"She'll probably call in the Inquisition if anything out of the ordinary happens, but I don't care. I need a little excitement. Just as long as we don't harm anything. What do you have in mind?"
"I thought we might stage a small medical emergency. I could have my hip slip out again."
"You mean slip that old epiphysis again, pins and all?"
"You guessed it. You game?"
"I don't think so. We shouldn't rock the boat."
"Oh, come on, Amy. What can happen?"
"We'll get Nurse Rush mad at us."
"She hates anything that breathes anyway, so what's the difference?"
"All right. I'll go along with it."
Kirk leaned forward in the chair and fell onto his outstretched hands. He carefully lowered himself to the floor and curled up on his side. He started to laugh.
"I'm all set," he said. He turned his face into a grimace of pain.
"Very convincing," Amy said. "Have you ever considered limping to Hollywood?"
"Next week," Kirk said. "But I would get tired of playing tall, dark and handsome parts."
They both laughed together. Kirk felt better already.
"You ever heard me scream?" Amy asked.
"No."
"Well, brace yourself."
Amy opened her mouth and let loose a yell which echoed down the length of the hall toward the nurse's station.
"Nurse Rush, Nurse Rush, come quickly! Poor Kirk has slipped his epiphysis!"
She gave a quick grin over her left shoulder. "Here she comes, start moaning," Amy said in a whisper.
Kirk heard the quick clip of Nurse Rush's footsteps as she hurried toward the sun-room. She arrived in the doorway and took in the scene. Amy was standing in the center of the room with her hands pressed against her mouth.
"Oh, Nurse Rush, he fell. I think he popped his leg out again."
Kirk gave a low rumble of agony and rolled his eyes at Nurse Rush.
"Don't move him," Nurse Rush said. "He was probably trying to do too much again. I'll get a doctor and be right back."
She hurried out of the sun-room and down the corridor.
As quickly as he could, Kirk struggled back to the easy chair. Amy sat in the chair opposite him. They each picked up a magazine and began reading. Before long Kirk heard the sound of footsteps again.
Nurse Rush appeared in the doorway with a young intern in white. She halted abruptly.
"Where's the injured boy?" the intern asked.
"That one," Nurse Rush said, pointing to Kirk in the chair. "He's gotten himself off the floor."
The intern strode forward to Kirk's side. "How did you fall?" he asked.
"Fall? I didn't fall," Kirk said.
"Haven't you injured yourself?"
"No, sir," Kirk replied. "I've just been sitting here reading a magazine."
"That's right, Doctor. He hasn't left the chair. Is something the matter?" Amy added.
The intern looked confused.
Nurse Rush moved forward. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but it seems we've had a false alarm. Sorry to have bothered you."
"That's all right, Nurse," the intern said and left the room.
"With all the work I have to do around here, the last thing I need is two wise brats playing cruel jokes. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, you hear me? In fact, Kirk, I will be more than pleased the day you're released from this hospital. I don't need these pranks to interrupt my day."
"Okay, Nurse Rush," Kirk said. "We get it."
"Listen, Nurse Rush," Amy said. "I'm sorry we upset you. It's not easy for us to sit around for days at a time with nothing to do. I guess we get a little rammy. We'll try not to disturb you again."
"I should hope not, young lady. Because if you do, you can bet that your parents will get a full report. I'd make sure that you both were thrown out on your ear, ready to be or not. You're lucky that you have such a fine medical facility at your disposal."
Nurse Rush turned and stalked from the room.
"Speaking of disposal, I wouldn't mind disposing of that old bitch permanently," Kirk said. "You'd think she could take a little joke."
"She's right, Kirk. I feel lousy. We don't have any right to mess up her day just because we don't have anything better to do."
"Maybe we can have a bake sale and raise enough money to install pool tables and pinball machines. Or at least enough to send that woman on a very long one-way vacation."
"Don't be wise, you crazy Kirk." She smiled at him.
"Yeah, sure. Listen, Amy, I'll see you later. I'm heading on back to the room. I think I'll lie down and count the cracks in the ceiling. Got to keep busy, you know."
"I'll stop by later. Maybe Brent will be feeling better. It looks like he could use a few friends."
"Can't we all?"
"Sure, but he seems kind of lonely right now. You know the first few days in the hospital are always the worst. Maybe we can break him out of his shell."
"See you later," Kirk said and left the room. He wandered down the long corridor looking into all the rooms whose doors were open.
When Kirk got back to the room, Brent was lying on his back with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes when he heard the sound of Kirk's crutches on the tile floor.
"Christ," Kirk said, easing himself onto his bed. "I've got so many pins in my hip I'm going to rust."
He placed his crutches next to his bed and stretched out with his hands behind his neck. He looked over toward Brent.
"How are you doing? All right?"
"Not too bad," Brent said and tried to smile. The pain was still there, raging along the middle of his back.
"Did you have a good walk?" Brent asked.
"Oh, great. Just fine. It's so scenic along these hallways it almost takes your breath away."
"What's wrong with your leg?" Brent asked.
"Oh, it's something to do with the hip socket not growing fast enough to contain the leg joint or something. My leg popped out on me and they pinned it back. I have to take it easy and stay on the crutches or in the wheelchair until the hip catches up with the growth of my leg. I don't know for sure. I don't sweat the medical details. None of the operations were any fun, though, I can tell you that."
"You been here long?"
"Awhile," Kirk said. "And I don't think I'll get out until I'm eighty. They may have to move me to Geriatrics eventually."
"You know, you get around so well on those crutches, I'm surprised they haven't sent you home."
"Yeah, I guess. I don't know. My parents figure this is the best place for me. I have the feeling that the day I do get home they'll run me over with a car or something just so they can get me out of the house again. They're a real sweet pair, my parents."
Brent felt embarrassed by Kirk's talk. He'd never heard anyone talk about parents like that.
"How'd you slip your leg out in the first place?" Brent asked, trying to change the subject.
"It was a little over three months ago," Kirk said. "I was going to this school called Gable Prep. You know, a private school, all gray buildings and soccer fields. It was my third school since sixth grade. I get around in the educational circles, you might say. Anyway, Gable Prep's no worse than any of the others.
"So one day three months ago, I was sitting in English class. I was looking out the window as usual, trying not to pay too much attention to Mr.Davison, the teacher, who is a real horse's ass, I can tell you that. I don't even remember what the lesson was about. Something about lyric poetry or some other crap like that. I remember there was dirty slushy snow all over the ground.
"Anyway, at the end of the class, old man Davison passed out a test that we had taken on Huckleberry Finn the week before. I got an F on it. What the hell, I thought. It's no big deal. I'm not dumb, you understand, Brent. I'm what the guidance counselor calls an underachiever," Kirk said with a laugh.