| |
"Mr. Veracruz.......hey, Manny,.........wake up....come on. That's it..... Doctor, I think he's waking up." Manny heard the voices in the room, and some of the images were starting to take shape now. The nurse standing over him was an attractive woman, not more than twenty-five or so. "You scared us, we didn't think you were going to wake up!"
She explained to him that he was in the Bethany Medical Center, where he had been under their care for the past two days. He'd suffered a heart attack and had been brought here for care. "Oh, who brought me here?" he asked.
"Well, it was Terry Brothers, our town marshal." she said. "What can you remember?"
"I don't remember any Terry Brothers. What happened to Marshall Black? Please, send Father Pat to see me! I need him right away." Manny pushed her hands aside and tried to get out of bed.
"Shhhhh... there, now... there, now...shhhhh..." the nurse whispered in the attendant’s ear, and he left the room. "Mr. Veracruz, please be calm, it wouldn't be good for you to pull the IV's out. We're sending for Dr. Stewart, he'll talk to you some more, but you need to try to relax, okay?"
Nothing made sense now. Manny struggled to try to understand, as the nurse rubbed the warm wash cloth over his brow and face. The door opened and a man with Joseph Stewart, M.D. on his lapel pin introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Doctor Stewart, Mr. Veracruz. You're going to be just fine, so don't worry, okay? This lady is going to take very good care of you. Do you feel up to having a little conversation?"
"Yes, but I just talked to Doctor Aquino yesterday, and he didn't say that my heart was bad…"
The astonished look on the doctor’s face turned to concern as he spoke. "Uh, Mr. Veracruz, there is something you should know. Doctor Aquino has been dead for 12 years."
"And Marshall Black… and Father Doyle?" he whispered, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"I'm sorry, they were both killed in the big fire at St. Teresa's about 20 years ago."
The words burned Manny like hot coals. I’m crazy as a loon, totally around the bend. Acceptance of madness calmed him, strangely. No more struggles for understanding… “Please… I’d just like to sleep.”
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Book
|
|
Welcome !
