Wheels of Steel, Book 1 (10 page)

“Ok.” He plastered on a concerned yet confused look. “What do you mean?”

“He has seizures, he needs me to stay with him while he’s at school…” She wanted to say that he was rude and crude and that she just didn’t want to work with him, instead she took another tactic. “Besides, I’ve been working two jobs for several months. I think I’ll take a break while Miss Lucille is in the hospital and then start back again.”

Aaron began digging through some papers on his desk. “Miss Lucille Babbs…” He was reading something. “…won’t be a client of Pinnacle any longer.”

Robin felt her chest constrict. “What? Why? I-is she okay?”

“Her son is moving her to a nursing home when she’s released.” Her mouth stayed ajar. “Robin, we don’t want to lose you at Pinnacle. You’re a great asset, always on time, no complaints from the clients. The thing is, there is no other job that I can give you right now. If you’re not working with Mr. Hamilton then we actually don’t need you right now. If you can hang in there with your current client for a while longer I can offer you the next job. How does that sound?”

Robin couldn’t find words to respond. She wasn’t ready to stop being with Miss Lucille.

Working with the older woman had become so much of her daily routine that the prospect of never enjoying her company again saddened her. Robin knew that the few extras that she did for the woman had made her dreary existence livable. The evidence was in her perky greeting each morning and their long conversations that now took the place of her pre-taped evangelist shows.

“Robin?” She dragged her eyes back to the dyed and tanned man before her.

“I—yes. Yes, of course I’ll continue working with Mr. Hamilton.”

Aaron rose again and offered her his hand. “I’m happy that we can keep you aboard. If you need anything just contact me or Ben. And don’t forget your course in seizure management this Saturday from three to six. You’ll have to pay the registration fee but we’ll refund it.”

“What? How much is it?”

“Mary Louise will give you all of the information at the front desk.” He gestured to the door with a friendly but rushed smile. She had been dismissed. She headed out the door and Mary Louise gave her an over-bright smile.

“So I wrote down the information about the class. It’s this Saturday at three o’clock. It’s downtown, on Broadway, room 525.” She handed her a slip of paper.

“Aaron mentioned something about a registration fee?”

“Oh yes! It is one hundred twenty dollars, which Pinnacle will fully refund. We just need you to provide-”

Robin’s eyes closed and when they opened they were narrowed in the direction of the receptionist. There was such a thing as going too far, and Pinnacle had just achieved it. “Mary Louise, you’ll need to write a check for the one hundred twenty dollars right now.” Mary Louise gave her a surprised look.

“Well…we can’t do that. We have to go through appropriations for something like that. And well we had to get this appointment out before that could happen and so…what I’m saying is that the cost for the class is not really approved yet.”

Frustrated, tired and finally at her wits end with Pinnacle, Robin did something that was long overdue; she blew up.

“You expect me to literally pull one hundred twenty dollars out of my own pocket for a class that’s going to be held in two days? Pinnacle presumes a lot; what if I don’t have that money?! What if I had plans for Saturday?! And truthfully, that the funding for the class hasn’t been approved yet doesn’t make me feel at all comfortable. Let me just say it like this; if you want me to take the class then you will need to pay the full amount up front!”

Mary Louise just stared at her. Robin’s brow went up. She turned and headed for the door considering the woman’s lack of a response as an answer.

“Wait! I just need to talk to Aaron.”

“No.” She continued walking. “Not waiting.”

“Okay, wait! I’ll write you a check.” Robin stopped, even more annoyed than before. Mary Louise knew that she could do this all along--freaking liars…She returned to the desk where the older woman pulled out one of the big check notebooks that she’d seen Ben using.

“I suppose that we can pull the amount from something else until it’s approved.” Mary Louise said, mostly for the benefit of Robin. Yet Robin knew that the money was just sitting there and they would have tried to find a way not to reimburse her. She had their number.

“Mary Louise, that check you’re writing, if it’s not for the full amount of the course and I have to come up with any out of pocket costs then I’m walking away.” Mary Louise looked at her. “There may be an additional fifty dollars to cover some state fees. I’ll just make it out for one seventy-five, just in case.”

Robin just stared at her without expression. Mary Louise handed her the check and Robin took a few moments to look it over. All of the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed. “Thank you.” She said and then left the office.

Once she left Pinnacle, instead of going home to nap as she needed to do, Robin drove over to University Hospital. She considered picking up a small bouquet of flowers but stopped at the snack bar and got a huge cinnamon roll instead. She had come to realize that the older woman had an affinity towards sweet treats and while she didn’t want to give the woman a sugar rush, she enjoyed bringing her treats. Sometimes it was ambrosia salad, or yogurt parfait cups, sometimes muffins. But Miss Lucille always received them enthusiastically, praising her son for his thoughtfulness.

The elderly woman was awake and watching the television. When Robin stepped through the door she gave her a big smile. “Robin!” She greeted her happily, though her voice was weak and she seemed short of breath. She still had an oxygen tube to her nose and monitors connected to her through lines that ran beneath her oversized hospital gown.

Robin momentarily froze at the entrance as dejavu struck her. It was just like Daddy…she plastered a smile on her face and quickly moved forward, taking the older woman’s hand and squeezing it gently.

“Have a seat dear. You just missed my son and his children. They were here all morning. I really wanted you to meet him, but maybe next time.” Robin wondered if their visit had just been a figment of the older woman’s imagination—or maybe wishful thinking. She hoped that she wasn’t wrong, and hoped that they had actually come to visit her. But she didn’t believe they had.

“How are you feeling, Miss Lucille? You look good.”

“Oh, I feel better. My own doctor gave me medicine to open up my lungs.” She nodded her head. “I can breathe a little better now.”

“That’s good. Is there something I can do for you while I’m here?”

Miss Lucille was just happy to have someone to talk to and the two sat and chatted for a while, splitting the large cinnamon roll, nibbling from it as they talked. A man suddenly appeared at the door, pausing to look at Robin in surprise.

“Hello. Are you a nurse?” He was a rather nice looking man that appeared to be his late forties; tall and fit and dressed casually in jeans and a button down shirt.

“Oh Bently!” Miss Lucille held out her hand for the man. “Robin this is my son Bently. He’s a doctor. Bently this is my caregiver from Pinnacle, Robin.”

Bently came forward and took his mother’s hands and then leaned forward and kissed her wrinkled cheek. He shook Robin’s hand next, a slight frown creasing his brow. “You’re from Pinnacle?”

“Yes.”

“Well I told them yesterday that we’re not going to need them anymore.”

“Oh, well I’m not here on their behalf. I just came to visit your Mom.”

Miss Lucille’s eyes brightened. “I told you Robin is a good girl.”

“Oh, Robin.” His expression relaxed. “My mom talks about you all the time. Somehow I thought you’d have angel wings the way she goes on about you.” Robin blushed and glanced at the elderly woman who was looking at the two of them as if they were the sun, moon and stars.

She stood. “Well, I’ll get going and let you two spend time together.”

“Don’t rush off, I can’t stay.” He said quickly confirming her earlier belief that he and his children had not spent the morning with her. He turned to his mother whose happy smile vanished. “Mom, I just came by to let you know that your new home is all set for you. We had some of your personal items from the house brought over to make it comfortable.”

Miss Lucille gripped her blankets and suddenly seemed flustered. “Oh…but I don’t want to move, Bently, I thought you said I could stay in the house.”

“No Mom, that was before the hospital stay. I said that if you got ill we’d have to get you into a place where there are people who can take care of you.”

She gave him a confused look. “Well…my house is a place where people can take care of me.”

Bently gave Robin an apologetic smile and Robin glanced at the door wishing for a polite way to make a getaway. Bently took a deep breath and began again, as if he was talking to a toddler and had explained the same thing a million times.

“Mom, the place where you’re moving will be very nice. There will be people that will prepare your meals, give you medicine, help you bathe and get to the toilet. They’ll keep everything clean and neat for you. It won’t be like those places you described. I promise. You’ll have a bedroom, a living room and a kitchenette. It’s really one of the nicer places.”

“But it’s not my own home.” She said in a soft voice.

Robin felt nauseous. She didn’t want to be here to witness this very personal conversation. “I’m sorry I need to go.” She turned to Miss Lucille, a woman that she’d known for only a short time, but a person that she’d grown to care about. “When you get settled in I’ll visit you.

She gave her a hopeful look. “You will?”

“I will.” She gave Bently a pointed look and his eyes flitted away from hers. She was suddenly taking the old woman’s hands in hers, and bending low enough to stare straight into her eyes. “You will meet people there like the ladies from your bridge group. Maybe you can even start a new one. And maybe…maybe you can help keep some of them company—the ones who aren’t as lucky as you are to receive visitors. Wouldn’t that be nice to help keep people that are sad and lonely company? And I bet they will have good food, not just boiled eggs in the morning and a frozen meal at dinner.” She didn’t need to glance at Bently to see that his back had stiffened.

“What’s the name of the facility?” She directed to him without looking at him.

Sputtering slightly he eventually managed to give her the name and she turned her attention back to the elderly woman, smiling gently. “You take care of yourself.” She bent and kissed her cheek. Miss Lucille’s smile returned and grateful tears sprouted in her eyes.

“Thank you for the cinnamon roll…and the butter and jam and all the other things.” Robin stared into the woman’s clear eyes. She had known what was going on all along, but sometimes pretending helped to get through.

“My pleasure.”

Robin practically staggered home. She was emotionally and physically exhausted. Seeing Miss Lucille in the hospital had dug up old memories of her father’s last days. Her chest felt tight and she found it hard to catch her breath; the inevitable hopelessness of losing someone was a feeling that she did not want to relive…but an emotion that she just could not shake.

She had no time to nap, only to bathe and make a quick sandwich for dinner. For about the hundredth time she seriously contemplated quitting one of the jobs. She worked too hard. What was supposed to be just monitoring a sleeping patient had turned into actual work. She had one more year before the car would be paid off but if she banked enough money perhaps she could have enough to float herself, or maybe she could even pay it off early.

All she knew is that it felt good not to have to turn to her Mama to help her out financially.

And that thought was enough to send her off to work, tired, yawning…but at least self-supported.

Chapter 10

“See.” Link said with a grin as he pulled up to Jason’s parking lot and deposited him safely to the sidewalk. “This was much nicer then digging for breaks.”

He nodded happily. “I’m not complaining.” What had began as touch and go, had turned out to be a great night. He’d made some great beats with his friend and had gotten a blowjob! The ‘watcher’ had taken him to one of the lower level bathrooms and had given him a blowjob as he sat sprawled out in his chair. Afterwards he’d returned the favor when she climbed up onto the counter positioning her legs on either side of his chair.

He’d never done that before and the only thing that could have made it better is if she would have let him kiss her. He’d never kissed anyone before.