenting with any of those fashionable herbal remedies? You know that they haven’t been properly tested.”
Tyler was stunned, but happily stunned. Good news from a doctor! What was the world coming to?
Dr. Peterson chuckled, apparently amused at the look on Tyler’s face.
“I’m going to have her continue on her present medications for another few weeks and then I want to see her again. Now, Miss Mary.” He turned his bright blue eyes on the patient. “I don’t mean for you to start jogging with Paula, and I want to see you next week to check your blood pressure again. We’ll also need to check some other things to make sure everything is still good. It could just be a remission or it could have just been a fluke. We need to be sure.”
Aunt Mary smiled and nodded to him.
Dr. Peterson tapped the intercom on his desk and asked the nurse to come in.
The nurse arrived with a large brown envelope marked ‘X-Ray’ and slid out several plastic sheets to hand them across to the doctor. He got up and attached one of them to a light panel on the wall behind his desk and flipped on the switch.
“Now for the really bizarre news,” he said and pointed to an area on the black and white image.
“This is your X-Ray from one year ago. You see this little spot right here?” He glanced back at them and they both nodded. “That is scar tissue on your right lung from the pneumonia you suffered about six years ago.”
Aunt Mary nodded and Tyler just looked at the thing. He had no idea what he was looking at. He remembered the illness, but d
id not necessarily want to look into his aunt’s lungs.
The doctor pulled the sheet from the clips and replaced it with another.
It looked about the same to Tyler.
“This is your annual chest X-Ray we did last week.” He glanced at them again. “Notice anything peculiar?”
“The spot’s gone?” Tyler asked quietly after studying it for a moment.
“Yes, exactly.” The doctor nodded.
“That’s good, ain’t it?” He asked.
“Sure, it is, but it don’t happen that way.” The doctor sat down, leaving the image on the light. “Scars like that don’t just go away.”
Tyler looked confused and the doctor continued. “Lots of things leave scars on the lungs. TB, severe respiratory infections, emphysema. The scars never go away. In fact, they’re usually what we watch to make sure nothing else is happening there.”
Tyler could not grasp the significance of what he was saying.
“Furthermore, your heart, which was somewhat enlarged shows no signs of abnormality. In other words, your heart has shrunk.”
Aunt Mary put her hand over her mouth.
“No, that’s good,” the doctor told her. “It’s good, but it’s highly unlikely at your age. It just doesn’t happen.”
“So what does this mean?” Tyler was tired of guessing.
“It means that the lab probably got her X-Rays mixed up with someone else’s. I have scheduled her another X-Ray, just to make sure. I feel that, although it’s rare, they may have sent the wrong X-Rays back to me. There are also some differences in the bones of the shoulder. Her arthritis has diminished.”
“I’ve been feeling much better lately,” Aunt Mary told him. “As a matter of fact, I have noticed that my fingers haven’t been hurting me as much lately and my knee joints haven’t been giving me so much pain at night. I just didn’t want to say too much.”
Tyler nodded. He figured the news was too good to be true.
“Miss Mary, if you’ll just go out to the desk with Trudy, she’ll make the appointments for you.”
Aunt Mary got up, thanked the doctor and followed the nurse out of the room. Tyler stayed. He knew there was more that the doctor wanted to say to him.
The man got up to close the door and came back to sit on the edge of the desk facing him. Tyler braced himself for the other shoe to drop.
“I wanted to talk to you about Paula Anne,” he said and Tyler heard the sole slap the floor. He crumpled in on himself. What now?
“Has she discussed this decision she’s made with you?” He asked.
“What decision?” Tyler sat up straighter in the chair.
“I see.” The doctor frowned.
“What! What decision?”
“I shouldn’t have asked you.” The doctor cleared his throat and his round face reddened. “I guess I’ve opened a can of worms, Tyler. I’m sorry. I can’t discuss it with you before she tells you about it.”
“You can’t do that.” Tyler told him. “She’s my wife. I have the right to know what she’s up to.”
“I’m afraid not. I’m not going to argue with you about it. She has to tell you herself. I’ve done enough damage already. Just tell her I’m waiting to hear from both of you. Maybe that will prompt her to tell you. I’m sorry.”
Tyler sat for a moment in silence. The doctor got up and reached to shake hands with him. Tyler stood up and took his hand, flinching at the strange feel of it. Cold and clammy and so very smooth and soft.
Louis drove by Hannah’s house on his way to check out a suspected vandalism at an abandoned barn out on Durdin Drive. The old woman was sitting in a dilapidated chair on her front porch, enjoying the shade of a huge mulberry tree. Seemingly dozens of cats were vying for her attention as she handed out some sort of food to them. She looked up when he passed and he waved, but she did not return his greeting. Louis tapped his brakes and she flapped one hand at him more to say ‘Go away’ than ‘Hello’.
Louis found the barn to be in such a state of disrepair, Louis wondered how anyone could figure it had been vandalized. On his way back he stopped at Hannah’s house and pulled into the yard. The cats lay about the porch sunning themselves lazily and grooming each other. They gazed at him insolently as he stepped up on the porch and he thought they must share their owner’s disdain of him. One big, yellow tom tried to sharpen it’s claws on his boot while he tried in vain to shoo him away before tapping on the crooked screen door. The tom followed him, rubbing against his pants leg.
“Sccct!” He hissed at the cat and knocked harder on the door.
Hannah came to the door and peered out at him as if she did not recognize him.
“Whatsa matter? Somebody complainin’ bout my cats again?” She asked him.
“No, nothin’ like that. Can I come in?” Louis looked down at the cat.
“What for? You got a warrant?” She asked, but pushed the door open for him.
“I just wanted to come by and see if you’d gave any more thought to restorin’ the monument.” He stepped over the cat and the threshold, but the cat followed him inside to continue its attack on his uniform.
Hannah turned to lead him down the hallway to the kitchen. The house smelled like cat food which was none too pleasant. The furnishings were totally shredded by numerous claws. He glanced into the living room as they passed and shook his head as he remembered how many happy hours he had spent in the room playing monopoly with Larry Lipscomb when they had been boys. A big console TV sat in one corner with a smaller one on top. Pieces of aluminum foil hung from the antenna. He remembered when Mr. Lipscomb had come home with the big TV and how they had celebrated its arrival with hot chocolate and popcorn. He could hardly believe what had become of his friend’s mother.
As they entered the kitchen, the smell of frying bacon combined with the fishy smell to overwhelm his senses to the point of nausea.
“I was just fixin’ some breakfast,” she told him and went to stir the contents of a small black frying pan on the stove. “You want some coffee?”
Louis looked about the untidy kitchen and resisted the urge to decline the offer. Without waiting for his answer, she took a cracked brown cup from the sink and poured him a cup from her percolator.
“Sit down,” she told him and clunked the coffee on the dinette table.
Louis pulled out a chair and had to scoop a sleeping calico kitten from it before he could sit on the well worn cushion.
“You want a bacon san’wich?” She asked as she lifted the bacon dripping with grease from the skillet to deposit it on a piece of bread.
“No thanks. Already had breakfast.” Louis took a tiny sip of coffee from the cup. He wondered just how many cats she supported with her meager income. “I talked to some of my friends yesterday about the project and they’ve agreed it’s a good idea. Some of the boys down at the station promised to help me, too. We want to replace the flagpole of course and rebuild the brick base. Re-do the whole thing from the ground up. You know that new stuff like epoxy with little pebbles in it? We thought that would make a good lookin’ border around it instead of concrete. They say you can get it in all sorts of colors. Something nice like that, you know?”
“Sounds ’spensive.” She spread another piece of bread with mayonaise and Louis took a deep breath. She rolled up the loaf of bread in its wrapper and stuffed it into an old toaster oven, then pulled out a big, rustley bag of potato chips. “Want some tater chips?”
“No, thank you.” He shook his head as she sat down at the table with her sandwich and chips. “Anyway, they thought it would be good to dedicate the memorial to Larry in particular. Everybody remembers him.”
“Well, he was just one of hundreds,” she muttered as she munched on the chips.
“I know.” He shifted in his seat. “It was my idea. I mean the whole thing was my idea to start with so I figured I could choose who to dedicate it to. I thought it would be nice.”
“Nice?” She laughed aloud. “Last time yo
u saw Larry alive, you tried to kill him or don’t you remember? Now you want to be nice. Whatcha doin’ Louis, developin’ a conscience?”
“That was long time ago, Mrs. Lipscomb,” Louis said uncomfortably his face reddening. He had known that it would not be easy to talk to her. “I didn’t try to kill him,” He said as an afterthought.
“It don’t seem so long to me.” She continued. “I remember it like it wuz yesterday. He went back over to that desert hell hole sportin’ a fine shiner. I bet he was still wearin’ it when they killed him.”
“He didn’t have to go back,” Louis told her defensively. “He volunteered. I tried to talk him out of it.”
“Yeah?” She eyed him coldly. “How’d you do that, Louis? Did you try to beat it into him? Tryin’ to make him stay here and marry that little ol’ gal.”
Louis said nothing. He didn’t like remembering that horrible scene. He remembered how shocked he had been when he found out Larry had been killed. He’d lost his best friend and his best girl inside of a few months, but add to that the guilt he had suffered after having beaten him to a pulp and then sent him off to die. And then to top it all off, the girl committed suicide. It had taken him years to get over the nightmares. He’d managed to make peace with Larry’s father and he even felt that he’d made peace with Larry’s ghost, but Mrs. Lipscomb was another story. Louis had always felt somehow responsible for her though he had never been able to reach her in any shape or form. Mrs. Lipscomb blamed Louis entirely for Larry’s return to Kuwait. She’d never kept that a secret.
He stood up abruptly and went to dump the contents of the cup in the sink.
“Look, Hannah, I was a lot younger and dumber then than I am now. This is my way of makin’ it up to Larry and to you too. I know you blame me for him leavin’, but that ain’t true. That’s all I can do besides say I’m sorry I lost him.”
“It wuddin just me,” she told him without looking up. “There was his daddy and that poor girl... and the baby. I just wish I wuz with ’em right now.”
The Pandora Effect Page 11