Lavinia, there you are.”
She jumped up and hugged her mudder. “Mamm! You came!”
“I remembered Emma was helping at Hannah’s today. I called Hannah to see if she could spare her, and she said of course. Emma rushed right over. Said I should be here with you.”
Lavinia nodded. Emma would feel that way. Her dat had had a heart attack last year and she’d sat with her mudder at the hospital.
“How is Abe?”
“He’s in surgery to fix the arm he broke in the fall. The doctor warned me it could take at least two, maybe three hours,” Lavinia told her, and she looked at the clock on the wall. “I don’t expect to hear anything for at least another hour. The doctor seems to think he has a gut chance of having a full recovery since he said Abe is young and healthy. But Mamm, I saw him fall off the roof. It was horrible. And he never woke up in the ambulance.”
“We’ll pray,” Rachel said, and she clasped Lavinia’s hand as they bowed their heads.
A nurse walked in. “Mrs. Stoltzfus? Abe is still doing well. I’ll be back when we have another update.”
She was gone before Lavinia could ask when that would be.
Then she realized that her mudder was staring at her thoughtfully.
“They assumed Abe was my husband when we came in,” she explained, feeling guilty. “I didn’t stop them because I knew they wouldn’t tell me anything if I wasn’t married or related to him. He doesn’t have anyone else here.”
She looked at the cell phone she clutched in her hands. “I called his eldres, and his dat said they’d start back as soon as they could. He and Waneta were visiting their older sohn in Ohio.”
Rachel nodded. “Gut. I’m not going to lecture you about not telling the truth under the circumstances. And I have eyes. I can tell when two young people are more than friends.”
Lavinia blushed.
“I sent your dat over to help Wayne with the afternoon milking and chores,” she said. “I’ll call the bishop, and he’ll arrange for other men in the church to take care of things while Abe is in the hospital.”
“He’ll be grateful to hear that when he wakes up.” She refused to believe he wouldn’t wake up. She had to believe he would be allrecht.
An hour passed. Her mudder told her a funny story about John, Emma’s little bu she’d brought to work at the quilt shop that day. John was a regular fixture there and popular with the customers. After Emma had rushed over to take charge of the shop, John had entertained her while Rachel waited for a ride to the hospital.
Lavinia knew her mudder was trying to cheer her up, and she tried to smile.
Her mudder fixed them a cup of tea. “Did you have lunch?”
Lavinia shook her head. “I was taking lunch over to eat with Abe since I had the afternoon off from the shop. The picnic basket is sitting in the buggy.”
“Amos has probably discovered it and eaten everything in it.”
She managed to smile. “Knowing Daed, I’m schur he has.”
“Mrs. Stoltzfus?” A doctor appeared in the doorway. He was dressed in scrubs like the other doctor but pulled off a mask as he entered the room.
“Yes?”
He sat in the chair opposite her, looking very tired. “I’m Dr. Hamilton, head of surgery.”
“Hello. This is my mother, Rachel Fisher.”
The doctor nodded at her. “Your husband came through the surgery and he’s in recovery now. We had three main areas of concern when he was admitted: a concussion, some spinal injury, and a broken arm. The orthopedic surgeon has set the arm. His back isn’t broken, but there’s some bruising and severe swelling we’re going to be watching for the next few days.” He took a breath and met Lavinia’s gaze. “I don’t want to alarm you, but we’re concerned about the head injury and—”
“Are you saying he’s in a coma?”
His tired face took on an expression of compassion. “No. Right now he’s in recovery and hasn’t woken up from the anesthesia. We won’t know the full effects of the head injury until the anesthesia has worn off. But in layman’s terms, a coma means a patient is unresponsive, not reacting to voices and activity around him. It’s often a way for the brain to sort of take a rest when it’s been severely injured or shocked.” He waited a moment, then continued. “I also need to talk to you about his spinal injury. He may experience some paralysis.”
“Paralysis?” Her blood ran cold. “Abe is paralyzed?”
“We don’t know if he is or if it’d be permanent,” he said quickly. “But I need to warn you that when Abe wakes, he’ll be concerned if he can’t move his legs.”
It was all too much to absorb. Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest and she felt cold. So cold. She heard her mudder asking questions and tried to calm herself. How would Abe feel when he woke and couldn’t move? How would he take care of his dairy farm if he couldn’t walk?
“It’s important to stay positive and wait for his body to recover from the shock of the fall,” the doctor said. “And the surgery. He’ll be in our intensive care unit for a time, and we’ll monitor him carefully.”
“When can I see him?”
“A nurse will come for you soon. You can see him for a few minutes. Then I suggest you go home.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “This is going to be a long journey, and you’ll need your rest. I don’t expect your husband to wake until morning. Do you have any questions?”
She shook her head.
“I know it’s a lot to take in and it’s scary. But in most cases the paralysis is temporary. His body needs time to recover from the shock of the fall and the surgery. If you have any questions or concerns, call the hospital and they’ll put you in touch with me.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
He nodded and left them.
“Well, as he said, it’s a lot to take in,” Rachel said quietly. “But God has His hand on Abe and knows what He’s doing.”
Lavinia didn’t feel schur of that at the moment, but she stayed silent. Abe was still here and she had to focus on that.
* * *
The nurse who led her to the room in the intensive care unit tried to prepare her, but it was still a shock to see Abe. His face was as white as a sheet, with one arm in a bulky cast and suspended by a pulley above the bed. Machines beeped and flashed on each side of the bed. A line blipped on one, showing his heartbeat, but even when she stepped closer, she could barely see his chest rise and fall.
“Talk to him. Let him know you’re here,” the nurse encouraged her as they stepped closer to the bed. “We know that patients can hear us, and sometimes a familiar voice can help them wake from unconsciousness. Stay positive in what you say. He needs your encouragement.”
She turned to a rolling cart that held a laptop and typed something into it, then left the room.
Lavinia picked up Abe’s hand—the one that didn’t have a cast on it—and held it. She leaned down. “Abe, it’s Lavinia. Do you hear me? The doctors tell me you’re going to be allrecht. Will you wake up and talk to me?”
But he didn’t open his eyes, and if he heard her, the blipping on the heart monitor didn’t show any sign of reaction.
“Abe? They won’t let me stay but a few minutes. Please wake up for me.” She glanced over at the doorway to make schur they were alone. “They might not let me stay if they find out we’re not married.”
She sighed. It was probably unrealistic to think he’d wake to the sound of her voice. Not after all he’d been through. The surgeon had told her he’d probably not wake until morning. Still, she squeezed his hand hard and willed him to wake, to let her know he was in there working hard to come back.
There. Was it her imagination? Did she feel something? She stared at their hands. It wasn’t her imagination that she felt a faint pressure, was it?
The nurse came back into the room, glanced at the machines, then gave her a sympathetic look. “I know it looks scary. But he’s doing well.”
“I was hoping he would wake up. The doctor said he wouldn’t until morning, but…” She trailed off.
The nurse smiled and nodded. “But you still hoped. You should go home, get some rest, and come back tomorrow.”
Lavinia gave Abe’s hand a last squeeze. “I’ll be back bright and early in the morning,” she told him. “So you have a nice sleep, and I’ll see you then.”
She walked back to the waiting room and sank into a seat next to her mudder. “Abe didn’t wake up while I was there.”
Tears welled up, and she threw herself into her mudder’s arms. “Oh, Mamm, he looks so awful. I’m so scared.”
Her mudder held her and patted her back. “Shh, don’t cry, lieb. He’ll be allrecht. You’ll see.”
Lavinia felt limp when the storm of weeping stopped. But she refused to leave when her mudder urged her to do as the doctor said and go home to rest. She just couldn’t leave Abe. She couldn’t.
* * *
Abe heard Lavinia talking to him as if she was at the other end of a very long tunnel. She kept urging him to open his eyes and talk to her, but it felt like he was being held someplace strange. He felt light, floating.
Her voice drifted away and he slept.
He heard her again, louder, more insistent, but a weight held his eyes shut. Couldn’t she see it? He tried to move, and his body screamed as if it was broken in a million pieces. He gasped and tried to speak, but the pain was too huge.
“Help me! I hurt!” he yelled. Then he heard a weak wail no louder than a boppli’s.
But he felt someone pat his arm, and then he felt a blessed numbness. He fell into it and slept.
He woke to the sound of machines beeping and an antiseptic smell he recognized. The smell was familiar. He’d been a boisterous bu and been to the ER with his mudder often enough to know it. He was in the hospital.
That meant he was alive. He opened his eyes, and the bright light made him shut them quickly before trying again.
“Look who’s awake,” a woman said.
Abe turned his head and winced at the shaft of pain the movement sent through it. The woman was dressed in scrubs and had a stethoscope around her neck. He watched her fingers fly across the keyboard of a laptop.
She stopped typing and looked at him. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I fell off a roof.” His voice sounded rusty, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time.
She chuckled. “Nice to see you have a sense of humor.” She studied the machine next to his bed. “BP’s good. How’s your pain? On a measure of one to ten.”
“Twenty.”
She adjusted something on a plastic tube that ran into one hand, and the numbness swept over him again.
The next time he woke, the light was dimmer. He wondered what time it was and turned his head, looking for a clock. This time it didn’t hurt so bad. One o’clock. But was that a.m. or p.m.? One wall of the room was all glass with a sliding door. He knew that meant he was in the intensive care unit because he’d visited a friend there once. If only a nurse or doctor would walk past, he could wave to them and get them to come in….
His gaze swept back, and as it did, he saw one of his arms suspended above the bed by a pulley. It was encased in plaster with just the tips of his fingers sticking out. Allrecht, a broken arm. That wasn’t such a bad price to pay for falling off a roof. And the whopper of a headache.
He frowned. But there was something else that didn’t feel right. He felt weighed down by more than the cast on his arm. When he shifted, he couldn’t feel his legs. He tried again, figuring the blanket covering him might be weighing his legs down…but he couldn’t move them at all.
Terrified, he felt around for the call button for the nurse, but couldn’t find it. Panicked, he raised his head to look for it and was on the verge of calling out when someone walked into the room.
“Lavinia!”
“Ya. Abe, it’s gut to see you awake!” She moved closer to stand beside the bed.
“I can’t feel my legs! Lavinia, I can’t feel my legs!”
She picked up his hand and stroked it. “The doctor said you might have some paralysis, but he thinks it’s temporary.”
“The doctor. Where’s the call button?” He twisted his head on the pillow. “Help me get the nurse in here, have her call the doctor. I need to talk to him.”
“I will. But you need to calm down,” she said, and he saw her glance toward one of the machines next to the bed.
She found the call button, but before she could press it, a nurse hurried into the room.
“I need to talk to the doctor!” he blurted out. “I can’t feel my legs!”
“I told him the doctor thinks it’s temporary, but I don’t think he believes me,” Lavinia told the nurse.
“I’ll have him paged,” the nurse told him. “He’s doing rounds right now so it shouldn’t take long. Try to calm down. Your BP is going up.”
Lavinia pulled a chair up beside the bed and took a seat. “Abe, look at me. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“But what if it isn’t temporary?” His free hand clutched the sheets. “What if…?”
“Abe, please, try not to worry.”
The nurse returned. “The doctor’s been paged and should be here soon. Is there anything I can get you for now?”
“No. Thanks,” he added when he realized he sounded curt.
She turned to Lavinia. “Can I get you some coffee?”
“No, thanks.”
Abe looked at Lavinia. “Thank you for coming. Just before you walked in, I was wondering if it was one in the morning or afternoon. I guess it must be afternoon.”
She nodded. “Abe, I called your eldres last night. One of the ER nurses found your cell phone in your tool belt. It was cracked but it worked.” She pulled it out of her purse and handed it to him. “Anyway, your dat said they would start home this morning.”
“Seems like the phone fared better than me,” he muttered as he stared at it. The display was a spiderweb of splintery cracks, but when he hit the last number she’d called, he found she was right about it working. He set it aside as a doctor walked into the room.
“Mr. Stoltzfus. I’m Dr. Hamilton, head of surgery. I was one of the surgeons who operated on you last night.”
“It took more than one?”
He nodded. “Dr. Morrison set your arm. How are you feeling?”
Abe glanced at Lavinia.
“I can step out,” she said quickly.
“No, it’s all right.” He looked at the doctor. “I’m scared. I can’t move my legs.”
“I think it’s temporary,” the doctor said. “We’ll be running some tests. I want you to try to relax and let your body heal. It’s been through a lot.”
He pulled some little tool from his pocket, pushed the sheet back from Abe’s legs, then ran it across one of Abe’s feet. Abe frowned when he didn’t feel anything. Then the doctor performed the same test on his legs. Abe still didn’t feel anything. He barely noticed when Lavinia slipped out of the room as the doctor moved the tool up his legs and asked questions.
She slipped back in again behind the nurse pushing her rolling cart with a laptop. The nurse stood beside the doctor and waited for him to finish his examination. When the doctor turned to her, she typed the instructions the doctor fired at her rapidly, nodding and asking him questions.
Abe frowned as he studied Lavinia while the two talked. He thought it looked like she’d been crying, but when she realized he was staring at her, she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“You’ll be poked and prodded plenty starting tomorrow, so get some rest,” the doctor advised. “I have to go finish my rounds now. See you tomorrow then, Mr. and Mrs. Stoltzfus.”
Abe nodded. “Thanks, Doctor.” He watched the doctor leave the room, and then he turned to Lavinia, looking puzzled. “Did I land on my head? I don’t remember us getting married.”