A Hero's Reward (2 page)

“Sure doc, let's see how bad I
fucked myself up.”

Once the X-rays had been taken Greg was
returned to the room he had awoken in. The orderly who returned him
to the room thoughtfully turned on the television before leaving. The
evening news was on and the story of the day seemed to be a house
fire in town. The place had burned completely to the ground. They
started the section with still footage of the charred wreckage and
then a cheerful sounding announcer cut in:

“And now, proof that chivalry
isn't dead. The following footage was taken while this house was
still in flames. An, at this time, unidentified man saw the fire and
with quick thinking and action saved the two inhabitants of the home.
All three are currently in the hospital and their conditions, and
identities, have not been released.”

The scene flashed to a slightly grainy
video, obviously enlarged from a smaller version. The video started
with the scene of a man with a ladder charging across the lawn of the
burning building. As the man slammed it into the ground and started
to race up it, Greg flashed back to earlier in the day. After a brief
moment of disorientation he realized he was watching himself. When he
saw the portion where the ladder was blown away from the wall, with
him and the woman riding it, he thought:

Jesus! How did I survive that? I should have at least broken
some bones if not killed myself!”

“We do know that the man survived
his dramatic rescue.”

The scene flashed to Greg, strapped to
a backboard, being carried into the ambulance.

“It just goes to show you that
heroism is not dead and gone. We have heroes all the time in everyday
life.”

“Just think of the firefighters
and police officers who are out there every day, their heroism may
not be as dramatic as this video but they do it day in and day out.”

The two announcers continued their
banter but Greg tuned them out. As he thought about it, the best he
could figure was that he was so caught up in his movie that he
reacted like the main character would have. He couldn't find any
other reason why he would have acted as he did.

The doctor came back into the room a
while later:

“Well Greg, we don't find
evidence of broken bones of any sort in the X-ray. It appears that
you just managed to badly strain the muscles in your back with your
landing. We'd like to keep you overnight for observation just in case
we missed something but after that you can go. We'll give you a
prescription for some heavy duty pain killers and I recommend a week
worth of rest, bed rest if you can manage it.”

“Okay doc, but I need to make a
phone call. I need to let my boss know I won't be in for a few days.”

“We can do that, if you know the
number offhand I can get you an outside line right now.”

“Please do, if you would.”

The doctor picked up the phone, punched
in a series of number, then handed the whole thing to Greg.

“Just dial the number as you
normally would.”

Greg dialed and waited as the phone
rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey boss, it's Greg.”

“Oh, hey Greg.”

“Um, I'm not going to be in
tomorrow and probably for the next few days either. I'm in the
hospital and the doc is prescribing pain killers and a week of rest.
Bed rest if I can handle it.”

“Heh! I just won twenty bucks.
Murray's over here, and we were watching the news. I thought I
recognized you in that clip, Murray told me I was full of shit. But
it's no problem. I'll even give you two weeks off with pay if you
manage to slip a mention for the business into some of the interviews
I'm sure you'll be having.”

“Boss, who's going to want to
interview me?”

“You do realize that the evening
news pulled that clip from Youtube? We went to look for it after.
It's been up less than five hours and already has almost a quarter
million hits. It went viral almost immediately. They'll be after you
for interviews.”

“Oh shit, I can't handle this
crap. I've had a rough enough day already. Maybe I'll be able to deal
with it in the morning. I'm gonna go boss, I'll talk you to later.”

“Get better Greg, seriously it's
no problem for you to have some time off. Hell, it's worth it for the
video alone. I haven't ever seen action like that outside of the
movies.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Greg looked at the doctor:

“Sure doc, I'll stay overnight
and my boss said I could have time off for the rest you prescribed
also. I'm wondering one thing though, how's the woman I rescued?”

“Margaret? She's fine, or as fine
as can be after some serious smoke inhalation. She'll be in here for
a few days though. We've notified the father to come pick up the
child, he'll be here later tonight to get him. Evidently he lives out
of state now. She's under sedation but was awake and alert for a bit
earlier on. So I'd say she's doing as well as can be expected. The
boy is virtually uninjured.”

“Good, that's a load off of my
mind.”

“We're going to give you a dose
of painkiller again. This one won't have you hallucinating. It'll
probably put you right out though. Sleep, relax, and rest. That's the
best way to recover from this.”

“Okay doc, see you in the morning
then.”

Greg's sleep was deep, and his dreams
were haunted by the face of a sorrowful angel.

When Greg woke up he was famished. He
found the call buzzer but before he could press it a nurse was
entering the room.

“Good, our resident celebrity is
awake. Your identity was released last night as well as the fact that
you'd be released this morning. There's a swarm of reporters in the
lobby waiting to interview you.”

“Just what I needed, I thought I
was starving, but that's enough to put a damper on my appetite.”

“Let me get you some breakfast.
If you thought you were starving, you probably are. I bet smelling
some food will get your appetite back for you.”

Greg watched with interest as the nurse
left the room. He wasn't sure but he thought there was some extra
wiggle in that walk, just for his benefit. His suspicions intensified
when she came back with breakfast. She was sure to lean over him
deeply when placing the tray and he was pretty sure nurses weren't
supposed to have that many buttons opened.

Damn it!,
he thought,
It's
the same old, same old. Flirting and teasing even when they don't
intend to do anything about it.

Greg hadn't had a woman since his
divorce. His wife had soured him on the feminine half of the species.
She left him because, in her own words: “You're not ambitious
enough! You could be so much more!” He never had figured out
where she got the idea that he wanted power and influence. She
couldn't, or refused to, understand that he liked building things. He
was good with his hands and he made enough to support a family of
four in comfort, what else did they need? That wasn't enough for her
though. When he caught her in an affair with an up and coming
politician he thought he'd get custody of the kids hands down.
Evidently the politician wasn't without influence though and wanted a
ready-made family for the photo opportunities. When he challenged her
getting custody he was told that if he wanted to maintain visitation
rights he'd better let it drop.

Who would've thought a woman could be such a bitch just because
I didn't want power and influence. The public life that would go with
it would just suck.

Greg realized that now he was going to
get a taste of that public life whether he wanted it or not.
Meanwhile the nurse was still lingering:

“Thank you for the food, I'm
feeling a bit stiff even with the painkillers, maybe something to eat
will help.”

The nurse gave him a saucy grin before
leaving the room. There was definitely a shimmy to her step now and
Greg tried to figure out what he had said to encourage her. Reviewing
his comment made him feel like an idiot. He never had been one for
carefully choosing his words and he realized that he had made an
unintentional double entendre that the nurse had caught. Well, at
least he was getting out of here this morning so he wouldn't continue
to make a fool of himself in front of her.

Although
, he thought to himself,
she certainly does have some very nice assets. Wow, maybe I'm
finally getting over what Emily did to me. I hadn't noticed anything
like that in quite a while.

A few minutes after breakfast the
doctor came in, did some final checks, and told him he could be
released at any time.

“I realize you might not like
this, but I suggest the wheelchair to the curb treatment. You can
avoid interviews that way if you like.”

“Thanks doc, but I know that
they'll get a story one way or another. I think I'd rather be the one
to give it to them than to let them make up whatever they want. I
don't much like the idea of not being under my own power either, to
tell you the truth. I'll walk out of here, give them a couple of
statements, and be on my way.”

“If you say so Greg, you're
certainly in good enough shape for that but make sure you remember to
get your prescription filled on the way home, there's a pharmacy
downstairs off of the lobby. You certainly shouldn't be driving under
the influence of the painkillers I'm prescribing you so you'll want
to fill your prescription before you get home. Your clothes are in
the closet, once you're dressed just come out to the nurses' station
and we'll get your paperwork finished.”

Greg was very glad his job provided
health insurance when he saw what the bill for just an overnight stay
would be. He filled out the paperwork and the doctor escorted him to
the elevator.

“There's a horde of reporters
down there. I suggest you pick a couple and just speak with them. If
you answer their questions loudly enough for all of the rest to hear
then you should be good.”

“Thanks doc, for the advice and
for making sure I'm okay. I saw that video last night and can't
believe I'm not in worse shape than I am.”

“You may not be noticing right
now Greg but your back is a tapestry in black and blue. You have
serious strains and bruising. I'll agree you're lucky to not be worse
off but you aren't in as good a shape as you think you are, that's
the painkillers talking.”

“Well, thanks anyhow. Time to
brave the lions' den, or at least the press. I'm not sure which would
be worse.”

Greg stepped into the elevator and
pressed the button for the lobby. The ride went smoothly and slowly
and finally he heard the 'ding' of the elevator reaching its
destination.

Greg stepped out and started to slowly
walk across the lobby. He'd like to hurry but he'd discovered that if
he used his normal long stride, twinges of pain started to work their
way around the painkillers. A tentative female voice carried across
the room:

“Greg?”

He turned to look, it was a woman he
had never seen before but the microphone in her hand let him know
exactly what she was.

“Yes.” he answered
resignedly.

“Can I ask you a few questions?”

“I'd like to point out that you
just did ask some but sure, go ahead. Better yet, wait a minute so
the rest of the press can get in on this. I need to get a painkiller
prescription filled before my current dose wears off in another hour
or two so I only have time to do this once.”

The reporter looked around, several
other crews were starting to move over towards them but some were
still oblivious. She put her thumb and forefinger between her lips
and whistled a short, sharp note. Heads came up all over the room
and the teams that had been moving in sped up to be closest to the
latest celebrity.

Greg took a seat in a chair and waited
until everyone was in earshot:

“Okay folks, I'm guessing most of
you want an interview with me. I need to get out of here before my
current painkillers wear off so here's what we're going to do. I'm
going to take a few questions from the people closest to me here but
I'll ask them to talk loud enough so everyone can hear. I'll answer
loud enough that everyone can hear me also but then I need to be out
of here. I do NOT want my back to feel the way it did last night
again so I'll need to get a prescription filled before my current
drugs wear off. Oh, and one other thing. I'm going to mention my
boss' company, I'll ask that you leave that reference in there if at
all possible. He told me I can have some time off to recuperate but
if I can get the company name into some interviews my recuperation
will be two weeks
paid
leave, so please leave it in your
footage, article, or whatever.”

Greg sighed, he was feeling exhausted
already and hadn't even made it out of the hospital yet.

“Okay, you first. You actually
noticed me coming out so I'll give you the first question.” he
pointed at the lady reporter that had noticed him exiting the
elevator.

“Greg, How did you know Margaret
Chisolm?”

“I'm guessing that's the Margaret
I saved? I didn't know her last name. Didn't know her first name
until last night. She's my neighbor. Very quiet type, she always gave
short, clipped answers if you greeted her or asked her a question. I
was torn between wondering if she was shy or simply unfriendly when I
first met her. The answer to your question is that I knew her to say
hello to and knew she was my neighbor. I didn't even know I was going
to save her though. I saw her son's hand waving out the window
frantically and that was how I got involved.”

Greg pointed at the reporter that had
been the second one over:

“Greg, What were you thinking
when you performed this rescue?'

“Well, I'd like to say I thought
it all through but, as you can see, I didn't.” Greg raised a
foot, clad only in one of the hospital's slippers that they had let
him keep to get him home. “I honestly didn't think at all. I
was watching a movie, heard the explosion and ran out. I noticed a
hand waving out the window and remembered that I had been cleaning my
gutters the day before and my ladder was next to the garage. The next
time I thought about anything, I was halfway up the ladder and
realized I'd forgotten my shoes. So, I wasn't thinking about it at
all, I just did it.”