“Hang on to me,” Mike said, looking sheepish.
“I’ll help you out. Gee, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Judith gingerly stepped out of the stall. Her
knees wobbled and she had to lean against her
son. “Give me a minute to collect myself. This is
the first time I’ve been able to take a—” She
stopped, her heart suddenly in her mouth as she
realized what Mike’s arrival could portend.
“Joe . . .” she said with difficulty. “Is he . . . ?”
“He’s doing okay,” Mike said. “I talked to him a
few minutes ago.”
“Oh!” Relief swept over Judith. “You’re sure? He
really seemed to be on the mend?”
Before Mike could answer, Renie reappeared. “I
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see you got your mother out in one piece,” Renie said.
“It’s a good thing—Corinne was called off to help
some post-op patient.”
Judith stared at her cousin. “You knew Mike was
here?”
Renie nodded. “I met him when I went to get
Corinne. Aren’t you tickled to see him?”
Judith started to laugh, a gust of relieved tension that
verged on hysteria. Renie put an arm around her
cousin. “Take it easy, I’ll help you get dressed. Then
we can talk.”
Ten minutes later, Judith was back in their room,
where she gratefully let Mike help her get settled.
“Now,” she said, finding the least painful position in
the bed, “tell me about Joe and how you got here.”
“I saw the story on the news,” Mike explained after
pulling Renie’s visitor’s chair over by Judith’s bed so
that both he and his aunt could sit down. “The snow
had stopped up at the summit around midnight, and the
highway crew started clearing the pass not long afterward. I’d called the hospital to ask about Joe, but they
wouldn’t tell me anything, even when I tried to get
tough with them. What really bugged me was that they
wouldn’t put me through to you. They said it was too
late. I guess it was, maybe twelve-thirty.”
“I can understand why they don’t want to disturb patients that late,” Judith said, “but I’m sorry I didn’t get
to talk to you.”
Mike shrugged his broad shoulders. “Not talking to
you made up my mind—as soon as the roads were
clear, I headed for the city. I’ve got four-wheel drive,
chains, everything except skis on my forest service vehicle. When I arrived at the hospital, they wouldn’t let
me come up to the third floor. No visitors, they said at
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