Down the Dirt Road (17 page)

     “You sure ya don’t want that wheelchair now Jennie?”  He chuckled quietly against her ear as he held her tight, righting her on her feet.

      “Maybe it would be a good idea after all.  I don’t know what happened…”

     “Your muscles have tightened up and the bruising could be disguising a fracture in your patella.”

     “In my what?”  She asked, near breathless from the pain.  From the corner of her eye she saw Momma on a stretcher disappear into the hospital.

   
“Your patella is your knee cap.”

     “Oh, right.  I guess I knew that.  Where’s my mother?  I can’t see where they are taking her.  I need to get inside.
”

      Just then an orderly arrived with a wheelchair and helped Jennie into it.  When he tried to take the handles to push her into the emergency area, Grayson said something to him quietly enough that Jennie couldn’t make it out but it sent the orderly on his way leaving Grayson to transport her inside.  He move quickly but not recklessly, pushing her in through the automatic doors, past the admitting desk and into one of the curtained areas.

    “Stay here, Jennie.  I will find someone you can talk to about your mother and who can fix your knee up.”

    She tried to rise from the chair, pain shrieking through her leg when she attempted to put pressure on it.  Still she ignored it and continued trying.  “I should go with you.”

     “No.”  There was the firm, commanding voice again.  His cop voice, Je
nnie thought.  Well, she was no criminal, no need for him to be telling her what to do!

    “You have no control over me, Grayson Jennings!  I want to find Momma and I don’t rightly see how you can stop me!”

    She jumped up then, ignoring the agonizing pain in her injured leg and lunged toward the now closed curtain.  She would have made it past the curtain too, if her left leg had decided to follow the instructions her brain was giving it.  Instead the muscles gave out again sending her flailing forward.  And again, Grayson stepped forward and caught her, holding her tightly against his uniformed chest as she regained her composure.  The sight of the cold linoleum floor rushing up at her so quickly had definitely scared her.  It was also a bit disconcerting how she was beginning to
like the feel of Grayson’s arms around her as he kept rescuing her from falls.

    Shaking off the feeling- she had no time for
that
now or any time- she pushed against him and tried to break free from his grasp.  The deadly serious expression on his face was becoming even more disconcerting than the warm fuzzy feeling she was getting from being held by him.

    “Please let me go, Grayson.  I want to find my mother.  I have to know if she’s… if she is going to be OK.  Something is wrong with her.  I mean, really wrong.  Something made her collapse.”  There were tears in her eyes and fear in her voice, as much as she tried to deny both she couldn’t.  It was embarrassing Grayson to see her that way but what did it matter anyway?

   Suddenly Grayson bent over slightly and scooped her up into his arms.  “You want to find your mother?  Fine, let’s go find her.”  His
words were meant to be short and irritated
but his tone was soft with understanding.

    
Jennie held tight to his shoulders and Grayson made his way through the hospital ward finally stopping outside a
curtained space.  Voices carried through the curtain as various medical professionals went about their work.

    Grayson pushed the curtain aside and step into the space.  “This is Mrs. Marshall’s daughter.  She is concerned about her mother and wishes to speak to the doctor in charge.”  Again with the cop voice; why did everything have to sound like such a command when he spoke?  Apparently it didn’t bother the medical staff.  A tall, lean man with graying temples and the sharpest blue eyes she had ever seen stepped forward
and greeted them
.

    “We are going to run a few tests but for now she is stable, that’s a good sign.”

     “OK, so we wait a while and then we will know?”

      “Yes, miss.  Should take about forty five minutes.”

       “Thank you, doctor.”

     
Pushing his tortoise shell glasses back
up his nose with one finger the doctor
smiled, a hint of amusement lighting his eyes.

     Embarrassed, Jennie realized Grayson still held her in his arms.  “Put me down please,” she mumbled. 

   
He obliged her request quickly, placing Jennie i
n a chair, his face a deep burgu
ndy
with embarrassment. 
Had he enjoyed holding her as much as she didn’t want to admit she had enjoyed being held?
  Forcing her thoughts back to the reason they were there, she ignored the twinge of guilt that she forgot in the first place. 

    “Momma?”  She called quietly to the woman on the narrow bed.  “Momma, how are you?”

    “That you Jennie-girl?  What happened?”

     Elise’s voice was weak, shaky. Jennie tamped down her growing fears that something was really wrong with her mother and reached out to take her hand.  Jennie flinched at how cool the skin was.

    “I think you must’ve tripped down the stairs Momma.  I was in the barn when I heard you scream.  Do you remember anything?”

     “Mmm…” her mother moaned quietly in response.  Jennie turned back to the doctor with the tortoise shell glasses.

    “Doctor?  Is she going to be all right?”

  “The head wound is superficial but we still need to wait for the blood work and I want to run an EEG, check brain function.”

  “Can I stay with her?”

  “Well, I’d say that depends.”
  The doctor smil
ed again
, humor lighting his eyes
.

   “On what?”

   “On whether your police escort will allow it.”  The older man chuckled
as he stepped from the curtained area.

    Jennie glanced up at Grayson to see that he was blushing as deeply
as she could feel that she was.  Averting her eyes quickly, she stretched her injured leg and winced with the pain that accompanied the movement. Grayson stepped forward quickly, probably as grateful for the distraction as she was.

     “We need to get you looked at too.”

     She waved him away with the flick of her hand.  “I’m fine.  It’s just a cut and a nasty bruise.”

     “I’ll be the judge of that.”  The nurse that had been tending to her mother, walked over to Jennie and squatted down in front of her to examine her knee.

    The nurse’s tag read Leah.  She had thick auburn hair that was incredibly unhappy about being contained in in the clip she had fastened it back with.

    Donning a fresh pair of gloves, Nurse Leah gently probed the injured area and swabbed it with an alcohol wipe.  Jenie tried hard not to let on that it hurt as much as it did and was pleased wh
en the nurse stood up and smile
d. 

    “I agree with your diagnosis, miss.  Just a nasty bruise and cut.  Let me bandage that up for you and you will be as good as new.  Might be sore for a few days t
hough.”

     “I can live with that.”

    Grayson’s police radio crackled with static.
  Jennie watched as he stepped out into the hallway, feeling his absence immediately and wishing she didn’t.
  The small space suddenly seemed empty in his absence.

15.

     “He sure can fill a space, can’t he?”  Nurse Leah giggled as the curtain closed behind the handsome officer.  Every female that had laid on eyes on Grayson had the same silly grin on their faces as they watched him with their eyes.

     “I guess so,” Jennie offered non-
committedly
.

   Nurse Leah worked on her knee, gently bandaging the wound.  “He’s a good looking police officer.”  She nodded in the direct Grayson had gone, her sly smile tinted with amusement.

    “Grayson?  I guess.”  She answered absently, her mind still on her mother sleeping in the bed in front of her.

    “He your boyfriend?”

    “What?!  N
O!”  She answered way too adamantly
.

     Leah laughed.  “Does he know that?”

   “What do you mean?”
  Jennie lowered her voice
to a near whisper.

   “The way he looks at you…. I would’ve swore that boy-man- was in love with you.”

   “Hmpf… that’s ridiculous.  We hardly know each other.  Only met a handful of time
s
since high school.”

      “Well, I don’t know ‘bout that but that handsome officer wants to protect and serve you somethin’ fierce.”

      She giggled at her own joke as she stepped back from Jennie’s leg.  “There, you should be all set now.  Keep it clean and dry as you can for a couple of days.  Want me to call your policeman in to carry you away?  Hah, like prince charming and Cinderella!”

       “He is not
my
police officer!”  The indignation in her words was hard to miss.  “He just happened to r
espond to the call when my mother
got hurt.

     “Right.  OK.  If you say so.  Better make sure that someone tells him
that!
”  The nurse chuckled as she shrugged her shoulders.  “I can tell you this though, i
f I
were you I would take full advantage of those handcuffs he’s got hanging from his belt!”

   
“By all means, go right ahead.  I’ll introduce
you
when he comes back in.”

    “Don’t bother, it won’t do any good.  Officer Jennings only has eyes for one specific damsel in distress.”

    “I totally doubt that.”  She sounded just a little more forlorn than she had wanted to so she changed the subject quickly.  “How long do you think they will keep my mother?”

    “Well, it’s hard to say.  I guess it depends on which tests need doin’ and how long the blood work takes.”

    No sooner had she spoken
t
he words than the kindly doctor with the tortoise shell glasses stepped back through the curtain., a grim look on his face.

    “Doctor?”  Jennie couldn’t hide her own concern even if she had wanted.  There was something the doctor knew that she wasn’t crazy about finding out.

    “I am afraid the blood test results have left me with some concerns.  Your mother has an extremely elevated white blood cell count.”

     “What exactly does that mean, Doctor?”

    “Well, Miss Marshall, a count that high could mean a couple of different things.  There could be an infection somewhere…. but I don’t think that’s the case.”

    She was almost afraid to ask.  “What do you think it is?”

   The doctor rubbed his chin as he considered Jennie carefully.  Finally deciding to share his thoughts, he pulled a rolling stool over close to where Jennie sat.  “I think, Jennie, that you mother might have one of
two things, leukemia or lupus.  At this time I am leaning toward lupus.”

    She had heard of leukemia before, knew it had something to do with the immune system but lupus, that was a new one for her.

    “What exactly is lupus, doctor?”

    “Lupus is an autoimmune disorder.  Basically, your immune system attacks your body, causing all sorts of problems like joint pain and organ failure.  It can be a long slow process or a relatively quick one.  Tell me, Jennie, when did your mother stop eating?”

    “She eats!”  Jennie burst out angrily.  “Just not as much as she did before Daddy died.”

    The doctor sat back in his chair, rubbed his chin again thoughtfully.  “How long has it been since your father passed on?”

     “’Bout two years.  Why?”

     “Tell me about your mother after he died.”

     “I don’t see what any of this has to do with Momma hittin’ her head on the steps.”

     “Humor me, please.  Any information may help me with my diagnosis.”

     Jennie glanced over at the sleeping form of her mother in the narrow emergency room bed.  Even here, under the influence of heavy duty pain medications her mother slept fitfully.  It broke her heart thinking of the woman Momma used to be, before Daddy
left them.  Tears filled her eyes as she watched her mother’s head slip back and forth against the white pillowcase on the plastic covered pillow, her lips moving silently as she spoke to someone in her dreams.  Probably Dadd
y.  Elise had called
out for him in the night
many times.
  Over her shoulder the curtain rustled as Grayson stepped through the opening.  He looked sad.