Chapter 21
Birdie knew that a broken leg wasn’t necessarily a death sentence. In fact, of all the things that could happen to Gram, this was probably one of the best, but she hated seeing her gram in pain. Plus, she knew complications were not out of the question. Both from the leg and from other injuries that her gram might not even realize she sustained.
She didn’t want to borrow trouble though, and she really appreciated Wesley’s calm, competent demeanor. He hadn’t taken charge, but he’d guided her in a way that felt natural and right. Like they were working together, not against each other. And if she wanted something, he didn’t argue.
She appreciated that. She thought he might be going to give her a hard time about wanting the blanket, but he’d gone with it.
Regardless, he’d driven there, faster than she ever would have, and was now helping get Gram in a wheelchair. Again, the blanket came in handy.
“It might be easier to take her out backward,” Wesley said as he parked the wheelchair by the door.
“You might be right. The blanket might make it so that we could just pull her out. What do you think of that, Gram?”
“Yeah,” Gram said. She wasn’t quite as perky as she had been. And Birdie exchanged a look with Wesley. She wasn’t sure whether it was shock, or whether her gram was just getting tired. Or maybe the pain was that bad.
There was no point asking about it. They were almost there .
Wesley hadn’t said anything else, but he grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and steered it around the other side of the car. She ran around ahead of him and opened the door.
“All right. I’m going to pull on the blanket until I can’t, and then maybe Birdie will pull on the blanket while I steady you and probably lift you the last few inches.”
“All right,” Gram said, her voice sounding a little bit stronger than it had the last time.
“It sounds like a plan to me,” Birdie said, wanting to let him know she understood what he was saying. They were just going to do their best and try not to drop her, basically.
As scattered as it was, it was nice to think that they had a plan now.
He tugged on the blanket while she got her hands on it as well, one hand between his and one hand on her side to try to make sure she was pulling straight back and not tugging the blanket out from underneath.
They handed the blanket off flawlessly as he took one hand and put it behind her back and then another hand underneath her legs.
And just like he said, they were able to scoot her into the wheelchair with only a few inches where she was suspended over the ground.
He settled her down while Birdie adjusted her leg.
“Try not to mess with your other leg,” she said. “Do you want me to close the footrest and put it to the side?” she asked, looking up into her gram’s face, which was white and a little pasty looking.
A thrill of fear shot through her, but she closed her eyes, took a breath, and opened them again.
“No. We’ll just go in like this.”
“Hang in there, you’re doing a great job,” Wesley said, putting one hand on Gram’s shoulder as he said it.
Gram nodded, and Wesley said, “You want to wheel her in so I can take the car and park it?”
“Oh. Sure. Good thinking,” she said, tucking the blanket in so she wouldn’t run over it and going behind the wheelchair, grabbing the handles.
Wesley unhooked the brakes that she hadn’t even realized he’d set, and she appreciated again the fact that he was there. She wouldn’t have thought to set the wheelchair’s brakes, and it might have slid out from underneath them if she were trying to do it herself .
Although she might have called an ambulance, which would have made Gram’s time to the hospital twice as long.
She pulled back and wheeled around to the spot at the sidewalk that had the ramp. Pushing, she said, “I didn’t realize wheelchairs were this difficult. Everyone else makes them look so easy.”
“Maybe you’ll get used to it someday, but hopefully not with me. Not now anyway.”
She felt like her gram was way too young to be in a wheelchair. She acted young. A person’s seventies didn’t exactly say spring chicken, but it was a lot younger than it used to be, and she expected to have her gram well into her nineties. In fact, they joked at times about celebrating her one hundredth birthday. She had every intention of her gram getting there.
She felt strangely alone as she pushed the wheelchair and the doors opened. It was odd how quickly she got used to Wesley being at her side. Helping her make decisions, just giving her confidence with his presence. He didn’t even have to say anything.
But she forged ahead, blinking in the bright lights, pushing straight to the desk.
“Oh goodness, what happened?” the receptionist said, peering over the counter at Gram in the wheelchair.
Gram didn’t answer right away, so Birdie spoke. “She fell down the steps of the porch, and she thinks her leg is broken. I didn’t even think to check it, we just put her in the car and brought her here.”
“All right. I’m going to need some information, but I’ve alerted them in the back, and someone will be out to get her while I get your information from you. Is that okay?”
“Yeah. I know she’s in a lot of pain. We had to bump it some in order to get her in here.”
“I understand. We will get that taken care of as soon as we can.”
The receptionist had barely stopped speaking when a man came out of the double glass doors, dressed in scrubs with his head wrapped in a hairnet.
“Hey there. I hear we have a potential broken leg. Is it okay if I take you back?”
“Yes, and I’d like some pain medicine right now, please,” Gram said.
Birdie tried not to roll her eyes. Gram would get things straightened out back there.
“What’s your name, ma’am?” the man said as he held up the iPad that was strapped to his arm.
Gram said her name, the man typed a few things in, and then he pushed her back through the glass doors from which he’d come .
“All right. I’m going to need her insurance information, as well as her Social Security number if you have it. If not, I can fill this in later, but we’ll get everything we can.”
“All right,” Birdie said as cool air hit the back of her neck and she turned.
Wesley strode in, looking so beloved and familiar she almost turned and ran, throwing her arms around him, like she was two instead of almost thirty.
She went around to where the lady indicated and sat down, pulling the information that she had known she was going to need from Gram’s purse which she’d grabbed when she turned off the oven.
“If you’d like to go back with your grandma... It is your grandma?” the lady said, tilting her head and touching Birdie’s hand across the counter that separated them.
“Yes. It’s my gram, and—”
“Then he can stay here and give me the information that I need, and I’ll allow you to go back with her if you want to.”
“Really?” Birdie said, not even thinking that that would have been possible.
“Sure,” the receptionist said, and then she added, “If you want to step back over here, I’ll take you back, and if you give him the info, I’ll be back to get it from him.”
“Do you mind?” she asked Wesley as she stood, realizing that she hadn’t even checked with him.
“Go be with your gram. I’m fine. I’ll take care of it. Although, it would be weird rifling through her purse.”
“Do whatever you need to do to find information you need. She told me that whatever you can’t find, you can fill in later.”
“All right. I’ll be back if they’ll let me. Otherwise, I’ll be in the waiting room. Text me if you learn anything.”
“I will. Thank you so much.”
He didn’t have to stay. He was no relation and had no skin in this game, but it didn’t sound like he was going anywhere at all. In fact, he’d done nothing but help.
She had just never met anyone like him. Someone who was so willing to sacrifice whatever he needed to in order to be with her. Help her, even spend time with her.
She met the receptionist at the front desk and noticed for the first time that off to the left there were folks sitting in chairs in what must have been the open waiting area. There were about five folks in chairs and a TV in each corner. She couldn’t really tell what was on, but four of the five folks were watching TV, and one was sitting in their chair, head to chest, and looked like they were sleeping. She assumed that’s where she would go to find Wesley. If she needed to.
“You need a badge to get back through here,” the lady said as she scanned her badge on the little box on the wall, and the door started to open.
“Only one person at a time. We don’t let more than that back here, or it tends to get crowded.” She looked around. “But on a night like tonight, we would probably make an exception. It’s pretty slow.”
“Oh. So maybe Wesley can come back when he’s done?”
“Sure. I don’t see any reason why not. If he wants to. Sometimes people don’t like blood or pain or whatever, and they’d rather wait in the waiting room. As long as she has someone to sit and hold her hand. We found that that helps, not only pain levels, but anxiety as well. Although we have pills to handle that.” The receptionist chattered as they walked back to the second door on the right, and she pointed. “There’s your gram.”
“Thank you,” Birdie said as she walked slowly in the room. Gram still talked to the man who had taken her back. He had a stethoscope around his neck and was just hanging up the cuff on a blood pressure machine.
“It’s a little low. We’ll be keeping an eye on her for shock. Right now, I have a heated blanket on her, and I’ve ordered X-rays. They’ll be coming to get her shortly.”
“All right, wow. You guys don’t mess around.”
“Tonight, we’re not that busy, but sometimes we are, and it’s helpful to have things move along if we can. Although, sometimes when you rush, you make mistakes. There’s a fine line.” The man’s brown eyes were friendly but serious, and he gave her a small smile before he walked out of the room.
“Are you okay, Gram?” she asked, even though she knew there really was a very limited number of things that she could do.
“I’m thirsty.”
“All right. I’ll tell the nurse whenever he gets back, unless you want me to go find him.” She was trying to think of any reason why her gram couldn’t have a drink. She might as well ask.
“I can wait. I just don’t want to wait all night. If I have to wait until after I get the X-rays, that’s fine. But I want a tall glass of water waiting for me when I get back. Preferably with a slice of lemon and ice as well.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Gram. ”
People would think Gram was a princess the way she was ordering her ice water, but it was just Gram’s way of taking control of the situation, at least that’s what Birdie figured. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe there was something else going on. Or maybe Gram really was desperate for a glass of ice water with a slice of lemon in it.
She shook her head at the thought. Her grandma was something else.
It wasn’t long until the male nurse came to take her back for the X-rays. Birdie was not allowed to go.
“We’ll bring her back as soon as she’s done. If she’s going to have to have any type of treatment, the doctor will talk to you here first.”
“All right,” she said, wondering what in the world they might mean by any type of treatment. That almost sounded like...they thought it might be more than a break? Or maybe that’s just the way they talked.
She decided not to borrow trouble, although she had to admit she was relieved when Wesley walked in just a moment or two after her grandma left.
“You just missed her. They took her back for X-rays.”
“Wow. That was fast.”
“That’s what I said. But the nurse said they try to do things speedily but not rushed. They don’t like to make mistakes.”
“Nobody does. But mistakes are a little bit more concerning in a place like this.”
He walked in, and she thought he might pace, but there was a chair against the wall, and he sank down in it. Facing her in the seat that she had chosen beside where the bed had been before they wheeled the entire bed to the X-ray room, wherever that was.
“Are you holding up okay?” Wesley asked.
“Yeah. I mean, I keep telling myself it’s just a broken leg, and I don’t need to be so worked up. But... I’m worried. You know. She’s my gram.”
“I know. I don’t want anything to happen to her. But God’s got this. I’ve been praying. And I’m betting you have too.”
“When I think about it. I’ve been more worried than peaceful though. So I probably haven’t been praying enough.”
“That’s okay. This is just practice for the next time.”
“That’s not reassuring,” she said. The idea that there would be a next time. Or a time after that .
“I don’t want to be doom and gloom, but if you’re going to get married and have children, you’re probably going to spend some time in the ER. Maybe even for yourself. You just might as well reconcile yourself to the fact that you’re going to trust God every time. I think it gets easier.”
“You’ve been in the ER?”
“Not for myself, not for Gramps, but with my grandma. I got to the point where I hated hospitals, and I started to get a sick feeling every time we pulled in the parking lot. They smell bad, nobody’s happy, and it’s just basically a miserable environment. But it’s more about my attitude. Right?”
“But you lost your gram.”
He took a breath, blew it out, and said, “I know I don’t need to correct you, so don’t take it that way, but I don’t think about it like that. I think about it like God took her. Or she got a promotion. Or she’s happier. But it’s true she’s not with us anymore, and...for a long time, that was hard. I did some things I wish I wouldn’t have and didn’t handle it as well as I could have. I guess maybe that’s why I was telling you that you need to be prepared. It’s what I wish someone would have told me. It’s inevitable. Not that I want to be negative all the time, I just want to know that I can see these things and go through them with God’s help, not scared, not upset, and not anxious. I want to trust God.”
“You’re really good at pep talks,” she said, and he winced a little. Which was odd.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No. I’m sorry. I guess I just wish I was a little better or had been a little better. Like I said, after Gram died, I didn’t exactly go off the deep end, but I did do some things I wish I wouldn’t have.”
“I see. I suppose those are things you could tell me about?”
“Those are things I’ll write in my book. Maybe. I haven’t yet.”
And that’s when it hit her. Her eyes got big, and he must have seen that all of a sudden she had an epiphany, because he looked around and then said, “What?”