# Car 54

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© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 24:
Single Lane - No passing

Two minutes of sitting on a hard bench outside the hospital with Carissa and Wil was about all I could take. I suppose it wasn't really that bad, but sitting there along with them just seemed to be too darn much like being inside the hospital. There was that same feeling of hopeful worry tinged with fear emanating from anyone I saw, the same feeling I always felt stifling me like a miasma when I was in any hospital.

It was my stomach growling that gave me an excuse to stand and move. It made me realize that I was hungry, exceptionally hungry, and I decided I needed to eat before much longer.

"Guys, I'm starving," I announced relatively loudly. "I haven't eaten anything, but a tiny bowl of soup and a little sandwich since lunch yesterday and my belly thinks my throat's been slit."

"Jeez, Chris. Can you possibly be any more gross and unfeeling?" Wil grouched at me. "Corinna is up there in the fucking operating room and you're talking about slit throats. You can be a total asshole at times!"

At that point, he got to his feet and stomped back into the hospital. All I could do was stare after him. I knew I'd screwed up a bit, but at the same time I felt he was overreacting. I wished I could have taken back the words, but since I couldn't, I didn't know what to do.

"Chris, don't get all upset by what Wil said," Carissa said flatly. "That wasn't the most brilliant statement you've ever made, but there was no real reason for him to get so pissy about it either. Neither of you like hospitals, but he's gone a bit overboard about Corinna. I'm not as worried now as I was yesterday."

"Huh, but today Corinna's being operated on. Yesterday she was being held in a coma until she became more stable."

"Exactly," Carissa got to her feet. "I've been around hospitals enough to know the way things work. Yesterday morning they were still worried about her recovering from her suicide attempt. They obviously aren't worried now or they wouldn't be putting her through an intensive operation. They wouldn't even start anything of that sort if they didn't believe that there is a darn good chance that she'll make it. That's not the way surgeons work."

"But, what if something happens?"

"Oh Cris. Dr. Wolchuck, the surgeon in charge of her operation is probably the best brain surgeon in Canada at this time. The staff here has a great reputation and the hospital itself is probably the best equipped in western Canada. I trust the hospital, the surgeon, the nurses, the staff and everything. I think she's going to be fine," she stood facing me. "Now, I see people coming out of that building across the way and they're carrying coffee and doughnuts. I'll bet there's a cafeteria of some sort in there. I'm a bit hungry myself, so shall we go find out if we can find somewhere to have breakfast?"

I didn't argue. In fact I was just a bit stunned at her show of faith in the hospital and it's staff, so I was still digesting her statements. In fact, as we were entering a door into a cafeteria Carissa had to poke me to make me realize that someone was asking me a question.

"Chris, the gentleman was asking about your casts," she said as I looked at her in surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I turned to look at a tall dark skinned guy who was smiling at me.

"It is I who should apologise, kind sir," he bowed his turban encased head in a quick nod. "I was asking for to know the where of you obtained those delightful casts that you wear about your hand and also about your leg."

"Uh, in the hospital, back home, in Mountview. Why?"

"Oh. It is of a certainty that I have seen the usage of a mouldable plastic cast on the hand before in the certain cases. Also, I have seen the printed matter on the usage of the resin impregnate glass fibre cast as well. But, never have I seen them in usage upon the same person and never have I applied either one or the other to a brokened limb either," he shook his head and smiled. "If it seems strange that I have this large interest, it is to be explained in that I am one person who applies casts to those with brokened limbs here at this hospital. Is there a chance perhaps that you could tell me of why you are wearing them and how you are finding them to be when in use?"

"Well, we're only here at the cafeteria to eat breakfast, then we have to go back to the hospital since Carissa's sister is being operated on this morning. I'd be willing to talk to you, but I'm afraid that right now isn't a good time," I was able to understand him, but was having trouble with his accent and his strange syntax.

"I am of the understanding of this completely," he nodded enthusiastically. "If there be a chance to happen when you would be free, I am of working in room 206 of the main hospital. My name is Rashid and I am to be there each day of this week and to be at the work from seven in the A.M. until three in the P.M. I would greatly appreciate to have you tell me of the experience with these sorts of cast types if you do find the time to come by my work and to tell me. That would give me the reference of what they are good for the usage of them and so forth. Perhaps too, I can use the materials of which I have some available to me so as to make the two of the casts you wear to look slightly less used than it is apparent that they do at this now time."

He almost bowed again. "I will be going the now, but I will be hoping that you will be finding the time to come see me at my working place."

Then, before I could say anything more, he was walking away. I looked at Carissa and I couldn't help smiling and shaking my head. She looked almost as confused as I felt.

"All that because of your casts?" she stared after Rashid.

"Yeah, I think he takes his business to heart," I was grinning at that point because of his sheer enthusiasm.

"He's right about one thing, you know. Those casts are getting to look pretty darn ratty looking," she looked quite serious. "On top of that, once they have started the operation, it would give you and me something to do in order to take a break."

"I thought you'd want to be there, just in case," I edged us over into the lineup toward the serving area.

"Unh uh, not really. Not for the hours that brain surgery takes," she sighed. "Being patient and sitting around, doing absolutely nothing but worry is not my cup of tea, and it's certainly not yours."

"No, you're right there," I agreed.

Just then the woman behind the counter turned to me and asked what I wanted to eat. The service was so quick then that I had to break off talking with Carissa until we were out of the lineup and I'd paid for our breakfasts. We wandered to the far side of the room and found a small table near a window where we unloaded our trays. I was surprised to see that both of us were as hungry as we were. Once all of our food and drinks were on the little table it was relatively full, but that didn't last long. In fact for the next while we were paying so much attention to our food that we hardly spoke. It wasn't until we were finished eating and were drinking our coffee that we began to talk again.

We did decide that if all of us were sitting around waiting, and if the two of us started to feel that we were having problems with being overly bored, we'd go see Rashid. But in all honesty, we felt it might be better if we waited to do that another time or even another day.

I also told Carissa about Grampa Bender's will and the changes he'd made in the lease, asking her opinion on what I should do about my education. I even told her about Dad and Beth's opinion and about Dad's idea that I should talk to her parents.

I thought at first she'd gone off on a tangent when she asked. "Does Wil know about both the lease and the will?"

"I guess so, why?"

"Well, I guess I was thinking about his mood and thinking that as the oldest son he might feel slighted in some way. I mean your Grampa is giving you and Beth the upper ranch and all he's getting is the same shares you both are getting in the lease."

"But he'll end up having the home place after Mom and Dad retire. He's going to be farming more arable land than we will. Besides Beth and I have to share the upper area between us and it's the smaller and less productive portion. The upper ranch is really only good for grazing land for almost all of the acreage. Actually the most valuable part of it is the water rights and then only for the lower section of the lease. You know what it's like, you've seen it."

"Oh, I understand what you mean, but I wonder if he sees it the same way? What do Tom and Jasmine think of all this?"

"I haven't had a chance to ask them. Actually I brought up the subject when we were driving up here yesterday, but Wil wouldn't talk to me about it at all. In fact since Corinna got hurt, he's hardly talked to anyone."

"I wonder if he's upset that we didn't take him along when we rushed to Charlie Engels' so I could fly up here with Corinna and Mom?"

"I don't think so. He seemed to understand that when I talked to him about it afterward. I think he's more upset about the way he hung up on Corinna the night before she hurt herself. I think he's blaming himself for the way she acted."

"I didn't hear anything about that. What happened?"

"Oh, I thought you knew about that, but then come to think of it, I didn't at first. I heard the story from Dad, but according to him, Corinna called Wil and started to rant and rave about things. When it got too hot and heavy, Wil lost his cool and hung up the phone. Then the next day he heard about her jumping from the steeple and trying to kill herself. I think he blames himself for the whole thing."

"Oh my! The poor guy is simply overloaded with all this stuff going on. The guy comes home from school and finds his brother is hurt, then he and his brother get involved with twins, next his grandfather almost dies and if that wasn't enough he and his new girlfriend have a fight, then she tries to kill herself. Poor Wil must feel like he's in the center of an emotional tornado," she paused for a second, then looked at me and frowned. "In fact since you're involved in even more crud than he is, I'm wondering how the heck you're managing to stay so calm and cool with all this crap going on in your life."

"Well, I could ask the same of you," I managed a weak smile. "We've sort of tied our lives together as a couple in the last little while, so what affects me also bothers you and vice versa."

"It's not the same," she shook her head. "I mean I'm deeply involved in my family's stuff, but not as deeply in your family's stuff as you are, if you know what I mean? You and Wil have so much other crap going on and then my family is leaning on you for support, even Wil is depending on you for that matter. Don't forget, I was there at the school when those pictures came out and when we found Grampa Bender. I know what you did and how you reacted, so I know how you handle things."

"Yeah, I guess," I sighed. "It's just that I've been leaning on you to help me hang onto my sanity. You've been my rock that I can hold onto and I've sort of let the tide of happenings flow around me."

"Well, I'm proud and happy that I could help," her eyes seemed to fill with tears. "But, I really didn't think I was doing that much."

"Believe me, you were," I reached out and took both of her hands in mine and held them gently. "Thank you."

"Well, I've been leaning on you too," she was trying to laugh and cry at the same time. "So I guess we're about equal. Although from my side it's looked to me like you were the rock and I was the one who was holding on."

"Well, whatever. Anyway, this place is getting busy," I said as I glanced around. "Maybe we should head back to the hospital?"

"I guess, but let's take our time," she sighed as she stood up. "I can't see the operation being over until late this afternoon or even early this evening."

So we stood up and cleared our table, returning the serving trays and dirty dishes, then working our way outside.

"I've be considering things and I think you should continue with that electronics course, Chris," Carissa said as she grasped my hand and smiled up at me when we were outside again. "On top of that, I rather like Beth's idea that we should stay together. However, I think we might have a tough job convincing my folks of the idea that we should live in the same apartment. I really believe that might be a very tough sale."

"But, what difference is there in that from what we're doing at the ranch?"

"At the ranch, we're rather isolated," she chuckled. "In the city everyone could see that we were living in sin."

"Oh, for cripes sake."

"Hey, this is Bible Belt, Alberta, home of Mr. and Mrs. Conservative who go to the local Evangelical Christian Church and consider their interpretation of the Bible to be the one and only truth in the whole world."

"Aww, come on. Your Mom and Dad aren't conservative."

"No, they certainly aren't, but they run a business in a conservative town," she sighed. "Now come on, let's get back and see how things are doing in the hospital."

I really wasn't looking forward to spending the whole day in the hospital, so I'll freely admit I was very slow walking back inside. When we got back to the waiting room, we found Mr. and Mrs. Coulter and Will, all sitting there quietly, but impatiently. Corinna hadn't even gone into the operating theatre yet, so they were starting to feel that they should have gone to the cafeteria and eaten with us.

On the way back we'd noticed that there was a cafeteria of sorts in the hospital itself, so John asked a nurse how long it would be before the operation would start. When he found that it was still at least a half hour away, he and Wil went downstairs to see if they could get coffee and something for snacks. Mrs. Coulter refused to go, so Carissa and I sat with her and waited. Actually the guys were back and had brought coffee for everyone long before Corinna was wheeled into the operating room.

Just a few minutes before she was taken in, Dr. Wolchuck, the surgeon in charge of the operation, came out to meet all of us. He was a tall man, very clean cut and quite friendly, but he gave me the impression of someone who could be quite curt and businesslike if he wanted to cut people off. He spent a few minutes reassuring us, speaking mostly to Mr. and Mrs. Coulter, then he excused himself.

In a way I felt let down for some reason, but I couldn't explain why. I suppose I had expected the doctor to explain things a bit more than he had. However, I don't think there was much that he was willing to say at that point. After all, I had to admit to myself that even he didn't really know much about what he was going to be facing right then, not until he actually had begun surgery.

Once the operation started, I grew bored with all the waiting and so did Carissa and Wil. I think John and Wilma were bored as well, but they were so worried about the operation, that they refused to do anything, but wait as patiently as possible.

To try to break up the monotony, I told everyone about Grampa Bender's will and about his creation of a limited company to handle the lease. Then I asked everyone about their opinions on my education. To my surprise, every one of them felt I should carry on with my electronics training.

I'd been a bit worried about Wil, but it turned out that he hadn't been upset with Grampa Bender or with Beth and me. In fact he thought it was a good deal all around. On top of that, after Corinna had gone into the operation, it seemed as if he had resigned himself to putting his faith in the surgeons and to some extent he had come out of the depression he'd been suffering. At least he began to talk and react a little more normally as he spoke with the rest of us.

Wil's opinion about the animal husbandry course that Olds Ag. School offered was that it was good, but that I could attend it at any time. He was strongly in favour of my going to Calgary and enrolling in SAIT to take their electronics course.

John and Wilma agreed with Wil, but they did argue with Carissa about the idea that the two of us should live together in Calgary. It seemed that they could handle Carissa staying with me on the ranch, but the idea of the two of us living together in the city bothered them. Their argument was that they felt it would cause us to lose focus on our studies. Carissa argued right back that because we were staying with each other at the cabin, we were already over the worst of that sort of thing. I had to laugh at Mrs. Coulter's reaction to that statement.

"Well, I should hope you aren't!" she said loudly. "My goodness, Carissa, is your sex drive that weak?"

Just the fact that she'd say something like that embarrassed both Carissa and me, but at the same time we had to laugh, even as we were denying the idea.

That was about the only real laugh we had all day.

The operation started just after eight in the morning and lasted until late in the afternoon. We all tried to keep each other from being bored and we all went for short breaks, but none of us was ever gone from the waiting room for more that a half hour or so. Finally, at shortly after five, a doctor came to tell us that Corinna was out of the operating room and was being moved to ICU for the night.

At that point he told us that in a few moments Dr. Wolchuck would like to talk about the operation with the immediate family members, but he needed to clean up and change first. At that point he also said that none of us were to worry, they thought Corinna had pulled through the operation well and that she would definitely recover.

All of us had questions, but the doctor who had come to see us refused to answer them, telling us that Dr. Wolchuck should do that. In order to see him, we had to wait almost an hour more, so it was after six when the five of us filed into Dr. Wolchuck's office and found seats. He looked wiped out.

"Good evening," he sighed heavily. "First off, I should say that Corinna came through this operation with flying colours and barring any unforseen developments, she should recover completely. However, there may be some minor personality changes."

"Oh," Mrs. Coulter gasped softly and I saw John grasp her hand in support.

"Wait," Dr. Wolchuck held up a hand as if to stop any more protests. "Considering the amount of pressure that the growth was placing on her brain, she must have suffered from terrible headaches. That would have made her extremely irritable at times and I can see that by removing that growth, that pressure will be relieved. The headaches should diminish and so should the irritability."

He paused and looked down at his desk as if he was consulting his notes.

"Now, I think you all know that we suspected a cancerous tumour, but that supposition was incorrect. In fact, what we just dealt with was not a tumour as such. The growth we dealt with inside that young lady's skull was something far more rare than that," he looked up at Mr. and Mrs. Coulter. "I understand your daughter was one of a pair of twins?"

"Yes, Corinna and Carissa are twin sisters," John answered, gesturing at Carissa. "Does that have something to do with the operation?"

"Yes, it does," The doctor said firmly. "At one point in their prenatal development, your wife was carrying triplets, not twins."

"What?" Mrs. Coulter sat up very straight and stared at the surgeon in surprise. "After all this time, how could you know that?"

"Wait, please. You are going to have to be very patient with me. This was an extremely rare situation and I am still absorbing all of the implications myself," he sighed.

"Take your time doctor," John said softly. "We'll do our best to be patient."

"Thank you," Dr. Wolchuck smiled tiredly. "I'm going to have to do some research into occurrences, but this is truly a case of a multiple birth gone wrong. What will sometimes happen in a multiple birth is that one of the fetuses will cease developing. When that happens, one of two things normally will occur. Either both fetuses die and are aborted, or the second fetus continues to develop and is born normally. In that case a 'fetus papyraceus' or 'fetus compressus' develops within the womb along with the second fetus. Just one second and I'll read the description from one of my medical texts."

He picked up an open book that was laying face down on the table and turned it over. "Here it is, and I quote: 'Fetus papyraceus or fetus compressus is a mummified, compressed fetus occurring in association with a viable twin. The fetus undergoes flattening, necrosis and atrophy. It is a rare condition occurring in both monochorionic and dichorionic multiple gestations.' The article goes on to describe more, but that would be of little interest to you since it's almost all in medical terms."

He set the book down and looked up at us again. "However in this case we had an even rarer situation, the second fetus absorbed the partially developed, but now static fetus and carried on developing, right along with the third fetus in the womb. But, the reabsorption was incomplete. The unfortunate thing about this is the fact that the skull formed around the 'fetus papyraceus.' I would have expected that to be totally impossible because of the time frame of the situation and the physical constrictions of that development. Unfortunately, that is the situation we were faced with when we began the actual operation."

"So, you removed all of it?" Carissa asked.

"Yes, we did. Luckily, the papyraceus object was external to the actual brain itself, lying right against the skull structure," The surgeon nodded. "Are you the twin?"

"Yes, I am," Carissa said tentatively

"Well, I have a request of you and your parents as well as of your sister," Dr. Wolchuck smiled at her. "Since the odds of this happening are so rare, we would like to ask if we could study the papyraceus object that we removed. As well as that, we would like to have both you and your sister undergo a series of tests and examinations. The implications of this case might be quite profound."

"I think we need to talk this over amongst the family," John interrupted. "And I think we need to talk to Corinna about it as well before we give any permissions. When will we be able to see her?"

"I would imagine you'll all be able to see her tomorrow, but she may be still under sedation at that time. If you and your wife are willing to be gowned and wear masks, we might be able to arrange for you to see her later this evening. One or two people would be the absolute limit we could possibly allow in though."

"Well, I think that should be my wife, Wilma, and perhaps you should preserve that papyraceus thing in some way for now," John said firmly. "Personally, I can't help but think of it as an undeveloped child and I think I need to discuss the matter with my whole family before I give any permissions of any sort."

That statement surprised me and I think it astounded the surgeon. It didn't seem to change his attitude toward us and he did try to be understanding, but I could tell that he felt differently than John did. Right then I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Having the doctor tell us that Corinna was going to be okay was fine, but dammit I wasn't satisfied. Somehow I knew it simply wasn't going to sink in that she was really okay until I saw her myself. I don't imagine anyone else felt a darn bit different.

Not only that, but the idea that somehow she had carried an 'unfinished' fetus inside her skull for eighteen years simply blew me away. It was creepy. It was weird. Mostly though it felt slightly sickening to me. I'm not sure why, but the very idea sent shivers down my spine. For some reason I instantly had thoughts of some stupid horror movie. Somehow I had thoughts of a second person inside my own skull who suddenly 'came alive' and took over my body. Talk about the stuff of nightmares; this was it! Simply for my own sanity, I had to ask about the doctor some questions and get the facts.

I held back slightly as everyone else filed out of the room and looked at the surgeon as respectfully as I could. When we were alone, he raised his eyebrows and looked at me questioningly.

"Dr. Wolchuck, was that unborn fetus still alive in some way?" I croaked, my voice simply not functioning correctly.

"Oh no," he shook his head. "The human body would never allow anything of that sort. What the body does is to try to destroy any foreign body that happens to intrude within itself. If that proves impossible, it will then attempt to form a shell of sorts around the foreign object; you could say that it surrounds the object with scar tissue, because in reality, that's what it is. It forms a barrier, which is a simple method of self protection that the body employs. That, is exactly what happened in this case; the body isolated the object, then it carried on with it's own development. Something of this sort could exist without a problem in most areas of the soft tissue of the body and cause no problems. There would simply be a lump of isolated scar tissue resting in place which had no effect on the body itself. The only difference in this case was the fact that this foreign body was inside the skull and affecting the brain."

"Well then, why did you have to operate on Corinna if she'd had it there with no major trouble for eighteen years?"

"Ahh," he glanced at the door and then back to me. "In this case the shock of the subject's impact from her fall appears to have caused the foreign body to shift. Because of that, it created pressures on new portions of the nervous system. It may well have been causing some problems prior to that time and there might well have been a possibility of far greater problems in the future. For instance there were several documentations in her files of severe headaches, erratic behaviour and nausea which often struck at inopportune moments, especially during stress. Now I couldn't say for sure that those were effects caused by the object, but I suspect they might well have been. Hopefully this operation should relieve much of that."

He paused and I could see the tiredness on his face.

"I'm sorry to hold you up, doctor," I apologised. "But how would this 'papyraceus' thing cause her to act erratically at times?"

"Oh I understand your question, that might well have been an issue because of its position, it very well might have caused many such things. The position it was in would have placed pressure on a multitude of neural endings and even minor shifting could have caused behavioural changes," he sighed and glanced at his watch. "I'll try to explain, but I'm going to have to keep this short because I'm very tired. There is a lining inside the skull which acts as a cushion to prevent the brain from being injured as we move around. The cushioning effect is created because that lining is like a sponge which is filled with fluids. The papyraceus object in this patient's case was partially imbedded in that cushion, so it was never solidly fixed in any constant position. It might easily have shifted its position slightly at various times. Even the effects of more or less liquids being absorbed by the patient's body could change the pressures the intruding body exerted. The patients moods might well have changed if she drank more or less water during a day, or if she drank any coffee, alcohol, or any other diuretic. If she drank those, the cushion would be reduced because of dehydration and that would cause a change in the object's pressure on the various neural endings. In fact it is even possible that strenuous exercise could cause the object to shift and press on a neural cluster causing a drastic change in her mood."

"Just one last question, Doctor; just how big was this thing?"

"Oh, it was a severely flattened semi-spheroid, approximately six centimetres across and little more than two centimetres thick. We had retained it for further study, simply because of its rarity, however Mr. Coulter appears to have reservations about that for some reason. Would you happen to have any ideas about that?"

"Not really," I shrugged my shoulders. "All I can surmise is that somehow he thinks of it as an unborn child."

"Hmm, I suppose that makes sense, but if it had been a single child, it would never have lived. His wife would have suffered either a spontaneous abortion, or a stillbirth. I wonder if he understands that?"

"I wouldn't know if he understands that in his heart, Doctor. I think in his case it may be an emotional reaction and I really don't believe I'm the person to try to explain it to him. However, thank you for your time and thank you very much for your work."

"Oh, you're welcome and good night," he sighed as I moved toward the door.

"Good night, Doctor."

I found the others, back in the waiting room.

"Where have you been?" Wil demanded instantly, his face screwed into a deep frown.

"I was asking the doctor a few questions," I sighed and flopped into a chair.

"And, what did he say?" Carissa asked sitting down next to me.

So I tried to explain, but first I took the time to tell them that I really wasn't certain that I was getting everything right. Considering the fact that I'd only spoken to the doctor for a few minutes and really didn't understand all the things I was talking about, I thought I had done a relatively decent job of it. For me the fact that the object had been dead and had been surrounded by an isolating barrier was all that I wanted to know. Everything else I had asked about had been unnecessary information, but had simply satisfied minor questions that the doctor's explanation had brought to mind. Unfortunately everyone had questions that I couldn't answer, so I suggested they might want to ask Dr. Wolchuck anything else themselves. I did warn them that it might be best to wait until he was much less tired.

After a short discussion about my talk with the doctor, Mr. and Mrs. Coulter set off to talk to the nursing staff, wanting to find out if and when they could see Corinna. Meanwhile Carissa and I both decided to phone home. I was going to call Mom and Carissa wanted to call her Uncle Frank. Both of us thought we should pass on the fact that the operation was complete and that Corinna was recovering.

Mom didn't really have much news for me, other than the fact that everyone was sending their wishes for Corinna to get well soon. Of course she hinted that everyone missed Wil and me already. I managed to get him to talk to her for a moment, then just before he hung up, Dad must have asked to talk to him as well. After a short time, Wil called me back to the phone, explaining that Dad had something to ask me.

It seemed that the hydro and phone companies had both finished their surveys all the way past the ranch and to the previously surveyed section nearer Jason Dumfries' ranch. As well, George and Bob, George's dad, had gone up to the cabin to measure it and the barn for all the supplies they'd need to run in power. On top of that Bob had found a used stove and fridge that he felt would do fine for the cabin. He suggested that we buy them, then he'd service them before taking them up and installing them at the cabin. I felt that it would be best for Mom to have a look at them and if she felt they were decent, we should get them.

After Dad and I said goodnight, we all went looking for Carissa's parents.

It turned out that the nursing staff weren't nearly as adamant as Dr. Wolchuck about family visitors being in Corinna's room with her. In fact we all got in to see her for a few moments, even if we had to go in one at a time. We all had to wear a surgical mask and slip a paper gown over the top of our street clothes. On top of that, each of us was escorted in by a nurse and each person was only allowed to stay in the room with her for a few moments.

When it was my turn to go in, I was really surprised at how she looked. Even to my untrained eye she seemed to look better than she had the night before. Somehow she looked more peaceful, almost relaxed and resting easier. Perhaps part of the reason for that appearance was the fact that both of her eyes were uncovered now. Although her nose and both cheeks were bandaged, it seemed she had far fewer bandages around her head. To be honest, there might have been even more tubes and wires than the night before. I didn't even notice those. I was more interested in the relaxed look on her face.

I wasn't sure about the others, but while I was there, I reached out to hold her hand and talked to her quietly for a few seconds. I didn't know what the nurse who had come into the room with each of us thought of that, but I wanted to do it just in case Corinna could hear me. If she could hear me, I wanted her to know we were all there and that we all cared about her.

I found out afterward that it was the right thing to do. After we had all seen Corinna, the nurse explained that there were times when patients grew restless after the trauma of a major surgery. Even if they were sedated, it sometimes helped to have a friend or a relative at hand to speak to them calmly and quietly. Of course when she asked if one or more of us would be willing to stand by through the night, we all volunteered. In fact we made arrangements that one of us would stand by at all times for the next day or two, at least until Corinna regained consciousness. With that in mind we put our heads together to work out a schedule for that night.

Actually Mrs. Coulter didn't want to leave the hospital at all that night, but John insisted that she needed to get some sleep. In the long run, Mrs. Coulter took the first shift, until one in the morning, so Mr. Coulter would take us all back to the motel while she stayed behind. Then he'd come in at one in the morning and stay until four. Wil would ride in with him and drive Mrs. Coulter back to the motel, then Wil would leave the keys to the car with Carissa and me. We would come in at four and let Mr. Coulter drive back to the motel to rest. Both Wil and Mrs. Coulter wanted to take over at nine or ten, but by then we expected everyone would be up and around. The nurse did warn us that Corinna would be kept sedated for at least forty-eight hours. She suggested we might arrange for someone to have an afternoon nap, because she would probably ask us to do the same thing the next night.

I think the first day after Corinna's operation, the five of us were almost too willing to be standing by in case we were needed. Carissa and I had been at the hospital at four in the morning, but by seven, Wil was there, offering to relieve us. He hadn't been able to sleep, so he'd left a note for Carissa's parents and had walked the two miles to the hospital.

We did let him take over for an hour then and went to have breakfast, meeting Rashid, the man who worked with casts, just as we were walking out the front door of the hospital, We were heading for the same cafeteria we had eaten at the day before while he was just going to work. He paused long enough to say good morning and to renew his offer of cleaning my casts, then he hurried away.

As we were eating, Carissa and I discussed the idea and decided that as long as at least two other people were to stay with Corinna, I'd go see Rashid sometime that day. It turned out that when we went back to the waiting room, Mrs. Coulter was there as well as Wil. She was quite willing to stay there with Carissa while Wil went to have some breakfast and I went down to see Rashid.

I had a bit of difficulty finding the room where Rashid worked, and when I did I was really surprised at the way he acted. He was suddenly all business and other than asking me questions about what I had done while wearing the casts and how they had felt while I was working, he said very little. Most of the time I spent with him that day, I was talking and he was cleaning and wiping the casts or making notes about my experiences. His attitude surprised me, but when I mentioned it later, Mr. Coulter simply smiled and explained that what I'd noticed was the difference between a private chat and a work related discussion. On top of that he felt that I might have been dealing with a cultural difference, since Rashid was obviously East-Indian.

Each of us took our turns at standing by and talking to Corinna that day, but as well as that, we all took breaks and saw something of the city. Since we expected to be involved for at least two full days, we knew we each had to take some time away from the boredom of simply sitting around and trying to be upbeat while we were with Corinna.

In actual fact the hospital kept Corinna sedated for almost sixty hours, but somehow, we managed to have someone at the hospital all through the long wait. All five of us simply pitched in, even if we had other things we would rather have been doing. In fact Mr. Coulter had to drive back home the second day to take care of some business. He had asked Wil to go with him so that they could alternate behind the wheel, so Wil had the chance to go out to the farm and see Mom and Dad. However, they were back late that night and stepped back into the bedside rotation the next day as if they hadn't gone anywhere.

After Corinna was taken off sedation, the only time one of us wasn't allowed in the room with her was when medical procedures that needed privacy prevented it. In fact due to the mental state Corinna was in when she did awaken, the hospital asked one of us to be available to sit with her at any time. Somehow it had managed to slip my mind that she had originally been rushed to Edmonton because she'd attempted to commit suicide. Luckily both Wil and Mrs. Coulter were there in the room with Corinna when she first opened her eyes and found herself in the hospital. By the time Carissa and I came in to see her, Corinna had calmed down and was acting somewhat closer to normal. The hospital staff warned us then that she would be on medications for some time and that she would be staying in the hospital for up to a month. After that, because she had attempted suicide, the law required that she be transferred to a facility where she could undergo a psychiatric evaluation before she'd be allowed to return home

Once Corinna seemed to be settled into a more stable temperament, we all sat down and had a discussion about who was going to stay in Edmonton to be with her. Both Mr. and Mrs. Coulter were heavily involved in the business back home. Wil really felt he wanted to be there, but he also had farming problems on his mind and didn't want to leave everything to Mom and Dad. I knew I should be back at the ranch because I felt Beth shouldn't be left alone there. The only person who was really free to stay all the time was Carissa and I knew that although I'd miss her, I had to go along with that fact.

In the long-run Carissa stayed in Edmonton, but moved to a less expensive motel that had a two-bedroom suite with kitchen facilities. For three days each week and on weekends, Mrs. Coulter stayed in Edmonton. Mr. Coulter headed home for three days, swapped with his wife for two, and they had weekends to spend together in Edmonton. When all the arrangements were made Mr. Coulter asked me if I'd mind taking the time to drive Carissa's Jeep up to Edmonton when I drove home in my car. That meant she'd be able to get to the hospital much easier. Wil bought an old beater pickup while he was in Edmonton and we headed home, but planned our lives so we could each come to Edmonton for a day or two each week. The final arrangement meant there were always at least two people, and often three who were available to spend time with Corinna.

### Chapter 25