"When do you start?" She asked.
"He's on his way to the cath lab right now. He'll undergo the procedure in less than an hour. This is what will happen…"
He then went into a dry, sterile description of the anesthesia procedure and the recovery problems. It took about twenty minutes. But I'd already learned what I needed to know. In all likelihood, Mr. Blackmore would be all right. Though in my when there were other means to clear a clot, namely medications that actually dissolved it, the cardiac cath was a tried and true procedure.
As he droned on I found myself wondering just what had happened to Mr. Blackmore in my previous life. He had gone to the hospital this day at my insistence, because of my intervention. Did that happen before? I didn't know the outcome of Nina's father when I knew her before because we were never close, obviously. But instinctively I felt that he'd probably died at home that night or shortly after. Was fate being thwarted again? Or was an inevitable realignment in the works?
We moved up to the cath lab waiting room on the second floor. This waiting room was smaller, though still equipped with a television and phone. It was also empty except for Nina, her mother, and myself. We sat together in a row of chairs, Nina between Mrs. Blackmore and myself. We didn't talk. Every once in a while I would receive a strange glance from Mary Blackmore as if she was wondering why I, someone who was only after one thing, was still there. Did I think I was going to ruin her daughter's virtue that night?
After an hour or so I excused myself and found the hospital cafeteria, returning with cups of coffee, which I distributed.
"Thank you." Mrs. Blackmore said, taking it from my hand.
"No cream, one sugar." I said. "Just the way you like it."
She looked at me puzzled, suspicious. "How did you know that?"
I smiled. "Nina told me." I answered. "She takes it the same way."
She nodded thoughtfully and we continued to wait.
Shortly after our coffee was consumed a doctor entered the waiting room. He was dressed in surgical scrubs and his hair was mussed from the sterile cap he'd just been wearing. Everyone tensed up. Again, the absence of the chaplain spoke volumes before a word was even said.
"We think we cleared the obstruction." He told us. "Mr. Blackmore is in the recovery room now. He's doing fine."
He spoke a lot more. He told us that they had discovered a large amount of occlusion in Mr. Blackmore's coronary arteries during the angiogram that had been done prior to the catheterization. Was he in the habit of eating high cholesterol food? He was? Well that was probably what had started it. He said that he would be transferred to the hospital where I worked the next day and, if he continued to recover well, would undergo a triple bypass operation. That, in addition to a change of diet, would probably take care of the problem.
By the time the doctor left we were all feeling better. Nina came over to my chair and gave me a hug, a tight, squeezing hug of gratitude. Her mother watched this impassively, not saying anything.
"Thank you Bill." Nina told me when she released me. "You saved Daddy's life."
"I don't know about that." I said modestly. "I just helped him see what he needed to do. I'm glad he'll be okay."
"You saved him Bill." Nina repeated. "And I'll never forget that." She turned to her mother. "Don't you think you owe Bill a thank you Mom?" She asked sharply.
"Nina, I…" I started.
"Hush." Nina told me, continuing to stare at her Mom. "Mom?"
Mrs. Blackmore swallowed nervously and then reluctantly looked at me. "She's right." She finally said. "You did save him. We owe you our thanks."
"I did what any decent person would do." I told her, emphasizing the word "decent". "I'm glad he's going to be all right and I was glad to help."
She nodded and an uncomfortable silence followed.
"So." I said at last, breaking it. "Why don't we see if they'll let you two visit him for a bit? You're probably anxious to do that."
Only one visitor at a time was allowed in the recovery room. It was a rule the staff was very firm about despite my attempts at intervention using my adult voice. Finally Mrs. Blackmore went in, leaving Nina and I alone in the waiting room. We sat together and I put my arm around her. She rested her head on my shoulder, yawning with weariness.
"Sorry we couldn't go to the movie tonight." She told me.
"Understandable." I assured her, stroking her hair.
A minute went by. Finally Nina asked, "Bill?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you know Daddy was having a heart attack?"
I had been afraid of this question, though I knew it was coming. I didn't enjoy lying to her.
"I read a lot of medical texts." I told her. "It's kind of a hobby of mine. I thought about being a paramedic once so I went through their textbook and studied it. Your Dad was having textbook symptoms of a heart attack and he was displaying the common response to it. Denial. When I felt his pulse and noticed the missing beats I was sure. That's another textbook symptom."
"You knew all this from reading a textbook?" She asked, her tone unreadable.
"Yes Nina." I said. "I have a good memory for written words."
"I see." She said softly. And she said no more about it.
We sat and talked softly for more than fifteen minutes, me continuing to hold her and stroke her hair. A slight cough interrupted us and we both looked up to find Mrs. Blackmore looking at us, taking in the manner in which we were seated.
"Hi Mom." Nina said, somewhat embarrassed. She broke free of me and sat up.
"How's Daddy doing?"
She walked over slowly. "He's a little groggy from the medicine they gave him but otherwise he's okay. They're going to take him up to his room soon.
We won't be able to visit him anymore until tomorrow. Why don't you go in and talk to him real quick?"
"Okay." She nodded, standing. "I'll be back in a little bit."
She left the room leaving me alone with her mother. We looked at each other for a moment and finally she took a seat next to me. She sat stiffly upright.
"You didn't have to stay you know." She told me.
"I wanted to." I told her. "Besides, how else are you going to get home? You know how much a cab ride would be from here?"
"We could've handled it." She answered.
"Like I said Mrs. Blackmore." I replied. "I WANTED to stay."
Another uncomfortable silence developed. There was so much I wanted to say to this woman next to me, so much I wanted to explain, but this was not the time. Not when her husband, a man I knew she loved deeply, was in a hospital room after nearly dying.
But Mrs. Blackmore apparently DID want to talk about it.
"You're a very strange young man." She said, not looking at me.
I nodded. "I've been accused of that." I agreed.
"I like to think that I've got you figured out." She said. "That I know exactly what you're like, how you'll act, what you'll do. I tried to tell Nina this when she started seeing you again. But she didn't listen to me, wouldn't hear a word of it. I tried to tell myself that it was teenaged rebellion, that she knew I was right but that she wouldn't listen because she thought she was in love with you and because her Mom was telling her these things."
"But?" I prompted, looking over at her.
"But now I'm forced to wonder if maybe I was the one who was wrong all this time." She admitted.
"Really?"
"Really." She sighed. "You see, I've been waiting all of this time for you to toss my daughter aside like an old shoe. That's what people like you do I told myself. You get them to fall in love with you and then, once you get what you want a few times, you get rid of them. I have speeches all memorized for the day that you finally do that; speeches I'll recite to her as I'm holding her while she cries. I'll tell her that someday she'll find someone who REALLY loves her for herself, not for her body. I'll tell her about how I found a man like that and how he came back to me even though I made a horrid mistake once. I'm well prepared for the day when you finally show Nina that you are nothing but slime." She stared over at me, her eyes softening. "But that's not going to happen, is it?"