Love Immortal (9 page)

She ran into her room and threw on some
clothes. She tried to choose clothes that Ashley would pick out.
She grabbed a pair of khaki pants, and a pink blouse. She had a
pink, western style belt that she threaded through the belt loops
quickly and then threw on a pair of white and pink Skechers with
pink laces. She checked herself in the mirror and thought that she
looked like she was thirteen, but she didn’t want to take the time
to change. She ran to the kitchen, grabbed the gumbo from the
microwave and her keys from the table and ran out the door.

On the causeway, she was pushing it. She knew
that she couldn’t afford to pay for a ticket, but she couldn’t seem
to ease up on the accelerator. She also knew that any extra time
she gained by speeding would be lost if she was pulled over. She
scanned the bridge, looking for police cars parked in the
crossovers scanning for speeders. Fortunately, in the whole
twenty-four miles she did not encounter a single officer. She had
to slow down once she got into town, but the distance from the
bridge to the hospital was the shortest part of the trip.

She parked in the visitors’ lot and went in
through the front door; this being the shortest distance to his
room. These elevators let out on the same hallway as Collin’s room.
When she exited the elevator, she walked quickly to his room and
paused just before her hand pushed the door open. The nametag in
the placard next to the door was gone. She pushed the door open and
saw that the room had been cleaned; the bed was made, and…empty.
Did they move him? Why would they put him in another room? Had
something happened? Did they need to move him back down to ICU? The
questions bombarded her brain like hail.

Jewell let the door close and walked to the
nurses’ station. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a
patient in a wheelchair sitting at the end of the hall looking out
the window. She didn’t pay any attention to him; it wasn’t Collin
so it didn’t matter. Kelly was sitting at the desk. Jewell didn’t
know Kelly very well, but remembered her name because when Ashley
introduced them she said, “Just remember that Cheers song that
Woody sang: ‘Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly…”

“Kelly, do you know what happened to
Collin?”

“Who?”

“Collin Sykes. The patient in room 637?”
Jewell’s voice was bordering on panic.

“Oh, I remember him. I just came in about
fifteen minutes ago so I’m not sure. Give me a sec and I’ll see
what I can find out.” She spun her chair from the desk over to the
computer on the other side. Jewell watched impatiently as Kelly
pushed keys quickly, eliciting pages of information which she
deftly moved through, looking for the information she wanted. “It
looks like he was transferred this afternoon.”

“Transferred? Transferred where? On whose
authority?” Jewell knew that she was nearly screaming, and felt bad
taking her anxiety out on Kelly. It wasn’t Kelly’s fault that
Collin wasn’t in his room. She took a couple of deep breaths trying
to calm her nerves.

“It looks like Dr. Babineaux signed the
release papers. A Dr. Percival Knighton requested the transfer. It
looks like he was taken to a continuing care center in Lake
Charles.”

“Does it say which one? Does it give the
address, or a phone number?”

“What’s with the interest Jewell? It’s no big
deal; patients get transferred every day.”

“Yeah, but this patient was special. I…I,
well, I sort of liked him.” She felt a blush shading her face. She
wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t really wanted to tell anyone about her
and Collin, but it was bound to get out sooner or later. Ashley was
discrete, but who knows who else took notice of Jewell’s visits to
his room.

“I don’t see anything here Jewell. Do you
want me to pull his file? There may be something in there that
wasn’t put in the computer.”

“Yeah Kelly, that would be so great.
Thanks.”

Kelly left the desk to look at the patient
files on the other side of the divider. She emerged a minute later
carrying an open file in her hands. She laid the file on the desk
so that Jewell could read it. “I’m not really supposed to give you
this but…just promise not to tell anyone I gave it to you,
okay?”

Jewell nodded as she grabbed a pad of paper
and started transferring the information to the notepad. When she
was finished, she ripped off the page and handed the pad back to
Kelly and left the hospital.

Chapter 12

Collin didn’t remember most of the ride in
the ambulance. Even though Collin hated the way that the
painkillers made him feel, his uncle insisted on a morphine drip.
His uncle was adamant that it was necessary, and because Percy had
a medical degree while Collin didn’t, Collin wasn’t able to
convince his uncle that he would be better off without it. His
uncle also gave Collin an additional oral sedative; as if the
morphine didn’t do a good enough job alone.

When Collin finally awoke, still groggy from
the effects of the medication his uncle had given him, he realized
that he was home. He had assumed that this was where his uncle was
bringing him, but with his uncle, he never knew.

He scanned his surroundings. He was at home,
on a hospital style bed instead of his own, and he was in the
parlor off the front hall instead of his room. A morphine drip with
the familiar red button hung by his left arm, and his uncle had
placed a small table next to the left side of the bed along with a
plastic cup of water and a small silver bell. Curiosity overcame
him as he reached for the bell. It made a sweet tinkling sound as
he shook it back and forth. He set the bell down, and picked up the
glass of water. It was still difficult to raise his head, and his
bed didn’t have the mechanical features of the one in the hospital
that allowed him to raise himself into a sitting position.

As he struggled to raise his head and bring
the water to his mouth, the French doors at the entrance of the
parlor burst open as his uncle came striding quickly toward his
bed. “What is it Collin? Can I get you anything? Are you in pain?
Are you hungry?”

Aha, so that was what the bell was for. In
lieu of the button on his bed to summon a nurse, he now had this
pretty little silver bell with the merry tinkling ring. The
summoning button for the nurses had been silent in the room, but
sometimes he could hear the grating buzz it made at the nurses’
station. He had tried not to use it. It seemed the other patients
on the floor kept the nurses busy enough, and aside from that, he
knew that if he waited for five minutes, someone would come in to
poke him with something anyway. He had to admit, it was nice to be
away from that sterile, unfriendly place.

“No Uncle Percy. I don’t need anything. I
just saw the bell and didn’t know what it was for.” Collin grinned
mischievously, “Now I guess I know. It seems you are at my constant
beck and call until I can get up on my own.”

“Well, not really. I’ve called in
reinforcements. Gladys is here. I’ll pick up Dorothy and Carl at
the airport in a couple of hours, and Kendryck said he may drive in
sometime this week if he can.”

“Are you kidding me? Why? Did you call
everyone we know?”

Each of these people loved Collin, and they
were all an integral part of his life, often sending cards, or
presents when he was young. Most of them stopped sending presents
after he was fifteen, but some, like Aunt Gladys, still insisted on
sending him a present on his birthday. Usually something well
suited for a ten year old; although, this year Gladys had sent him
a remote controlled Ferrari. Collin really enjoyed this gift,
especially since he would probably never own a Ferrari. His uncle
indulged his preference for sports cars, but refused to buy him
anything that would “draw attention” to them. That meant Ferrari,
Porsche, Lamborghini, and his favorite, the Saleen S7 were
definitely out of the question. Instead he settled for more
practical cars, Fords, Chevys, and Hondas. The GT500 he had just
totaled was a real loss.

“Gee Uncle Percy, are you too old and feeble
to take care of one little invalid? How difficult do you think I’m
going to be?” Collin smiled angelically at his uncle.

“You, I’m not worried about. I just hate
being in this big house all alone. Gladys came to keep me company
while you were in the hospital, and the others were just concerned
about you.”

“Actually, now that I think about it, can you
bring me some pillows for my back to prop me up a bit? You can’t
imagine how hard it is to pour water into the side my mouth without
soaking the pillow.”

“Sorry about the bed. It was the best I could
do on short notice. I can prop it up in the back if you want, or I
can bring you the pillows; whichever you think would be easier. I
put the remote control…” Percy glanced at the table next to
Collin’s bed. Not seeing the remote, he frowned and looked around
the room. “Oh, here,” Percy said grabbing the remote off the
credenza under the 65 inch flat screen. “This’ll give you something
to do while you’re laid up.”

“Can I have a phone? And a phone book?”

“Why? Were you planning on ordering a
pizza?”

“No, I just really wanted to call the
hospital and talk to that nurse that was so nice to me. I wanted to
thank her for everything she did for me.” He knew his uncle would
probably say no. His uncle was adamant that Collin not encourage
relationships outside of his circle of friends. That was fine, but
there really weren’t any that were his age. There had been a girl,
Sophie, in France who they stayed with for a while. She seemed to
be about the same age as Collin and she was absolutely gorgeous,
but even though Collin liked her, he didn’t like her. But Jewell
was his other half, his true soul mate.

“I’m sure she has better things to do than
talk to some patient. I think it’s best if you just let her get on
with her life.”

“But Uncle Percy, I kind of liked her, and I
think maybe she liked me too.”

“Florence Nightingale Syndrome,” his Uncle
said, dismissively. “You’ll forget about her in a couple of
days.”

“What kind of syndrome,” Collin asked, now
completely confused, and a little upset that his uncle wasn’t
taking him seriously.

“Florence Nightingale. She was a nurse, quite
a talented woman actually.” He sighed. “She was so beautiful….” He
stopped, embarrassed and cleared his throat. “She was a nurse
during the Crimean War. Amazing woman.” His uncle sighed again, a
faraway look in his eyes.

“What in the world are you talking about? I
know who Florence Nightingale was. I mean jeez Uncle Percy; I did
study History at Oxford. They taught me a thing or two.” Collin had
no idea what his uncle was talking about. Sometimes when he talked
about things in the past, he talked like he had been there. He was
very unusual in that respect. “What I wanted to know was what does
Florence Nightingale have to do with me?”

“Oh, sorry kid.” His uncle suddenly looked at
Collin as if he had forgotten where he was. Pulled back into the
present, Percy answered Collin’s question. “Florence Nightingale
Syndrome: it’s when a patient falls in love with his caregiver.
It’s very common. It’s not really love though, just misplaced
appreciation for their caregiver’s efforts. We learned about it in
med school. More common when the nurse is pretty.” Percy winked at
his nephew.

“This is not Florence Nightingale Syndrome.
She’s not even my nurse. She’s a trauma nurse down in the ER.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s what you should
be thinking about right now. You need to concentrate on getting
better.” His uncle adjusted Collin’s bed so that Collin was closer
to a reclining seated position, instead of lying down, and walked
over to switch on the TV. “You get some rest. I’ll bring you dinner
before I head off to the airport. Don’t worry, Gladys is cooking,
not me.” He smiled.

Collin let the matter of Jewell drop. He knew
that his uncle wouldn’t change his mind. Instead, he smiled
gratefully at his uncle. Even though his uncle was a pretty good
cook, Collin liked to tease him about his cooking skills. “Thank
goodness for that. If you were cooking, I think I’d ask to go back
to the hospital for dinner!”

His uncle playfully threw the remote control
at Collin as he left the parlor.

Collin flipped through the channels on the
television looking for something interesting. He stopped on a
history show about trebuchets that seemed promising, but his
thoughts kept drifting back to Jewell. He was still a bit groggy
from his uncle’s ministrations for the ride to the house so he
turned off the television, closed his eyes, and drifted into a
dreamless sleep.

When his uncle returned a couple of hours
later with a steaming bowl of red beans and rice, Collin was
feeling a bit better. He had slept off some of the medicine, and
was thinking more clearly. He took the bowl from his uncle and
inhaled the scintillating aroma of spices and Andouille sausage
causing his stomach to growl.

His uncle laughed. “Guess they didn’t feed
you really well in the hospital, huh?”

“Sure they did Uncle Percy; I absolutely
loved the red Jell-O and rubbery eggs.” He took a bite of his food.
It was still too hot to swallow so he sucked air in through his
teeth to try to cool the hot rice. When he was finally able to
swallow, he savored the strong spices. He picked out a piece of
sausage and chewed it slowly savoring the spicy heat. It was
unbelievable; even though Aunt Gladys was from Montana, she could
make a mean red beans and rice.

“I’ve got to go to the airport. I’ll be back
in about two hours. If you need anything, just ring the bell and
Gladys will get you whatever you need.”

After he heard the front door to the old
plantation house close and the sound of his uncle’s car disappear
down the long driveway, he picked up the little silver bell and
rang it gently. Gladys appeared so quickly that he was certain she
must have been standing right outside the door waiting for his
call.