Clover (16 page)

He saw himself standing, helpless, beside the hospital bed of his second wife, Cathy, watching her die of pancreatic cancer.

He looked up at Tonio, once the young orphaned boy he had rescued from the storm, now a young man.

“You saved the one you loved, boy.”

Then he uttered something he couldn’t have imagined himself saying.

“You did something I never could.”

Tonio looked back at the old man, the man who had been a pillar of strength for him as he grew up. Now, for the first time, Galen seemed shrunken, his shoulders bent.

“Tio, I … I’m sorry.”

“It’s my karma, Tonio, not yours.”

Neither had heard the door open.

But both now heard the loud and clearly enunciated “Bullshit!”

Galen’s pupils dilated then constricted, a storm scowl of major proportions crowding his face.

“Be careful, Sandra McDevitt. You don’t know where you’re treading.”

What transpired next was something else Galen hadn’t experienced in his entire life.

“I damn well do, Bear.”

He vastly outweighed her, but she stood her ground, staring deeply into his eye sockets.

“Now, you listen to me, Robert Galen, I am not going to let you turn this young man into a miserable twin of yourself.

“Tonio, I know that my Sarah loves you. She loves you even more now, knowing what you had to do to save her life. I know in my heart the two of you are going to have a long and loving life together. The one thing I don’t want to see is you imitating this self-pitying old fool.”

“Half-pint, be careful.”

“No, I will not, damn it! I know you’ve been carrying a giant monkey on your back because of your parents. I saw it destroy your relationships with the girls you dated in school, especially June. But you know what? It didn’t have to be that way.”

“It was my punishment, old woman.”

“Your punishment? From whom? Old man, haven’t you learned by now that shit happens no matter who you are or what you do in life? Your parents were dying and nothing you could have done would have changed that.”

She saw his face start to crumble—she was beginning to get through.

“Oh no, you don’t. I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say that you should have been there for them. Well, that’s a cop out. It wouldn’t have made any difference.”

She turned to Tonio.

“Boy, what the hell would your quitting school accomplish?”

The diminutive spitfire turned back to Galen.

“As for you, if you hadn’t gone on to school where would this kid have been—and his siblings?”

Tonio moved to his guardian and mentor.

“Tia Sandy, leave him alone.”

“No, boy, I won’t. I saw plenty of senseless death in Africa. I tried to save my Josh when he had his fatal heart attack. None of it was due to karma or the Fates, or some unnamed deity playing chess with us. It’s
humanaeque naturae
to do stupid and painful things and then blame someone or something else. It’s also human nature to think you can control something that’s completely out of your control.

“If I have to pound this into your heads, I will. No matter what we do, shit hap…”

Suddenly she waivered, her face flushing then quickly turning pale. Galen caught her as she fell and placed her gently on Tonio’s bed.

Now Sandy’s face was fading to a dusky blue. She clutched the right side of her chest, gasping for air.

“Boy, get me your bag!”

Tonio grabbed his black bag and handed Galen a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. He bent over the bed, listening, tapping Sandy’s chest wall and watching the gauge as he inflated and deflated the cuff.

“Her lung’s collapsed—pneumothorax!”

Tonio understood immediately. The lungs work under negative pressure, a difference from outside the body that allows the muscular action of the diaphragm muscle to suck oxygenated air in and expel carbon dioxide. When the negative pressure is lost, the lung collapses and air can no longer enter. Within a few minutes the patient can suffocate.

“Judy!” Tonio called out, and in seconds she rushed into the room.

“Dr. McDevitt’s in trouble. Call 911.”

“Right away,” she answered and pulled out her phone.

Tonio searched through his bag and grabbed a .16-gauge intracath needle, a remnant of his emergency room duty. He moved to Galen’s left side, pulled up Sandy’s blouse and began to feel for a spot between her right fifth and sixth ribs. Quickly he swabbed the skin with an alcohol pledget, opened the sterile package, and plunged the needle into the spot that had percussed.

While Tonio worked, Galen moved to Sandy’s other side and continued to monitor her blood pressure and heart sounds. He felt himself shaking from the excitement but he persisted. He also watched in admiration as his ward quickly but carefully pulled out the metal stylus, leaving the plastic tubing within Sandy’s chest cavity. Then he put his lips to the needle hub and slowly started to suck.

Sandy’s rapid gasping for oxygen slowed down and her face took on a slight pink.

“Tio, quick, give me a strip of tape.”

Tonio had quickly moved the pad of his right second finger over the needle opening after bending the tubing to prevent air from rushing in and collapsing the lung again.

Galen reached into the bag of the young doctor-to-be. He pulled out a roll of tape, stretched out a piece, and applied it quickly to the needle hub opening in a sleight-of-hand maneuver as Tonio removed his finger. Galen handed him the roll of tape and he proceeded to use it to anchor down the opening.

Soon, mentor and pupil—no longer bear and cub—heard the ambulance pull up outside. Moments later they saw JP come running in with the EMTs. Tonio gave them the rundown as an exhausted Galen slumped into a chair, sweat soaked and breathing hard.

JP approached him.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, guess I’m a little out of practice.”

He touched Galen’s neck to check his pulse then prompted the old man to tilt his head up so he could examine his pupils. He smiled an all-clear.

“Thanks, JP.”

Meanwhile the medics had quickly but carefully taken Sandy’s vital signs, inserted an IV portal into her left forearm, and hooked her up to a portable ECG monitor. As they started to wheel her out of the room she ordered them to stop.

“It’s just a damned pneumothorax, boys and girls.”

The squad leader just smiled and shook his head. Then he looked at Tonio.

“Hidalgo, did you put the needle in her chest?”

He saw Galen nodding.

“Quick thinking. You saved her”

Galen stood up and moved over to the doll-sized woman, the gadfly who had smacked him out of his pity party and made him see what a fool he had been.

“Sandy…”

“I’ll be okay, Bear,” she said. “You get some rest. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“We gotta go,” the EMT leader said.

Galen stroked her face, and then to the astonishment of Tonio, Judy and JP he kissed her gently on the forehead.

They didn’t notice the tear in his eye or hear him whisper, “thank you,” as the techs moved her out.

Galen turned toward Tonio.

“So, boy, are you in or out?”

Tonio sighed and smiled.

“Guess I have to stay in this after all.”

Galen smiled a broad and rare smile as they embraced and whispered, in unison, “thank you.”

“Strega!”

“How dare you call me a witch, you evil old man!”

The commotion of the argument caused Nancy and Edison to peer discreetly out the living room window as bear and mongoose went at each other in the driveway.

“What are they saying?” Edison asked, signaling that the batteries in his cochlear implants had run low.

“Sounds like another lovers’ quarrel to me,” Nancy whispered close to his ear.

It was developing into a regular routine. Galen and Sandy had returned from their emergency trip to Richmond. Tonio had calmed down and was back working toward medical school graduation. Sarah was recovering from her bout with epiglottitis. The tracheostomy hole in her neck was healing, and she had already gone back on ward duty.

Before they left, the two senior doctors also had paid some attention to JP and Judy. It was fairly obvious the two would get hitched, most likely a double ceremony with Tonio and Sarah. But their post-grad plans had been a cipher.

“JP, is your father still…?”

“Yes, Tio Galen. I haven’t heard from him in four years.”

He had automatically taken to calling Galen Tio, and Sandy Tia. Who else would listen to his problems?

As for Judy, she had no one, not a single living relative, so she, too, had adopted the old ones
in loco parentis
.

In this latest of a series of tiffs, Sandy and Galen had been mulling over the situation and inevitably disagreed on how to deal with the problem.

“Why is my idea stupid, woman?”

“Because mine is better.”

“I know what those kids are going through, remember?”

“Your idea is still stupid.   You can’t possibly hope to…”

As she listened to the shouting match, Nancy grew curious and bold.

“What’s going on, you two,” she pointedly asked as they entered the foyer.

“Nothing,” Galen responded, looking puzzled.

“Definitely not,” Sandy added more sharply. “If you’ll all excuse me I’m going to wash my hair.”

Galen’s eyes rolled as the miniature female treaded down the hallway, sneakers squeaking loudly. He, too, went to his room, leaving Nancy in mid-scold.

The knock on his door broke his funk.

“Come on in, Sandy.”

“How’d you know it was me?”

“There’s only one person in the house who’s hot to trot for me.”

“Why you conceited old porker!”

“Yep.”

“Besides, you’re the only one whose shoes squeak.”

“Wanna take in a movie?”

“Thought you wanted to wash your hair.”

“I can’t believe you were ever married, you big oaf.”

She mentioned a detective flick based on a novel by one of his favorite authors, William Gavin.

“That should be good.”

“Where’s it playing?”

“At the Dietrich.”

“We better go to the matinee. Don’t want to get stuck at night and get arrested for driving with a restricted license.”

The advent of the book on safe senior drivers over a decade before had changed the way senior citizens were allowed to drive. Geriatrics were tested more frequently and their privileges gradually ratcheted down depending on their ability to see, hear, and respond to driving emergencies.

They piled into his ancient red Jeep Wagoneer.

“Sure you don’t want me to drive, Bear?”

“Sandy, if I remember correctly, you were considered a road menace even as a student back in Richmond.”

“So I hit a few stop signs.”

The drive to Tunkhannock was pleasant that mid-April afternoon—cool, dry, open-windows travel. Parking was easy, too, and the couple had a short walk to the ticket booth.

“Hello, Dr. Galen.”

“Hello, Laurel. Where’s Hildy tonight?”

“She just stepped out and I told her I’d cover. Here to see the flick?”

Sandy studied the tall girl with the long brown hair. Aquiline face and slender ears complemented by small hoop earrings and a floral print dress, her eyes sparkled with intelligence.

Then she stared at Galen, who finally realized his faux pas.

“Oh, sorry. Laurel, this is Dr. Sandy McDevitt. Sandy, this is Laurel Radzieski. She works with Edison here in the theater arts group.”

“Ol’ beady eyes acts?”

“I could say he’s been playing a human for a long time but that wouldn’t be nice. Actually Edison is a wizard with sound effects and lighting and actually runs the projectors here on Tuesday evenings.”

“Is that porn night?”

“No, now be civil, Sandy. We don’t want to give Laurel the wrong impression.”

She let out a harrumph.

“Laurel works the lights and board and also acts and writes poetry. You should have seen her when she played a squirrel.”

The young woman blushed.

“Sounds like you’re the brains here, Laurel.”

“Oh, no, Dr. Sandy, that would be Jenny, Jenny Jenkins. She’s the director of theater arts here and a playwright of some renown.”

Sandy smiled and whispered conspiratorially, “Does that Edison guy malaprop your name and call you ‘radish?’”

“How’d you guess?”

“Figures.”

The movie was as good as Galen expected. Then…

“Whoa, old girl, you been sneaking drinks?”

He had noticed Sandy’s left arm shake as she stood up. She took a step and almost fell before he grabbed and steadied her.

“You know I’ve spotted this. How long have you had it?”

“Mind your own business.”

“Aren’t you taking any meds?”

The jig was up; she should have known she couldn’t conceal it from him.

“The side-effects made me crazy.”

“Have you tried DBS?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t want anyone sticking wires in my head.”

“But, Sandy, you can’t…”

“Take me home, Galen,” she said abruptly before clamming up.

The silence continued all the way back to Safehaven. As soon as Galen stopped the Jeep she got out and tried to walk quickly to the entryway. She stumbled and fell.

Galen scooped her up and carried her inside.

“You two get married? Never thought I’d see you carrying someone over the threshold, big brother.”

Edison’s smile vanished at Galen glare as he continued to carry Sandy all the way to her room. He placed her on the bed and stepped out again, shutting the door behind him.

“Do we need to get her to the hospital?”

“No, but she needs her medication.”

“What happened?” Nancy asked as she walked up to them.

Galen took his friends into the living room and explained the nature of Parkinsonism: the tremors, the inability to start and stop moving, and the other changes that could occur.

“They have new treatments now but she won’t use them,” he replied in answer to Nancy’s unspoken question.

“Galen, let me talk with her.”

He nodded.

Nancy paused outside Sandy’s room.

What do I say?

She knocked on the door.

“Go away!”

“Sandy, it’s me, Nancy.”

“Come in.”

The door opened to reveal the tiny woman struggling to pack her suitcases.

“I’ll call a cab. I don’t want anyone to go out of their way for me.”

Nancy closed the door behind her and sat down on the bed.

“Sandy...”

It was that knowing tone in Nancy’s voice that nudged her back into rationality. A woman who had lived and worked side by side with her husband in Kenya, who had fought off wild animals and hostile tribesmen, who had faced down intellectual adversaries twice her size, suddenly felt the steam escape from her. She had to sit down.

“Nancy, you and Bob have been wonderful to me,” she said after a sigh. “You’ve let me stay for extended periods of time while I tried to relive my youth through Galen. I can’t thank you enough.

“But … see ... Galen’s too damned smart. I can’t fool him. He and Josh could’ve been twins in attitude and approach.”

She sighed again.

“I first noticed the tell-tale signs just before Josh died. He also spotted it and wanted me to do something about it. We got into a real donnybrook argument and then…”

She fell off the bed in mid-sentence. As Nancy moved to help her back up, it was the first time she saw the tough little doctor cry.

“Nancy, I love Galen. I loved Josh. My Josh and I were arguing when he had a massive heart attack and died right in front of me. I can’t do that to Galen. He’s got the same type of heart problem. I have to leave before I kill him like I did Josh.”

Nancy held her and rocked her in her arms.

Galen had been standing outside the door. He knocked softly then swung it open. He stood there, a man in his mid-eighties, feeling as awkward as a teenager.

“Sandy, you won’t kill me … unless you leave and don’t let me help you. You’ve given me a renewed purpose I haven’t experienced since the kids left home.”

Nancy rose quietly and left the room. She found it hard not to laugh out loud as she heard both voices rising in intensity once again.

I was right—young lovers!