"Well, you just watch. Can you stand the heat? "
"Suzanne, I don't want to leave here. I don't want to leave you."
"Okay, then. It's decided. As soon as I finish with my office appointments, I'm going to start twisting some arms."
"It's not going to be easy."
She kissed him lightly. "It's not going to be as hard as you think.
Listen, I ought to get back in there. What are you going to do right now?"
"I think I'm going to try and get in to see my father.
He refused to see me earlier, but I think it's worth one more try.
I was planning on putting in an appearance at that board meeting later today, but Frank has promised to have the hospital security people ready for me if I do."
"Damn him. Zack, I think your brother and I are about due for a little meeting of the minds."
"You would do that?"
"Would and will. I have too many friends around here, and make too much money for this place for him not to listen to me. You must be strong..
.. God, Zachary, it feels so good to realize that all of a sudden I'm not afraid anymore."
"You were afraid of the corporation?"
"No, " she said, kissing him once again. "Of you."
Brief operative note (full note dictated),… Four-inch gash over T-10, 11, and 12 debrided… hemostasis attained… wound explored…
Jagged five centimeter by three centimeter piece of rusty metal removed without difficulty… dura appears intact… No collection of blood noted… Wound irrigated copiously, and then closed with drain in place … Patient sent to recovery room in stable condition, still unable to move either lower extremity… Tetanus and antibiotic prophylaxis initiated… Preoperative impression, foreign body, low midback, postoperative impression, same, plus paraplegia-etiology uncertain, possibly secondary to spinal cord disruption or circulatory embarrassment… Seated to one side of the nurses' station, Zack read and reread the account of his father's surgery, and confirmed through John Burris's terse progress note and two much more detailed nurse's notes, that there had been little change in the Judge's condition since his surgery. Dura intact… No collection of blood… Zack chewed on the nub of his pen as he stared out the window at the Presidential Range. Something was off. The Judge's symptoms seemed out of proportion to the extent of his injury-way out of proportion. The pieces of this clinical puzzle simply weren't locking together. Sheering forces snapping fibers in the cord, arterial spasm with enough interruption of blood supply to cause nerve damage-there were a number of logical explanations for the Judge's paraplegia, but none of them sat just right. At one end of the Formica counter, a small plastic tray was piled high with pens and pencils, as well as a stethoscope and several other pieces of medical equipment. Zack slipped an opbthalmoseope, reflex hammer, and straight pin into his pocket and headed for his father's room. It wasn't that he was questioning Burris's findings and opinion, he rationalized, it was just that… that a physician was taught never to completely trust anyone's findings or conclusions other than his own, Now, if he could only get the Judge to allow him close enough to do an exam… Cinnie Iverson was seated on a low, hard-backed chair id the hallway outside of her husband's room. She was, as always, dressed immaculately-this day in a plain blue dress, with a white cardigan draped over her shoulders. Lipstick and an ample amount of rouge failed to completely obscure her pallor. Her ever-present lace handleerchief was balled in one fist. "Hello, Mom, " Zack said as he approached, She stood, and allowed him to kiss her on the cheek. Her expression was cool, but not angry, which was to say, as disapproving as Zack had ever known it to be. "How's he doing? " he asked. "The nurse is giving him a bed bath."
"Any change?"
Cinnie Iverson bit at her lower lip and shook her head. "Mom, I… I'm sorry this has happened. You can't know how terrible I feel."
"I'm sure you do, " she said quietly. "We all do. She hesitated, then went on. "Zachary, I'm quite sure that in time I'll see things more charitably, but right now, with the Judge lying in there like that, you'll have to forgive me if-"
"I understand," he said. "All I want you to know is the same thing I came up here to tell him, and that is that I was only trying to do what I thought was right."
"I believe that. I don't think he'll speak with you, though, " she added. "He's very upset-at everybody. And he's very depressed."
"He doesn't have to speak, Mom. He just has to listen. Who sent the flowers?"
He motioned toward an enormous vase of lilies, orchids, and birds of paradise that he estimated must have cost one hundred fifty dollars — probably even more. "It just arrived from Frank, " she said. "Whether you know it or not, you owe your brother quite a thank-you. He was very helpful in keeping us all under control last night. Very helpful."
"I'll… I'll thank him just as soon as I can, Mom."
"I just don't know what we would have done without him."
She dabbed her handleerchief at the corner of one eye. "I understand,"
Zack said, fighting off a wave of rage. "I only wish Lisette were around. At least then I'd know he was getting a decent meal once in a while."
"He told you about Lisette?"
"He told me she and the girls are in Virginia visiting an old friend of hers, if that's what you mean."
"Sure, Mom, " Zack said through nearly clenched teeth. "That's what I meant."
At that moment, the private duty nurse, an expansive woman with pendulous upper arms and thick ankles, wheeled her cart from the room.
"He's all set, dear, " she said. "Sorry to take so long, but that husband of yours is a big man…" She eyed Zack warily. "Still no visitors, Doctor, " she said. "I'm sorry."
"Mom, I need to go in to talk to the Judge."
Cinnie took a moment to size up the exchange. "It's okay, Mrs. Caulkins,
" she said. "I'll take care of things here. You go do whatever it is you have to." She waited until the woman had gone. "Zachary, I'll ask your father if your visit would be okay, but I don't expect him to say yes."
"Mom, it's important-very important that I speak with him."
She hesitated. "Mom, please "You won't say anything to upset him? "
"Promise."
"Well, then, I suppose you should be allowed to go in there and say your piece."
"Mom, thank you."
"Arid Zachary? " She continued to work her handleerchief over and over in her hands. "I know you didn't mean things to turn out this way."
"That's right, Mom," he said, knowing that she would miss the understatement-the sad irony id his voice. "I certainly didn't."
Muted sunlight, filtering through the nearly closed blinds, provided the only illumination in the room. The Judge, wearing a blue hospital Johnny, Jay on his back, staring at the ceiling. An intravenous line was draining into one arm. "Hello! Judge, " Zack said. Clayton Iverson glanced over at him, and then looked away. "Are you in much pain?"
There was no response. "Judge, it won't hurt to talk to me. Believe me, it won't… Okay, okay, suit yourself."
It might have been a mistake to have come. Zack could see that now.
Merely going against the man's wishes was enough to warrant the silent treatment, let alone going against his wishes and achieving such disastrous results. He reminded himself that the Judge could be as petulant and inflexible as Frank. Zack turned to go, but then he stopped. There were things he had to get out-if not for his father, then for himself. "Okay, Judge, you don't have to say a word. I won't stay long. I just wanted to tell you that I feel very badly for the way things have turned out. I was only doing what I spent so many years training to do-using my judgment, and trying to do my best."
He pulled a chair over as he spoke, and sat down by his father's hand.