had to go. Yes, she said, they were giving him the rabies treatment, of course, and a cocktail of antibiotics that ought to take care of anything contagious from this wolf being. But Reuben had to go now.
"The ,wolf being,, " said Stuart, "that really has a nice ring. Hey, will you come back, or do you pretty much have your whole story?"
"I,d like to come back tomorrow, and see how you are," said Reuben. He gave Stuart his cards, with the Mendocino address and number written on the back. He wrote all his numbers down for Stuart in his hardcover copy of Game of Thrones.
On the way out, Reuben left his card at the nurses, station. If there is any change, please call, he asked. If he thought about this kid actually dying, he would break down right then and there.
He caught the attending physician, Dr. Angie Cutler, right outside the elevator and urged her to contact Grace in San Francisco, since he,d been through all this with his mother handling the case. He tried to be as tactful about this as he could, but he was inwardly convinced by now that his mother,s treatment of him probably helped him to survive. Dr. Cutler was a lot more responsive than he,d expected. She was younger than Grace, knew Grace, and respected her. She was kind of sweet. Reuben gave her his card. "Call me anytime about this," he said, murmuring something about what he himself had experienced.
"I know all about you," said Dr. Cutler with an inviting smile. "I,m glad you came to see that boy. He,s crawling the walls in there. But he does have marvelous recuperative powers; it,s a miracle. If you had seen the bruises on him when they brought him in."
On the way down in the elevator, he called Grace and urged her please to connect with the doctor. The kid had been bitten. It was true.
His mother was silent for a moment. Then she said in a strained voice,
"Reuben, if I were to tell this doctor the things I observed in your case, I,m not sure I,d have much cred with her at all."
"I know that, Mom, I understand. I know," he said. "But there just could be some really important things you could share with her, you know, about the antibiotics you used, the rabies treatment, whatever you did in my case that might help this boy."
"Reuben, I can,t really call the boy,s doctor out of the blue. The only person who,s been the least interested in what I actually observed in your case was this Dr. Jaska, and you wouldn,t give him the time of day."
"Yeah, Mom, I realize. But I,m talking now about the kid getting treatment for the bite, that,s all."
A chill came over him.
He was walking out of the hospital now to the car, and the rain had started up again.
"Mom, I,m sorry I didn,t stay and talk to Dr. Jaska. I know you wanted me to. And maybe if it will make you feel better, I can talk to the man soon."
And if I had stayed, well, then by the time I,d passed Santa Rosa, Stuart McIntyre would have been dead.
There was such a long silence that he feared he,d lost the connection, but then Grace spoke up again, and she sounded like somebody else with Grace,s voice.
"Reuben, why have you gone up to Mendocino County? What,s really the matter with you?"
How could he respond?
"Mamma, not now, please. I,ve been here all day. If you could just call the doctor, just volunteer, you know, that you handled a case like this one - ."
"Well, listen. You have to take the final rabies shot tomorrow. You know that, right?"
"I completely forgot."
"Well, Reuben, I,ve left messages for you every day for a week. It,s twenty-eight days tomorrow and you have to have the final shot. Does this beautiful young woman, Laura, have a phone? Does she answer it? Could I perhaps be leaving messages with her?"
"I,m going to get better at all this, I swear."
"Okay, listen to me. We were going to send the nurse up there with the shot, but if you like, I can contact this doctor in Santa Rosa and arrange for her to give it to you tomorrow morning, when you visit this boy. I could strike up a conversation with her, and if there is anything I know that would be of use to her, anything that I,m willing to share, that is, well, let,s