Healing

THE BROADWALK

 

Marilyn tries, tries so hard but my concentration on her toes, her left leg, shows no movement. She inhales deeply, seems momentarily to give up in despair. Instead, seeing a simple wag of her pinkie finger, I do   as she silently asks, push her wheelchair slowly over the rough, over-used wooden boardwalk. The pillow behind her back looks flat, hard, needs a fluffing. I extend my arm to her and she manages to grab my wrist, bend forward just enough to be 'babied'. Her feelings and thanks are evident.

 

The salt of the strong ocean wind begins to make me itch. I feel Marilyn's cheek and it is caked, rough. Without asking her permission I turn her prison around and head back home. Harry, her dad, is watching, waiting. He waves and walks quickly to us, relieves my aching shoulders, lets me rest a few minutes before together we lift the chair and set Marilyn down in the hallway. No words are necessary. Her walker almost walks itself to her side. Holding it tightly, she rises, makes it to the bathroom. When the toilet flushes, I open the door for her. There is silence. Her grateful eyes speak. My guilty heart is not comforted.

 

If only I had been more alert, stopped a few feet before the yellow light turned red, my Honda  would not have knocked a very pretty lady off her feet. Somebody, maybe somebodies,  cell phoned for an ambulance. A police officer, who just happened to be there, saw everything, wrote out a big white ticket and told me the ambulance was headed to the Menorah Hospital. I knew exactly where it was and took what I thought would be a short cut. It wasn't. Frazzled, my balding head sweating buckets, I must have looked like a wild man straight from Borneo as I interrupted a most important discussion between two aides about their favorite bed partners. The be-wigged one pointed to an arrow that said' X-rays'. Twiddling my thumbs, I sat nervously  on a hard metal bench for Marilyn Baldwin to appear virtually unscathed.

 

I accosted everyone who went in and out of her semi-private room, inquiring how she was doing. Was I invisible, a spot on the wall? Were the attendants all heartless, deaf? In spite of my concern, I felt my belly grumble. It needed a quick fix. I stood ready to make a run for the cafeteria when a nurse called me in to see Marilyn. That took care of my growling pot belly. She was sitting on a padded straight backed lounge, her left leg swaddled in a plaster cast so thick, so heavy, I figured it to weigh 30 pounds at least.

 

I nodded hello to her Dad's back. Neither Marilyn nor he  were overjoyed to see me but by the time she stopped taking the blame for what had happened, I knew I was in love with her. My stomach suddenly growled loud enough to possibly be heard in the hallway. They laughed at my red faced embarrassment. 'Would you like a sandwich, a cup of soup, anything at all?, I asked. Two heads said 'No thanks.'

 

My quickie snack stopped my internal, infernal noise. I stopped at the florist shop for a lovely bunch of red sweetheart roses and the candy shop for a box of chocolate fudge in a red box with a big matching ribbon and hurried back to Marilyn's room. As I got off the elevator, my shoe caught on something sticky on the tile floor. I fell hard on my knees. There I lay until a nurse carrying a bed pan found me still holding the flowers. The candy box was squashed.

 

Hobbling a little, I entered Marilyn's room. Harry sat by her side as she slept. He got a fake cut glass vase from a candy striper for the flowers. Marilyn snored a little, saliva ran down the corners of her mouth. As she opened her eyes they twinkled slightly. She smiled at her dad and at me. 'Hey, Mr. what's your name, the doctor said I should be out of this f'n cast in two weeks. Want to come to dinner at my house? I'm a great cook.' Could I say 'no?' No.

 

The two weeks became three and were an eternity. I arrived at their house with pink roses and a large box of chocolates. Standing on both feet, Marilyn opened the door. The slit cast was lying near the fireplace waiting to be burned and forgotten. It took her several weeks until she walked smoothly, evenly but do it she did.

 

With the sun shining on the wild ocean waves, we sat on a Boardwalk bench  and watched the day almost slip away. She walked ahead of me to the fudge store  and I saw her soft rear end wiggle an invitation. My broad had the best boardwalk walk I ever saw.