Casey's Courage (6 page)

Tres left their meeting feeling like everything was coming together for Casey’s care. But when he told Pauline about his plan, she burst into tears. “We can’t go there. I need to go home where Maria can help me and I can have my things. Casey will just have to accept she’s handicapped and stop acting so spoiled. Besides, we can’t afford a nurse and therapist.”

Tres couldn’t believe what he was hearing, then it dawned on him that she didn’t know the expenses were all being taken care of by insurance or by Jody Witten’s father as per the judge’s orders. Throwing firecrackers under Casey’s horse had been the last straw for the judge. Jody had been in trouble and in his court way too many times just because his father always paid to get him off the hook. The only way to keep Jody from going to prison this time was for Mr. Witten to come up with a financial offer for Casey that the judge would approve, along with probation and a long list of other constraints. The judge had done very well in seeing to Casey’s best interests.

Tres felt a stab of sympathy for Pauline. “I’m sorry you have been worried. All of Casey’s medical expenses are taken care of and you don’t need to stay with her at Spencer Mansion if you don’t want to. There’s more than enough help to take care of her.”

“I’m just too sick. I haven’t been able to do anything for years. The nurses have helped me while I’ve been here and Maria takes care of me at home.”

“I know,” Tres said quietly. “Nobody expects you to take care of Casey. Vera and Brad will be living in with Casey. Besides, everybody else who works at the Mansion will help her if the need arises.”

“I’m so sorry we are being so much trouble,” Pauline said. “Jake didn’t know what to do with her, so he just went back to the ranch and the horses. He expects me to tend to things here, but I need to go home.”

Tres’ anger boiled as he realized Casey’s parents didn’t know what to do with their daughter because she had always been an obedient, helpful human being who had lived with them and done their bidding, never disrupting their way of life. “Since insurance is taking care of the expenses, let’s get Casey set up at Spencer Mansion with all the help she needs, and you can go home for some rest. Maria can take care of you. When you feel up to it, you can visit Casey.”

“But we hate to bother you. You have more important things to do.”

His urge to give the woman a lecture on what is important nearly got the best of him, but he clamped his mouth shut.

“It’s no bother. After all, she was riding a Running S horse when she got hurt. We want to help her get well.”

Pauline sighed as if a huge load had been lifted off her shoulders. “If you’re sure, it really would be a relief.”

Two days later, Vera, a female version of her brother, settled Casey in J.D.’s RV. Sedated to ease the pain of travel, Casey remained docile and drowsy for the trip, but when Brad and Vera helped her out of the RV at the ranch, she became anxious. Tres and Mattie Lou came down the sloping driveway to greet her. Mattie Lou’s voice caught Casey’s attention. She stopped, leaning on her walker. She looked long and hard at the older woman. “Pauline told me to not be a bother to you.”

Mattie Lou smiled. “Tres didn’t put it quite that bluntly, but he said about the same about my not bothering you. Do you think we could just visit with each other when you feel like it?”

A sad shadow passed across Casey’s face. “I don’t know much. Pauline said I forgot everything she taught me.”

Mattie Lou didn’t bat an eye. “That’s all right. Maybe if we visit, you can learn new things.”

Casey’s anxiety subsided. She looked at Tres. “Is this where you said I could stay?”

Tres let out the breath he’d been holding. “It is. Come on in and see how Mattie Lou fixed your suite of rooms.”

Every step Casey took hurt Tres, but he didn’t offer to carry her. He and Mattie Lou ambled along, talking about this and that, while Vera and Brad stayed on either side of their patient holding firmly to the wide strap around her waist.

Mattie Lou looked over at Casey and grinned. “Brad won’t recognize the place. I redecorated to make it into a young lady’s suite. I found just the right colors to go with your pretty auburn hair and green eyes. Lots of greens, blues, and gold.” She talked on as if Casey understood every word she said.

Inside the French doors, Casey eased down onto a gold brocade satin Queen Anne chair. She stared in awe at her surroundings, unconsciously smoothing her hand back and forth on the chair arm. “This is like some of the pictures in a magazine at the hospital. It’s pretty. Do I get to live here?”

Mattie Lou thought her heart had suffered all the hurt it could bear while J.D. struggled for life in these rooms, but she felt it twist and bleed again as she watched the once self-sufficient Casey sitting helpless and childlike studying her with questioning eyes. “This is all yours; a sitting room, bedroom, kitchenette, and bath. Brad and Vera have an apartment through that door, so they will be close when you need them.”

Brad watched Casey’s reaction to each new stimulus and felt hopeful for his new charge. He turned to Mattie Lou and smiled. “You’ve been reading my books. Colors in all shades with sizes, textures galore, hardwood floors, no rugs to stumble on, and lots of natural light.” Turning his attention back to Casey, he said, “Right through those doors, across a patio, is the swimming pool I told you about.”

“The one where I can walk in the water and it won’t hurt?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” He grinned, pleased at her short-term memory.

“Can we do it now?”

Brad stood close as Casey struggled up from the chair and said, “We can, if you’re not too tired.”

Vera spoke as she came to Casey’s side. “We need to put on our swim suits before we get into the water.”

Casey sank back down in the chair. Big tears slipped over her dark lashes trickling down her cheeks. “I don’t have a swim suit.”

“Yes, you do. I bought you one,” Vera said in a happy singsong voice, and then added, “See the little house out by the pool?”

Casey nodded, still looking sad.

“It is a bathhouse that is sometime called a cabana where we can change our clothes. Brad can go out there with you while I run get our swim suits.”

Tres and Mattie Lou slipped away in the confusion, knowing therapy was in session as the three newcomers started building a working rapport.

Vera got into the pool and waited for Brad to put Casey in the lift-chair, so he could let her down into the water. Knowing their patient’s fear would probably resurface, Vera called to her, making mock pirouettes and dancing about, splashing the water to divert Casey’s attention until Brad got her into the water, then slipped in himself. Soon the three of them moved slowly back and forth across the pool with Casey becoming braver and less apprehensive with each step. When Brad deemed it time to get out, she insisted that she was not tired.

Sensing they were headed for a tantrum, Brad spoke in his quiet, baritone voice. “We can do this two or three times a day if you act nice. But for now, I’ll lift you out of the water in the chair, even carry you to the chaise lounge and rub good stuff on your legs to keep them from cramping. Vera’s going to swim a few laps before she gets out.”

“Want to see Vera swim,” Casey said through pouting lips.

“Okay, you can watch while I massage your legs.”

Tres observed from his office window as Brad placed Casey on the lounge, and then adjusted her neck brace so she would be comfortable. In his peripheral vision, Tres saw Vera cut capers in the water to entertain while Brad rubbed Casey’s long, thin legs. A territorial jealousy came out of nowhere, kicking up his blood pressure, as he watched the rhythmic motion of Brad’s hands on Casey.
Why should that bother him?

Chapter 4

Day-after-day of intense therapy, much of it couched in games, moved Casey inch-by-inch away from helplessness, tantrums, and baby talk. She seemed to see Brad and Vera as playmates she wanted to get along with. Like a little child, she wanted to please and act like they did. They didn’t cry, act tacky, or act like a baby when things didn’t go their way, so she tried hard to be like them. One night after a particularly busy day, shadows played tag in Casey’s mind as she drifted toward sleep. The shadows became bright multi-colored sparks darting here and there, making her head hot.

They joined like the connect-the-dots puzzles they played with. Her eyes raced back and forth, trying to keep up as blue streaked off in one direction while all shades of red, green, and yellow streaked off in other directions, creating magical patterns in her brain—beautiful patterns. With such a wild game of tag, they soon tired to slow motion then faded altogether. Her head cooled. She relaxed, sighed, and slipped into a deep sleep.

In the early morning hours before dawn, she awoke. A dream with sunbeams dancing across rippling water had reminded her she needed to get to the bathroom. She remembered Pauline telling her over and over to go to the bathroom often. Feeling happy that she had remembered, Casey grimaced with pain as she stood supporting herself with the walker.

Coming back from the bathroom, she became aware of the country night sounds. She hobbled to the screen door. “I know those sounds,” she said softly. “I hear an owl, crickets, cicadas, and the breeze stirring the leaves. I know these sounds.” She eased down into the Queen Anne chair, enjoying her newfound knowledge.

A dog padded across the patio, then presented itself at the screen door and whined.

Laboriously, Casey rose and opened the door.

“Come in,” she said.

The dog did not hesitate but went to the bed and reared up on the side of it. Finding no one there, she searched all the other rooms then returned to the bed and crept under it, lying down with her head on her front paw.

“I know you,” she whispered. “You’re a Catahoula cow dog.”

Forgetting about her pain, she went back to the bed. Holding onto the edge of the bed, she eased down to the floor then lay down on her side to talk to the dog.

“You’re looking for J. D., aren’t you?” The dog whined but didn’t move. “I remember you, but not your name. What can I call you? You probably wouldn’t like Cat. I know. I’ll call you Ula.” Casey giggled at herself. “Why don’t you come out from there, Ula?”

She reached up and pulled a blanket and pillow off the bed. Spreading the blanket out, she lay down with her head on the pillow to accommodate her neck brace then patted the blanket trying to coax Ula to come lie beside her.

The dog whined and crept closer. Soon she lay near enough for Casey to stroke the brown-and-black spotted coat.

“If I know you, I may know lots more things. I remember the summer you got stepped on by a cow and had to have your front leg amputated. I had just started training Ginger to be a cutting horse. Do you remember her?” She was a dun with a black mane and tail, four black stocking legs, and a black stripe down her back.”

The feel of Ula’s silky hair and warm body comforted Casey. They slept. Casey woke at the touch of Ula’s cold nose to her cheek. When Casey opened her eyes, Ula went to the door and whined.

“I guess you have to go to the bathroom, too, when you wake up,” Casey muttered as she tried to get up. Not having tried to stand from being flat on the floor, she couldn’t make her body do what she told it to do.

“Just a minute, Ula,” Casey said, as she rolled over on her stomach. She instinctively rose up on her hands and knees and began to crawl. At the door, she strained up with one arm to unlatch the screen. “Come back to see me. This will be our secret for now,” she whispered as she brushed her hand across the dog’s back. Ula pushed the screen door open with her nose, squeezed through, and disappeared through an opening in the hedge between the Mansion and the barns.

Once her new friend disappeared, Casey saw she was all the way across the room from her walker. She crawled back to the bed, pulled herself up, then flopped down flat of her back. Exhausted, but feeling smug, she began to catalog all the things she had remembered.

Brad had picked up all her stirring about on the monitor connecting her room to his. He had recognized the whine of the dog that had visited J.D. often and knew Casey was safe. What had brought him wide-awake were the few words he had been able to understand. He smiled.
Our Casey had a breakthrough in her speech patterns and is remembering at least some of her past!
Until time to get up, he made plans for the best activities to further facilitate her recovery.

Tres’ day had started long before dawn. He had missed lunch. It was mid-afternoon when he left the barn and headed toward the house. As he approached the hedge that screened the view between the barn and house, he could hear laughter coming from the pool. Thoughts of the day’s problems receded as he entered the gate and saw Casey standing without assistance with a big ball in her hands. With a wobbly effort, she tossed it to Vera while Brad stood close enough to rescue her should she start to fall.

Seeing him, her face lit up. “Tres! Watch me.”

He smiled at her uninhibited ways. The old Casey would have never called attention to herself. He made his way closer to the pool and squatted down.

“Brad said when I can throw the ball straight lots of times and can walk in the water by myself without falling, he will teach me to swim. Can you swim?” In her eagerness to tell Tres her news, she forgot about her game and started walking toward Tres using the ball to help balance herself. Brad, who kept at a close distance behind her, did not touch her but observed her coordination intently.

“Sure, I can swim.” His mind flashed back to one hot day, that first summer when he and Casey stripped down to their underwear and swam in Cottonwood Creek.

“Will you swim with me when I learn how?”

“I certainly will.”

“You know what else I’ve done today?

As Tres shook his head, he noted Casey’s up-turned face. Though still too thin, she had fewer pain lines, and her eyes were no longer dulled, but held a hint of sparkle in them.

“I helped Vera fix lunch. I scrubbed potatoes with a brush and peeled the orange for salad.”