propped up on pillows, his head back and his mouth open. A bandage circled his head above his eyebrows. Another covered him from his armpits almost down to his navel. His sickly pale color alarmed me. Was there a looseness about his features? I opened the curtains to let some natural light in. Except for a yellow tint to his color, he looked normal.
I lightly touched the bandage on his chest. A nurse charged in, jerked the curtains closed again, cranked his bed up a notch higher, and started to take his blood pressure. “Don’t put any pressure there, honey.” She pointed at my hand on his chest, muttered her approval at his blood pressure, and then marched out.
“Adam?” I touched his face. “Wake up. Please wake up!” Nothing. I squeezed his hand, then shook it a little. Nothing. I held his hand and watched his chest rise and fall. The walls were close. Slowly, a wave of panic rose from the base of my spine up through my stomach. What would they find out about him and what would they do with him? To him?
I could hardly breathe as I called Bertie and asked her to pick the girls up after school and take them to her house for supper.
Adam slept peacefully. I prayed, appealing to the God I doubted. Please don’t take Adam, too. Outside, the afternoon sun fell. The hospital lights shimmered on the thin snow below.
About six, I left and went back to the house to pick up clothes for the girls to wear to school the next day. I ate supper with them at Bertie’s. “Your dad’s fine. Just a little bang on the head,” I told them.
“When will he be home?” Rosie asked.
“Probably tomorrow,” I lied and tried to keep my face neutral, confident.
Neither she nor Gracie seemed convinced, but the dinner table crowded with the chaos of Bertie’s kids distracted them.
“Are they going to shoot the horse?” Lil asked.
“They shoot horses only when they hurt themselves, not when they hurt people,” Gracie told her.
Sarah’s face darkened and she began to cry. “That’s not fair.”
I assured her that Wallace was taking care of the horses and none of them were being shot.
After dinner, I returned to the hospital and stayed by Adam’s side all night, watching his face, hoping for change, fearing for the worst. “Wake up, wake up,” I prayed over and over.
Near dawn, they came in to take his blood pressure again. “Go home,” one of the nurses told me. “There’s nothing you can do. Go home and get breakfast. Get your mind off of it.”
As I left Adam’s room, the lack of sleep bitter in my mouth, a young doctor strode up to me. “Mrs. Hope, I’m glad I caught you. This accident may have been a blessing for your husband. His injuries don’t seem to be severe, but he is a very sick man. There’s an abnormal growth in his chest.” He waved a large white envelope, “The X-rays also show abnormalities in the brain, but we can’t be sure. It could be a tumor. No swelling from the head injury, but the lobe formation is unusual. Has your husband recently had problems breathing or speaking? Doing simple math? Walking or working with his hands? Has he been moody or erratic in his behavior?” He talked faster and more excitedly with each question.
I shook my head stupidly at everything he said, barely able to hear him for the pounding in my chest and ears.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. No impediments at all on his part? Nothing unusual?”
Again, I shook my head.
“Dr. Rumsted will be in soon. He’ll look at these immediately. I’ve already talked to him. Your husband is a priority for us, Mrs. Hope. A priority. The nurses need you to sign some paperwork. You need to go by the desk first.” He was a little boy with a new bug for his collection. He shook my hand, then walked away, disappearing into Adam’s room.
I ate breakfast alone, standing up in the kitchen, then hurried back to the hospital.
I found Adam’s bed empty, the sheets stripped. I ran to the nurses’ station and slapped my hand on the counter to get her attention. “Where’s my husband? Where is he? What have you done to him?”
She shoved more papers across the counter. One was a map. They had transferred him. The doctor would be right out if I would just calm down. I looked at the map: Duke