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Chapter Twenty-seven

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I sat with Darshee and Wizper in the waitin’ room for five hours. I didn’t know doctors work these kinds of hours. Didn’t have a clue what day of the week it is, but it couldn’t be Wednesday, ’cause they’d be on the golf course.

That’s a prejudice picked up directly from my pa. Don’t know why he has such a poor perspective on doctors. Maybe an engineer thin’. Luckily he’s never had to visit ’em much. He’s as healthy as an elk and twice as frisky. It runs in the family. Grandpa Klow sat in a saddle a good ten hours the other day meetin’ us and gettin’ us to the rail head. I forgot to add the six hours gettin’ back up to his truck and horse trailer. That bull’s got some awesome tusks.

Darshee and Wizper had gotten tired of tryin’ to include me in their chatter. Hens can chatter. Don’t say they can’t. Ogre hens not as bad as any troll bull, but it’s still kind of embarrassin’. They were name droppin’ as ya’d expect from the typical hen. I learned a lot about the social life of pretty much everyone at OW, whether I wanted to learn it or not.

For some reason, the talk of OW didn’t make me want to get back to the office. I’ve spent upwards of twenty hours a day by seven focused on the goin’s on of the company for fifteen years. Maybe it’s because I’d spent another five hours away from my laptop. Gettin’ to be a habit. Not necessarily a bad one.

What was really on my mind, was gettin’ back to Black Lake, visitin’ with that young troll, Zia. She comes to mind a lot.

Hmm.

I told the hens I’d be back as I pulled my phone out of my vest, walked out to the hall, and very odd for me, prepared to call someone. Not somethin’ I do much. If ever. I did have to prepare myself, like I headed for a calculus exam or somethin’. Maybe a couple beads of sweat popped out on my forehead. And maybe I almost hyperventilated.

“Hallo,” Zia gushed.

I told her who was callin’. She said she could see. And I told her she was on my mind, so, decided to call.

“And, so nice of ya to use my language. Don’t get much chance to use it at the inn. I notice yar talkin’ easily. Does talkin’ on the phone help?”

I didn’t want to go there, but go figger, I heard myself explainin’ what happened when I met that healer in the mine. She squealed somethin’ awful and I asked her what was wrong.

“Nothin’ sweetie. That’s just such a cute story. Ya have any explanation why it’s workin’?”

I shook my head. Oh. “None whatsoever.” Before I froze up, I began catchin’ her up on what I’d been up to. She claimed I live an excitin’ life. I told her not usually. She giggled that giggle that dances up my back and down again, exits through my toes.

She caught me up on the gossip about Black Lake. Had no idea there’s so much social happenings in my community. For some odd reason, I didn’t mind listenin’ to it like I had Darshee and Wizper.

We maybe talked three hours. Darshee interrupted us at one point, explainin’ Nuel was out of surgery and doin’ great, and we’d get to visit with her for a moment. I gave her a smile and a nod, but didn’t follow her and Wizper down the hall.

~

Nuel

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Not like I expected Ike to show up. Not like I expected Kriz to be here to say hey or anythin’ once they moved me to my room. Of course Darshee and Wizper came by, and claimed I looked marvelous. That surely meant I looked like a dried up dirt clod or a dead roach. Hens don’t know how to be honest about another hen’s appearance. I know how I felt.

In truth, Darshee is usually more direct.

But it would have been nice to see the idjit. We’d been through a lot together the last few days. Not that we’re friends. But the hens had claimed he’d waited to hear I came through the surgery with colorful flags wavin’.

Even strugglin’ to stay awake to talk to pa, I felt alone. He explained he’d come as soon as the flights south resumed. Blast Ike. He even kept my pa at arm’s length from me when I really could have used his—company.

I woke up often, nurses plyin’ at the wires and hoses stringin’ around me, checkin’ my blood pressure, takin’ my temperature every ten minutes. Wasn’t a surprise to see light brightenin’ my window. A hospital is no place to go to get any rest.

Breakfast passed. The room phone remained silent.

Lunch.

They delivered dinner. I felt so horrid, wanted so much to cry, sight of the food almost made me vomit. And as though a sea parted, the idjit, followed by two trolls in olive-green battle fatigues, strolled into my room.