On that day a month after the first year and week had
passed, Sally could feel with her fingertips, and her toes could move. A month later she looked at Lacy, and then at her own hand. Lacy did so and started to weep as she felt the strong grip of Sally's handshake. Sally made her mouth work and said in a husky whisper that was slurred, 'Thank you.'
Lacy wept.
Jane saved this scene to a backup disk and turned off the computer. She could go back later and make any corrections or additions to the work. She was pleased with the setup. Maud would try again and again to get all the money. Sally would gradually improve. Only Lacy would know when Sally finally took her first step by herself.
Later in the day, she checked what happened in 1903 and found very few interesting national events; she decided that the location of the hospital and nursing home should be in Virginia, near the Maryland border.
She made a brief outline of the story line, including Maud trying to kill Sally and Sally breaking Maud's nose. Lacy pretended that it was she who attacked Maud in defense of Sally when the doctor learned of the incident. Jane made sure not to give away the ending. She'd be paid part of her advance for turning in a brief outline, but she didn't want anyone to know the ending before reading the whole manuscript. Besides, Jane hadn't yet decided exactly what the ending would be. Jane, a dinosaur who still used WordPerfect instead of Word, went through what she'dwritten with the grammar checker, which was nutsy and priggish, and thought that more than one sentence in dialogue made the wrong parentheses. It also wanted to change every
As she was finishing up, she realized she didn't have a title for the book yet. She'd have to do a cover letter explaining this to her agent.
As she was printing, the phone rang, and Thelma said, 'Jane, uu haven't ssent me an invitation to uu wedding.'
Jane was taken aback by this slurred message and said, 'I'm not inviting you because of what you tried to do to me.'
'Uu are a bbbad gur,' and there was a crashing sound.
Since the phone was still intact at Thelma's end, Jane used her fax machine in telephone mode and called Ted. 'Your mother just called me and was slurring her words, and then there was a crashing noise.'
'Oh God. Jane,' Ted exclaimed. 'Call 911, and I'll be at her house before they get there.'
She did as he'd asked.
FIFTEEN
J
ane's heart was beating at a bird rate. Had her nasty remark caused the stroke or heart attack? The answer was no. Thelma had been slurring her words even before Jane was rude to her. Still, she felt a little pity for Thelma. Jane always hoped she herself would go over like a tree when the time came. Not lingering for years of misery.
Two hours later, Ted called Jane. 'My mother's had a serious stroke. She'll be in the hospital for a week, and then go into a nursing home.'
'Should I visit her?'
'No. After what she's done to you and Dixie, 1 don't want you to go there. But I only have one week to find agood nursing home. I hate to ask you, but I know some of them are like prisons and stink of death. We need to find a good one.'
'I'd be happy to help you. Tomorrow morning I have to drop something in the mail to my agent, but after that I'm free. May I bring my friend Shelley along? She'd be one more person to judge a good one.'
'That's fine.'
Todd had been at the kitchen table during this conversation, and asked, 'Who was that?'
'Your uncle Ted. Grandmother Jeffry has had a serious stroke and he wants me and Mrs. Nowack to go with him to find a nice nursing home when she's released from the hospital.'
'I'm not really surprised, Mom. She was always mad at somebody. She was getting worse and worse about everything.'
Jane was glad Todd was so down-to-earth about this. 'Want me to call Mike and Katie again?'
'If you want to, please do.'
Ted picked up Jane and Shelley at nine-thirty. He had a list of five nursing homes. The first one was horrible. There was a big room filled with people in wheelchairs, grouped so they could watch television in the large room. The floors hadn't been cleaned. The room stank of urine overlaid with the scent of a disgusting air freshener.
Shelley asked to be shown some of the rooms. Each had two beds with a curtain between them. The sheets were rough and didn't smell clean.
This place was universally voted unacceptable.
The next was even worse. It looked like a jail facility. Blank white walls. Side tables bolted to the beds. No common room at all. Each room had a bathroom without handicapped bars in the shower.
The third place was marginally acceptable. Clean, but plain. There was an empty room they were invited to see. White walls, clean white floors. It didn't smell bad. The sheets were soft and clean and neatly made. But there was no sense of home to it. They hadn't seen a single nurse or attendant in the hallway.
The fourth one was stunningly elegant. It looked like a fine hotel. Pictures on the walls. A television in every room. A few even had two rooms, a sitting room, a bedroom, and a sparkling clean bath with all that a handicapped person would need. There was a nice restaurant for those who were ambulatory. There were white tablecloths and napkins and fresh flowers on each table, which seated four in comfort. Room to get close to the table in a wheelchair. There wasn't a carpet, but the tile floor was lovely.
Ted, Jane, and Shelley met with the manager. A woman wearing a good light gray suit, a white silk shirt, and restrained jewelry. Ted introduced Jane and her friend Shelley.
The manager said that they did have one room available now. The cost was rather high, but Ted didn't care and it was the closest nursing home to his own house.
She asked about the patient's condition and was told it was a serious stroke. Ted added, with perfect honesty, that she was a difficult person. Not friendly at all.
'We are equipped to deal with women like that,' the manager said with a smile. 'She'll have her meals delivered to her room and a young woman to help feed her soft, nourishing food, and clean her up if she spills things on herself. Will she have visitors?'
'Only me. She's been cruel to my sister-in-law, Jane, and very nasty to my wife. My mother will probably be
