“Bottom line is, she should be fine. The neck is the thing I’m most worried about—but it could be that there’s nothing there. We know there’s some swelling of the muscles on both sides of the spine, which means she’s going to have some pain. But the specifics? We don’t know yet.”
“When will you know?”
“Best guess? Tomorrow. I expect that after she’s had some good solid sleep, she’ll be able to talk to us, and we can do some tests and get some responses.”
“What can I do for her?” Lucas asked.
“Not much. What she needs most is physical rest. One thing—and this is hardest for doctors—she needs cognitive rest. Don’t bring in magazines or her tablet or laptop. She’ll be here for a few days, and we don’t even want her watching TV. She needs to keep her brain quiet. For people like her, that’s difficult. She’s gonna get very bored.”
“Bored is okay,” Lucas said. “We can handle bored.”
“That’s what they all say,” the doc said, with a smile. He turned to Del. “How are you doing?”
“I’m back at work, but it still hurts,” Del said. “Can’t run all that well.”
“That’ll take some time,” the doc said. “Are you still doing the PT?”
“When I can...” Del’s eyes shifted away from the doc.
“Hey! Do it all the time. Every time. Goddamnit, Capslock...”
“I know, I know,” Del said.
The doc turned back to Lucas. “I had Capslock after his adventures down in El Paso. I can tell you, he was hurt a lot worse than Weather. And look at him now.”
Lucas: “Do I have to?”
“I know it’s hard.”
Del had gone out to his car while Lucas was behind the curtain with Weather and now he handed Lucas a plastic shopping bag. “I went to Barnes and Noble while I was waiting for the plane to come in,” he said. “Magazines. You owe me seventy-seven dollars.”
“The doc said I can’t give her magazines.”
“They’re for you,” Del said. “When I was in here, my old lady almost went nuts from the boredom. Man, you sit there and stare at each other, and, every once in a while, a little pee trickles into the bag. That’s about it for excitement.”
“Take the magazines,” the doc said.
—
LUCAS TOOKthe shopping bag and sent Del home. “No point in both of us going nuts.” As Del was walking away, Lucas called to him, and when Del turned, Lucas said, “Hey, you da man.”
Del waved, and Lucas went back behind the curtain, and a second later Weather’s eyes opened, and she asked, “Was I in an accident?”
Lucas said, “Yes,” and she closed her eyes again, and he picked up a copy ofOutsidemagazine and started with the last page.
She asked again, and again, and again—“Was I in anaccident?”—and after the last time, Lucas said, “Yes,” and she asked, “Was anyone else hurt? Did I hit somebody?”
Lucas dropped the magazine: “Holy shit, you’re back. Don’t go anywhere, I gotta tell the nurse.”
—
WEATHER’S BRAINwas working again, and she asked a hundred questions, and she was still asking questions when Letty pushed through the curtain, looked at Weather’s bruised face, and blurted, “Oh my God.”
“Just what I would expect from a college student,” Weather said.“Oh my God.”
Letty turned to Lucas. “She looks bad, but not so bad she can’t give me a hard time.”
Lucas said, “She’s not good. She’s gonna hurt a lot, and she’s going to be bitchy for weeks.”
