The Day Steam Died (19 page)

Officer Knox tapped on her door with his flashlight. “Wait here until I can turn around and escort you to the hospital. That will be safer and help you get there sooner. Just follow my tail lights at two car lengths and you’ll be okay.” The officer nodded and touched his index finger to the brim of his snow-covered hat.

The trooper’s lights flashed as his snow chains dug into the icy packed snow. They moved slowly up the steep climb. Ann and Sylvia were finally on their way to the hospital again.

It was almost midnight. Ann worried Jerry might think they weren’t coming. Mesmerized by Officer Knox’s flashing light bar, she pondered what she might find when they finally arrived at the hospital. After seeing where Jerry had his accident, she knew it couldn’t have been good.

Chapter 37

“Coastline became the first company in the United States to become a totally diesel powered railway.”

ICU trauma

Officer Knox’s patrol car crept into the sanded emergency entrance parking lot with the monster Jeep almost touching its bumper. The tiresome trek up the slippery hill had taken twice as long as on a normal day. Ann and Sylvia’s nerves were frayed to the quick.

Ann checked her watch—two minutes past one. It was Christmas Eve. She jumped down from her high perch driver’s seat and dashed for the emergency entrance without waiting for Sylvia.

Exhausted and out of breath when she reached the nurses desk, Ann asked, “Where’s my husband?”

The nurse was too busy gathering and collating patient charts to hear Ann’s request.

This time much louder and more impatient, Ann asked which room her husband was in.

“What’s your husband’s name?” the nurse responded, trying not to show her annoyance at Ann’s rude manner.

“Jerry, Jerry Blackmon.”

“Just a moment,” she replied in a strained attempt at a calm voice. The stressed nurse flipped through a tray of charts on her desk. “Your husband is in ICU, down the hall and left through the double doors. Bay 4. Doctor Thomas is the attending physician.” She nodded toward a hall crowded with teams in scrubs scurrying to attend to the overloaded emergency room patients.

“This is it.” Ann motioned to Sylvia, who had caught up with her. She reached for the door just as a stocky, gray-haired man in blood-stained green scrubs emerged from the darkened room.

“Are you Dr. Thomas?”

“Yes,” he said, pulling a surgical mask from his face.

“I’m Mr. Blackmon’s wife, Ann, and this is his mother, Sylvia. How’s my husband? Can I see him now?”

“Mrs. Blackmon, your husband is in serious condition. We were in surgery for three hours to relieve pressure on his brain and to set his multiple fractures. He’s unconscious and on a ventilator. He has massive head trauma, and his left shoulder, arm, and leg were crushed. We were able save his arm but can’t know how much use he will regain. That will just take time. Our present concern is focused on his brain injury and how he’ll respond. We’ll know more in the next twenty-four hours.”

Ann’s knees buckled, but Sylvia held her up. “We have to be strong now,” she said, wrapping her arm around Ann’s waist. “He needs us to be strong.”

Gathering her courage, she stood herself up and was able to maintain her balance. “I want to see him.”

“You may go in, but I have to warn you, his condition is critical. He can’t respond to you. Mrs. Blackmon, we’ve done all we can at this point. I’ll check in on him tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.” Ann’s eyes caught his bloodshot gaze before he could turn away. “It’s already tomorrow morning, doctor. Merry Christmas Eve.”

“Thank you. Good night and get some rest.” He raised his tired arm in a half wave, putting distance between himself and the cacophony of ER doctors’ orders to assistants trying to save other victims of the storm.

Ann regained her composure, battling fatigue and fear of what the day would bring. She locked arms with Sylvia and bravely entered the room with green and red lights flashing from a bank of machines monitoring Jerry’s oxygen level, blood pressure, and pulse rate. A monitor with a screen whose graph line spiked with a comforting beep every time Jerry’s heart beat stood next to the head of his bead. The hissing pulsation of the respirator that was keeping Jerry alive was stationed on the other side of his bed.

Ann clasped her hands over her mouth, holding back a scream at what she saw swaddled in bed linens. That couldn’t be Jerry. She couldn’t recognize the swollen features of her husband’s face.

“He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be fine,” Sylvia repeated with tears streaming down her cheeks. She embraced Ann. “We have to be as strong as he is. We’ll do this together.”

A heavy bandage wrapped the top of his head. Jerry’s face was covered with cuts on top of swollen cheeks with only slits where his eyes were supposed to be. His neck brace plunged beneath the sheets pulled up under his chin. The elevated left leg cast a long shadow across the visitor’s chairs against the wall.

Ann cautiously walked to his bedside. Gently, she touched the smooth plaster cast that enclosed his shoulder and extended down his arm lying like a white log by his side.

“Don’t worry,” she said as if he could hear her. She leaned down only inches from his ear and whispered, “We’re going to be here for you, no matter how long it takes. I love you.” She kissed his disfigured cheek.

Christmas Eve

Sylvia and Ann spent the rest of the morning catching short naps between symphonies created by Jerry’s cast of instruments. One of the chairs in his room folded out into a bed of sorts and the other was a thinly padded high back chair with no arms. ER nurses provided blankets and pillows to help make the sleep-in as comfortable as possible.

The lights in the visitors waiting room were left on all night, including a blurry TV screen showing all night
Studio On
e re-runs of old black and white Frankenstein movies starring Lon Chaney. When daylight finally arrived, it was welcomed by the rumpled crowd as they began to stir in search of a coffee machine.

“Do you want coffee, Sylvia? I think my back is permanently deformed from sleeping in this foldout chair.” Ann stretched her arms and legs like a cat waking from its afternoon nap.

She looked over at Jerry for the hundredth time. His heart monitor beeped a steady rhythm. Its soft sound provided a measure of comfort for the two women in Jerry’s life and lulled them to sleep, if only for snippets of the long night.

“Yes, I would love some,” Sylvia said. “Black and hot. But, why don’t you go call Alice? She and the kids will be worried. I’ll freshen up a little and see if I can find some coffee.”

Families were wandering around the hall leading to the nurse’s station, bedraggled from sitting up with loved ones or trying to manage some rest in the TV room chairs. Ann walked past the desk to the Emergency entrance door to watch the sun begin its climb into the early morning sky.

No one was talking, which didn’t seem like Christmas Eve. It was supposed to be a happy time with people running around town doing last minute shopping for presents and Christmas dinner.

Tears trickled down her cheeks, slowly at first, and then in cascades. She leaned facing against the wall with her face buried in her crossed arms. Her body shook uncontrollably. The shock of the horrible accident had worn off and reality had set in. She was upset because she had to force herself to look at the ghastly figure of the man who was her handsome, loving husband. She fiercely fought back any thoughts that Jerry might not wake up and pushed them behind the same solid wall in back of her mind that suppressed the hurt of her breakup with Rick.

The convulsive sobs ebbed and left her weak, still leaning against the wall for support now as much as hiding her face from curious waiting room stares. The sleeves of her sweater were damp from her tears. The few remaining tissues she found crumpled up in her pockets were also limp with tears. Cold water splashed on her face from the nearby ladies room cleared her head so she could make an important phone call to her children. What would she tell them? They were so young.

“Where can I find a payphone?” she asked a heavyset nurse with graying hair behind the nurse’s station.

Her pleasant response disarmed Ann, who still felt guilty about her behavior earlier that morning.

“About ten feet past the ladies room. Do you need change?”

“No thanks, I have change. Thank you for asking. Your cheerful face brightens up the entire room.” Ann wished her a Merry Christmas and quickly left in search for the pay phone.

Chapter 38

“Most of the old steam engines were hauled to the scrap yard, except this beautiful engine that was the pride of the Coastline fleet.”

A new day

“Momma, how are the kids? I’m sorry I didn’t call last night, it was so late when we finally got here. He looks terrible, Momma. There are tubes and IVs stuck everywhere and his whole body looks like it’s in a cast. If his name wasn’t on the door, I wouldn’t even know it was him. We don’t know much. He has severe head trauma that required three hours of surgery and he’s still in a coma. They said he was hit by an out of control gasoline tanker and they both went over the side and down the mountain.

Sylvia has been a jewel, I don’t know what I would have done without her. I’ll let you know more as soon as we talk to the surgeon. Have to go now. Love to you and the kids. Goodbye.

Alice held the phone against her chest, wondering what she was going to tell the children when they woke up expecting their mommy and daddy to be home for Christmas.

She hung up the phone then climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Behind the closed door, she pulled down the shades and knelt in the darkness beside her bed to pray.

The clock over the nurse’s station showed it was after ten, and Doctor Thomas had just begun to make rounds. The two ladies sprang to their feet when he entered Jerry’s room. Ann had turned on the overhead light to disperse the darkness and shadows that had danced around in her imagination during the night.

“Good morning, Doctor Thomas,” Ann said in a valiant effort to sound hopeful.

“Good morning, Mrs. Blackmon. I’ve reviewed your husband’s chart and the good news is he remained stable through the night. The other good news is the surgery relieved the pressure on his brain, but he is still comatose. He had a severe fracture on the left frontal quadrant of his skull. There’s swelling in his neck from the impact, causing pressure on the spinal cord at the base of his brain. If he awakens from the coma, he may be paralyzed and lose his ability to speak.”

“If he wakes up? Are you saying there is a possibility he won’t?”

“We just can’t tell with this type of injury. We can treat his other injuries. Broken bones can be put back together. But we can only monitor injuries to the head and spinal cord, relieve the pressure, and hope it can heal on its own. The brain is the most powerful and complicated organ in our bodies. He’s a strong and healthy young man, which is in his favor.

“We just have to watch and wait. I’ll check in on him every day. I assure you, Mrs. Blackmon, we’re doing everything we can for your husband. We’ll transfer him to a private room in the trauma wing and keep him under observation twenty-four hours a day. You’ll have more privacy and the accommodations for a prolonged stay. The best thing you can do right now is go home, see your children, and get some rest. He’s in good hands.” Doctor Thomas excused himself and left the room to visit his other patients.

“Sylvia, we can’t go home and leave him here. What if he wakes up? I have to be here!”

“We should take Dr. Thomas’s advice,” Sylvia said. “There isn’t anything we can do for him, and sitting here watching isn’t doing either one of us any good. And anyway, I can’t drive that Jeep back to Winston by myself. The roads are cleared now, so let’s go home, freshen up, and spend some time with the children. We can come back later this afternoon. It’s the sensible thing to do. We can plan how we are going to do this in a relaxed atmosphere, without all the distractions.”

“I just don’t feel right leaving Jerry. You’re his mother. You should understand that.”

“I do, and because I’m his mother, I know we’re going to be here for him, but we need to take care of ourselves, too. You have two children at home worried about you. You need to be there for them.”

“Okay, but we’re coming straight back with suitcases and get a motel room until he wakes up and we can take him home.”

“Fine. Let’s get our coats and get on the road.”

Ann pulled on her heavy parka then leaned over and kissed Jerry and whispered, “We’ll be back just as fast as we can.”

Chapter 39

“The Shops were reduced to skeleton crews to service the few remaining steam engine. Their job was finished.”

Telling the children

Anxious to see Libby and Ricky, Ann leaped from the monster Jeep as soon as they pulled into the driveway and landed hard on her right foot. It rolled over, and pain like molten lava shot up her leg. Fortunately the thick blanket of snow padded her fall. Heavy winter gloves spared her hands being ground up by the gravel that paved the driveway beneath the snow.

“Are you okay?” Sylvia scurried around the Jeep and slipped in an effort to help Ann to her feet. Sylvia’s feet flew out from under, and she landed sitting down next to Ann.

In spite of her pain, Ann laughed at the two women’s predicament.

“It’s a good thing I have all that extra padding back there,” Sylvia said, laughing and pulling herself up on one knee. “Give me your hand, I’ll help you up.”

“Okay, but I can’t put any weight of on my ankle.”

Sylvia put Ann’s arm over her shoulder and wrapped her right arm around Ann’s waist then the two women hopped and wobbled up the steps and into the house.

Both her children were waiting to greet her.

“Mommy’s home, and I’ve missed you so much,” she said as she limped through the front door and knelt down. Libby and Ricky ran into her outstretched arms and smothered her with hugs, almost knocking her over.

“What in heaven’s name happened?” Alice asked, coming into the foyer from the kitchen.

“I turned my ankle when I jumped down out of that damned Jeep,” Ann responded.

Ann limped into the living room, where a crackling fire warmed her back before she sat on the couch. Sylvia scurried around and located a stool to elevate Ann’s ankle.

Alice went back into the kitchen then returned with a pan of heated water spiked with Epson Salt. Ann tried to relax as she soaked her ankle in the hot salt water solution that took away the throbbing pain and replaced it with the burning sensation from salt water.

“Do you know where I’ve been?” Ann quizzed the children, signing for Libby.

“To visit Daddy in the hospital,” Ricky said.

“That’s right. Daddy got hurt really bad in an accident and is unconscious.”

“What is that?” Libby signed.

“He’s asleep, silly.” Ricky spoke slowly, looking straight at Libby as he signed. “Like when you get hit on the head with a baseball and it knocks you out.”

Amazed at her young son’s comprehension of the term, Ann continued. “That’s right, Ricky, he got a real hard knock on his head when the truck rolled down the mountain into a big tree.”

“Wow! Daddy rolled his truck down the mountain?”

“He did,” Ann said softly.

A stern glance from Alice conveyed her message. That was enough. She didn’t think they needed to know the gory details about the tanker and fire that burned the truck driver.

“Can we go see him?” Ricky asked.

“Let’s wait until Daddy feels better, and then you and Libby can go for a visit, okay?”

“Okay, but I hope he wakes up soon, I miss him,” Ricky said.

Ann pulled her children close and hugged them tightly so they couldn’t see a tear escape from her brimming eyes.

“You two go play while Mommy, Nanna, and Grammy visit,” Alice said, ushering the children out of the room.

Ann dabbed her eyes dry while Sylvia brought fresh coffee. The three women planned just how they were going to handle things in the coming weeks.

But Ann noticed someone was missing. “Where is Marie?”

“Ronnie came by for her,” Alice said. “She wanted to go home. We asked her to stay, but she felt like she was intruding.”

“I hope she’ll be all right,” Ann said. “Maybe she can go back up with us some time to check on her sister. I’ll call her later. Right now I need to get a shower and pack some clothes.”

“You need to soak your ankle for another thirty minutes before you try to walk on it,” Alice advised. “And just how long do you intend to stay up there? You have two children who need their mother.”

“Until he’s well enough to come home, and I don’t know how long that will be. Do you mind keeping the kids?”

“My keeping the kids isn’t a problem. They need their mother, and you still have a job. Can’t they transfer him down here where there can be some semblance of a normal life?”

“I don’t know, Momma. We have to take it one day at a time,” Ann answered, annoyed at Alice’s question. “I just can’t leave him up there. The doctor said it would be helpful if I talked and read to him. Sometimes that helps to bring people out of a coma. Sylvia can stay here and help you with the kids.”

“Wait a minute,” Sylvia said, “He belongs to me too, and I intend to stay with him as long as it takes.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you two shouldn’t be at his bedside. I just thought you might ask the doctor if he could be moved down here to make it easier on everyone.”

“If you could see him, you wouldn’t ask a question like that. He’s in bandages and casts from his head to his feet and hooked up to a room full of machines. He isn’t even breathing on his own. I doubt if the doctor would even consider moving him anytime soon.”

“I’m sorry, I was just thinking how much more convenient it would be if he were in Winston instead of way up in Boone, that’s all.”

A phone call broke the heated conversation. Ann thought it was probably Ronnie wanting to know when he would get his Jeep back. She wanted to thank him for the Jeep and for taking Marie home, but she couldn’t move.

“I’ll get it.” Alice grimaced as she pushed herself up from the chair and walked stiffly toward the phone.

“Hello, this is the Blackmon’s residence...Yes, she’s here, just a moment.” Alice took a deep breath. “Ann, it’s for you. It’s the hospital.”

Ann’s face turned ashen white. Sylvia uncoiled the cord so Ann wouldn’t have to get up to answer.

She lifted the phone up to her ear. “This is Ann Blackmon.” Her voice echoed through the room.

“This is Nurse Melany Bowers from the hospital. It might be best if you can come back as soon as possible. Your husband’s heart is out of rhythm, and he is not responding to efforts to stabilize it.”

“I understand. I will leave right away. Thank you.” She leaned forward and cradled her face with her hands.

“What is it, Ann, what did the nurse say?”

Ignoring Alice’s question, she asked her to call Ronnie to bring her car back and pick up his Jeep and to be sure to thank him.

“I have to pack,” she said through quivering lips and red, irritated eyes welling up tears. “I need to get back up to the hospital right away. The nurse said Jerry’s heart rate was out of rhythm and they were having difficulty in regulating it.”

“But, you can’t drive with that ankle!”

“Momma, just get me an ankle wrap. I took a first aid course at work and know how to wrap it so I can walk.”