Cherry Ames Boxed Set 13-16

by Helen Wells

  “I don’t know Johnny,” Cherry said.

  “He has a scientific turn of mind in everything. Johnny is serving as a messenger and escort. He put a pedometer in his trousers pocket—” Miss Vesey laughed again. “He reports that he walks ten or eleven miles a week in the hospital corridors.”

  They discussed a few more Jayvees and projects. Then they divided up the cost of their lunch, and Cherry returned to Women’s Orthopedics, feeling very proud of the juniors.

  Her first concern was to see how Peggy Wilmot felt. She seemed to be asleep. Her lunch tray, on a table beside the bed, was hardly touched. Cherry wondered what was wrong, because, with a special diet, Peggy’s appetite had improved. Cherry looked around for Midge, to ask her why the patient had not eaten.

  “Miss Ames! Miss Corsi! Will you come to the nurses’ station,” said the head nurse, quickly leading the way. Cherry and Mary Corsi followed her, to learn that a new patient was arriving that afternoon.

  “It’s a very serious case of rheumatoid arthritis in the hip, requiring a course of corrective surgery,” said the head nurse. “The patient is no longer young enough to make as good a recovery as Peggy Wilmot. The prognosis is poor.” That meant the woman might later on walk with a limp. “Dr. Watson says he’ll have to cut and rearrange Mrs. Henry’s tendons, to lengthen them—and, we hope, avoid a lasting deformity. At any rate, he can gradually stop the terrible pain. She’ll be here one to two months. She’ll be your case, Miss Corsi, and she’ll need a great deal of nursing care. Miss Ames will help you as much as necessary—particularly this first afternoon.”

  “Yes, Miss Greer,” said both nurses, and went to prepare a special bed and charts in a private room off the ward, and check by phone with Dr. Watson and the Operating Room. Cherry cautioned her two Jayvees to be exceedingly quiet and gentle around Mrs. Henry; no one but the doctors and nurses would be allowed to touch her.

  Most of Cherry’s afternoon went into working as part of the medical team with the new patient, then doing afternoon nursing chores for both her and Nurse Corsi’s patients. When Cherry came to Peggy Wilmot’s bed, she found the physical therapist counting aloud while the patient slowly, painfully exercised. Miss Chase left and Peggy started to cry.

  “Is it so painful?” Cherry asked her gently. “If it is, Miss Chase will work out something less drastic for you.”

  “No, not—not really painful,” Peggy gasped out. “Stiff.”

  “Then why are you crying? Seeing Liz up and walking, while you’re still flat on your back? But soon you’ll be walking, too, and going home. Really you will,” Cherry assured her.

  “More likely I’ll be an invalid. I won’t be able to keep house, or ever work again as a secretary—I’ll be alone and helpless and poor—”

  “That isn’t true! Your gloomy ideas are so wrong that they’re almost funny! Peggy, you are going to get completely well—if you’re unhappy about seeing Mrs. Henry, there’s absolutely no comparison between you and the new patient! You’re younger than she is, your condition isn’t as serious as hers, and you’re responding well to medication and treatment.”

  Peggy turned her head away and wept uncontrollably. Cherry could not soothe her. Finally she simply stood there in silence until Peggy cried herself out. Cherry gave her a warm drink and urged her to try to sleep.

  She felt discouraged and baffled by Peggy’s recurrence of worry—she’d thought, they’d all thought, they had that licked by now. What brought it on? All the way home from the hospital, Cherry wondered. It couldn’t have been just the glimpse of the new patient brought in on a stretcher—because, come to think of it, Peggy Wilmot had been tense and too quiet even that morning.

  “I should have paid more attention to her today,” Cherry thought. “I got diverted—correction, I let myself be diverted. I’ll try to make it up to Peggy tomorrow.”

  Then she realized Peggy Wilmot had not given her the usual Thursday dividend check to mail to the bank for deposit. Possibly she had given it to Midge. Or had it got lost in the shuffle, this busy day? Cherry hoped nothing had gone wrong about the dividend check. That would surely upset Peggy!

  Cherry made a point of getting to the hospital early the next morning, for a few minutes’ talk with the night nurse before she went off duty. Mrs. Page was removing the open splints from Peggy Wilmot’s knees and wrists, which she now wore only when asleep. Peggy seemed apathetic. She did not even answer Cherry’s “Good morning.” The night nurse took Cherry aside.

  “Mrs. Wilmot had a poor night. She slept fitfully and woke up crying in the night,” Mrs. Page reported. “I tried to comfort her and get her to tell me what was wrong, but she wouldn’t say a thing. … No, she wasn’t in pain—that isn’t the reason.”

  “Thank you. I know you did everything you could for her,” Cherry said.

  She went over to Peggy, and talking to her softly, took her morning temperature, pulse, and respiration rate. These were all higher than normal. Cherry entered these facts on the patient’s chart. In alarm, which she hid, she checked Peggy further. The young woman was pale and shaky, and said, “I can’t eat any breakfast, don’t bring me any.” Cherry looked at her throat—a focal point of rheumatoid attack—but there was no sign of fresh infection.

  “Has something upset you, Peggy?” Cherry asked gently.

  “Nothing! Nothing at all.”

  Cherry wondered whether this were true. Midge and Dodo were just reporting in. Cherry called Midge to one side. Cherry asked her whether Peggy Wilmot had received anything in the mail yesterday that might have distressed her.

  “Mrs. Wilmot didn’t receive any mail yesterday,” said Midge.

  “She didn’t receive her usual Thursday dividend check?” Cherry said. “So that’s—”

  “Now wait, Cherry! Today’s bundle of mail is in, and I’m pretty sure I saw an envelope addressed to her. Excuse me—” Midge sped off, remembering she must not run in the hospital. In a few minutes she returned, waving an envelope. “Here it is! From that Pell Corporation that’s always mailing her stuff.”

  “Fine,” said Cherry. “Take it to Mrs. Wilmot.” She saw Peggy accept the letter with a smile of relief.

  Cherry went off to help Nurse Corsi with the new patient, who was going to Surgery. Then she and the P.N. gave morning care and served breakfasts, with help from Dodo and Midge. The head nurse called a meeting of her ward nursing team and gave them the day’s orders, while the patients rested after breakfast.

  Then Cherry went back to Peggy Wilmot. She was going to suggest that Peggy, by herself, apply some make-up this morning. It would exercise her wrists and lift her spirits.

  One look at the little figure in the bed decided Cherry against that idea. The young woman was crying. Her skin was cold and clammy. Cherry felt her pulse; it was rapid and thready. These were symptoms of shock. Where was the Pell letter that Peggy had just read? It was not on the bedside table—it must be under her pillow. But would the letter be reason enough to send Peggy into shock? And Cherry thought she detected other physical symptoms besides. She hurried off for the sphygmomanometer, with its arm band, dial, and pump, and hastened back to take Peggy’s blood pressure. It was alarmingly low. She notified Miss Greer, who called the doctors to come at once.

  Dr. Dan Blake got there in two minutes. Cherry whispered her findings to him as he gave the weeping Peggy sedation, a phenobarbital, to quiet her. Then old Dr. Watson came in. Cherry placed a screen around the bed while the two doctors examined Peggy.

  It seemed to Cherry that they took forever. They were being thorough, she realized. Presently Dr. Dan folded back the screen, and Dr. Watson motioned to the head nurse and Cherry to follow them, into the corridor.

  “We find no physical causes to explain Mrs. Wilmot’s symptoms,” Dr. Watson said in a loud whisper. “She’s still healing, everything’s in good order. The only cause must be psychological—Miss Greer, Miss Ames, do you know what’s bothering that girl?”

  The head nurse looke
d toward Cherry, who said hesitantly, “I happen to know Mrs. Wilmot has invested heavily, she’s speculating—”

  “She’s alone, isn’t she?” Miss Greer said. “Who advises her on her investments?”

  “The salesman,” Cherry said wryly. “My dad and I made some inquiries. There’s a chance she’s being swindled.”

  “Swindled!” Dr. Watson exclaimed. “That would be enough to upset her. I’m glad you’re inquiring—checking up on the investment company for her. Well, better find out all you can, Miss Ames, and quickly,” Dr. Watson said. “These arthritis patients can’t stand upsets.”

  “Plan to spend some extra time with Mrs. Wilmot today,” the head nurse said to Cherry. “The rest of us will divide up your work.”

  Midge’s and Dodo’s eyes were as round as saucers when the two nurses returned to the ward from this conference. But the Jayvees not only suppressed their own curiosity, they were busy diverting the other patients’ attention from Peggy’s crisis.

  Cherry replaced the screen around Peggy’s bed and sat down beside her. “Just rest,” Cherry said. “I’ll be right here with you.”

  After a while Peggy reached out for Cherry’s hand. She stared at the ceiling, her eyes flickering restlessly.

  “Is it true Liz is going home today?” Peggy asked.

  “Yes.” Liz could walk quite well in the cast with the walking heel, well enough to be discharged.

  “It makes me feel worse than ever—Liz goes home, I stay here,” Peggy said. “Isn’t that horrid of me?”

  “You’ll be going home very soon yourself,” Cherry said. “Next week, the physical therapist told me, she’s going to bring you a typewriter to practice on, and you’ll also do a little sewing. Those activities will strengthen and limber up your wrists. Next week, too, if all goes well, you’ll graduate to the hospital gym and swimming pool. Before you know it, you’ll be using the walker, like Liz, and then going home. Like Liz.”

  Peggy lay silent for a long time. “I don’t want to go home. I’m afraid to think of what’ll become of me. Everything is ruined now.”

  “Why, Peggy! What do you mean ‘ruined,’ just when you’re getting well?”

  Peggy’s mouth closed tightly in the stubborn way Cherry had come to know. But her eyes were frightened, like a little squirrel’s, and tears began to slide down her cheeks. She was childlike, childishly greedy and unreasonable and dependent, Cherry thought. No wonder she was easily taken advantage of by that salesman. Cherry knew it was an observed and recorded medical fact that rheumatoid arthritis generally struck people, like Peggy, who had an emotionally dependent temperament. Poor Peggy.

  “Please don’t cry,” Cherry said. “Can’t you tell me what’s wrong? If it’s about Pell, maybe I can help you.”

  “I don’t want to tell you,” Peggy got out. “You’ll laugh at me—you’ll say ‘I told you so’!”

  “You know I’m not like that. I’m your friend.”

  She wiped Peggy Wilmot’s face, and signaled to Dodo to bring a cup of hot tea, then helped Peggy to a more comfortable sitting posture in the bed. Dodo brought the tea. Peggy Wilmot sipped it, with Cherry’s help. She was wan, but calmer now.

  “The letter is under my pillow,” she said to Cherry, “if you want to read it.”

  “Thanks. I do.”

  Cherry pulled out the envelope postmarked Chicago and took out the letter. It was on the stationery of the Pell Corporation, with only the post-office box address. It was signed by Cleveland Pell, and read:

  “My dear Mrs. Wilmot: It is with the deepest regret that this corporation is obliged, for the first time and for reasons beyond control, to delay sending your usual weekly dividend check. As you know, in the investment field a temporary setback is not unusual when business ventures do not develop precisely as planned. Indeed, this element of risk, and your willingness as a farsighted investor to accept it as a long-term factor, is the very reason you have been earning such a high return on your capital, through the Pell Corporation. Fluctuations up and down are to be expected in the normal course of business, and in the long run, the ups and the downs balance each other—so this means only a temporary setback. I can assure you that personally I am doing my utmost to shorten this delay.”

  Cherry muttered, “Huh, very consoling,” and broke off reading to look at her patient. Peggy’s eyes were glued on her, as if expecting Cherry to tell her what to do.

  “Read the rest,” Peggy urged. “Maybe it’s not so bad as I think it is.”

  The letter went on to urge the client to “sit tight” during these changing strategic conditions, and leave her account in Mr. Pell’s hands for reinvestment. In fact, if Mrs. Wilmot could make an additional investment at this crucial time, she could “buy in most profitably” on these very same fluctuating businesses now in urgent need of fresh capital. It might take a little longer than usual for these new ventures to develop and pay their dividends, but in Cleveland Pell’s opinion, they would prove sound and profitable in the long run. This present temporary setback could be Mrs. Wilmot’s eventual gain—if she would mail her check to the Pell Corporation promptly, preferably today.

  “Humph!” Cherry said. “First Pell doesn’t pay you as promised, then he asks you to invest more money.”

  “That’s what puzzled me when I first read the letter. It’s what upset me, I guess—the possibility that I’m being swindled. But I don’t really believe it!” Peggy Wilmot was rather wildly clutching at straws. “A company like Pell’s wouldn’t swindle their clients! Why, they’d be discovered and forced out of business. And remember the big new secret deal Jim Foye told us about?”

  “Yes, what about it?” Cherry was afraid her patient was half persuaded to invest the balance of her insurance money—like a gambler, who, when he loses at a game of cards, is all the more eager to try again to win.

  “Well, if there’s such a profitable new deal coming, the Pell Corporation can afford to stand today’s loss. So can I. It’ll balance out. Won’t it?” Peggy said in a confused way. “I must have misunderstood Mr. Foye at our first meeting when he said there’d be a dividend every week. I was half sick, I must have been mistaken, I can see that now. A delay isn’t so terrible—”

  So Peggy was making excuses for Pell and his salesman, because of her credulity and unwillingness to admit she was being defrauded! Cherry wondered how she, or anyone, could open Peggy’s eyes.

  Cherry said, “I don’t think you misunderstood Mr. Foye. But you ought to keep in mind that all his promises about this brilliant secret deal are merely promises.”

  “I believe in him,” Peggy said stoutly. “Hasn’t Mr. Pell already mailed me four dividends at ten percent each? That means I’ve already earned forty percent on my money!”

  “Or you could say that Pell still has hold of sixty percent of the money you sent him, which you may never get back—and he’s trying to get still more from you!”

  Cherry instantly regretted her blunt speech, for Peggy paled. But the young woman, in sheer stubbornness, did not budge in the belief that she was right.

  Midge rapped on the edge of the screen, and without peeking, handed in two letters. “Special delivery,” said Midge, “just came in,” and she went away.

  One letter was for Mrs. Wilmot, one for Cherry. Both letters were from James Foye, postmarked Peoria, Illinois, dated yesterday. He must be selling in Peoria. Peggy Wilmot awkwardly tore open her letter in a feverish hurry.

  “Wait a minute, please,” said Cherry. She was angry at having the pressure of these letters put on her patient—high-pressure selling to a sick person in a hospital! “You mustn’t get so excited. Let’s read mine first, for a little perspective.”

  Cherry read her letter aloud:

  “‘Dear Miss Ames: If you have already put a check in the mail to the Pell Corporation, then I hope you will excuse this letter. If you have not yet done so, may I urge you to act without further delay? I have just received from Cleveland Pell, by long-distance tele
phone, vital new advice on the growth possibilities of the deal which I described to you and Mrs. Wilmot when I visited the hospital. Extraordinary possibilities exist here. I am honestly sorry to be unable to furnish you with the numerous details, but our maneuver must be kept secret in order to get control of the company’s bonds, which are new and not yet listed, before any inside information reaches our competitors’ ears. Only a few of the bonds are available so far. I appeal to you to invest now. If you act fast, you can get in on the ground floor of a very good thing.

  “‘As for the minor delay in Mrs. Wilmot’s dividend payment this week, I trust you will not let that prejudice you against this really extraordinary new opportunity. The delay is due merely to an unexpected development in the American Eagle Lead Company, as Mr. Pell may have written. AEL is expanding and all ready funds are being used to buy machinery and equipment. Fresh funds are needed to tide the company over this emergency. With this ‘pump priming,’ AEL will undoubtedly earn very well, so you see there is nothing to worry about.

  “‘Remember, speed is essential. This is my best advice, and I hope you will invest as much as you can. It will pay off in a big way. Yours very sincerely, James Foye.’”

  The salesman’s letter to Peggy Wilmot said pretty much the same thing, adding:

  “‘Think over carefully how much you can invest in the new confidential deal. It will pay you to liquidate and transfer your other assets to the Pell Corporation for this brilliant new undertaking.’”

  “Sounds terrific!” Peggy said. “Do you suppose he means the proposed dam in Colorado? That’s a big, important project.”

  “There’s no telling what the secret deal is about,” Cherry said. “He doesn’t tell us a thing, actually. That’s the vaguest letter I ever—”

  “But he can’t tell us,” Peggy Wilmot broke in. “He explains why he can’t.” Peggy sat up, as if getting ready for action. “Look here, Cherry. What’s the point of being a client of an investment counselor if you don’t take his advice? Especially when an exceptionally good opportunity comes along! I, for one, don’t want to miss out on this deal! I still have the rest of the insurance money to invest!”