Love Immortal (13 page)

“Yeah, she left maybe five minutes ago. Just
before I called you.”

Tommy checked his watch. She should be home
in the next ten minutes. “Don’t worry Ashley. I’ll take care of
her. Thanks for looking after her and being a good friend.”

“You’re welcome Tommy; I just hope it’s
enough.”

After what seemed like an eternity, he saw
Jewell’s blue Focus driving down the street. He sat down in his
favorite recliner and grabbed the book he was reading. When Jewell
came in the door, he set down the book. “Hey honey. Did you have a
good time with Ashley?” She shrugged in response and walked into
her room and shut the door.

At five o’clock, Tommy knocked on Jewell’s
door. “Do you want something to eat before work?” He waited for a
response. When she didn’t answer, he cracked the door to look in on
her. The shades were drawn; the room was completely dark. Jewell
sat in the middle of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Tommy
eased his way into the room and over to the bed. He sat on the
edge, placing his hand on Jewell’s back. “It’s time to get going if
you want to get to work on time.”

Jewell looked at him, or more accurately,
looked through him. She got up, went to her dresser to get her
scrubs and then walked to the other side of her room to get her
shoes from the closet. Her movements were stiff; she looked like
one of the zombies from Dawn of the Dead.

“Why don’t I call Ashley? She can give you a
ride to work.” Tommy worried that Jewell would be unable to safely
drive to work in her condition. When Jewell didn’t answer, Tommy
left the room and called Ashley. Ashley told him she had already
thought of that and was on her way.

When Ashley pulled into the driveway, Jewell
was sitting on the couch in the living room, blank eyes staring at
nothing. Tommy opened the door stepping back so that Ashley could
come inside. Ashley walked to the couch, took Jewell’s hand and
coaxed her out the door. As she left, she gave Tommy a reassuring
look. She would take care of Jewell.

At work, Ashley checked on Jewell a couple of
times during the night. Although she wasn’t her normal, cheerful
self, she seemed to be functioning relatively normally. She was
speaking to patients and other nurses and doctors. To someone who
didn’t know Jewell as well as Ashley did, they might just think
that she was a little tired or out of sorts, but Ashley doubted
anyone would notice more than that.

As promised, Ashley managed to find Collin’s
file and jot down his address. It was in Lacombe, just about twenty
miles from Covington. Maybe when Jewell had this information, she
would perk up a bit. Ashley went to the cafeteria at eleven thirty,
when they usually met for lunch. Jewell wasn’t there. Ashley
grabbed an apple and went looking for her. By the time Ashley’s
break was over, she still hadn’t found Jewell. She felt better at
the end of her shift when Jewell was out in the parking lot waiting
by Ashley’s car.

“Rough night?”

Jewell didn’t answer.

“Okay then…Hey, I found Collin’s address.
It’s in Lacombe. You want to head over there tomorrow?” She handed
the piece of paper to Jewell. Jewell took the offered paper and
looked at it. Her expression didn’t change. She opened the car door
and sat down in the passenger seat, looking at nothing out the
front window. Ashley got into the car, and drove Jewell home.
Neither said anything for the entire trip.

At Jewell’s house, Ashley opened her door and
stood up shaking her head at Tommy to indicate that there had been
no change. Tommy waited at the door for his daughter to walk up the
front walk. He put his arm around her shoulders as he waved thanks
to Ashley and led Jewell inside.

Tommy watched as his daughter went into her
bedroom and shut the door. He checked on her several times that day
while she slept. When she didn’t wake up for dinner, he went into
her room and sat on the edge of her bed, resting his hand on her
shoulder. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt her arm slowly
rise and lower with her steady breathing. It was no wonder she was
still sleeping. She hadn’t slept in over twenty four hours. He
left, carefully closing the door behind him.

Tommy slept in his recliner in the living
room. He wanted to be there when Jewell finally woke up. He was
surprised when he woke up to find the sun shining in through the
front window. He got up and walked to Jewell’s room. He cracked the
door, and saw her sitting on her bed, brushing her hair. “Morning.
Do you want some breakfast?”

“I’ll get it dad. I think I’m just going to
have some cereal. I have some errands to run.”

“If you’re sure. Do you want some
company?”

“No dad. I’m good. I’ll be back in a couple
hours.” She grabbed her cell phone, and walked out the door.

Even though she knew this address was going
to be just as bogus as the address for the clinic, she had to
check. She drove down I-10 toward Lacombe. It was a short drive,
only about twenty minutes. She had mapped the directions and drove
directly to the location. She pulled into a parking lot and looked
at the number above the door; 29230. The sign in front of the
building said “Tropical Interiors.” She wasn’t surprised.

As Jewell pulled away, the tears started to
run down her face. She didn’t have the energy to keep trying to
fool her friends and family. How long would it be before she
finally gave up?

Chapter 19

Collin lay in bed looking at the TV. It was a
soap opera, he didn’t know which one. He picked up the remote and
flipped through the channels. He switched to a crime show then
turned off the television and threw the remote on the floor. This
was insane. He felt fine, and yet, his uncle insisted he get his
“rest.” He reached his hand up to run it through his hair but felt
only peach fuzz, reminding him of why he was in this situation in
the first place. He rubbed his head, feeling the healed scar that
ran along his scalp. It itched a little, but was healed for the
most part. A light pink scar ran through his peach fuzz hair.

His uncle had removed the figure-of-8-brace
when they arrived home the week before. He removed the bandages on
Collin’s head the next day. Two days later, he had taken off the
cast on his left leg. The only remaining evidence of the accident
was the cast that extended from his right hip all the way down to
his toes. His knee itched. He tried not to think about it, but then
his ankle started to itch; then his shin and his thigh. Before
long, he was convinced that his cast was filled with little ants
crawling up and down his legs. He looked around for the yardstick
his uncle had left for just this purpose. When he didn’t see it
immediately, he sat up and looked around his bed. He saw it on the
floor, under his bed, just out of reach. Unfortunately, even though
he could get off the bed, because the cast also immobilized his
hip, he was unable to reach the yardstick.

He looked at the doors to the parlor and
started to hobble toward them. His right leg didn’t hurt when he
put weight on it, but it was extremely difficult to move it
forward. He stepped forward with his left foot, and then dragged
the right leg to meet the left. By repeating this process, he was
able to make slow, if inexorable progress across the room.

When he reached the doors, he pulled them
open, catching one of them on his right leg. This situation was
really becoming impossible. He looked toward the front door, he
thought that sitting on the porch might be nice, but then he heard
voices coming from the kitchen. He could use something to eat so he
started moving in that direction: thump, scraaaape, thump,
scraaaape, down the hall. When he was within a few feet of the
kitchen, his uncle came out to stand in the doorway, hands on his
hips.

“I was wondering how long it was going to
take you to get out of that bed boy.” Uncle Percy winked and
grinned wickedly. Then he turned towards the voices in the kitchen
and remarked “Look, Frankenstein’s monster. HE LIVES!” Collin heard
a collective chuckle emanating from the kitchen.

“Well, are you going to give me a little
help, or just stand there and watch?”

“Thought I’d just stand and watch. It’s
really interesting the way you move that right leg.”

“Ha ha,” Collin remarked sardonically. “I
thought I’d see if I could find a butcher knife big enough to cut
this thing off. It’s making me crazy! I swear there are ants in
there crawling around.”

Percy moved to the side as Collin dragged
himself into the kitchen. Finally making his way to the counter and
propping himself against it, Collin looked at the gathered faces.
Gladys, Kendryck, Carl and Dorothy all sat at the table eating
sandwiches. Gladys grabbed the plate of sandwiches in the middle of
the table and handed it toward Collin. He took a sandwich off the
top and took a bite. “So you guys decided to throw a party but
didn’t invite me?”

“Actually,” Percy responded, “we were just
discussing taking you to get your leg x-rayed. I think that cast is
about ready to come off, but since it was such a bad break, I
wanted to be sure. Seeing as how you’re walking on it now, it seems
I was correct. Still, better safe than sorry. Do you feel like
going for a ride?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Collin breathed a sigh
of relief.

Carl, hating to see Collin struggling, got up
and put his shoulder under Collin’s right arm to help him to the
door and down the stairs on the front porch. Percy had a nice, big,
SUV. This made it easy for Collin to push himself into the seat and
turn himself toward the front. “At least there’s plenty of
legroom,” Collin joked, as Percy got into the driver’s seat.

The drive was short. Percy pulled into the
parking lot of an orthopedic clinic. Dr. Babineaux greeted them at
the door. “I remember you from the hospital,” Collin remarked. “I
thought you were a trauma surgeon, not orthopedics.”

“I am. This clinic belongs to one of my
friends from med school. He sometimes lets me use his X-ray machine
for extracurricular pursuits. I love it! State of the art, all
digital.” Dr. Babineaux smiled as he held the door open for Percy
and Collin.

After several X-rays, and much consultation
between Percy and Dr. Babineaux about the condition of Collin’s
leg, they finally agreed that his leg was healed enough to remove
the cast. Because of the pins, the process took longer than
removing the cast from his left leg. When it was finally off,
Collin reached down with both hands and scrubbed his leg from top
to bottom with his nails, sighing contentedly at being able to rid
himself of the crawling ant feeling.

Percy wanted to test the weight on Collin’s
legs slowly. He gave Collin a pair of crutches and encouraged him
to stand up. After Collin had gained his balance, Percy told him to
slowly start transferring weight to the leg. It hurt, quite a bit
actually, but the pain was not unbearable. Finally, Collin had
transferred all of his weight to his newly freed leg, using the
crutches for support.

“Amazing. Absolutely remarkable.” Dr.
Babineaux marveled. His eyes sparkled as his mind started
processing the medical implications of what he had just seen. “And
you’re all like this?” He asked, turning his attention to
Percy.

Collin looked at Percy who gave a barely
noticeable shake of his head, looking subtly towards Collin. It was
clear that Percy was discouraging Dr. Babineaux from speaking in
front of Collin about something. What did he mean when he asked if
they were all like this? Collin’s thoughts were interrupted when
his leg suddenly started to collapse beneath him. He was glad that
he still had the crutches under his arms.

“Humph,” Percy grunted. “Maybe I rushed
things a bit.”

“No, no Uncle Percy. It’s great. I just need
to get used to putting weight on it. It feels really good.”

Percy turned to Dr. Babineaux and said
something. Dr. Babineaux left the room and came back in a couple of
minutes with a simple cane. “Try this,” he said, handing Collin the
cane. Collin put down the crutches and tested his leg using only
the cane. It seemed that he could put most of his weight on his leg
without too much pain. He walked across the room and back, and then
grinned triumphantly at his uncle.

“Alright then! Nicholas.” He shook Dr.
Babineaux’s hand. “Let’s go home kid.” He patted his nephew on the
back and they headed slowly toward the door. Dr. Babineaux held the
door as Percy and Collin left. Collin walked out in front of his
uncle and he heard Dr. Babineaux ask Percy if they could talk
later. “Later.” Percy replied. It was clear to Collin that there
was something that Percy did not want Collin to know, and Collin
had an uneasy feeling that it had to do with him.

When Collin had settled himself into his seat
and Percy had started the car, Collin asked his uncle, “What were
you talking about back there with Dr. Babineaux?”

“Oh, just doctor stuff; medical babble and
the like. Now, when we get home, I want you to exercise that leg,
but if it starts bothering you, I want you to give it a rest. I
want to check it later and make sure that it’s not swelling. If it
hurts, we can give you some pain killers and ice it tonight.”

Collin sighed. He was obviously not going to
get the answers he was looking for today. “Sure Uncle Percy,
whatever you say.”

At home, Collin did exactly as Percy asked.
Instead of going inside, he walked along the path that skirted the
edge of the bayou. He passed a vine covered tree. “Honeysuckle,” he
thought. He sighed. He wondered if he was going to be able to get
away from his uncle to see Jewell again. He wondered if Jewell
would want to see him again. He sat down on a fallen tree and shut
his eyes, inhaling the sweet, spicy smell of the flowers. He
imagined a beautiful girl, with golden blonde hair and sparkling
blue eyes. He had memorized every feature of her face. He imagined
her, sitting next to him, her warm hand in his, her musical
voice.