• six •

“Keep your chin up. Life will get better.”

Rumor

When I stepped out of the shower, there was a glass of iced tea and a pill lying beside it. I didn’t question it. The pain had gotten worse even if the rest of me felt refreshed from the warmth of the shower and the lavender scent of the body wash Maeme had given me to use. There was a plush white robe hanging on the hook that hadn’t been there when I got in the shower. Assuming Maeme had left it for me, I slipped it on, then dried my hair with a towel the best I could, only using one hand, then ran a brush through it.

Facing whoever was downstairs eating sounded like more than I was up for at the moment. I was grateful to Maeme for her hospitality and willingness to help, but I had to think. Plan. Prepare for what I was going to do next. Without my cell phone, I didn’t have a way to actually call a taxi without help. I kept forgetting that. I would need to borrow a phone to get any kind of taxi service.

Opening the door, I stepped into the bedroom and found Maeme sitting on the chaise lounge, near a man with a thick beard and friendly eyes, wearing a white oxford button-up and khaki pants. I paused my gaze from shifting between the two of them. Maeme stood up and stopped whatever she had been saying to the man.

“Rumor, this is Dr. Drew. He’s been a family friend for nigh on forty years. He’s here to check you over and to join us for dinner.”

I listened to Maeme, then turned back to the doctor. How had she gotten a doctor here so quickly? I had only been in the bathroom maybe thirty minutes at most.

He smiled and gave me a nod. “It’s nice to meet you, Rumor. I hear you’ve been worked over.”

He was studying my face, now blue and purple with the makeup completely gone. My lip was cracked on that side as well and swollen more than I had realized.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Maeme believes you have a broken rib or two, but if I could see for myself…”

He didn’t have an X-ray machine, but I figured being rude and pointing that out wasn’t the best thing to do.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He nodded to the bed. “I left you a gown to slip on. Then, Maeme will bring you to the examination room.”

Wait, what? My focus swung to Maeme, who just smiled as if what he had said made complete sense.

“We will be right down,” she informed him.

He gave another nod, then headed for the door to leave. I watched him until the door closed behind him, and then I looked back at Maeme.

“Go on and slip that on. It’s like any hospital gown. Leave it open in the back, and you can put the robe over it. Then, we will take the back stairs, so no one sees you.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“The basement. We’ve got the equipment down there already set up that Drew will need to examine you.”

I shook my head, confused. “You…you have an X-ray machine in your basement?”

She gave me a bright smile. “The boys get hurt on those horses so often that it’s just easier to have it available to us.”

Her explanation still made no sense. King had told me about the horses, but where were they? All I had seen outside were pecan trees.

I nodded though, deciding this wasn’t really my business. I should be thankful that they had something like that available for me to use. When Maeme didn’t move to leave, I figured she was going to wait on me to slip on the gown. I picked it up from the bed, then went back to the bathroom to put it on.

When I walked back into the bedroom, she was standing beside the door.

“Let’s go,” she said, opening it, then waving for me to exit the room first.

We went in the opposite direction of where we had earlier. A narrow set of stairs was tucked away at the end of the hallway behind a door that was unnoticeable since it blended in with the walls.

I followed her down the stairs that led into a brightly lit area with white walls, ceramic tile flooring, and three brown leather sofas that were set up in a U-shape with a rustic hand-carved table in the center. A flat screen television covered the wall the sofas were facing.

We walked past the seating area and came to two doors. The one on the right was open, and Maeme went inside. Glancing back, I scanned the area to make sure there was no one else down here. I found my curiosity was getting the best of me.

The room I followed Maeme into was small, sterile, and did in fact have an X-ray machine in there, along with an examination table and a wall of cabinets.

“You can hang your robe over there on the hook,” Dr. Drew informed me. “Then, if you will, come stand right over here. I’m assuming there is no chance you could be pregnant.”

I shook my head. “No. I get a Depo-Provera shot every twelve weeks.”

He nodded. “Good. When did you have it last?”

“Seven weeks ago,” I told him with more certainty than I felt. I had kept track of it on my calendar at home and I wasn’t positive about the timeline without looking at it. But then it wasn’t like I had to worry about getting pregnant anytime soon if ever.

“Go ahead and step outside, Maeme,” he instructed. “This won’t take long.”

I stood in front of the machine and moved my arms the different ways he asked. The more his bushy eyebrows came together in a frown, the more I felt my anxiety building. By the time he let out a heavy sigh and told me we were finished, he appeared to be scowling.

“You have a broken rib and a fractured one. I expected as much. But this isn’t the first time. There are multiple healed fractures on your clavicle and humerus, as well as your third and fourth ribs,” he said, studying me.

I said nothing. He was a doctor, and he was going to want me to go to the police. File a report on a dead man. One that I had left to lie in our house, bleeding out, alone.

“There is scar tissue, some things that should have been seen to properly, and it’s clear that it was not. Are your ribs and face the only areas I need to be checking? What about past injuries? Your head? Anything that might cause you issues later?”

I shook my head. He was going to mention the police. My hands fisted in my gown, and I struggled to come up with a reason why I couldn’t do that. Why I wouldn’t.

He gave me a tight smile. “Very well. But if at any time you think there might be, just tell Maeme. She’ll make sure I am here to check it out. I’m going to wrap it properly. Maeme told me she gave you an eight-hundred-milligram ibuprofen. That will take the bite off, but it’s not strong enough for you to get proper rest. I’m going to leave you something that will ease you better.”

I stood there silently as he began to wrap my ribs. Not one word was said about the police. Filing a report. He didn’t push me to show him where I had been hurt in the past. He simply finished his task. Maeme stepped back in the room, and she looked over at the X-ray he had taken. Her eyes narrowed, and the angry gleam in her gaze made me think she knew exactly how to read what she was looking at.

“Not the first time,” she said, swinging her eyes to meet mine.

I didn’t respond.

She nodded and straightened her shoulders even more so than they had been. “Thank you, Drew. I’ll take her on up to get dressed, and we will see you in the dining room.”

Once we were alone, her eyes locked on me. “You’re gonna be okay. You’ll heal, and this will be the last time you have to go through this. Keep your chin up. Life will get better.”

I wish she could control fate with her commands as easily as she seemed to control everyone else.