Evergreen by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 13

The next day, Katie once again called the hospital and was told that Tom had been taken off the respirator. He was awake and breathing comfortably on his own. She had been keeping to herself for the last couple of days. Returning to school, she was completely unable to concentrate and after a small bout of weeping, was allowed to leave early. The following morning, Christine drove her down to Eastern Maine Med. Tom had been receiving steroids since his admission and the swelling of his body had been greatly reduced. Walking into his room, Katie was overjoyed to see her father sitting up and sipping water. The doctor arrived shortly after and informed her that Tom would probably be discharged in two or three more days but only if everything progressed at its current rate. Those several days would be the longest days of Katie’s life.

At the end of what seemed like an eternity, Christine and Katie made one last trip to Eastern Maine Medical Center. Tom was being discharged. However, the doctor was sending him home with a prescription for Benadryl. He still had a bit of swelling around the bee stings and his voice had become gravelly from roughly twenty-four hours on a respirator. However, within a few hours, he would be home. Going back to work, however, was a different story. Tom’s discharge instructions were clear that he not return to work for two weeks. Meanwhile, the mill had patched the pine tree, housing the bees that had so efficiently succeeded in their attack on Tom. But, to make sure that Tom’s masculinity didn’t get the best of him, Christine took the liberty of calling his boss, informing him that Tom was to be at home for two weeks of rest and predictably, when he walked into the mill to punch in, he was sternly turned away. “Tom,” his boss said. “You’re supposed to be out for two weeks. Doctor’s orders, right?”

Frustrated and a bit embarrassed, Tom returned home. He wasn’t good at just sitting at home doing nothing, and he was certainly not good at being waited on. This was something Katie had begun doing as soon as Tom got home from the hospital, and she did it constantly. She wasn’t afraid that her father would again be taken ill but was just glad to have him home. She’d also made an executive decision, enforcing only one rule, rest.

Occasionally, Christine would stop by to see how they were doing. It wasn’t a requirement of the job, but Evergreen was a tight-knit community and Christine was concerned. She had, through Katie’s emotional ordeal, become somewhat invested. However, she was not yet aware of how invested she would become. As a rule, she tried to maintain a professional distance, not becoming personally involved in the lives of the town’s residents - to serve and to protect. She had no family of her own and considered the townspeople to be a significant part of her life. There was no husband waiting at home for her, no children to pick up after school. Yet, underneath the badge, Christine was not only human but also a woman and when she wasn’t eating or sleeping, she was working. Distracting herself with the job, she tried to avoid the feeling of loneliness that was beginning to creep up on her and every time she went to visit Tom and Katie that loneliness made itself more visible.

As Christine’s human side continued to make its way out from behind the badge, there was someone else who began to notice a change in her demeanor. While Tom was still out of sorts and continuing his path to recovery, it was Katie who saw it. It wasn’t anything Christine said but more in her behavior and reactions. Her tone began to reflect a sensitivity and caring that, ordinarily, was not typical. She also maintained a longer degree of contact with him. Katie was only eighteen years old, but she knew that if one is old enough to have those feelings, then they quickly become obvious and others and although it was obvious to Katie, she never said a word, fearing that if they became aware of these growing emotions, their fear of life’s complications might push them away from one another. She wanted to see her father spending time with someone. It had been far too long and in her young mind, Christine was the perfect match for him. But this had to develop on its own and it seemed to Katie that adults have a strong tendency to complicate things. They know what they want, but are too afraid to pursue it. They say that to be happy, you have to risk being hurt and yet, they are far too cautious.