At the barn, Kermit told Piper to take Bella. “She’s a steady ride with a sure step. Bella won’t run off with you, even if she hears a rattler.”
“I might want her to run off if she hears a rattler.” Piper shivered.
“Aww, snakes can’t get you up on a horse.” Kermit laughed. “You just have to make sure you don’t fall off.”
He was a big man with a head of bushy brown hair that he kept corralled under a hat. He could jerk down a horse that was cutting up and convince it to change its ways.
“In that case, I’ll try to keep my seat.” Piper put the saddle on Bella and tightened the cinch. “Do you think it’s going to storm? Mrs. Miller said it might later today.”
“Did she now?” Kermit went to the end of the barn and peered out. “Don’t see no clouds gathering, but if Delora says it’s gonna rain, then I wouldn’t say it won’t. But I don’t think you’ll have to worry about any tides.”
Piper knew that meant a flood. “Do you get floods, er, tides often up here?”
“It can happen quick in a gullywasher. The hills funnel the water down into the creeks. If’n you haven’t seen that happen, it’s hard to wrap your mind around how fast the creeks can rise.” He came back to smooth his hand across Bella’s rump. “You’ll be fine with Bella. She’s steady as Puddin but a sight quicker at picking up her feet and getting somewhere.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Piper led Bella out of the barn, where she mounted her. She waved at Kermit and headed out.
By the time Piper got to the hospital, a few clouds were building in the west, but the sun was still bright. Nothing to worry about. She would trust Kermit on that.
When Billy saw Piper, his face lit up like he’d just won the biggest prize of the year. Dr. Jack was smiling almost as much and so was Nurse Thompson when she stepped over from one of the other beds.
“Here she is, Billy,” Dr. Jack said. “So, are you ready to go home?”
The little boy was dressed in pants with the cuffs rolled up and a new-looking shirt. His shoes didn’t have a scuff on them.
“Wow. You’re looking spiffy, Billy,” Piper said.
“I got new stuff. Nurse said I’d been here so long I’d probably outgrown my old clothes. I’ve got the car you give me in one of my pockets.” He stuck his hand in his pants pocket and pulled out a red metal car.
Dr. Jack laughed. “He’s run that thing five hundred miles here on this bed.” The doctor looked at Billy. “Now, you’ll have to share that with your brother and sister when you get home. Along with this sucking candy I got for you.” He pulled a bag out of his pocket. “Can you remember to share?”
“Yes, sir.” Billy grinned as he reached for the candy.
“The nurse will check on you in a few days. You remember to wash your leg after you’re outside playing or if you are in the creek.”
Billy frowned. “Can’t I just wash it in the creek?”
“No. Put some warm water in a wash pan and use plenty of soap. Understand?” Dr. Jack said.
“Do I have to use soap forever?”
“Soap is a good thing to be on speaking terms with,” Nurse Thompson said. “Always.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Billy hung his head.
Nurse Thompson laughed and tousled his hair. “None of that. Time to be happy. You’re going home.”
“Indeed.” Dr. Jack smiled up at Piper. “Danny has a horse and she’s ready to ride. Right, Danny?”
“The horse is waiting.”
Nurse Thompson held out her hand to Billy. “Come on, Billy. Let’s go tell everybody goodbye while Dr. Jack talks with Danny.”
Piper looked at Dr. Jack. “Do you have directions or a map?”
“Nurse Thompson will get you directions. It’s not far from Wilder Ridge Center.”
“I have been there.”
“Then you’ll be fine. You’ll need to tell the nurses up there that Billy is home so they’ll know to look in on him.”
“But he is okay? That looked like a bad burn.”
“It was, but Billy’s a tough kid. We thought for a while we might have to send him out to Cincinnati for treatment, but I’m glad we didn’t. He was homesick enough here.” Dr. Jack smiled then. “You helped with that.”
“I like coming here.” Piper waved at a toddler named Opal standing in her crib, babbling at her. Piper had rocked her to sleep one day.
“You have a caring touch. Are you interested in nursing?” Dr. Jack asked.
“Me? A nurse?” Piper shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I couldn’t do what they have to do.”
“It takes training. And fortitude. Especially up here in the mountains.” The doctor seemed uneasy as he fingered the stethoscope hanging around his neck. Why, Piper couldn’t imagine.
Piper turned toward the door. “I better go find Billy so we can get started.”
“He’ll come back in here to get his poke when he’s ready.”
“Poke?”
“Bundle of things. Country talk.” The doctor motioned toward a cloth bag on the bed, then hesitated before he said, “I’ve been thinking about you. And your aunt.”
“Truda?”
He looked everywhere but at Piper. “Meeting you has stirred up my curiosity. Made me wonder about her after all these years.”
“How many years?” Now Piper was curious.
“Oh gee.” He massaged his forehead with his fingers as though to help him think. “I was just out of medical school and about to start my residency. That was over twenty years ago.”
“She must have made quite an impression on you.”
He looked straight at Piper. “She did. I do hope she’s had a happy life.”
“I think she has. She never married but is a bookkeeper in the bank my grandfather founded. She has a gift for numbers.”
“She appeared to have many gifts when I met her.” Again he hesitated before he asked, “Why didn’t she ever marry? I’m sure she had opportunities.”
“She claims the right man never came along for her and she wasn’t willing to compromise.”
“Admirable.”
“My father would say lonely.”
“That could be,” Dr. Jack said. “But a person can be lonely at a table surrounded by others, if not the right people.”
“How long did you know her?”
“Not nearly long enough.” The doctor pulled in a breath and let it out. “No indeed, not nearly long enough. But time for me to get back to my patients. Thank you again for taking Billy home. The little guy has talked and talked about it. Said you promised to take him if you were here when he got to go home. So I decided to make sure you were here.”
“And here I am.”
“It’s good to make other people happy when we can. Billy’s got a good family, but they struggle to get by. I hear their mule died. That’s a hard blow and probably why they haven’t been down to get him.”
Before Dr. Jack went out of the room, he looked back at Piper. “Tell your aunt hello for me if you happen to write her.”
“Oh, I will.”
The door shut behind him.
“You can count on that,” Piper said under her breath.