Max said something. I blinked. “Sorry,what?”
“I said, did your sister have herbabyyet?”
“Danni’s not my sister, she’s Ash’s, but yeah… she had a boy a littlewhileago.”
“Ah, so you got thereintime?”
“Uh-huh, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Ash got appendicitis on the plane. He’s insurgerynow.”
“Bloody hell—hang on.” I heard Jed at Max’s end and then a beep as Max pressed a button on the phone byaccident.
Then Jed took the line. “Pete? What’sgoingon?”
I repeated thesituation.
Jed whistled. “Whoa, that’s crazy, man. I just spoke to him a fewhoursago.”
“Tell me about it.” I rested my head on the cool windowpane. “I feel like my brain has been turnedupsidedown.”
“Quite aweek,eh?”
That was the understatement of the century. “Do you know anything about managing post-surgery pain withoutnarcotics?”
“I do, as it happens. Quite a lot of guys that pass through the VA have substance abuse issues combined with ongoing injury problems. Narcotic addiction is common enough that we have a program specifically for patients who need to develop more holistic ways of dealingwithpain.”
“Likewhat?”
“Meditation, visualization… all the hippy crap I scoffed at before I tried it myself. There’s other stuff too that you probably know about already. In Ash’s case, I’d imagine that he’s got a low tolerance for any medication these days, so you might find that some regular pills from thedrugstorework.”
“That’s what we figured. I’m just kind of freakingouthere.”
Jed chuckled. “Understandable, but have a little faith. The chances of complications from the surgery are low, and you have a plan that will probably work. Try not to assume the worst until it actuallyhappens.”
“Wanna fly over here and tattoo that onmyhead?”
“Do I need to? ’Cause I reckon it’d be easier to quote Mark Twainatyou.”
“Don’t bother if it’s the same shit Glenn comes out with when he’stanked.”
“It probably is, but humor me and say it, will ya? Make an old manhappy.”
Jed’s choice of words stirred the memory of Glenn swaying drunkenly on the steps of our apartment building, quoting a dude I hadn’t heard of since high school and Ash had never heard of at all. “‘I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them neverhappened.’”
“So Glenn does listen tome,huh?”
In spite of myself, a smile crossed my face. I’d been drunk that night too, much to Ash’s amusement. It had taken him a while to drag my loaded ass upstairs, and it was the last happy time I could recall before Maggie had gotten real sick. At least until we’d driven to Portland and spilling my guts on the road had begun to setmefree.
“Pete, Ash is gonna be fine,” Jed said when I failed to respond. “As a nurse, it’s your job to prepare for the worst, but that’s not what he needs you to do right now. Just count the minutes till they roll him back to you, then forget this everhappened.”
“Is that what you andMaxdo?”
“When we can. Some shit will haunt us forever, but this doesn’t have to. Ash is strong, man. He’ll be fine in afewdays.”
The rational part of my brain didn’t need Jed’s reassurance, but the crazy, panicked part appreciated the sentiment. I wished him well and hung up and then stared out of the window until Glenn appeared a few minuteslater.
“They’re closing up. All fine, noissues.”
My breath caught in my chest. “Did they do itlaparoscopically?”
