I was relieved to see John David waving at me from the nurse’s station. Problem solved.
I hugged Mother and whispered, “I have to leave, call me if anything changes.” I turned away to gather up my belongings, and reached down for my diaper bag.
It wasn’t there.
I simply couldn’t believe it. I looked around the room, sure I’d see it any moment. Perhaps it had gotten in the way of one of the staff, who’d set it in another place?
It wasn’t in the room.
I glanced at the nurses’ station to see that John David was getting increasingly anxious to see his father. I could hardly make a big to-do about a diaper bag at this moment. It just wouldn’t be right. So I left John’s room with my head up, and my book and other items tucked under my arm.
“He’s waking up,” I told John David, smiling for all I was worth.
Before I could say boo to a goose, John David was standing by my mother at John’s bedside. His face was full of hope.
It seemed to me that having people gathering around you, really hoping you lived, was the greatest testament to your life.
And abruptly, I was back to the mundane. I stopped by the nurses’ station. “Deedee,” I said, “I hate to tell you this, but my bag was just stolen from John’s room, while I was downstairs telephoning.”
She looked up at me with no comprehension, just at first. Then she was dismayed. “Out of a patient’s room,” she said, disgusted. “I’m really sorry. I hope you didn’t have much in it?”
“My driver’s license,” I said. “Thank God I’d put my car keys in my pocket. The bag was actually for my daughter’s stuff, because I thought Robin would be bringing her here.” I described it to Deedee in case someone found the discarded bag somewhere in the building. “Who should I tell about this?”
“Officer Rodenheiser. His office is on the second floor,” Nurse Tallchief said, with a significant smile.
“He’s really nice,” Nurse Stanley added, grinning.
Deedee shook her head. “They’re just trying to tell you he’s quite a man. He’ll be back on active duty soon, and we’re sure going to miss him.”
I got directions to track down Officer Rodenheiser, necessary because this hospital was confusing even for a Lawrenceton native. I only took one wrong turn (at Pediatrics) before I found the correct doorway.
It was easy to see why the nurses were so enthusiastic. Brad Rodenheiser was tall and blond. He clearly got some exercise. Quite a bit of exercise. His eyes were blue and steady. Well, wow. When he got up, I noticed he had a brace on his knee. That’s why he’d been off active duty.
Brad Rodenheiser wasn’t all about the good looks. He struck me as a capable policeman. Within a couple of minutes, he’d called up a form on his computer and started filling it in.
“I gather this happens often?” I said.
“All the time,” he rumbled. “Date of birth?”
I gave him the information he needed.
“I’m afraid the chance of getting your bag back intact is very slim. But I’m sure you’ve figured that out.” Officer Rodenheiser handed me a copy of my report. I started to put it away, then remembered I had nothing to put it in. “People take personal belongings from the patients’ rooms, they steal medical supplies off the carts, they grab scrubs out of the dressing rooms. Even food, if you can believe it. At least the drugs are locked up and heavily monitored.”
The hospital was a den of iniquity, not the place of respite and calm I’d thought it. It was disillusioning, but not a shock.
“The diaper bag was a gift. We’re really fond of the people who gave it to us. I can fall back on another one, but this is kind of special.” I almost felt like apologizing that my loss was so trivial.
All the way home I thought about the theft. In the grand scheme of things, it was not a big deal at all. But I was upset in a hurt way, and I was upset in an angry way. Two sides of the same reaction. I strode (if a person of my height can stride) into the house not knowing which stance to take, and I made the bad choice of trying both of them.
Robin was sitting in the living room with Sophie, who was just beginning to fuss. “Look,” he told Sophie brightly. “There’s Mama! Yahoo! Food!”
“Robin,” I said tragically, “my bag got stolen.”
His eyes went first to my huge leather bag, sitting slumped in a corner of the kitchen counter. He almost told me it was right there, before he thought twice. “Your bag,” he said cautiously.
“The diaper bag,” I said. “The striped green one with the designer emblem on it.”
“The diaper bag got stolen,” he repeated, as if verifying my information.
Luckily, I was able to restrain myself. “Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. “From the hospital room. Just now. At least I had my keys in my pocket.”
Robin could tell I wasn’t going to take the baby from him until I got a reaction, so he hurried to supply one. “And no one saw anything?” His voice was an appropriate blend of disbelief and outrage. “Someone came in the room when John was by himself?”
“Apparently,” I said, and described my trip downstairs to call Mother.
“So John’s awake,” Robin said. “That’s great. But the bag getting stolen … um … incredible. I’m sure you called the police. What did they say?”
I was getting myself under control by then. “There was a policeman right there in the hospital. He told me things go missing all the time, and he wrote down a description of the bag,” I said. “Maybe the thief will drop it in a garbage can at the hospital or somewhere outside, when he’s been through it.”
“That would be great,” Robin agreed, feeling it was safe to hand Sophie to me now. “Though you know … well, I’m sure that was the very best bag, but we got another one, from Jeff’s wife. It’s on the shelf in Sophie’s closet.”
“I remember,” I said, and realized I sounded ridiculous and petty. Time to shut up. I sat down with Sophie and pulled up my T-shirt, unsnapping the nursing bra. It was the most unexciting piece of lingerie I’d ever worn in my life, and I am not someone who collects pretty lingerie.
If I had to be honest—I didn’t, but I was going to—the green and white bag had seemed a little pretentious to me. A designer label on a baby bag? And the fact that it really didn’t look like a diaper bag had not been a recommendation, in my eyes. Why shouldn’t it look like what it was?