Chapter Twelve
- Steep Grade - Use Low Gear . . .
I wheeled into the yard and slammed on the brakes, forgetting my crutches as I dove out of the car after it had barely come to a stop. Carissa wasn't about to let me forget those damn crutches though, she was suddenly there in front of me, handing them to me and accompanying the motion with a 'don't argue' look in her eyes.
I don't know how I did it, but I beat Carissa to the steps even though I did use the darn crutches, then I was at the door of Grandpa Bender's little house. Since he didn't answer my frantic knock, I tried the knob and luckily, the door was unlocked. We found Grandpa Bender lying flat on his back in bed, and he opened his eyes as soon as I walked in the door of his bedroom.
"Och, yer a sight . . . fer sore eyes." He slurred painfully. "I bin hopin' . . . that sumun'd come see me. I can't seem . . . to get outta bed."
From the twisted look of his face and the fact that his left eye wouldn't even open, even I guessed he'd had a stroke of some sort. Luckily I had Carissa along and she'd worked in the hospital, but there wasn't really much she could do, other than reassure me that she thought he was relatively stable at the moment.
We couldn't get Grampa Bender's darn cheap CB to work no matter what we did. So, in the long run we decided that the best thing to do was to load Grandpa Bender into the back seat of my car and rush him to the hospital as quickly as we could. Since I was in casts, I really didn't feel that I was much help, but by conveniently forgetting my right crutch and perhaps using my left foot a bit more than I should have, Carissa and I somehow got him out to the car. There, we managed to manoeuvre him into the back seat and get him wrapped in a couple of his blankets.
Even then Grampa Bender insisted that I had to let the animals out into the barnyard so they could at least fend for themselves in case he wasn't back for a day or two. I not only let the animals out into the barnyard, but I took the time to engage the pump on the windmill, that way any passing breeze would pump more water into the big water trough and any extra would just spill over and run away. Then I threw a couple of bales of hay over the fence, just in case they were outside long enough to eat all the grass that was available. After that I went to the car and assured Grampa Bender that the cattle and chickens would be fine for a week or more.
Everything we'd done seemed to take far too long, but at last we started out on what I later felt was one of the longest drives of my life. I didn't dare go too fast because I didn't want to throw Grampa Bender or Carissa around much by hitting any bad bumps, but I didn't want to take too long either. There were seven miles of rough trail, then sixteen miles of dirt road to get to the gravel road that led home. There, I could either turn right and drive five miles back to our house where we could call an ambulance, or turn the other way and drive the six miles into town. I chose to head for town and the hospital because I knew that it would be a lot faster.
I think we were about three miles from town and doing about eighty miles an hour when we met Mr. and Mrs. Coulter, Carissa's parents. I'll be honest, I never even slowed down, but long before I got to them I'd turned on my headlights and started to flash them on and off of high beams as a warning signal. That's when I realised that the cast on my foot had taken a beating. Okay, so I'd gotten it damp at the farm and had 'forgotten' to use my crutches all the time, but dammit, Grampa Bender's life was more important than any darn cast. As I was stomping on the dimmer switch with that foot, I could feel the cast crumpling each time my foot pressed down, but I chose to ignore it.
It seemed a long time later before I was headed through the lower end of town at about forty miles an hour, blowing my horn loud and long before I got to each intersection or met any car. At the same time I was still stomping on that dimmer switch as if my life depended on it. I saw the local RCMP car swing in behind us on the outskirts of town, but I ignored him until we got to the hospital where he pulled in right behind me. As I boiled out of the car, everything happened at once. The RCMP officer was beside the car in seconds and started to berate me, Carissa grabbed me to prevent me from running off without my crutches, then screamed at the cop to get a wheelchair as well as an orderly, at the same time, my foot began to hurt and I moaned in pain.
I'll swear to this day that Grampa Bender laughed then, but when I turned to look at him, his face showed no sign of a smile. At least the cop listened to Carissa which meant that we soon had help and in the long run I was simply able to go inside with Grampa Bender and Carissa.
As far as I was concerned the next while was total confusion. I remember phoning home and talking to Mom on the phone. Then I had to fill out the admission papers for Grampa Bender. While I was standing at the counter trying to remember details about him and his life, someone noticed that I was leaving a trail of plaster from my cast on the clean tile of the hospital's floor. In only a moment or two I was being seated in a wheelchair myself and being chewed out by one of the nurses for ruining my cast at the same time as she wheeled me down the hall to the waiting room. Then it seemed only few moments before Mom and Dad were there with Beth, so were Corinna and Wil along with Mr. and Mrs. Coulter.
It seemed that everyone was asking questions and demanding answers of Carissa and me, but we really weren't that much help since we were almost as much in the dark as everyone else. Thankfully it wasn't long before an orderly came to get me so my cast could be repaired. Carissa simply seemed to tag along with us and I wasn't about to argue.
We were in the room where they made up the casts and the orderly was asking what I'd done to ruin the one I'd had when Carissa first spoke up. First off she gave him a piece of her mind for giving me a rough time, explaining that I was trying to save someone's life. Then she got into explaining to him the type of cast she thought I needed. It was through her insistence that I ended up having a new type of walking cast made for my foot and even a new cast made for my hand.
Both of the casts used brand-new techniques as far as the orderly was concerned. The only reason that Carissa even knew about them was the fact that she'd been on duty as a candy striper when the salesman had convinced the matron to have the material on hand in case it was needed in a special instance. Of course the matron had to be called in to get permission to try the new types of casts. Then since I wasn't eighteen yet, I had to get Mom and Dad to give their okay as well, because the new cast cost slightly more than the old ones. Of course after they talked about it for a moment and realised that one expensive cast that lasted would cost less than several of the cheaper ones, they agreed to let me try the new type of casts.
Finally, with Carissa helping the orderly, they cut off my old casts starting with my foot. Once the old cast was removed, they very gently washed my foot, then they coated my skin with a greasy ointment and after that they slipped on a sleeve or a sock of sorts made of gauze. Over that went a protective layer made of thin plastic sheeting, then they began to use a different kind of gauze that had been dipped in a liquid of some kind. It went on in layers, then each layer was coated with a thin paste of some sort. As they worked, the orderly explained that the new cast was actually made of fibreglass. The first thing I noticed was that it stank to high heaven, then it got hot and it felt darned uncomfortable until it cooled down again.
The cast on my hand was the next operation. Once more, the old one was cut off, my hand was washed, then the cast itself was made. That one was moulded from plastic by heating a flat sheet in hot water and then bending it around my hand. It was hot when it was put against my skin, then it cooled down and got exceptionally hard.
Once they were done, I thought they were wonderful. Both casts were relatively waterproof and both of them were tough enough that I was going to have a lot more freedom of movement. As far as I was concerned the new cast on my foot was the best thing possible. I wasn't going to be hampered by crutches now because it was actually a 'walking' cast with a solid base I could stand on. On top of that a little bit of tape and some plastic meant that I could have a shower again, all I had to do was to prevent the water from saturating the 'sleeve' of gauze inside the cast.
The cast on my hand was even better because it was completely waterproof. The orderly even took the time to show me how to hold my hand in a particular way so that I could slide the plastic cast off to dry my hand if it got wet and he explained that I had to gently wash that hand once or twice a day. He did warn me not to try to do anything when I had the cast removed and not to do anything with that hand that was strenuous, even with the cast in place.
While Carissa and I had been involved with the replacement of my casts, the hospital staff had evaluated Grampa Bender's condition. He had definitely suffered a stroke and they wanted to keep him in the hospital for observation as well as to try to see what they could do to prevent a recurrence of the problems again. All of us breathed a sigh of relief.
Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice had shown up while I was having my casts done and since they found out that Mom and Dad had planned to have the Coulters over at our house for a meal and a discussion, they suggested that Beth could stay with them, then they'd bring her home later.
Instantly Corinna and Wil wanted to ride back to the farm with Carissa and me. I was surprised when Mom and Dad agreed with them and then astounded when Mr. and Mrs. Coulter went along with the idea. Mom even took me aside and suggested that I drive home slowly, explaining that she wanted a while alone with the Coulters.
I simply I went along with the idea. Heck, at that point of the day I was wiped out, I didn't want an argument or even a discussion with anyone.
I didn't know it, but circumstance was about to destroy any chance of my walking out of the hospital without a confrontation happening though. First the matron wanted to speak to me because she wanted to ask me to keep notes on any problems or any benefits of any kind that I happened to notice with either of the new casts. Of course Carissa seemed to be glued to my arm about then and since Corinna stayed with her twin, Will was along as well. All of our parents had left before the matron seemed satisfied that I knew what she wanted and she finally decided that we were free to leave.
That meant all of us were heading for the door as a group. Carissa and I were holding hands and we were being followed by Corinna and Wil. Then I felt Carissa tense and her hand clasp mine even tighter than it had been. That's when I noticed Sandy McAdam coming through the outer door toward us. I think if looks could have killed, Carissa and I might both have died about then.
I will never understand people in some instances. This was the young woman that less than twenty-four hours ago had insisted I was some kind of freak, but now she was reacting as if I and Carissa had insulted her or something. I fully admit that I was muddled myself, but her reaction floored me. At first I thought the look on her face was all we were going to have to deal with, but then she stepped into our path and stood there with her hands on her hips as if she was confronting someone who had done something terrible. I held my tongue and thankfully, so did Will and the twins. Sandy seemed to be trying to get her breath for a moment and she simply stood there, taking one deep breath after the other.
Then she simply crumpled. I never moved and neither did Wil, but Carissa and Corinna both did. I still don't know how it was possible, but they had caught her before she hit the floor and eased her into a chair. Then Carissa was up and running to get the matron while Corinna held Sandy's hand and supported her to stop her from sliding out of her seat. I didn't know what to do and I doubt if Wil did either, but the decision was out of our hands. Corinna simply ordered us to go outside, telling us that she and Carissa would catch up with us in a few minutes.
The idea of getting out of the hospital wasn't something I was going to argue with right then. I was out that door as fast as I could hobble on my new cast and Wil was on my heels. Once I was outside, I took a deep breath of the late spring air and without speaking to Wil, I headed for my car. That's when I found out the world wasn't done with me for the day.
Under my windshield wiper, I found a ticket for speeding and another for parking in the emergency zone of the hospital. I was completely speechless.
Will wasn't speechless though. He howled with rage, in fact I've never seen him so angry. I think if the cop had been there Wil would have eaten him alive. I was just too wiped out to even care. I'd been through too much and my emotions were simply unable to keep up to the roller coaster they'd been on. I simply opened the driver's door of the car, got behind the wheel, put the key in the ignition and drove the twenty or thirty feet to a parking spot. Then I shut off the car, put my head on my hands as they rested on the steering wheel and broke into silent tears.
I'd had it. I was an emotional wreck. I was only sixteen years old, but in the last few weeks I'd had more problems and more triumphs than at any time in my life. In fact, in the last week or so, my life had gone from one extreme to another and I simply didn't feel capable to cope with all the changes that had happened to me and to those around me. Emotionally, I was totally overloaded and needed some kind of relief.
I'm not sure how long I sat there in tears, but it couldn't have been that long; however, that brief interlude was what I needed. When I lifted my head and dashed the tears from my face, I found that I was alone and still sitting in my car, but I had a feeling of resolve that I'd never felt before. It was as if before that I'd simply reacted to everything around me and while everyone had thought I was planning my life and my actions, I realized that instead I had only been reacting and letting what others did govern what I did in turn.
In those few moments, I'd made up my mind to act on things happening around me instead of simply reacting to them and to take the consequences as they came. Perhaps I grew in some way, I don't know, but I did know that from that moment things were darn well going to change as far as I was concerned.
The first thing I did was to go back inside the hospital. Wil was standing off to one side talking to Corinna while Carissa and the matron were talking to Sandy who was still sitting in the same chair, quietly staring at them. Then Sandy looked over at me and her eyes dropped to the floor, that's when I cleared my throat and everyone else seemed to realise I was standing there.
"Excuse me, but I need to talk to Sandy for a few moments and I'd like to be alone if everyone doesn't mind." I said quietly.
Carissa must have seen something in my face because she stood and moved toward Corinna and Wil, then they went outside. The matron was another matter. She looked like she was about to argue with me.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but this is a problem that needs to remain between Sandy and me. I'd like to talk to her and I really think it should be just between the two of us. If you want to be nearby, that's fine, but I do want to speak to her privately."
The matron looked at me as if she was still willing to argue, but she didn't say anything, then after a few seconds she turned and looked at Sandy who nodded her head as if in agreement with me.
When we were alone, I really wasn't feeling as positive as I had a moment before, but I knew I had to say something and all I could really say was to explain what I felt and what I had noticed about Sandy and her family. In order to stall for time and prepare what I wanted to say, I took the time to pull over a chair and sit down at Sandy's side. Then I began by explaining my feelings about the way I viewed women and the world.
In order to do that I found myself explaining about my childhood, my experiences in school, my experiences at home and simply about my life in general, then I found I was asking her about her life and about her family.
Our lives were quite similar in a lot of ways, but very different in others. While we were both from two parent families, our parents were much different. My Mom and Dad discussed and decided issues, but in her family her father tried to overrule every decision. We were both from three child families, but while I was the middle child with an older brother and a younger sister, she was the oldest child with two younger sisters. The similarities and differences went on and on, but the biggest difference was the fact that in my family we discussed and decided things as a family, while in her family, she'd always been taught that men ruled and women served their wishes.
I did manage to convince her to talk to someone about the way she'd been raised and about her feelings, then I paused to talk to the matron before I left. All I did with her was to explain that Sandy and I had a difference in our outlook on life and on relationships, leaving it at that.
I'm not sure why, but when I walked back out to the car I felt like I'd left a huge load of rubbish behind me. Wil and the girls were sitting in the car, talking quietly when I came out. Of course they were curious about what had happened, but I felt that I'd already said enough to them about the situation. I just shrugged my shoulders and said that I didn't think there would be any more problems. Needless to say none of them seemed happy with the decision on my part to remain silent, but I remained adamant and mute in spite of their entreaties to get me to speak.
I picked up the traffic ticket from the seat and tossed it on the dash, then started for home. I hadn't driven more than a couple of blacks before I noticed that I was being followed by the RCMP car again. I made certain that I stayed within all the traffic laws, but drove as quickly as I could to the local RCMP detachment, grabbed the ticket in my hand, got out of the car and went to the door. Since it was Sunday afternoon, I had to wait for someone to open the door to my ring. I was just entering the door as the cop who'd been following me pulled into the parking lot and parked beside my car. I ignored him, entering the door and closing it behind me.
"Could I speak to whoever is in charge?" I asked.
"That would be me." The constable who'd opened the door said quietly.
"Fine." I smiled and held up the ticket I'd gotten earlier. "I found this ticket on the window of my car not long ago and although there are extenuating circumstances behind my actions, what is written here is true. I will be fighting this in court, but that isn't the reason I'm here. You see after being in the hospital for nearly two hours, I find that it's rather strange, however the moment I pulled out of the hospital parking lot, I was followed by the same car and the same RCMP officer who had given me ticket."
Almost as if it was scripted, the door opened again, this time unlocked from the outside.
"Ah, here he is now." I turned and smiled.
The look on the young officer's face was worth the time I'd taken to set him up.
"I should explain that I'm normally a very law abiding driver. I happen to own a dirt track stock car and I like the idea of winning races, but I like my races to be at the stock car track where I can feel safe."
"You were driving down a public street, exceeding the speed limit, then you abandoned your car parked in an emergency zone." The young officer snapped almost as if he was responding with a memorized speech.
"I had found a man who had suffered a heart attack and he was in an area where emergency services were unavailable so I transported him in my car." I spoke slowly and quietly. "I admit that I was doing forty miles an hour in a thirty mile an hour zone, but at that time I was flashing my lights and sounding my horn to warn pedestrians and oncoming drivers. At that time I was driving with a cast on my left foot, which I happened to destroy by hitting my dimmer switch in order to flash my lights. When I arrived at the hospital, I was not allowed to leave the hospital to move my car until I had a new cast in place."
There was a brief silence.
"Ummph umm." The constable who had opened the door for me cleared his throat. "Constable Samuels, I wish to speak to you in my office. Mr. Crawford, I will be speaking to the authorities at the hospital, if I find the circumstances are as you explained them, you'll find that when you go to court your plea will not be opposed."
I suppose I should have explained what I was doing before bolting out of the car and hurrying inside the RCMP station, but I hadn't taken the time to do that, so when I went back outside I found Wil arguing with the girls. He wanted to see what I was up to. I explained as I started to drive home and I think I surprised everyone. Just the idea that I might go out of my way to say something like I had seemed to be outrageous to all of them, in fact they expected that I'd be targeted by the young cop in the future.
I shrugged my shoulders, then laughingly said that my family let me drive like a nut on our own property so I didn't feel that I had to drive like a nut on public roads. At least Carissa thought it was funny, but the other two seemed more subdued. When I asked about it, Wil explained that he felt he'd be tarred by the same brush, in other words he was worried that he'd be targeted just as much as me simply because he was my brother.
I suppose I wasn't very sympathetic, whatever the reason, most of the drive home passed with almost no conversation.
When we drove in the yard Dad and Mr. Coulter were sitting on the front porch and as I pulled to a stop, Dad got to his feet.
"We were about to send a search party out for you." He said quietly as I slid out of the car.
"Sorry about that." I answered him, then quickly explained about Sandy and about the cop.
Both Dad and Mr. Coulter just shook their heads as I talked about the cop as if they agreed with Wil and Corinna. Of course the discussion carried over to the dinner table. To my surprise I found both Mom and Mrs. Coulter agreed with Carissa and me, but I watched and listened to the conversation, Dad slowly changed his mind as well. Before too long I had the feeling that even Wil knew that any argument he came up with was going to be shot down by someone.
Of course that wasn't the reason for this meal or meeting or whatever it was.
What surprised me was that nothing was being said about the twins having grown to be involved with the Wil and me, yet there was no way that I could think of to bring it out without causing a ruckus of some sort. Carissa finally opened the can of worms.
"Well Dad, since Beth isn't here to take her share of our thanks, I suppose Corinna and I only have you to thank for setting us up with our two guys do we?" She spoke softly.
The old saying that 'You could have heard a pin drop.' described the silence that followed. I waited a moment, then winked at her.
"Oh, I don't know about that." I drawled. "I remember the looks on Mom and Dad's faces when I first brought you two here. Don't you think they deserve some thanks as well?"
"But they weren't counting on all the things that could change." Corinna grinned at me. "Like you getting hurt or the idea that we might feel responsible for that and try so hard to take your place and please everyone."
"I don't think they counted on my coming home early either." Wil added.
"Now just a darn minute . . ." Dad started to say, but he looked at Mom and saw that she had a silly grin on her face, whatever he'd started to say seemed to die right there.
In fact the whole table grew silent for a moment, then to my surprise Mr. Coulter was the first one to laugh.
"Okay you smart alecks, so we're hoisted on our own petards; that doesn't mean we want to see any of you making silly decisions that could end up hurting you or your future." Then he looked directly at me. "By the way, I thought you told me that you were extremely shy?"
"I was, but your daughters beat that out of me in a hurry." I winked at him.
"Chris!" Carissa squawked like she'd been poked with something, then she turned toward her dad. "Daddy, Chris was never really shy, he's just reserved until he gets to know you, but he won't agree with that. He does believe he's shy."
"Actually I think Chris has changed a fair amount in the last few weeks." Mom said quietly. "But then, Carissa, I think you've changed a fair amount in the last week as well."
I simply smiled at that because I agreed with Mom. I wasn't going to say that though, in fact I managed to sit back and let the conversation flow around me for a while. I was actually marvelling at the way Mom kept managing to turn the conversation whenever it seemed about to drift toward an extremely controversial or more or less taboo subject.
Of course before too long the conversation drifted to Grampa Bender and what we were going to do about his place up in the hills. I'd been thinking about that myself and I had some ideas I wanted to promote, but I waited for just the right opportunity to bring them up.
You see I'd always had the dream in the back of my mind that I'd like to live up there on the edge of the foothills and raise horses; however I didn't know if I was really cut out for that kind of life. What I wanted to suggest was that if Grampa Bender had to be kept in the hospital for long, I wanted to live at his place and look after it until he was well enough to live there on his own again.
That evening though, I knew I was in for an argument before I even started to speak.