The Perfect Child(13)
“Sit! Sit! Sit!” she ordered, pointing to a spot next to her on the bed.
He motioned for me to come over. “Janie, do you remember when Hannah came to visit the other day? She came with me again today.”
“Hi, Janie,” I said.
She stared at me blankly—no sign of recognition.
I stepped toward her cautiously, holding the books out in front of me like a peace offering. “I brought some books. Do you want to read a book with me?”
She looked at Christopher, searching for his approval.
“Why don’t we read together?” he asked.
This time, she nodded. Christopher pointed to the spot next to him on the bed, and I sat, the plastic mattress crunching underneath my weight. Janie scampered up on his lap. I fanned three books out in front of her. “Which one do you want to read?” I asked.
She studied them carefully before pointing to The Day the Crayons Came Home.
“Good choice,” I said. “This is one of my favorites.”
I opened it and started reading. She was hooked from the first page. She strained to get a better look from her spot on Christopher’s lap. He slowly edged her in my direction until she was wedged between us, sitting on one of each of our legs. Christopher looked over at me and beamed. My heart swelled.
EIGHT
CHRISTOPHER BAUER
Piper Goldstein’s name flashed on my cell phone screen. She was Janie’s social worker. Dan had given me her number, and I’d left a message earlier in the day. Hannah and I had read with Janie twice in the last week, and yesterday Hannah had suggested taking her out of the hospital. I loved the idea and had started figuring out the logistics immediately. I hurried into my office before answering the phone, shutting the door tightly behind me.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hi, this is Piper Goldstein returning your call.”
“Thanks so much for getting back to me, Piper.” I didn’t waste any time getting down to business. I had a consultation in twenty minutes that I needed to prepare for. “I wanted to talk to you about Janie. I—”
She cut in. “I’m sure you already know this, but before you get started, there are certain things about Janie’s case that I won’t be able to share with you because of the limits of confidentiality or because they relate to the ongoing criminal investigation.”
I had limits of confidentiality with my patients, so I understood exactly what she meant. I’d expected as much given the nature of Janie’s case. “Of course,” I said.
“Okay, as long as we’re clear on that before we get started.”
“Definitely.” I cleared my throat. “I’ve been on Janie’s medical care team since she was admitted. I’m the orthopedic surgeon who performed her surgery, and I’ve provided her postoperative care, but at this point, I’m more of a friend than anything. We spend most of our time playing Go Fish—”
She interrupted, “You’re that Christopher?”
I laughed. “I guess.”
“Janie’s nurses have wonderful things to say about you.”
“Thanks. I can’t say enough good things about them either. She has some great people taking care of her.” I’d never seen a patient with such a strong support team. She had so many people rallied around her. It reminded me why I had fallen in love with medicine.
“What can I help you with?” Piper asked.
“My wife is Hannah Bauer, and she’s a nurse at Northfield Memorial. You should be able to look both of us up in the directory. Anyway, we would like to take Janie out of the hospital for a few hours.”
Hannah left for work early every evening now so that she could read to Janie at bedtime each night. They both loved it. This morning she’d suggested taking Janie to the park down the street from the hospital. I hadn’t thought of it before, but it was a great idea. I’d promised her I’d figure out the protocol and see if we could get permission to take her on an outing.
“Wow. Janie sounds like she’s in great hands,” Piper said, but I sensed hesitation in her voice. “But I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
I tried not to be insulted. “Can I ask why?”
“Trust me, I know how badly some of these cases can tug at your heart, but you have to be careful about getting too involved.”
“I wouldn’t call taking her to the park getting too involved. She’s been in the hospital for almost five weeks, and I’m pretty sure that she’s only been in the prayer garden with her occupational therapist. How much fun do you think that was?” I gave her a second to think about it before adding, “We’re just trying to give her a few hours to feel like a regular kid.”
Her voice softened. “There’s a lot of variables in this case that you don’t know about. There are—”
“I understand it’s a complicated case. We’re not trying to get involved in any of that. We just want to give her some time to run around in the sun.”
“Again, there are risks involved with her case, and you might be putting yourselves in danger.”
I wasn’t worried about anyone coming back for Janie. I never had been. Whoever they were, they’d given her up because they didn’t want her. All you had to do was look at her body to see that.