Chapter 10: Surviving the Weekend

Saturday & Sunday, November 10th-11th, 2007

Saturday morning, we went through Sam’s things to find her Hogs shirt. We went out to a local store and geared up ourselves. We felt quite silly trooping into the hospital in Hogs Red, but looked around to see we weren’t the only ones. Folks around here take their football VERY seriously.

We trooped up to Sam’s room, and got the radio tuned in. We told the nurses we wanted to put Sam’s Hogs shirt on her, and the nurses took care of it for us. We called Ang and had a high time listening to the game together, even though she was 6 hours ahead of us. We closed Sam’s door so we wouldn’t disturb anyone else on the floor, and we cheered and booed, and called the hogs like pros. Even some of the nurses got into it.

By the end of the game, we were all swearing and cursing out Fucking Casey Dick and bemoaning D-Mac’s lousy showing. Nothing we said though elicited any response from her. Pumped from the excitement of the game, but a little deflated at the lack of progress, we settled down and just chatted.

Lucy had said that she talked to Richie about Sam’s hand-squeeze thing, and he said we should definitely tell Jon. Lucy was elected, and she made the call. We could only hear her end of the conversation, but we could tell that Jon wasn’t as elated by this news as we were.

Nathan came by later in the afternoon with Cori, and we had a nice visit. The nurses were being very lax with the rules, letting us all stay in the room with Sam. To their credit, they made sure we weren’t crowding her, or being too loud, but they pretty much left us alone. When it got good and dark, Stephanie suggested that it was maybe time to go feed Diva and let her out. Cori volunteered to go with Steph, leaving Lucy and I to wait with Nathan for the guys. Several hours after Cori and Steph left, Nathan was asleep in the recliner, and Lucy and I were snoozing in the waiting room.

* * * * *

Around 3am, Richie and David had arrived in the waiting room. Somehow, they knew their ladies would be there. Jon had gone up to Sam’s room to spell Nathan and send the other man home for a while. David looked at Hath, and his heart melted. She was holding Lucy’s hand in hers, covering it protectively, even in sleep. The two women were sitting together on one of the couches, leaning on each other; Lucy’s head on Hath’s shoulder, and Hath’s head resting on Lucy’s.

Richie laughed, framing the women with his hands. “If I was Tico, I would paint this and call it ‘Sisters Sleeping’.”

“Yeah. They’ve been really great,” David answered. “For a group who hasn’t known each other very long, they sure bonded quickly,” he added.

Lucy heard Richie’s voice and had started to stir. answered sleepily, “That’s mostly your doing, guys.” She elbowed her friend. “Wake up, sister, our men are here.” Hath was still dead to the world. The third elbow to the ribs did the trick.

Hath yawned and stretched and lazily opened her eyes. When she saw David, she smiled. “Hey, baby,” she said.

“What’re you talking about, Lucia?” Richie asked.

“We bonded a long time ago, long before we ever met,” she said. Even having just woken up, Hath understood exactly what Lucy was talking about, but the guys were a little thick.

“Huh?” David asked.

Lucy looked at her friend, and the two women chuckled. She answered, blushing. “We’re all fans, guys. That was our bond.” She sighed, clearly uncomfortable with this topic.

Hath tried to come to her rescue, but was blushing just as hard as Lucy was. “Look, you guys attract a couple of different types of women. You get the whacko lunatics, and you get genuine fans. We non-whackos recognize that in each other, and it’s an instant bond. A Sisterhood of the Brotherhood, if you will.”

David laughed. “’Sisterhood of the Brotherhood’, huh? That sounds like a good T-shirt slogan.”

“Just remember who came up with it, Joker,” Lucy said, laughing. “We want credit for that.”

* * * * *

Richie and David checked in with Jon and came back to the waiting room. By that time, Lucy and I had roused somewhat, and had wiped the sleep from our eyes. Lucy found a roll of breath mints in her purse, and we were chewing them furiously. Richie and Luce went for a walk and David came to sit by me. I leaned into him for a kiss. “I missed you,” I said to him, blushing.

“I missed you too, baby,” he said, hugging me close. We sat like that for a long time, just being together, and must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew it was morning. After finding the bathroom, Lucy called the house to let them know that nothing had changed, but the guys had made it in the middle of the night.

Stephanie told her she’s be by with breakfast soon, and NOT to drink the hospital coffee under any circumstances. When Lucy told us, we laughed and waited for Steph to arrive. After breakfast, Jon and Nathan left to go to the impound lot to get Sam’s stuff out of the car. Lucy and I stayed with Sam and Steph went back to the house and Diva. Richie and David are sprawled out in the waiting room, snoozing. When Jon and Nathan get back, we’re going to switch shifts.

When Jon and Nathan came back from the impound lot, Nathan left to pick up Cori, and Jon came alone back into Sam's room. He asked us if there was anything to report, and we had to tell him that no, there was no change. He was in a worse mood than I've ever seen him; I don't know what happened with the car, but it couldn't have been good. He was pacing around and muttering, I stopped him on one of the passes past me with a gentle hand on his forearm. He shook me off and skewered me with an icy look. Yikes. I apologized for mouthing off to him again last week. He tried to wave it off, but I could see the apology was appreciated.

I left the room to talk to find of the nurses, and luckily ran into Patti.

“Hi Hath,” she said, “I’ve got to say, this constant contact and stimulation can do nothing but good for Sam. We’re so glad to see that she has so many people showering her with love.”

“We do love her, some more than others,” I said with a wink, and Patty smiled. “Listen,” I said to her. “Would it be possible to get a second bed in there for Jon?”

“Is the recliner not working for him?”

“No, that isn’t it.” I paced a little. “Look, this is stressful for everyone in this waiting situation, but I don’t think I’m telling secrets when I say Jon isn’t handling it well at all.” I looked at her, and saw that this wasn’t news to her.

“Yes, I know,” she said.

“I’m not saying that it’ll help, but if he could be near her, I think it would do worlds of good for both of them.” I took a deep breath and continued. “Can we push the two together so he can be close to her?”

Patty looked skeptical. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. She’s wired up to those machines, and her IV…” she trailed off when she saw the look on my face.

“I’m not trying to be difficult,” I lied, “But Jon is this close,” I put my thumb and forefinger about an inch apart, “to climbing into that bed with her. That’ll be more of a problem, don’t you think?”
Patti recruited two orderlies to bring in a second bed. Jon just looked at me. “You’re welcome,” I said. Once they got it pushed up against Sam's bed, I crossed the room, took Jon’s hand, and dragged him over. I pushed him down gently and said, “Talk to her,” then I left the room. I looked in the window, and Jon was laying there next to her, gently stroking her abdomen and whispering to her. My heart was breaking for him. He looked up and saw me through the window, and mouthed “thank you.” I nodded and left.

David and I headed back to the house. Lucy and Richie were staying for the evening shift in case Jon, Cori, or Nathan need someone tonight. Stephanie, David, and I took Diva to the park. For a big dog, she’s extremely fast and agile. We brought along a Frisbee, and the damned thing nearly disappeared in her mouth. But she brought it back to us nearly every time we tossed it. There were some times when we had to chase her to get it back, and I think she was doing it on purpose. We got her good and tired, and when we got back, she passed out on Sam's bed. I don't know if that's allowed or not, but we're letting it go. We helped Stephanie get dinner together, and she brought it up to the hospital, and when she got back, she reported that Jon was still keeping his place beside her, and he told her to tell me thanks again. Guess he’s thawing a little toward me.

I got onto the board and spilled about the day rather than just signing on with an “ok, no change” message. As I was typing, David called over from the couch, “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m posting an update,” I said distractedly.

“You sure are typing an awful lot. What are you writing about?”

“Just what we did today,” I answered. I’m sick of having nothing more to write than ‘no change’.”

He laughed at me. “Well hell, darlin’, you’re being so prolific, why not just tell them how many times I took a leak today.” He cackled like a witch.

I gave him a look worthy of Jon. “Nice, Joker.” He made me laugh, though, so I did.