Nursing The Doctor (20 page)

He had a shower and put on a fresh set of the soft sports clothes Ben had brought him. He heard the nurses changing shift, and a short time later he groaned aloud at the distinctive sound of Vivian Krupps’s resonant voice just outside his door.

He sure as hell wasn’t in any mood for more of her acerbic comments on his personal life, but there was no way to avoid her. Patients were prisoners, he thought despondently as she strolled through his doorway.

“Well, Dr. Brulotte, and how are we doing today?”

“It’s too soon to tell about you, Nurse. I guess I’m okay.”

“Quite the joker. So, I suppose your pretty friend is coming to keep you company again. What romantic setting have you planned for tonight?”

Greg sighed. Krupps had all the sensitivity of an army tank. What the hell, she’d find out anyhow. “We’re slumming tonight, pizza and poker right here at home.”

“I enjoy a good game of poker myself now and again. Highball?”

Greg blinked in surprise. “Probably.”

“I won a couple thousand my last trip to Vegas playing highball. Got a soft spot for the game.” She sauntered over to the sink and refilled his water pitcher. Replacing it on the stand, she brushed past his wheelchair and tucked a key on a ring into his hand.

She hunched over his wheelchair. He could smell garlic on her breath as she whispered, “Last room on the right, end of the east corridor.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Greg stared at the key in his hand.

“The room’s used for physio,” Krupps hissed, “but not on weekends. Nobody’s ever down that way after eight on Saturdays. Security doesn’t check it till well after midnight. I’d take a candle if I were you, and if you want music, keep it low. There’s a CD player in there.”

She straightened and jabbed a finger into the biceps on his good arm, punctuating her words with painful prods. “Make certain you...don’t
break...that girl’s heart...or you’ll answer to me...and believe me, you...won’t...like...that.” She straightened, and in her normal booming tone, she added, “Well, Doctor, some of us have work to do. Save me a piece of that pizza if it’s pepperoni.”

Speechless, he watched her ample behind disappear out the door. He stared at the key again. For a brief moment, he wondered if it was a practical joke, but something about Krupps’s voice told him she was sincere. He tucked the key carefully into the hip pocket of his sweats, and after a while he wheeled his way down the corridor she’d indicated.

There were no patients’ rooms down there. Instead, there was a large meeting room, several storerooms and, at the end of the corridor, a small room with an open door.

No one was using it, and he peered inside. Several exercise mats were stacked in a corner. A portable stereo player sat on a shelf along with a pile of books and several pillows. There was a folded blanket. The door had a lock, and it was as private as a room could get within the confines of a hospital.

As he wheeled himself back to his room, Greg sent a silent, fervent prayer of thanks to Vivian Krupps, and another one upstairs to whichever capricious angel had both a sense of humor and an interest in romance.

At a quarter past five that afternoon, Greg was counting the minutes until Lily’s arrival when Elise walked hesitantly into his room. He hadn’t seen her since the day she’d told him of his grandpa’s death.

“I was just passing the hospital on my way to a meeting,” she said in a brisk tone, “and I thought I’d stop in for just a second to bring you this. Dad particularly wanted you to have it” She set Stanley’s battered doctor’s bag gently on the chair beside the bed.

There was a lump in Greg’s throat all of a sudden and he had to swallow hard before he could speak, because nothing could have brought the image of his grandfather more vividly to mind than the fat old brown medical bag the old doctor had carried everywhere.

“Thanks, Elise.” His voice was husky. ‘I’ll treasure that. It means a great deal to me. When did you get back from Greenwood?”

“Just this morning. I stayed a little longer than I’d planned. I wanted to get everything in order so that I wouldn’t have to go back. Dad left a very specific will. He wanted the house listed with a local real estate agency, and your brothers helped me clean it out before they left, but there was still a lot of other stuff to take care of. It...it was very painful.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and she dug in her handbag for a tissue. She blew her nose and dabbed at her eyes and then said in a falsely bright tone, “You’re looking so much better, Greg. I see they’ve put a cast on your leg. It’s
wonderful to see you up. The nurse at the desk said you probably won’t be here very much longer.”

“I hope not.” He felt awkward and ill at ease with her, but the anger that had fueled him on her other visits was strangely missing. In some confused fashion, it had to do with his feelings for Lily, with Krupps’s unexpected kindness. He just couldn’t be harsh with Elise today.

Impulsively he said, “Sit down for a minute and tell me about Grandpa’s funeral.”

She looked surprised and pathetically grateful for the invitation. It brought home to him how badly he’d acted the other times she’d come by to see him, and he suddenly felt ashamed.

She perched on a straight-backed chair without taking her coat off, her ringless hands clasped tightly in her lap.

“The funeral was huge, everyone came from miles around. There were so many flowers. The church was too small to hold everyone, so some people had to stand outside. And so many of them told wonderful stories about Dad. It would have made him very proud to know that so many people cared for him.”

Again she fought the tears that threatened. “I just wish he and I could have been closer,” she said miserably. “You know we never did get along well. I was such a disappointment to him. He wanted a son. We might have been father and daughter, but we were strangers.”

“Yeah. Well, I guess that happens in families.” He spoke before realizing that was certainly the case in their own family.

Elise looked at him sadly, and then her face crumpled and she seemed to collapse in on her herself, her head dropping to her chest, arms wrapped tight around her middle. Huge sobs erupted from her throat.

“Greg, oh, Greg, I know...you hate me for what happened when you were a little boy, for...for sending you away, then bringing you back and making you stay when you were miserable. If I could change it now, I...I would, but I c-can’t. I can’t.” It was a long moment before she could go on. “I can only say how sorry I am, and that I love you. I never stopped loving you. Couldn’t you please, please forgive me? Couldn’t you let me get to know you, let me at least be your...friend? I never forgave my father for the quarrels we had, and I’m so sorry now. I wish I’d gone back there and tried to make it up with him.” She struggled for control, her eyes streaming.

“Greg, it’s too late for Stanley and me, but it’s not too late for you and me.
Please
.” There was agony in the single word. “It would mean everything to me.”

Greg’s chest hurt, and it wasn’t from his ribs this time. He actually felt her grief, her guilt, her longing, and he understood on a visceral level how much pain he was causing her.

He’d come close to death in the accident, and now there was the definite possibility of developing a disease that would certainly shorten his life. The uncertainty of existence made his anger and resentment seem trivial and cruel.

He reached out his good hand toward her, his voice husky. “You’re right. Life’s too short. Let’s give friendship a shot Mom.” It was the first time since he was a little boy that he’d called her that.

Her eyes widened and searched his, as if she couldn’t quite believe she’d heard him correctly. Then she took his hand in both of hers, and he was surprised at how fragile she was. Her hands were almost transparent, and they were trembling. He’d always thought of her as strong, selfish, self-centered.

Maybe there was another part of her he’d deliberately ignored. Maybe he’d been wrong to cut her so completely out of his life. To his chagrin, he himself was on the verge of tears. His throat felt constricted and he had to swallow hard against the lump there.

Elise didn’t try to hug him, or smother him with kisses, and he was grateful. He’d have broken down completely, and perhaps she realized it. He felt a newfound respect for her restraint.

Instead, she withdrew one hand after a moment and found another tissue in her pocket, blotting her eyes and blowing her nose. Her mascara was hopelessly smeared, her eyes swollen, her lipstick gone, and yet he suddenly saw how beautiful she was. For the first time he could remember, he felt proud that she was his mother.

“I must look a wreck.” She gave him a tremulous smile and went over to the mirror above the sink. He watched as she went through the ritual of repairing her makeup, and when she came back and sat down again, there was a long, awkward silence.

Greg searched for a way to break it, racking his brain for a neutral subject that would bridge the intense emotion between them.

“Tell me about your job, El... Mom. What’s happening in real estate these days?” He didn’t really care, but at least it was something that wouldn’t upset either of them.

“The market’s slow, but with spring maybe it’ll pick up. I’ve got six listings now, but I’d like a few more.” There was eagerness in her tone, an obvious desire to share her interest in her job with him.

“So, you enjoy your work?”

“Oh, yes, I love my job.” She flashed a bright smile. “It’s the first job I’ve ever had that I really liked, and I’m good at it. But I had a lot of trouble passing the real estate exam. I’m terribly dyslexic, so book learning was tough for me. I had to hire a tutor, imagine that at my age.” She sounded embarrassed. “I’m so glad none of you boys inherited it.”

“I didn’t know.” He suddenly remembered the infrequent notes she’d written him during his growing-up years, misspelled and clumsy, and for the first time he wondered if maybe it wasn’t indifference that had kept her from writing him longer, better letters. Maybe she hadn’t written because writing was too difficult for her.

“I didn’t even know what dyslexia was until a few years ago,” she added. She grimaced. “I always just figured I wasn’t very smart. I failed several grades at school, you know. And of course back when I was a little girl, they didn’t understand about such things. The teachers just figured I was stupid.”

He remembered his grandfather commenting more than once that Greg certainly hadn’t gotten his brains from his mother. Stanley had valued education above all else. He’d been inordinately proud when Greg took top honors in his classes, and Greg knew he’d have been very disappointed when Elise didn’t do well at school. Stanley wasn’t one to hide how he felt, either.

Greg felt a little of his resentment of Elise fading away as understanding took its place.

They talked a little more about real estate, and then Elise asked about his injuries and listened closely when Greg explained some of the technical aspects of his treatment.

“When the time comes to go home, if... if you feel you might have problems being on your own at first, I’d love you to come and stay with me,” she suggested in a hesitant voice. “I live alone in a two-bedroom condo on False Creek. It’s quite nice, and I could help with meals and clothing and things.” She was both eager and diffident.

Her offer touched him deeply. He thanked her, explaining that he and Ben had a house and that he’d probably hire someone to do whatever was necessary.

“But maybe you’d like to come and visit me sometime,” he heard himself say. “I’ll be stuck at home for quite a while.”

“Thank you. I’d like that very much.” Her voice quavered, and it was obvious she was struggling not to cry again. She looked at her watch and got to her feet. “I should go. It’ll be a boring meeting, but I really should attend.”

She was heading out the door just as Lily came in, and the two women stopped and smiled hesitantly at each other.

Lily was dressed casually tonight, in snug jeans and a jacket, and Greg’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her. Had she grown more beautiful overnight, or was he simply seeing her beauty through the eyes of love?

He introduced them and they chatted for a moment about the rain that had been falling steadily for three days, and then Elise said, “It was nice meeting you, Lily.” She turned and smiled at Greg. “I’ll come by again soon if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” he agreed, relieved to find that he meant it. He’d actually like to see his mother again. “Thanks for bringing me the medical bag.”