2
"Jethro, if you don't sit down, I'm gonna put ya down." Jed looked up at his pacing nephew. They'd been sitting in the waiting room for two hours now while the doctors examined Junior and nerves were wearing thin. All of them were on edge and jumped whenever they saw a nurse or a Doctor headed in their direction.
Well, all of them but Jane. She was sitting quietly in a chair, making no sound and acknowledging the presence of no one. Ellie Mae tried to get her to talk, even offered to take a cab back home and get one of her critters to bring back and cheer her up but Jane merely shook her head. After her initial reaction to her son's injury, she'd made no other sound and in fact barely moved.
Jed was beginning to be as afraid for her as he was his great nephew. She looked on the verge of more tears but she didn't cry. She made no noise at all. "Now, don't you worry none, Jane. That boy's gonna be alright." He patted her hand but she pulled it away and wordlessly turned her head.
Jed looked up at Granny and could see she was as worried as he was about her. But the both of them knew there was nothing they could about her at the moment except be at her side.
Finally, a white coated doctor, tufts of gray hair around a bare dome and glasses perched neatly on his bulbous nose, made his way urgently down the hall towards them. "I'm Dr. Hays. Are you the family of Jethro Bodine, Jr.?" He inquired.
"We is." Jed stood up and offered a hand. "I'm his uncle Jed and these here is his is Ma and Pa." He gestured to Jethro, who stood up, nervously wadding his hat in his hand, and Jane, who didn't stand but looked inquiringly at the doctor.
"How is he, Doctor?" Jethro asked anxiously. "How's my little'un."
"Well," Hays shrugged. "He's alive but he's seriously hurt. He has multiple contusions as well as a sprained left wrist. But..."
"What's a contusion?" Jethro frowned. He hated big words despite his education.
"A contusion is a bruise a..."
"Ohhhh." Jethro halfway smiled. "Well, ain't nothing wrong with a few bruises. Heck, he's a boy. Boy's get bruises all the time."
"Well, perhaps." The doctor replied. But that's not the whole issue. You see my major concern here is his head trauma. I was told he fell down some stairs."
"That's right." Jed nodded. "A big long flight of em."
Hays nodded. "Well, that certainly accounts for the knot on his head and the swelling."
"Swelling?" Granny spoke up for the first time. She considered herself to be rather the family doctor and she knew a few poultices that would help heal swelling. If that was all that was wrong, he'd be just fine. She was just thinking they could all relax until the doctor spoke again.
"Yes." Dr. Hays went on. "He has some swelling on the brain. It's basically rendered him unconscious..." He stopped and revised his wording after looking at the people in front of him. "It's put him to sleep and it is likely to keep him that way until the swelling goes down."
"Well, aint they no poultices or nothing you kin put on him to make that swellin' go down?" Ellie inquired. "Granny, here, knows a heap about such thangs. Maybe she could fix up something."
"I'm afraid there are no poultices that would help in this situation." Dr. Hays shook his head with an arched brow. "It's not that kind of swelling. You see…"
"Well, how do you know?" Jethro interrupted him. "It could be. Ain't ya even willin' to let Granny try?"
"No," Hays shook his gray head again. "You all don't understand. It's not…"
Swellin' is swellin'." Granny put in. "And I know all kinds of thangs fer that."
"Yes, but…" The doctor tried again.
"But what?" Jethro demanded. "Doctor, I want…"
"Let him be!" Jane suddenly stood up, her red flushed face reflecting her grief and fury. "Stop it and let him be! Can't you see? He's trying to say my son is dying. Don't you see that?" She glared at the others as they turned towards her. She wanted to say more but her strength suddenly failed her and her legs buckled. Jethro barely caught her as she slumped to the floor unconscious.
TBC
