CHAPTER 33

SOMETHING IS BLOODY WRONG

Caleb woke up, startled, sweat pouring down his face, screaming his mother’s name; rattled by the images of the same nightmare for months now, all he could manage to think was when will this end? He lay in bed for a few minutes, sweating and hurting so bad. It was 6 A.M., and he went to the bathroom to pee and it was full of blood. Unable to sleep and unwilling to be alone for a while, he put on his church clothes and headed to Beth’s apartment. She was surprised to see him so early.

“Come in and have a seat,” she said with a smile, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

“Thanks. Can I just lie down on your bed until church time?”

“Sure, are you okay?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.” She led Caleb into the bedroom and helped him take off his clothes. When she slipped off his shirt, she was frightened at how bruised and beat up he was. “Caleb, do I need to take you to the hospital? That looks awful.”

“No, the trainers looked at it and said it is just a bruise. I’ll be okay, I just need to rest.”

Beth frowned. “Well, pull off your own pants and climb in bed, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to help you with that.” She bustled off to get him some Ibuprofen to help with the pain.

After about three hours, he got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Beth was standing in front of the mirror putting on her makeup when he walked over and started peeing right in front of her. She curiously looked down. That thing looks really big, but maybe that’s normal? She didn’t know—she had never seen a real one. Trying her best to hold her composure, she rolled her eyes and said, “Caleb, gross! I don’t want to watch you pee, good Lord.” She glanced down at him peeing again and saw that it was blood red. She sucked in a breath. “You get dressed right now. We’re going to the hospital!”

“I’m not going to any hospital,” he said, exasperated, “and if we did, how are you going to explain to everyone what I was doing in your apartment at 6 in the morning?”

“Well, it’s 9:30 now, and I don’t care what anyone thinks!” she shot back. She wasn’t just Caleb’s girlfriend—she also had responsibilities to the CAU football team. Caleb Lewis being sick, and her knowing and not doing something, would be bad. “Get dressed and get in my car.”

When they arrived at the hospital, Beth marched through the crowd of people in the ER and made a bee-line for registration. She said, “I have Caleb Lewis, and he’s bleeding internally. He needs help NOW!” The lady knew who Caleb was and got him in immediately.

Beth went to the payphones and called Coach Richert, who in turn called Anni at home. Rod answered the phone. “Is there a problem I can help you with?”

Coach knew Rod was a general surgeon and told him that Caleb was bleeding internally, and that he was at Grace and Mercy hospital. Rod paused. “I’ll be right there.”

“Good,” Richert said. “I want to keep this in the family; we don’t want the press catching wind of this until we know what we’re dealing with.” He then called Coach Axom and the head trainer and told them to get to the hospital.

After everyone had arrived at the hospital, Coach Richert, the ER physician, and Rod Vohem had all congregated into a little gaggle of discussion. Caleb was just staring at Rod, then motioned for him to come over.

“You better watch what you say, or I’ll come off this table and slap you all over this hospital,” Caleb whispered.

“I’ll never say anything about what happened last night,” Rod said. “My word is good, Caleb. Right now we need to see what’s wrong with you, and that’s what I do best.”

They took Caleb into radiology and shot him full of radioactive dye and started taking pictures of it. After about an hour, they had a diagnosis. He had a badly bruised kidney, which was causing the blood in the urine. Caleb asked if there was anything that could be done about it, but the doctor said, “It just needs time to heal. I think you’ll be fine in a few days—”

“Doctor,” Rod interrupted, “I think you may be wrong. I would suggest that I do exploratory surgery to be sure the bleeding is coming from the kidney and not somewhere else.”

Coach Richert cast a sidelong glance at him, brows furrowed. “Now you wait a minute, Rod. The last thing I want is to put Caleb in any danger, but you two doctors seem to have a difference of opinion on this kidney damage. Doing surgery would take him out the rest of the season, and if there’s a chance a little rest is all he needs, I think we need to take that chance.”

Beth was standing there quietly listening, then said, “My father is a urologist in Seattle, Coach Richert. Would you like me to call him and see what he says?”

“Absolutely, Beth! Can you give him a call right now and let him talk to these two doctors for me?”

Rod gave her a dirty look and said, “So, we’re taking advice from a secretary now? You guys can do what you want, but just remember one thing—Caleb is bleeding internally as we speak. I just want to go in there and see what it is.” Of course, if Rod Vohem did that surgery, he was going to be sure Caleb lost that kidney and would never be able to play football again. A chance to ruin Caleb had been presented to him on a silver platter, and he wasn’t going to ignore it.

The ER doctor looked at Rod like he was crazy. He’d seen hundreds of injuries like this, and not once had they ever done exploratory surgery. Beth came back a few minutes later and took Coach Richert aside.

“Something stinks here, coach. My dad said—and he qualified what he said by saying that he hasn’t seen the results of the x-rays or blood tests—but it would be highly unusual to do the type of surgery Dr. Vohem is talking about this early in the injury. He said if in a week it hasn’t gotten any better or if it gets worse during the week, exploratory surgery is a possibility, but it’s way too early right now.”

Rod and the ER doctor were bickering as Beth looked on, but the last straw for her was when Dr. Vohem screamed at Coach Richert and the ER doctor, “If Caleb dies, the blood is on your hands, not mine! You’ve been warned!”

Beth knew something was fishy here, and she had a very uneasy feeling. Her instincts were telling her something else was going on with Rod Vohem. As she was prone to do in these sorts of confusing situations, Beth went to a small chapel by the ER and asked God for guidance and courage right now and to heal Caleb.

As Beth was leaving the chapel, she felt a very strong intuition—an urging in her gut. She walked into the ER, looked at everyone assembled there, and said, “This surgery isn’t the right thing to do for Caleb. I know I’m just a secretary, and I’m out of my place here, but I refuse to let you perform this operation.” She glared at Rod, unblinking.

Rod huffed. “Why don’t you go answer the phones, little girl, and leave the medical advice to me.”

She looked at Rod with daggers coming out her eyes and said, “Caleb, get up off that table. I’m taking you home.”

He looked at her and said, “Yes ma’am.” He knew she was a strong woman, and she had become very protective of him.

Coach Richert and the others paused for a moment, a little surprised at Beth’s strong words, but Richert just shook his head and asked the doctor, “Do you think Caleb can play ball this week?”

“He probably shouldn’t, but let’s take a urine test every day and re-evaluate it on Thursday. If there’s still blood in his urine, I recommend he doesn’t play. He doesn’t need to practice this week for sure, but he can attend all the meetings and preparations for the game.”

Coach nodded, then looked at Beth. “Good job, Beth. And where in the world did all that spunk come from? You always seemed so quiet and reserved in the office.”

She smiled. “From God, Coach. The Bible teaches us, ‘for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. AND,” she took a deep breath and said very quickly, “Caleb is my boyfriend, and I don’t care if you fire me for it. I love him, and he loves me.”

Coach Richert paused for a moment, then smiled. “I can’t think of anyone better for him than you, Beth. Can you get him back to his dorm and make sure he’s comfortable?”

“Sure thing,” she said.

They drove back to the dorms, and she helped him back to his apartment. She had never been in his apartment before, and she always wondered why he got to room alone; that never happens with freshmen. Once inside the apartment, she helped him undress, got him some water, and tucked him into bed. Caleb looked at her and said, “Did you just tell Coach Richert that you and I were boyfriend and girlfriend?”

She giggled. “Yes I did, and I’m telling Anni about it too. I don’t care if I get fired.”

“Beth,” he whispered, “except for my dad, nobody has ever stood up for me like you did tonight. Thank you. I love you.” That was the first time in his life he had ever told a woman he loved her, and it felt good. “I’m not sure about telling Anni about this right now, but you do what your heart tells you to do. But I don’t think she’ll take it well.”

Beth reached over and kissed him and said, “Caleb, don’t you ever be afraid to go where God leads or to speak when God speaks to you. When God is on our side, we can’t be wrong.” She sat down with him for a bit, just to make sure he was okay. They had given him pain pills at the hospital, and he fell asleep. Beth kneeled beside Caleb’s bed and said a prayer. “Lord, I ask that you heal Caleb and soften his heart. Lord, he needs you so much and I pray that you give me the words and the wisdom to help Caleb come to know you. Amen.”

After a while of watching over him, she wanted to let him rest in peace, so she got up. Without anything else to do until he woke again, she started looking around the dorm. She opened a cabinet, saw a bunch of VHS tapes, and wondered what movies were on those. She picked one up and looked at it—it was labeled 8/26/81/A. She looked at another, and it said 8/31/81/A. She went and looked around for a VHS tape player, but Caleb didn’t have one; he just had a TV. This is odd; all these tapes and nothing to watch them on. Oh well.

She went into his bathroom and snooped around, looked in his closet. I need to buy him some clothes; these are really outdated. What Beth just barely missed in her snooping were the pictures Caleb had of Anni naked. They were in the drawer next to his bed, and she didn’t think to look in there. After she’d satisfied her curiosity about his apartment, she went and gently laid down next to Caleb—he was out like a light. She put her head on his chest and went to sleep with him.

At 4pm, she woke up and looked over to check on Caleb. He was still sleeping, but the trainers wanted him at the field house at 5. She started kissing him on his ears, whispering, “Get up, you have to go see the trainers.” Caleb opened one eye and started laughing. He thought she was just the cutest girl in the world. “Caleb, you have to get up now, you have to go to the field house.”

What a weekend, one thing after another, Caleb thought. Wobbling to his feet, he made his way over to the stadium to see the trainers. UCLA would be the next game.