The Return(68)

“Do your best to keep the ride as smooth as possible,” I said to Claude as he started the engine.

A moment later, we were on the rain-drenched roads, but I barely noticed the drive. I kept my attention on Callie, wishing she’d wake, wishing she would move. Her arm continued to swell. I wanted Claude to drive faster, but in these conditions it was impossible. The SUV shook in the gusts; at times we slowed to a crawl while rolling through water that nearly reached the floorboards and splashed against the windows. I prayed that a neurologist would be waiting in the emergency room, and I wished that the local hospital were a trauma center. The nearest one—Vidant, in Greenville—was at least another hour distant in good weather; today, I doubted an ambulance could make it there at all. A helicopter was out of the question.

Claude shouted back to me, letting me know when detours were required or when he was about to turn, all while continuing to inquire about Callie. In time—it seemed like too much time—we turned into the hospital parking lot, heading for the emergency room. Callie’s condition seemed to have deteriorated even more. To Claude, I barked an order.

“Tell them we’re going to need a stretcher and a lot of hands to move her.”

Claude jumped out and raced inside; almost instantly, a stretcher appeared, surrounded by half a dozen nurses and a physician. I climbed out from the rear hatch and recited what I knew about her condition. Callie was moved to the stretcher and then wheeled inside with the nurses and physician surrounding her before vanishing into the back. Claude and I trailed behind, finally stopping in the waiting room. I could still feel the surge of adrenaline coursing through my body. I felt strangely disassociated, almost as though I were an observer of my own life.

In the waiting room, half the chairs were empty. There was a mother and a couple of younger children, another small group of elderly people, a lady who was clearly pregnant, and a man in a makeshift sling. It was busy but not chaotically so, which I hoped would allow Callie to get the attention she needed.

A single glance at Claude revealed how shaken he remained by what had occurred.

“Nice job getting us here. You did well.”

“Thanks. In another hour, we might not have been able to make it. It’s flooded everywhere. Do you think she’ll be all right?”

“I hope so.”

“You don’t think she’ll die, do you?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, unwilling to lie to him. “I’m worried that she didn’t regain consciousness. That’s never a good sign.”

“Jesus,” he said. “The poor thing. You’d think she’d finally catch a break. First the fire and now this.”

“What fire?”

“Her trailer burned down last November, not long after Thanksgiving. She barely got out and lost pretty much everything except the clothes she was wearing. It took her some time to get a new trailer. When she finally did, I let her have some old furniture I had in the garage. Despite all that, she never missed a shift. Makes me wish the store offered health insurance. Do you think the hospital here will still take care of her? I don’t think she has any.”

“Legally, they have to take care of her. And a lot of hospitals have programs to help those who can’t pay. I don’t know what they do here, but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.”

“I hope so,” he said. “Damn. I still can’t believe it. I keep seeing the whole thing over and over in my mind.”

“Did she lose her balance and slip?”

“No,” he said. “That’s what was so crazy about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was on the top step, hanging another vest. She was using an extender and stretching out so she could reach the peg, and then…all of a sudden, her eyes closed and she just kind of…folded. Like she fainted.”

Little alarm bells suddenly rang as I processed Claude’s words.

“Are you saying she was unconscious before she fell and hit her head?”

“That’s what it looked like to me. Right before it happened, I remember watching her and thinking that her coordination was off, like she was off-balance or something. A customer in the store fainted one time and she looked just like he did.”

He sounded believable, and I wondered what that meant. Fainting could be due to something as simple as dehydration or low blood pressure but it was occasionally a sign of something more serious. It was regarded as its own medical emergency until the cause was known. I thought about her pallor, and wondered if somehow the two were connected.

“Hold on,” I said. “I need to let the doctor know about this.”

I walked to the registration desk. As I did, the woman behind the desk handed me a sheaf of papers. “We need to get her checked in,” she said. “Are you family?”

“No,” I said. “I’m not sure she has any family in town and I don’t know much about her. But she works for Claude, and he might be able to get the paperwork started,” I said. I motioned for Claude to join me before I explained that I might have additional information for the physician and asked her for a piece of paper. I scrawled out a note, repeating what Claude had told me, and watched as the woman behind the desk passed it on to a nurse before returning to the desk. Meanwhile, Claude sat down and scanned the forms.