04/01/08

Chapter 7

Glasgow Coma Scale 8,

Still Severe Brain Injury

  (Excerpt)

Ann called the hospital early on the morning of July 9, day six, and the nurse reported that there was still no change in Libbi’s condition.

After her call she took a shower, and when she got out, she smelled frying bacon. She dressed in a short-sleeved, brown and black blouse with an open neck and flat collar and tucked it into her light, polyester, elastic-waist pants.

In the kitchen she found Mike in belted shorts and a white t-shirt turning the bacon. The eggs and butter were out too.

“Good morning, honey,” Ann said as she wrapped her arms around Mike’s waist and squeezed him from behind.

“Morning. I thought I’d fry this bacon up before it went bad.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“So, what’s the schedule today?”

“Well, we should get up to Kettering around noontime. I was thinking we could take the last of the leftovers from our planned party on the Fourth and share lunch with Babe and Sally and anybody else who might happen to be there.”

“Now that’s a good idea,” Mike said to the love of his life as she rummaged through the refrigerator opening containers to check the contents for freshness.

“I’ll have to call Virginia too, to tell her to get subs for us for golf.

“We’re about out of milk, honey, and we don’t have any cheese slices left,” Ann hinted.

“I’ll go to the store after breakfast.”

“We should eat the rest of this melon too. It’s getting mushy.”

Once they’d eaten their fried bacon and eggs, fruit, and buttered toast, Mike drove to the market to get some essentials while Ann cleaned the kitchen, did some general housework, and returned calls.

After Mike came home and they both unloaded the groceries, they read The Middletown Journal and sipped coffee—but only for about forty minutes before they got up to pack their lunch of leftovers to share at the hospital.

            They arrived just before noon, and Babe and Sally were glad to have Ann’s leftovers rather than hospital food again. On the sundeck off the west wing of the hospital’s fifth floor where the two couples sat at a picnic table, they spoke of the endless heat and mugginess and hopes for a break soon.

Though they spoke of the weather, their thoughts strayed not far from their girl, and Babe contemplated the paradox of their situation: he, his wife, and his parents engaging in a usually happy summertime activity—while they sat on the roof of the hospital in which his daughter lay unconscious. Somehow the picnic reinforced his feeling of helplessness, and two tears escaped from the wells of his lower eyelids.

            Earl met Elaine in front of the hospital, and he took her to Friendly’s for lunch.

After all these days, Elaine’s appetite still hadn’t returned in full. At the restaurant she asked for a Coke and a cup of clam chowder: “Can you wait to bring it when you bring his meal? Thanks.”

“A cheeseburger with tomatoes, onions, and lettuce, hold the pickles. And I’ll have a Coke,” Earl ordered. “No, no fries, thanks.”

As they waited for their food, Elaine updated Earl on Libbi’s condition, like she did every day when they ate lunch together.

Earl mentioned that he drove by Elaine’s house and Larry, Elaine’s brother, was checking on the livestock. Elaine was relieved to hear it. She didn’t have time to do it herself, and Chris didn’t have time either. She assumed her dad would make sure everything was taken care of. But since Luke lived right up the road, it made sense that he would check on things regularly.

“I went by the house on my way to Beachler Road. I wanted to check out the spot where Flash fell.”

“Did you see anything?”

 “No, I didn’t see anything, nothing he could have tripped over, no irregularities in the pavement, nothing,” said Earl. “The only thing I can figure is that he threw his foot out and his hoof got caught on the macadam.”

“The what?”

“The edge of the road.”

“Oh. Well, maybe that was it.”

The food arrived, and Elaine tore open a pack of oyster crackers and poured them into her chowder. “We’ll probably never know for sure.”

“Probably not.”

They hurried through their meals.

Elaine really didn’t have time for much these days. All she wanted to do when she got home was go to bed. The first couple days after the accident, the answering machine was full of messages and inquiries from friends and neighbors, and the phone rang continually when Elaine was home. Recalling how news of a snow day traveled from teacher to teacher during the school year, Elaine came up with a plan: She called Libbi’s friend Tracy, Libbi’s teacher from fourth grade, and a friend from church. Those three agreed to be the community contacts, and Elaine changed the message on the answering machine, requesting that callers contact any of those three for updates. Elaine called them every other day or so or when Libbi made a significant improvement to update them on her condition. All this really helped maintain order and gave Elaine some peace at home.

E-mail the author at libbi@elizabethevansfryer.com.