Chapter 8 – Ink
INK
After the ambulance left with Presley and her mom, I jogged back to find Ariel and her grandfather rushing around to pack up their campsite so they could get to the hospital.
“Ink!” Ariel exclaimed when she saw me and ran over to hug me, which caught me off guard. “They said you were the one who found Nana. Thank you.”
Returning her hug, I gently patted her back. “I can’t take all the credit. I had a lot of help.”
Presley’s father walked over to us with his hand extended. “You got my daughter here and brought a search team with you. You can take all the credit you want,” he said and shook my hand.
“I was happy to help,” I said. “Would you like a ride to the hospital? I can bring you back here once we know what’s going on with your wife.”
“Yes,” he said, sounding relieved. “I wanted to get there as soon as possible, but I don’t like packing up and leaving in a rush.”
“No problem. We can leave whenever you’re ready.”
“I think we’re ready now,” he said.
“You might want to bring a change of clothes for your wife,” I suggested.
“Right,” he said and looked at his granddaughter. “Can you get something for Nana to wear? Something that will be easy to get over her leg. And grab her extra pair of hearing aids. They should be in the drawer beside the bed.”
“Sure. I’ll be right back,” Ariel said.
Eugene stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “I give her things to do to keep her occupied so she doesn’t get caught up in worrying. Presley’s the same way. She’ll worry herself to death if she doesn’t have something to do.”
Before I could comment, Ariel exited the camper with a tote bag. “I have clothes and a few other things she might need.”
“Thank you, doodlebug. I’ll lock up, and we can go.”
I turned to show Ariel which vehicle we were taking and saw Dice, Daphne, and Diablo approaching. “We’re going to ride back with Phoenix unless you need us to stay.”
“Nah, we’re good,” I told him and reached out to pet Diablo’s head. “Thank you for your help. I’ll bring you extra treats when I get home.”
“You are single-handedly spoiling my dog,” Daphne teased.
“Not according to your dad,” I retorted.
She shook her head and laughed. “Let us know how Presley’s mom is doing.”
“I will. We’re heading to the hospital now.”
Once we were loaded up and ready to go, Ariel found the hospital's address and entered it into the GPS. Unfortunately, they were camping in a remote area, and it was going to take us over thirty minutes to get to the hospital.
When we arrived, they directed us to a room where we found Presley sitting by herself. She stood when she saw us. “They just took her for an X-ray of her leg. They also want to do a CT scan of her head, but that will be after the X-ray.”
“How’s she doing?” Eugene asked.
“She was in a bit of pain when we first got here, but they gave her something, and she’s been doing okay since. They’re going to have to close her head wound with staples, but she doesn’t know that yet.”
“Oh, she’s going to love that,” Ariel said, causing Eugene and Presley to laugh.
“My mother is particular about her hair,” Presley explained. “She likes it done a certain way and uses a lot of products, which she won’t be able to use until the wound heals.”
“It’s on the back of her head, so maybe she can still style the front,” I said.
Eugene snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “I knew I liked you.”
Presley smiled and turned her attention to Ariel. “I was talking to Ink yesterday, and you’ll never guess who his mother is.”
“Mrs. Ink?” Ariel joked.
“Ms. Manning, your English teacher.”
“Are you serious?” Ariel asked and looked at me. “I love her. She actually makes grammar fun.”
“Yoo-hoo! Is there room for one more to join this party?” Presley’s mom asked as she was wheeled into the room on a stretcher.
“Nana!” Ariel gasped and hurried over to hug her.
“Hey, doodlebug. I’m sorry if I scared you.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Well, that’s yet to be determined, but I’m in one piece, so there’s that. Please tell me one of you brought my hearing aids.”
“Right here,” Presley said and helped her mother with her hearing aids.
“There, that’s better,” Alice said.
“What happened?” Eugene asked.
Alice huffed. “We’re going to have to come up with a better story to tell people when we get home because the real story is as boring as it gets. I was walking Frisco and slipped in some mud. I tried to catch my balance, but it didn’t work. I hit the ground and rolled right off the trail.”
“You could say a coyote, or some other wild animal, tried to attack your dog. Frisco was able to get away, but you fell in the process,” I suggested.
“I fell off the side of a mountain while fighting a coyote,” Alice said. “That sounds much better than I slipped in the mud.”
“There’s nothing wrong with slipping in the mud,” Presley said.
“There’s nothing wrong with it at your age.
At my age, people make assumptions. Even the hospital assessments make assumptions.
Oh, you’re over sixty-five, you must be frail and feeble.
And while that might be true for some, it’s an insult to those of us who take care of ourselves.
Hell, my dad was walking six to nine miles a day on his treadmill when he was in his early eighties. ”
Presley chuckled. “He’d probably still be doing it if she hadn’t taken his treadmill away.”
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy,” Alice said. “The doctor is the one who told him to cut back.”
“Can I ask why he needed to cut back?” I asked.
“Because he was sweating too much and not drinking enough water. He ended up in the hospital for dehydration.”
“Now, he drinks electrolyte water when he walks around his neighborhood when the weather’s nice,” Ariel added.
“This is your grandfather, right?” I asked Presley.
“Yes, he’s ninety-three and completely independent,” she said proudly.
“That’s impressive,” I said. Ranger still ran around like he was in his fifties, but he was in his seventies, not his nineties.
“People on my side of the family tend to have long lives. My grandmother was two months shy of one hundred and four when she passed,” Alice said.
“So, fighting off a coyote at your young age is completely plausible,” I said.
She clapped her hands together and smiled. “I like you.”
I grinned. “I’m two for two. Your husband said the same thing.”
“Knock, knock,” a doctor said as he entered the room. “How are we doing in here?”
“As good as can be expected,” Alice said. “Is it time for the scan?”
“They should be here to get you in a few minutes. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know you fractured your tibia in the fall. That’s the larger of the two bones in your lower leg.
The good news is it’s an incomplete fracture, meaning the bone isn’t broken all the way through. In other words, no surgery required.”
“What about a cast?” she asked hesitantly.
“We’ll send you home with a boot and crutches until you see ortho,” he said. “Unless they see something I don’t on the X-ray, they’ll probably put you in a walking boot instead of a hard cast.”
“Hot damn,” Alice said. “Let’s get this CT scan done so I can go home.”
“As long as the results are clear, that’s the plan,” the doctor said.
“They will be,” Alice assured him. “Thanks to my brilliant daughter over there, I’m well-versed in the signs and symptoms of a brain bleed, and I don’t have any of them.”
The doctor turned to Presley, who waved awkwardly. “I’m an ER nurse. I’ve trained my family well.”
He laughed. “Well, it’s good that you don’t have any of the symptoms, but we still need to check.”
“Oh, I completely understand. I’d rather be safe than sorry,” Alice said.
Someone knocked on the open door. “Looks like they’re here to take you to CT. When you get back, we’ll get you set up with a splint to wear until you can see an orthopedist. If your CT is good, we’ll get your head wound closed up and send you on your way.”
“That sounds perfect,” Alice said. “Oh, wait. If the CT is good, does that mean I can eat?”
Eugene laughed. “I knew that was coming.”
“Yes, if the results are clear, you can eat,” the doctor said.
“Whoever brings me food can be my favorite person for the day,” Alice said as they began to wheel her away.
“Rappelling down a mountain and rescuing you doesn’t rate favorite person status?” I teased.
“You’re right. It does,” she said and cleared her throat like she was going to make an important announcement. “Food today for tomorrow’s favorite person of the day title. Who’s it going to be? We’ll find out when I return.”
“I wish I could say it was the pain medicine, but she’s always like that,” Eugene said once Alice was gone.
“I’m glad she’s in good spirits,” I said.
“Me, too,” Presley agreed. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Your mother’s a tough old bird,” Eugene said.
“Yes, and she can also be a cranky one, particularly when she’s tired and hungry. So, maybe we should get our plan together while she’s gone.”
“I need to finish packing up the campsite and drive the camper home, but I can do that tomorrow, if need be,” Eugene said.
“Do you think we have time to go back to the campsite, pack up, and drive back here before your mother is discharged?” I asked Presley.
“You should. She’ll be here for at least another two hours, and that’s the minimum. It’ll probably be closer to four before all is said and done.”
“Then let’s do that,” Eugene said. “We can pick up something to eat on the way back and leave from here when they give her the okay to go home.”
Presley was right. It took me and Eugene two and a half hours to pack up the campsite and get back to the hospital with food. It was another hour before Alice was ready to go home.
While the nurse was going over the discharge papers with Alice, Presley leaned over and asked, “Would you be willing to drive my mother home?”
“Of course,” I answered immediately, confused as to why she felt she needed to ask.
“They live in Cedar Valley, not Croftridge,” she said, as if that made a difference.
“Not a problem.”