A Friend in Need

Meagan’s concentration was on the two munchkins, it gave me a moment to really take a close look at her, and she was pale. That I understood, with the drama she went through at the accident scene and the two operations I knew she had so far. The butterfly stitches just under her hairline were going to be a reminder, and she might have to change her hairstyle to cover the scar. I felt sure time would remove what looked like a black eye, and I suspected it was a byproduct of the airbag when the car came to an immediate stop.

A bag of something was hanging on the pole at the head of her bed, the tube connecting it to her arm. It took the girls some time to get used to the needle in her arm and stop looking like a deer in headlights when they looked at it, since it moved along with the movement of her fingers and hands as all three girls seemed to take up the challenge of talking over the top of the other ones.

For the first time since we had entered, Meagan had a smile on her face. At one time all hands seemed to stop and I looked on, trying to remember the conversation they were having so I could understand why it would suddenly stop. That’s when the right hand of both munchkins snaked towards the left hand of Meagan and she held both tightly. A tear appeared from an eye of all three just then, if it hadn't been followed with a smile, I may have been worried, but being the guy, I came armed with tissues and handed them over.

We had promised the nurses we wouldn’t outstay our welcome, and we didn’t. I was going to get the girls fed and rested for a few hours and then come back for the evening. I got a thank you from Meagan. I also pointed to the cabinet next to her bed and told her that’s where her bag was and her cell. It was then she told me that it was pointless having it, her cell number was discontinued since she hadn’t paid the bill. I stood and walked around the bed as the girls resumed their conversation.

Both wanted to put their name on her cast. They were even talking about what picture they could put on it as well. My hand pulled her bag out of the cabinet and I asked if I could look inside; a shrug was her only reply. She didn’t seem to care, and I figured I knew why. After all, it’s easy share when you have nothing. Finding her cell was easy, someone at last night’s accident scene had the sense to switch it off. She still had about seventy percent battery life left.

I took it outside with me and made a call. It still took me nearly twenty minutes, but her cell provider eventually saw my point of view in the end and her bill was paid. When I took it back with me, she watched me put her cell on top on the cabinet, which was when our eyes locked on one another, and this time she said nothing, even when her cell vibrated on the top of the cabinet.

“We will swing by the phone shop on the way home and get you a charger.”

Meagan said goodbye to the girls. Karen Calderwood was leaning against the door frame when we were about to leave. She got a hug from both the girls as they passed her. We swopped nods as Karen came in, but I had to move since the girls were now halfway down the corridor, deep in their own silent conversation with each other. It’s nice to know they just assumed I was behind them.

*******

I offered to pay Jodie extra since she was looking after two munchkins now, rather than the one while I was at work. I believe the look she gave me when I asked her was enough, so I gave her a hug as well as a deep and personal thank you. I did get a call from Meagan just before the girls and I were due to return to the hospital. She wanted her wash bag and a few other items that I jotted onto a piece of paper.

To my relief, Jodie was still at my place when the call came in, so I asked her if she could pull the items on the list out of her luggage. At first, I got the look. She held the rest together rather well I thought. It was only when she came back from what was going to be Meagan’s room that I got both barrels.

“It’s been a little over eighteen months since you and my little princess moved here. Through an accident your family has increased by two, although one is still in hospital. Are you going to be comfortable with Meagan being here?”

My mind was all over the place, trying so desperately hard to find an answer to her question. We met in the most unconventional way, and my daughter now had a friend for life in Clare. Although I had laid the groundwork for Meagan when she was discharged, she was going to be the first adult female in my life since my late wife. It was also clear that Jodie wanted an answer,

By then, Jodie had clearly got bored with waiting for an answer; her arm came up and she looked at her watch before saying. “You leave in twenty minutes. I’m going to give you a head start and then I’m sending Arnie down to the hospital to pick up the munchkins after they have had half an hour with Hannah. That gives you just shy of an hour to sit and talk to her without little eyes lip-reading everything you’re talking about.”

To her, the discussion was over. She made it to the door before she also added, “Use the time wisely, my friend.”

The journey to the hospital was done in silence; I couldn’t be bothered listening to the radio. On occasions, I saw little fingers moving when I glanced at the rear view mirror, but otherwise, my thoughts went over the last few days and tentatively speculated on the next few weeks it was going to take to get Meagan well enough to be discharged from the hospital and to the house.

As usual, the girls climbed on the bed and I watched as they both kept Meagan occupied. She was still hooked up to machines, and although they held my attention while all three were in conversation, it did offer up some clues as I watched using my peripheral vision. Her heart rate increased when Hannah asked her about where she once lived, again when she asked Meagan if she was married. Her hands answered no to that, and yet her heart rate spiked when she did.

Arnie came by and scooped up the girls right on thirty minutes. The temptation was there to ask if he was standing outside the door keeping an eye on his watch, but with the door open as it was, I could see right down the length of the corridor and I never spotted him until he stuck his head in the door. Both girls left with promises to return the next evening, and armed with crayons to decorate the cast on her leg.

The pause was momentary, I still watched the girls wander down the corridor their fingers truly were doing the talking.

“Thank you.”

When all three turned at the end of the corridor that would lead them to the elevator, I turned my attention to Meagan and her last words. She must have read the confused look since, my mind was still trying to figure what she had to thank me for.

She tilted her head towards her cell resting on the top of the cabinet charging. “I talked to my service provider. They told me you had moved my account to your own and that’s why I have service.”

All cell companies have a working relationship with my department. Once I referenced my department with her cell number, they were quick to help with anything I asked.

“But I should really start my thanks that you were there, right at the beginning of all this. I realized far too late I couldn’t take that turn. It’s true, you know; you really do see your life flash before your eyes.”

She gave a cute little giggle, as well, before she added, “It was a quick interlude, I assure you, since my eyes saw that damn big branch coming at me, as well, and all I could think was that I was grateful I had put Clare in the back.”

Her tears came quickly after that. “It’s one of the few times I prayed, and it was a prayer that the end would be quick for the both of us. I didn’t want my baby to suffer for my own stupid driving in snowy conditions.”

*******

I offered tissues, and the smile slowly returned to her when she took them. I was up and getting her a glass of water when I heard someone enter the room and sit in the chair I had just vacated. Miss Social Services, herself, Karen Calderwood and that folder still under her arm was making herself comfortable while the two of us waited her out.

Karen sure looked like she was in a ‘take no prisoners’ mood today. “Okay, let’s get started." She pointed to me. "Mr. Martin Andrews, I would like you to meet Ms. Meagan Winters. You both know who I am, I’m judge and jury in this case and we can get this all sorted now that Miss Winters is in charge of all her faculties, unlike the night she became personal with a tree and you had to dig them both out of it.”

This time we both went a shade of red around the cheeks. True to her word, Karen led us both from the accident onwards. She brokered no bullshit, and heaven help you getting caught in a lie. She reminded us several times that she held sway over Clare now, not her mother or me, and she glared at me when she said it, I think daring me to bring my job into the conversation.

“As you know, Clare lives with Mr. Andrews as well as his daughter and will continue to do so until you are out of that cast and able to once again take care of yourself, as well as your daughter.”

She saved the glare for Meagan, this time, when she said, “And even then, I get to sign off on that.”

Her attention turned to me when she asked what form of accommodation was available for Meagan when she was discharged from the hospital. Karen knew the answer to this, since she had come to my house the morning after the accident. My daughter and I gave her the grand tour. She just wanted it verbalized so that Meagan would know what was going on.

I went through the facts. Despite my initial attempts to place Clare in the spare room, both girls objected, so they were sleeping together. I was even told by my own daughter to bring her suitcase into her room, and Jodie and I spent an hour making room for both sets of clothes in her closets and drawers. My neighbor and I then set up the spare room for Meagan to move into while the leg was still in a cast and through physical therapy.

Seeing the look in her eyes, I also mentioned that I had added a bolt to her side of the bedroom. She smiled, and that cute pink cheeks thing took her for a moment. Karen also confirmed that she had seen the bedroom she would reside in, as well as tested the bolted door as well. The rest of the hour passed in similar fashion, Karen asked a question, and whoever it was pointed to, answered it. A hell of a way to air your dirty laundry, I can tell you.

Karen looked at her watch. Her face had remained featureless since she had come into the room seemed to look even more stern now. Her left hand reached into her pocket and she tossed a packet of tissues onto the bed. We both watched the packet land and stop next to Meagan’s leg, it still took us a moment to once again look at Karen, only this time I saw sadness in her eyes.

Since we looked at each other she asked me first. “Do you know the reason for Hannah’s deafness, Martin?”

It took me a moment to untie the knot in my stomach. The calming deep breaths helped a little, even after all these years I stumbled through this part of my life.

“When we talked about having children, my wife warned me that the chances of having a deaf child was rather strong. She told me it pops up almost every other generation in her family. Her family believed it to be genetics, although the doctors did say that there wasn’t any scientific proof.”

My voice held it together to begin with, it failed on me when I added that I wasn’t sure if my wife dying in the middle of childbirth may have had something to do with it. The gasp from Meagan was only reinforced when her hand held tightly to mine.

Meagan held out a tissue from the packet. I took it and she delved into the packet for one herself. The pause in the conversation was only so we three could regroup. When Meagan and I looked at Karen, she had the folder open on her knee and looking directly at my partner in crime.

“You know for legal reason I can’t tell him what’s in here. Although I can tell you that his day job means he can gain access to this information, I know for a fact he hasn’t gone to such lengths.” Karen’s featured hardened once again and she said. “Do you know the reason for Clare’s deafness?”

We were sure sharing a hell of a lot of pain in this room. A nurse stuck her head into the room but Karen spotted her and quickly shook her head, the nurse nodded once and pulled the door closed.

It was my turn to hand Meagan the packet of tissues and even then, it took her some time to continue, the file still open and resting on Karen’s lap.

“My husband told me from the very beginning of our relationship that he didn’t want children. He insisted that he was to be the centre of attention in this relationship, no one else.”

I felt an eyebrow raise in shock as her first words into her explanation came to us all in this room. My first thought was, what an ass. As Meagan told us both of agreeing and the marriage, I could see a train wreck ahead since Clare was in this world.

“The first couple of years were wonderful and loving, and then I had the flu.”

With what she was taking for the flu, it negated her pill being of any use. Six weeks later and a blue stick in her hands, the marriage tanked. Her husband accused her of trapping him and ordered her to ‘get rid of it.’ Meagan couldn’t do that, she still loved him enough to agree to adoption after the birth, and after a while the husband agreed.

It was a shallow agreement, at best. Her stomach got bigger and was a daily reminder of what was in there. At seven months the tragedy happened, he came home drunk and caught her coming out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel and a seven-month-old baby-bump. The argument started about him being trapped and no sex for the last seven months, even when she pointed out to him that it was he who stopped having sex with her, not the other way around.

In a fit of rage, he punched the baby, Meagan folded over, and he kicked her down the stairs. He then stepped over her and went back to the bar, leaving Meagan in the fetal position on the floor and the front door wide open.

I just sat and stared at her, unable to hand over anymore tissues since she had them all. It was Karen that continued, Meagan was way too far gone.

“The Police found him still at the bar, he was charged and sentenced to five years; he managed eighteen months before his temper got the better of him and he picked on the wrong inmate. He died in prison, Meagan refused to allow the adoption to continue, the doctor couldn't say with any degree of certainty that the fall down the stairs and early birth caused the deafness in Clare, but they wouldn't rule it out, either.”

Karen stood and, of course, that folder was once again under her arm. “I know you're both going to hate me right now, but you need to talk; I’ll see you both again tomorrow.”

I watched from my corner of the bed as she walked down the corridor. Just as she was about to turn the corner, her hand reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue.

It took us both some time to put back the pieces of our own emotional trauma. I sat myself down on the chair again, and slowly the sideways glances started; we both wondered who was going to be first. My blinking first was to perhaps pave the way in this conversation, even though it was all going to be by ear for now.

“You know she did that on purpose don’t you?”

Meagan nodded and blew into her tissues, and when I say blew, both lungs got a workout, then realized what she had done and colored up. I thought it cute and smiled. Well, I’m a guy so she’s going to look cute when she does stuff like that.

At first, her voice was just above a whisper but it gained in strength when she said. “My life is in the shitter; that job was my last hope. I knew it was going to be a nightmare working for those people, but there is simply nothing else around. I left school with no qualifications and no real chance of ever getting any.”

I sat for a moment and pondered my answer, not only my answer to Meagan, but to myself. “Let me throw a wild guess out there on this question. What are the odds that someone like me would be in a position to help you both when you crashed the car, and what are the odds that we both have daughters that like a challenge in life?”

A smirk graced her lips and I knew then I would have to watch for that.

“Well, technically the crash was your fault; if you had moved out of the way I would have made that bend easily.”

This time I laughed and a smile spread across her lips. “Huh, sideways on, maybe, When the rescue people got there, they asked that the county do something about the ice on that bend. But you were too busy being tended to for a scratch to notice.”

The mock outrage followed. “Scratch, did you just call this?” And she pointed to her broken leg, the still bad looking cut just below her hairline and various other bumps and bruises, whilst trying hard to hide the smile since she was going for outrage. “All this, the pain and scars, both mental and physical, will be with me for life, I will have to go into therapy over this.”

She even crossed her arms for effect, I wasn’t buying it, but it woke us both up to a way of talking to each other. Meagan knew she was in limbo. Her leg and body had to heal, she knew that a then total stranger had pulled both her daughter and herself out of a bad situation and was even willing to share his and his daughter's life with them until she was able to stand once again on her own two feet.

I felt a hand clasp mine and I looked up at Meagan, my own revelry now placed on the back burner of life.

Her hand was warm; maybe it was her body heat or her heightened emotions causing it. A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she said, “I’m going to be saying this a lot, I just know I will. Thank you.”

This was her laying her emotions and pride on the line. I did something that I felt included my daughter in all this conversation. I withdrew my hand from her grasp, and signed, ‘You’re welcome’.

*******

It was Monday when Jodie turned up, she said she was taking the girls to see Meagan at the hospital that afternoon. Neither one of us were stupid and we both knew what she was doing. I just nodded, downed what was left of my coffee and on their insistence, I hugged both girls, then left for work.

I made it to the door before calling out to Jodie, “Good luck with the interview.”

I heard the word “thanks,” just as the door closed. I knew I also had my own interview when I got in to work, as well. Most of those in the office recounted what little they could get up to with friends and families over the weekend due to the snow, to the rest of our group. I just sat and listened, until the phone on my desk rang and my boss asked to see me.

He pointed to the seat, since he was still on the phone when I came in. It still took a minute but the phone went back in the cradle and he leaned back in his chair, fingers interlocked across his chest and a sizable smile on his lips.

“So, there I was, at home with my family and looking forward to a real boring weekend when I get a phone call patched through the system to me since, I am your boss, asking if you're real and not a fake. I must admit I tossed a coin on the answer to that question.”

He leaned back even further, and I waited for his weight to take him over; that chair of his showed him some real loyalty that morning.

“So I get the pleasant boring weekend at home and your leaping into car wrecks saving damsels in distress?”

The pause in the conversation was left to me to now fill in the blanks, and even then, I took a moment. By the time I had finished, my boss had stopped leaning back in his chair; his arms were now resting on his desk as he listened to everything. When I had finished, he still waited, as though he expected more. He kind of looked me up and down, as if he hadn’t yet decided what to do with me, then he just shook his head and sighed.