by Barbara Ebel
“Okay,” she said. He took it gently but made it disappear like the last baguette in a bakery.
Julia climbed up and wiggled between them. “Are you tired?” Danny asked her. She moved her head a little bit as she watched Dakota lie a few feet away.
“I think a thicker bond was created between these two,” Danny said, “when Dakota alerted us to the copperhead near her playpen, before Mary and Casey’s wedding.”
“They’ve been stuck together like rubber cement, that’s for sure,” Sara said.
Julia’s eyes intermittently closed as Danny leaned his head back and rubbed Sara’s scalp.
“Is school going okay?” he asked.
“Yes, and I love this year’s students. They’re bright and amazingly polite. They can’t wait for our first dissection.”
“Because you have a bright group, they see and appreciate the talented teacher they have.”
In jest, Sara backhanded his chest, careful not to disturb Julia.
“Do you mind if I ask about the principal?” Danny asked. “Is he still my competition?
“Well… he did make a pass at me yesterday. When the day comes that I decide to encourage him, I’ll let you know.”
Danny slid his hand from Sara’s shoulder into her blouse and onto the soft skin of her breast. She leaned more comfortably into him while his finger rubbed circles around her nipple. It responded and swelled so he pushed away the silky hair around her cheeks and gave her a kiss.
As his pulse quickened, Danny wiggled out of the chair and picked up Julia. She mumbled, groggy as if waking up from a nap. He carried her into the nearby bedroom with Dakota at his heels, placed her on the bed where she nestled in like a rag doll, then he closed the door on the both of them.
“Let’s christen our new living room,” Sara said when Danny emerged. She waved for him to come to the chair where she playfully pushed him down and straddled him. Quickly their lips were together and their tongues probed and explored like they’d been apart for weeks. Sara sat deeper onto her ex-husband until they had to spring his manliness from his pants.
Fumbling to remove Sara’s few garments, their tongues joined again as Danny’s hands wrapped behind her hips and she guided him between her legs. He sighed with pleasure and Sara moaned as they rocked rhythmically with a newfound use for the oversized chair.
-----
The pastry in the doctor’s lounge looked especially tempting the next morning when Danny arrived to do rounds before office appointments. He had no surgeries scheduled and felt especially upbeat; maybe it was the ‘morning after’ phenomenon after good sex. But more than likely, it was a combination of personal and professional accomplishments that helped. He poured a half cup of coffee and realized one more thing - that placing spirituality and religion back into his life had also made him feel more whole.
He lingered before the donut selection and picked up one with a regular glaze. Warm and soft, he had it devoured in four bites. Black coffee washed it straight down and he refrained from eating down another cholesterol brick. Instead, he had half a cinnamon-raisin bagel with cream cheese.
His beeper toned with a number from the ICU. When he phoned, the nurse taking care of Rob King excitedly asked if he could come as soon as possible … his patient had woken up.
Danny hurried and found that since he’d been going to the gym, bounding up the steps was easier. A smile crept across his face; the new workouts were working!
When he got to Rob’s room, his patient’s hand encircled the endotracheal tube like he was going to pull it. Danny laughed. “You really want that gone, don’t you?” He glanced over all the vital signs on the monitors and all looked stable.
Rob’s head bobbed up and down.
“It’s coming out,” Danny said as he unwrapped the tape, deflated the cuff, and removed the tube with a single yank. “But no more intracranial bleeding and that’s an order.”
Rob cleared his throat and gave everyone a thumbs up.
“Take your time,” Danny said. “Over the next few days, our goal will be to get you out of here. I’ll have PT come by and see about your conditioning. But I’m going to be straight with you. After the two hematoma surgeries, your biggest risk is postoperative seizures and it’s debatable if prophylactic anticonvulsants decrease that risk.”
“Dr. Tilson,” Rob said while getting his voice back, “I’m a purist and don’t put anything into my body that doesn’t belong there. If we can do without that medication, I’d appreciate it.”
“We’ll try it your way, Rob.”
Danny patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll watch you for a few hours here in the ICU and, by this evening, you’ll probably be in a regular room.”
Rob gave them another thumbs up as Danny turned to leave. At the open door, he said. “By the way, I’ve been doing my homework assignments and you were a good teacher. The slight shortness of breath I used to have running up the hospital’s staircase is gone.”
Going back downstairs, Danny smiled at Rob’s improvement yet he wondered. It was easy to ask for spiritual help like he had done in this situation but when the desired outcome occurs, shouldn’t he remember to say ‘thanks’ back to the universe - or a God - if they may have contributed to the good result?
“Thanks,” he whispered under his breath.
-----
He couldn’t believe the good news from his staff. Jeffrey and Matthew hustled all afternoon and Danny had two appointments cancel. With some early rearranging, he would be free after 4 o’clock. He also learned that Rob had successfully transferred out of the ICU.
In addition, Bruce Garner had spent a half day in the office and saw old patients. By 4:00 p.m., the two colleagues sat together in Danny’s office.
“I’ve been wanting to put all this information together and bounce it off colleagues,” Danny said, as Jeffrey and Matthew joined them. “Now that I’ve showed each of you those three patients’ angiograms, what do you think?”
“It’s uncanny,” Bruce said, leaning forward in contemplation. His hair was not only getting grayer by the day, but also thinner.
“It’s too bad there isn’t a large organization that can shed some advice,” Danny said.
“Like the CDC,” Bruce replied.
“There isn’t a disease - infectious or otherwise –going on with these patients so it’s probably not the proper circumstance to use them.”
“It’s too bad,” Bruce said. “They would be a big help to you since you established a working relationship with them from last year’s pandemic.”
“I’m writing our specialty’s journal, but that only helps them with publishable material. I’m also contacting our association. Maybe some of the bigwigs there can give me some insight.”
“And it’s not apparently an FDA problem,” Jeffrey said, his elbow resting on his knee.
Matthew pulled a few grapes out of a fruit bowl in the middle of the table. “In actuality, Danny,” he said, “what the practice has here is an outstanding anomaly which isn’t a problem at all. I would love to have Varg Dagmar’s brain based on the psychologist’s report you just showed us.”
“Yeah, Danny,” Jeffrey said, “give me some of what he has.”
Danny stared. He looked at Bruce who had his bifocals on the table instead of on his face; the man saw better in some situations with no glasses versus the two options for near and far vision available to him with his lenses. He thought about that as well as Jeffrey’s remark.
Some revelation stirred in the background of his mind. But what the hell was it?
Chapter 19
“Pack your bag. You’re going home!” Danny said with all the enthusiasm of a young resident discharging his first patient. He walked briskly into Rob King’s room and placed the bulky brown chart on the rolling table.
Rob stared with disbelief. “I’ve been here a week,” he said twirling a pen with precision. “I’ll be lonely tonight without young women coming in to wake me up.”
&nbs
p; “Did they wake you up to ask you how well you’re sleeping?”
“Besides taking my blood pressure, that too.”
“Maybe you can stay with a family member tonight for company.”
“They have their own lives and no one lives close. But I’ll be at the gym tomorrow, even if it’s to socialize. I promise it will be a light schedule.”
“We haven’t talked about that yet. But you took the words out of my mouth. Now, stand up for me, please. Let’s do a little neuro exam.”
Danny liked what he saw because Rob’s balance, coordination, and awareness as well as his cranial nerve check were better than most people’s baseline exam.
“You look great. I want to see you in the office soon and staff will be in to go over all the discharge instructions. You’re only thirty-five and you’ve learned a big lesson about defensive driving. You never know what’s coming around the bend,” Danny warned.
“Thanks, doc. You saved my life.”
“You’re welcome.” He signed his name to the orders and slipped away his pen. “I suppose I’ll see you in the gym. You can guide me with my training.”
“Be happy to.”
-----
Things were starting to look a bit brighter, Rachel thought. It was two weeks since her accident and every day made a difference in her appearance. She gently rubbed a super-balanced makeup foundation onto her nose, cheeks and chin. If and when she ever wore it, she had used a ‘moderately fair’ color base, but now she needed a ‘medium’ to camouflage the light yellow, green and purple bruising.
She penciled a shadow of eyeliner over her lids and glided a trace amount of moisturizer on her lips; she looked quite good. Yet she still had the constant reminder of smacking the ground at breakneck speed with the tingling in her face and the bulbous tissue under her lip. Rachel put those bothersome issues aside and she looked in a full-length mirror and liked what she saw.
Smiling, she pushed a CD into her car player and left Knoxville. She was meeting Varg at 4:00 p.m. when he promised to show her some apartments and then take her to dinner. She was glad not to have made arrangements to see Julia; the day would have been too long and she wanted a fresh look for Varg, not a haggard face after chasing around a two-year old.
-----
Rachel opened the door to Max-Point Realtors to an inviting area with two hallways on either side. A bell had jingled when she walked in and Varg emerged from the right. He approached her with a full smile and kissed her hand.
The look he wore was radically different than last Monday; he had on a fine brown sports coat, an unbuttoned white sporty shirt and blue jeans. A brown cowboy hat donned his head. Along with the ponytail, he belonged in the finer Nashville clubs on Broadway. So far, she hadn’t made a mistake in accepting his date.
“I hope you found the office without any trouble,” he said.
“No problem.”
He nodded, expecting that. Danny Tilson would not have been interested in some dimwit.
“I have a cooler in my car in case you want a soft drink. Shall we go?”
She gave him her answer by turning around for the door.
“Over here,” he said and opened the passenger side of a silver BMW.
“Nice taste.”
“Although I’m Norwegian, I like German cars.”
He started the engine and hit the road like he’d driven before he walked.
“Based on everything you told me, Ms. Hendersen, I found a few apartments that duplicate the description of your present rental.”
“I realized after we’d talked that I shouldn’t be bothering you about rentals and should have looked myself. There’s no commission in this for you.”
He looked at her quickly. “I believe I’ll survive. It’s an appetizer to our dinner date.”
She raised her eyebrows. He seemed to be surviving quite nicely, she thought, as she rubbed the leather seat.
“By sticking with your defined terms, we have to go southeast from downtown to get rental prices down. On the other hand, you’ll be in a comfortable, natural setting with the outdoors.”
In fifteen minutes, they arrived at an apartment complex called Mountain Terrain and they went into the information center where - after introductions - a young man grabbed a set of keys.
“I’m going to tell Ms. Hendersen what I know,” Varg said to the man, “so chime in if I miss anything.”
They passed an outdoor pool and clubhouse. “You can get a minimum six-month lease; rent is $990 a month for an 837-square-foot, two-floor unfurnished apartment and $1,990 a month furnished. There’s a fitness center and leash-free dog park on the grounds besides the pool. You get your own covered garage and, as you may notice, there are little decks on the ground floor as well as the second floor outside the bedroom.”
As they walked along a path with spacious grassy areas and few trees, Rachel realized he had no notes. He had several places to show her so how was he remembering all of this?
The man unlocked the next door they came to. To Rachel’s approval, she saw a wide open big room with pale yellow walls, extensive dark wood floors and overhead track lighting. After touring the downstairs and upstairs, she pulled Varg aside.
“Don’t bother yourself showing me anymore. You found me a nicer apartment than my last one here in Nashville for the same price.”
Varg tipped his head back. “You had an apartment in Nashville?”
She diverted her eyes. “Yes.”
“Here I thought I was helping a damsel in distress who was a newcomer to the area.”
“Don’t think that way. You’ve been very helpful. And like you said, this precedes our dinner date.” She leaned closer to him, her exotic eyes dancing.
“Shall we go back to the office?” the young man interrupted.
In the complex’s center, Rachel signed the necessary paperwork and wrote out a deposit check. She got back into Varg’s vehicle as he pulled a cloth cooler from the back seat.
“Would you like something?” he asked.
“Thanks,” she said, pulling out a small water bottle.
He grabbed two cans of Blue Bridge and tossed the bag in the back as well as his hat. After pulling one tab, he drank half the contents of one can and put the other one on the console between them. Although it was earlier than they anticipated, they set off for the restaurant.
-----
“I hope you like food with a Cajun flare,” Varg said as they were guided to a table.
“I believe you have good taste so I’ll trust your judgment.” They sat at a window table with a view of a historic street and an antique store across the way.
Varg studied her face. “I did not tell you before but your face is healing very nicely.”
Leaning back, she crossed her legs. “Thank you but the bruising is hidden with makeup.”
“No, it’s gotten better.”
“This is true. However, last week when you met me, I looked quite terrible. What on earth made you ask me out not knowing what I truly look like?”
“Four things,” he said not even pausing to think about it. “The first and foremost is because of your daughter.”
Rachel narrowed her eyes. He had her attention.
“Your daughter is above-average beautiful. Of course, I know the father, but the child had to have a knock-out mother. I knew your situation was temporary and your stunning beauty would materialize.”
The water she sipped was so purified, it tasted like it had melted off a pristine glacier. “And the other three things?”
“Your eyes and your voice. And the fourth thing isn’t related to that area of your body; the rest of the package is a ten out of ten. Now, I can take you back to your car if I’ve come across as a male chauvinist.”
The waiter set down a basket of bread and waited for their drink order.
“I’ll stay. You only spoke what most men think.”
“Good. What would you like to drink?”
“I’ll have a Riesli
ng.”
“And you, sir?” asked the waiter.
“Why don’t you surprise me with a Tennessee specialty beer? But in the interim, please bring me a glass so I can pour and finish the rest of this can I brought in with me.”
“So, Ms. Hendersen, please fill in the gaps of everything I don’t know about you.”
“Ms. Hendersen won’t do anymore. Call me Rachel,” she said, smoothing butter on her bread. “And I won’t bore you with my past. I have so many holes in it, I’m one big brick of Swiss cheese.”
-----
The group was so large that it reminded Danny of a Chevy Chase vacation movie. The only family member not present on Saturday afternoon for the lake real estate hunting was Dakota. Even Annabel had pried away from college for a weekend visit.
“Just follow me,” Varg said outside his Max-Point Realtor’s office. He got into his BMW and Danny followed with Casey behind him as they got onto I40 going east.
Danny looked into the rearview mirror. “Annabel, we’re waiting with bated breath to hear more about college.”
“We haven’t made a weekend campus visit yet on purpose,” Sara added, “because we’re giving you space.”
Annabel’s blue eyes locked onto her mother. “I’m really liking it … most classes, except for biology. The campus is way cool, the food is just okay, and my roommate has some habits I can’t stand.”
“Why don’t you like biology?” Danny asked.
Annabel shrugged her shoulders as Julia wiggled in her car seat between her sisters.
“It’s so redundant from high school.”
“That’s because you aced Mr. Phillips’ class last year,” Nancy said.
Annabel chewed on a wad of pink bubble gum and slipped it under her tongue. “Like Dad says, I have to do well in the sciences.”
“Just do the best you can, sweetheart,” Danny remarked.
“So what about a social life?” Nancy asked. “Or don’t you have one?”
Annabel lightly pushed her sister’s shoulder. “I may tell you later,” she said softly.