Chapter 38
RECOVERY
I need to see my son. Where do you have my son?” I could hear her frantic voice through the admitting station window. I was in exam room one, bandages on scrapes and an IV in my arm.
“Calm down, ma’am. What’s your son’s name?
“Gillooly… Kevin Gillooly.”
“Oh yes, right this way.”
Mom burst through the open door with Audy Rae close behind. She pulled me up into an encompassing hug, careful not to pull out the drip needle from the glucose bag pumping fluids into me.
“I love you so much.” It was the first time she had said those words since Josh. The joy I felt finally hearing them made me almost float out of the bed.
“They won’t tell me how Pops is. Can you find out?”
“I’ll go get Dr. Killen,” Audy Rae said and left.
Mom looked at me with worn-out eyes that were still focused on a place in the near past.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said.
I don’t know if I meant Pops, all of us, or just me.
It didn’t matter.
Audy Rae walked in with the doctor. He managed a grim smile, nodded to us. “Annie, we should probably go out in the hall to discuss this.”
Audy Rae put her hand on my shoulder. “Dr. Killen, Kevin carried Dr. Peebles twenty-five miles through the mountains to save him. I think he’s earned the right to hear what you have to say.”
Dr. Killen looked at me. “Heard the story. That was a brave thing you did.”
I nodded.
He looked at Mom. “Your father lost half his left lung and will probably lose the rest. I think we can save the right, but he’s got advanced blood poisoning and his liver and kidneys are shutting down. We’re giving him a transfusion now, but it’s gonna be touch and go all night.”
“What are his chances?” Mom asked.
“I can’t really say. It depends on his kidneys and—”
“Just give me a number.” She closed her eyes and brought fingers to her temple as if just saying the words caused her head to hurt.
The doctor paused, regarded her for a moment. “Fifty-fifty.”
She took a half step back, as if the news was attached to a strong headwind. She put her hand on the table to steady herself.
“It’s going be okay.”
I don’t know if I meant Pops, all of us, or just her.
It didn’t matter.
The crackle of Sheriff Binner’s walkie-talkie woke me from a sleep so sound that for a moment I had forgotten where I was, what had happened. After a few seconds it all came to me with the clarity of new glasses. “Is he…?”
The sheriff spun, quicker than I imagined he could, and smiled. “He ain’t out the woods, but looks like he’s gonna make it.”
I closed my eyes, said a silent thank-you.
“How about Buzzy? We’ve got to go find him.”
“We’ll find him. That’s why I’m here. I wanna know everthin that’s happened. Jus start from the beginnin. From when you left your grandaddy’s house.”
I recounted the hike up to the mountaintop mine, the intruder that first night, our idyllic days at the lake, the man spying from the rock, the booby-trapped field, the shooting, and the journey back.
He made notes in a palm-size book. When I finished he flipped it closed, put it back in his front shirt pocket, and regarded me as if sizing up a new recruit. “That was quite a feat, son. Scarin off that lion an carryin your grandaddy back twenty-hump miles.”
He looked at me for a moment, as if trying to summon a more accurate assessment. His hands were on his knees; his chin rose to me. “Quite a feat indeed.”
“Can I come with you to help find Buzzy? I think I know where he is.”
“Help would be much appreciated if you feel up to it and it’s okay with your momma. The state boys were scouring the lake last night but couldn’t find nuthin. I’m gonna call em right now to meet us up there. You an me can drive the back way.”
Audy Rae, Mom, and I stopped by Pops’ room to check on him. The color had returned to his face and he was shaved and freshly washed—a ventilator moved his chest up and down, shoulder trussed in a bulky bandage. Several tubes snaked into his arm from hanging drip bags. A nurse came in for a blood pressure check. “When’s he going to wake up?” I asked.
“Not for a while, honey. We’ve got him induced to help clear out the infection.”
Audy Rae put her arm around my shoulder and kissed it. Mom just watched Pops, the back of her hand pressed hard to her lips.
Sheriff Binner poked his head into the room. “We best get on the road. We’re meetin the state boys at noon.”