When Hana slipped out of bed to pray in the middle of the night, Leon groaned and twitched but didn’t wake up. When she returned an hour later, he’d inched his way up the bed and buried his head beneath the edge of her pillow. She gently moved him to the side. Listening to his breathing, she lay awake longer than usual. She woke up with a start when a wet tongue licked her left cheek. Leon let out a good-morning bark. Slipping on a robe, Hana took him outside on his leash and then filled his food bowl before brewing a cup of coffee. Checking her email, she found she hadn’t received any responses to the notices she’d posted on the telephone poles.
In the light of a new day there were plans to implement if she was going to keep a pet. While she drank her coffee, she checked dog boarders in the area and quickly discovered admittance was contingent on proof of up-to-date vaccinations and a certification of health from a veterinarian. She fired off a quick email to Mr. Collins and Mr. Lowenstein letting them know she would be a few hours late to work to attend to a personal matter but would make up the time before the end of the week. She sent a second email to Janet informing her of what was really going on.
Four hours later, Hana dropped off a disgruntled Leon, still pouting at the insult of multiple needles piercing his skin, at a pricey day boarder for dogs. The vet informed Hana that the rescued animal had a multi-limbed family tree, which included doses of golden retriever, Saint Bernard, Labrador, and other yet-to-be discerned breeds that would result in a full-grown animal weighing at least eighty pounds.
“He wasn’t living in the woods very long,” the vet said after he’d examined Leon. “It’s a good thing he found you. A puppy this young would only last a few days.”
Hana looked into Leon’s soulful eyes that seemed filled with unspoken gratitude.
“But he’s healthy,” the vet continued. “No hip problems or anything else I can see. There’s a lot to be said for hybrid vigor.”
Armed with free pamphlets and proof of vaccinations in her purse, Hana filled out paperwork at the dog boarder, which seemed more like a preschool for kids than a kennel for dogs. She passed on the invitation for a free tour and quickly left with an app loaded on her phone that would allow her to watch Leon throughout the day. It was almost noon when she arrived at the office.
“You’re a mommy!” Janet exclaimed when Hana appeared.
“Quiet!” Hana held her index finger to her lips. “That sounds wrong.”
“You may as well be,” Janet replied in a loud whisper. “First, a cute little girl falls in love with you, and now you have a puppy! Your world is getting a lot more crowded in a beautiful way. Did you take a bunch of pictures of the dog? I want to see them.”
“Of course! I can even show you what he’s doing right now.”
Within thirty seconds, she and Janet had their heads close together watching Leon play with a rope chew toy. He was sucking the frayed ends like a baby’s pacifier.
“He’s adorable,” Janet said. “I totally get why you fell for him. He looks a lot like a dog our family owned when I was a child. We called him Buddy. Have you named your pup?”
Hana glanced over her shoulder before replying. “Leon,” she whispered.
Janet’s eyes widened. “In honor of Mr. Lowenstein? Are you going to tell him?”
“Maybe,” Hana answered slowly.
The phone on Hana’s desk buzzed, and she quickly stepped into her office to answer it.
“Ben Neumann calling,” the receptionist said.
Before answering, Hana clicked open the calendar on her computer so she could schedule the ice cream date.
“I’m calling about Jakob Brodsky,” Ben began. “He was mugged last night and is in the hospital.”
Hana didn’t know the meaning of “mugged” except that it was clearly bad. “What happened?” she asked.
“He was attacked and robbed. His receptionist told me when I called the office a few minutes ago.”
“Attacked and robbed?” Hana repeated as she absorbed the news.
“Yes, but I don’t know the extent of his injuries.” Ben paused. “He’s in Piedmont Hospital. I’m going to try to see him, but it’s going to be tough because I don’t have a babysitter for Sadie.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Hana replied. “Please keep me updated.”
“Will do.”
No matter where a person lived, the world could, in a split second, become a dangerous, life-threatening place. Hana delivered the news to Janet.
“I’ll find out what happened,” Janet responded. “I have a close friend who works with the Atlanta Police Department. She can pull the incident report and fill me in on the details.”
“Where does the word ‘mugging’ come from?”
“I have no idea about the history of the word,” Janet answered. “Except that it means a person has been assaulted and sometimes robbed in a public place.”
Hana spent the next three hours working on matters assigned to her by Mr. Collins. It was mentally taxing as she jumped back and forth between English, Hebrew, and Arabic. When she finally took a break, she logged on to the app for the doggie day care and checked on Leon. He was in a pen with two other puppies. The youngsters were chasing each other in happy circles. Janet appeared in her doorway.
“I heard back from my friend at the APD. Brodsky was attacked at an apartment complex not far from the midtown area. The file indicates he suffered head injuries from ‘blunt force trauma.’ No one has been arrested.”
“How serious was the head injury?”
“Undetermined. Piedmont Hospital isn’t far from where you live. Are you thinking about visiting him?”
“No, I’ve only met him twice and barely know him. I don’t think it would be proper for me to do that.”
“Proper? This is America. You can do whatever you like.”
Janet returned to her desk, and Hana resumed working on a highly technical specification sheet that all parties to a multinational agreement had to approve. By five o’clock she felt like she’d worked eight hours when in fact she’d billed only five and a half. She considered pushing on into the night, but the new responsibility for Leon made her hesitate. If she picked the dog up later than six o’clock, she had to pay an extra service charge.
“You were really grinding away in there today,” Janet said. “Did you generate a lot of work for me?”
“Not until you learn how to type on an Arabic keyboard.”
“That’s a steep learning curve for a girl who grew up in Portland, Maine.” Janet’s computer screen went blank. “Are you going by the hospital to see Jakob Brodsky?”
“You think I should?”
“Yeah. I’m not saying God told me or anything, but I can’t get it out of my mind.”
Hana hesitated. “I have to pick up Leon and buy a few more things. No one has come forward to claim him.”
“Sure, that’s your first priority.”
With a new metal kennel wedged in the back seat of her car, Hana pulled into the parking lot for the doggie day care center. Any concerns she’d had about Leon recognizing her or not wanting to leave his new friends evaporated when she saw him. His entire body began to wiggle and shake, causing the young girl who was leading him to laugh out loud.
“He knows his mama,” the girl said.
“You’re the second person to say that to me today,” Hana responded with a smile. “I guess it must be true.”
It was less than a ten-minute drive to Hana’s house. On the way, she could see one of the taller buildings of the Piedmont Hospital complex over a low hill. She offered up a quick prayer for Jakob Brodsky. At home, she set up Leon’s kennel near the front door. The dog sniffed it and then went into the bedroom and whined until Hana lifted him onto the bed.
“This is temporary,” Hana warned as the dog curled into a furry ball on the bedspread and immediately fell asleep after his busy day.
Jakob dutifully answered the questions posed to him by the nurse practitioner who worked for his treating neurologist. She’d spent close to an hour administering a battery of tests that fatigued Jakob more than he wanted to admit.
“I feel a lot better,” Jakob said confidently. “Would you check with Dr. Bedford about releasing me in the morning? I don’t want to spend another day in the hospital.”
“I’ll mention it to him along with the results of my testing, which show ongoing deficits in higher reasoning skills.”
“Deficits?” Jakob shot back. “I answered every question correctly, didn’t I?”
“I’ll note your compliance and best efforts,” the nurse answered cryptically. “We have a good picture of your current status that I hope will steadily improve.”
“What do I need to do to improve?” Jakob asked in frustration.
“Rest and take your medication, Mr. Brodsky. You suffered three significant blows to the head. The one near your right temple could have been life-threatening.”
Even through the bandages, Jakob could feel the three knots on the right side of his skull. He remembered nothing from the attack and could only vaguely recall talking to the officer who took a statement from him shortly after he arrived at the hospital. Two of the blows had required stitches to stop the bleeding. The third created an area of massive swelling that was creeping toward Jakob’s eye. He shifted his head and turned it slightly. A searing pain caused him to wince.
“I guess I’m going to lose this argument,” he said.
“There’s nothing to argue about,” the nurse replied. “You’ll be kept under observation here at the hospital until we’re sure the intracranial swelling goes down and know you’re not at risk for a seizure or other severe reaction.”
Jakob remembered a lawsuit he’d filed a couple of years earlier that involved a construction worker who fell from a defective scaffold and landed on his head.
“I’ve represented clients with traumatic brain injuries who experienced personality changes. Do you think I’m at risk for that sort of thing?”
“We don’t have a baseline for purposes of comparison. Those types of problems don’t usually manifest immediately. If you notice any changes, or if friends or family members observe differences, mention it to Dr. Bedford.”
Jakob waited for the nurse to leave before pounding his fist into the mattress in frustration. He turned on the TV and tried to lose himself in a sitcom with a piped-in laugh track.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. So far, his only visitor had been Butch Watson, who had walked over from the maternity wing and spent most of his visit apologizing for asking Jakob to go to the apartment. Jakob reassured the new father that he didn’t blame him for anything that happened.
“Come in,” Jakob said.
The door opened, and a dark-haired woman emerged from the shadows. It was Hana Abboud.
“Are you feeling well enough for a visit?” she asked in her accented English.
“Yes, I was just talking to the nurse practitioner from my neurologist’s office about going home.”
“That’s encouraging.”
“Not really. She put me off. How did you find out I was here?”
“Ben Neumann called.”
With the amount of crime that took place in a city like Atlanta, Jakob was surprised that his assault had been singled out for special attention.
“It was on the news?”
“No, your receptionist told him when he called your office. How bad is it?”
Jakob could see Hana staring at the right side of his head, which was totally swathed in a bandage.
“The assailant hit me three times, knocking me unconscious. I also have some sore ribs. He stole my wallet but didn’t ransack the apartment I’d just left. Even if he had, I doubt he would have wanted a fancy new baby monitor.”
Hana didn’t smile at his feeble attempt at humor. “Did you see the attacker?” she asked. “Are you sure it was a man?”
Hana’s question raised an issue Jakob hadn’t considered. “No. I assumed it was a man. It could have been a woman. I’m sure I’ll be back at work within the next few days. Tell Ben I’m going to be okay.”
While he talked, Jakob felt himself become light-headed and disoriented. He tried to focus his eyes on a generic painting of a seascape on the wall opposite the bed.
“What’s wrong?” he heard Hana ask from what seemed like a great distance away.
Jakob tried to answer, but gibberish came out of his mouth. He could see alarm sweep across Hana’s face. She opened her mouth and began to speak in words as incomprehensible to him as what he’d said himself. Jakob closed his eyes for a moment and exerted all his willpower to bring the chaos of his world into order. When he opened his eyes, Hana was reaching for the call button that was on the bedside table.
“No, no,” Jakob managed as the room came back into focus. “It’s nothing. The doctor said I might have short moments of confusion due to the swelling of my brain.”
Hana looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure? I thought you were about to faint or have a seizure.”
Jakob’s mouth felt dry. He reached for a cup of water on the tray table and watched as his hand unsteadily made its way forward. Hana picked up the cup and held it close to his mouth. He took one drink through a straw followed by another one. Hana returned the cup of water to the tray.
“Thanks,” Jakob said. “That was weird. I couldn’t understand what I was saying or what you said.”
“There’s an explanation for why you couldn’t understand me,” Hana answered. “I was praying for you in Arabic. After that you went to sleep or passed out for at least a minute before coming around.”
“A minute?” Jakob asked in shock. “It was only a couple of seconds.”
“I was here. I know.”
Jakob reached up and gently touched the right side of his head. “Maybe I’m in worse shape than I’d like to admit. I don’t think I have any court appearances for the next few days.” He paused. “But I don’t trust my memory on that. Where’s my cell phone?”
Jakob sat up straighter in bed and turned to the right. A wave of nausea swept over him, and he quickly resumed his previous position. Hana found the phone in the small drawer of the table beside the bed and handed it to him. The phone was almost dead. Relieved that he remembered his password, Jakob checked his calendar. It was clear except for appointments with clients and reminders for things that needed to be done.
“I’m good,” he said. “One of the guys who practices in my building can bring my laptop. I won’t be functioning at one hundred percent, but I can make it work.”
“How many episodes have you had like the one that just happened?” Hana asked.
“None. My brain is adjusting to the trauma. And in the meantime, let Ben Neumann know that I’m recovering.”
“You already said that.”
“Right. What’s our next step in his case?”
“I’m going to locate a private investigator in Israel. But we can talk about that later. You need to rest.”
“Come up with a list of candidates, and I’ll jump in for the interview process. Once I have my computer, I can look into possible investigators, too. I’ve done a lot of research on terrorist groups and found links to posts that mention Gloria Neumann’s death.”
“Okay, take care.” Hana stood and moved toward the door.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Jakob said.
After Hana left, Jakob glanced at a small clock on the nightstand. It was nine forty-five, late for a visit from a virtual stranger.