VIII

Walter was wheeled inside the hospital with Sue and Levi following. One of the hospital staff came forward with a clipboard. Levi pawed her as she was called. Sue turned to see who was saying something. 'We need someone who will vouch for any costs being made, he's not insured.' Sue drew a face. 'Of course he's not, he's homeless.'

'That's why, Miss….'

'Thomas, Sue Thomas.' The man scribbled something down on his paper. 'What's the man's name? You relative?'

'No, and his first name is Walter, I don't know his last. I just saw he needed help and that's what he's going to get.'

'Sure', the man said as he filled in some other forms. 'Sign here.'

'I'll read first, if you don't mind.' The man rolled his eyes. 'We ain't going to start anything unless we know someone will vouch.'

'Of course you will. Even more because of this', she said annoyed with the man's behaviour and flashed her badge. 'Now, do what needs to be done and make sure Walter gets everything anyone else would get. I would hate to see an HHS investigation here for refusal.' The man's eyes grew a bit wider. 'You wouldn't…..'

'Depends on what you decide', Sue responded. Then she felt her Blackberry vibrate. She took it out of her pocket to check the caller: Lucy.

'Luce…'

'Have you arrived yet?'

'Yes, Walter is being treated, or rather…he could be any minute now.'

'Trouble?'

'Let's just say someone needed to be reasoned to act', she said as she eyed the man. He smiled a thin, half-hearted smile. Then he hurried away.

'I'll be over in about ten minutes, in your car, figured we couldn't leave it parked downtown.'

'Thanks, very considerate, I'll see you soon.' With nothing to do, and a nurse's prohibition to enter the ER further than the waiting-room she sat down and waited. Levi at her feet.

Shortly after, Lucy joined her. "W-A-L-T-E-R, HIM HOW?" Sue shrugged. "ME NOT KNOW, they're working for a while now." Lucy bit her lip, nodding. She sat down next to Sue and absently ruffled Levi's fur. "Christmas shopping with a twist, right?" Sue frowned. "WHY? HIM NEED HELP. YOU ME KNOW. AGREE YOU?"

"I didn't mean I didn't want to do anything, if that's what you think.."

'Oh', she said. 'I did, for a second.' Lucy smiled. 'That's what I thought.'

A man wearing a doctor's outfit approached. 'Are you here for Mr. Prescott?' Both women frowned. 'Who?'

'Walter Prescott…'

'Oh, yes we are.' The doctor frowned with their answer. Something Sue spotted. 'We called 911 when we saw his condition in St. Matthews, we're neither family nor relatives and he had not said his last name. That's why.' The doctor nodded. 'Alright, fair enough.' He pursed his lips, frowning a little. As if he was reluctant to say anything. 'Is it bad news?', Lucy tried.

'I'm afraid so, Miss….'

'Dotson, Lucy Dotson', she said and introduced Sue too. 'It seems Walter is very ill. Gravely ill in fact.' Sue watched intently, luckily the doc did face her, with enough lighting and, to top it off, a well mannered and clear pronunciation. It made it easier to follow what was being said. And what was being said made her feel sorry.

'I won't give you false hope, just as I have not given Walter any false hope: his lungs are seriously damaged by what we thought would be the pneumonia, he has a very weak heart due to previous infarcts and overall his body is giving up on him.'

'He's going to die, right?'

The doctor nodded. 'Yes. Optimistically we could give him two to three months. Realistically I think he will not make it till New Year's Eve. Perhaps not even through Christmas.'

'You said, what we thought to be pneumonia', said Lucy. 'It is something else?'

'Lung cancer, stage four. The pattern is clear with what we know: coughing blood, pain in the chest. Pneumonia could have been possible, but we ran a blood-cell count and it's in his blood already. There's nothing we can do anymore except giving him painkillers.'

'Does he know?', Sue softly asked. The doctor nodded. 'It was the very first thing he asked: how long do I have left?' Sue felt, strangely enough, defeated by the news about someone she only just met and knew nothing about. Someone who, if fate hadn't put her in St, Matthews, would have never known. Just another anonymous person.

'Can we see him?'

'Yes, of course, since you are apparently the only ones around. We have no record of him, no known family and he's not very talkative about it too. I'll show you his room.' He turned round, and walked out followed by Lucy, Levi and Sue.

۩

When they entered Walter's room he laid in bed, his eyes turned away looking towards the ceiling. He rolled his eyes back to them. 'The lady in red and her friend….'

Sue smiled. 'How are you Walter?' He shrugged. 'Okay I think.'

'The doc told us some bad news…' His eyes shied away. 'I have heard bad news before…'

'But not like this.' His eyes rested on her again, a spark of the old intensity in them had returned. 'You don't know me.'

'We don't, no.'

'Then why would you care? I'm just a homeless man, no-one has ever done anything for me.'

'Then we're the first.' He stared at them. 'Why?', was all he asked. Sue took his hand in hers and gave it a comforting squeeze, she didn't say anything. Walter stared at their hands, and then he quickly turned his head, but Sue saw the glistening in the man's eyes just before he could shy them away.

'Why should there be a reason to do something for someone?', Sue asked him. He kept staring away from her. She tapped him gently on his arm. 'Walter, I'll have to see your face when you answer or say anything.' He turned to her. 'I haven't answered.' She smiled. 'I wouldn't know, now would I?'

He rested his head on his pillow. And minutes crept by without anything being said. Then he suddenly jolted upright. The suddenness of it caught both Sue and Lucy by surprise.

'My stuff!, where's my stuff?', he said frantically eyeing the room, his bed. 'What stuff, Walter?', Lucy asked. 'I got to have it back, it's mine, mine. It's all I have….please….'

Lucy shared a confused and worried look with Sue. 'I don't know where it is. What is it anyway, then we'll ask for it.'

Walter seemed to have drifted away in his own thoughts, the whites of his knuckles shone through for he was clenching the plaid with a sudden force, clinging to it as if it was the last thing to hold on. 'I'll go and ask a nurse', said Lucy and she got up. Sue stayed behind with Walter.

Once outside Lucy walked over to the receptionist with the ER. 'Excuse me, I'm with Mr. Prescott who was brought in, in room seven….'

The woman looked up from her screen. 'Yes?'

'He's worried about 'his stuff' and about getting it back. I don't know what he meant by that, but did he have any possessions with him before he was brought in?' The woman tapped something on the computer. 'Prescott, hmm, let me see…..' Her fingers rapped over the keyboard. 'There're two Prescotts, one Prescott, DHM, and one Prescott, W.'

'It's W. in room seven…'

'Ah, yes, you have to be down the hall, room 1.06, there they store stuff like clothing before handing it back to patients.'

'Thank you.'

A young male nurse, white tennis shoes and green clothing looked up when she rapped on the door. 'I was looking for someone who could help me with getting someone's possessions back.' The man smiled. 'You're looking at him.'

Lucy smiled back. 'Great, it's from Prescott, Walter, room seven…'

He got out of his chair and walked to a shelf and took a box. 'It ain't much, but there you go. Some old photographs and two medals.'

Lucy frowned. 'Medals?'

'Yeah, looked Military to me. I don't know much about them, but they seemed to be special.'

'Can I have a look?' He shrugged. 'You family ?' Lucy shook her head. He pursed his lips. 'Then why do you need the box?'

'We brought him in after we found him. Now he asks for his stuff.'

'I see, well, I don't know, if he permits you, then yeah, go ahead.'

Lucy opened the box, in it were yellowed photographs of young men in uniforms, laughing, showing guns, drinking bottles of beer. And two medals. The man was right in assuming they were something Military. Lucy recognized one of the medals, the Purple Heart.

'He was a veteran of some war. And got awarded for it. This one is a Purple Heart.'

'I thought so, that's for injuries right?' Lucy nodded. Then she closed the lid again. 'I'll take it back to him. Thanks for your help.'

۩

When she came back to Walter's room, he had calmed down a little, staring in the distance, with Sue sitting next to him. When he saw Lucy, Walter tried to get up, but Sue gently placed her hand on his shoulder. 'You have to rest, Walter.'

'Did….did you find it?', he asked, his eyes pleading. Lucy nodded. She put the box on the table adjacent to his bed. 'It's all in here', she said as she shared a look with Sue. It was such a small box, both women both felt sorry for him, that whatever he had achieved in his life and everything that had happened before and after fitted in there, the reminiscents of a life that never blossomed.

Walter took the box and with trembling hands he lifted the lid of it and stared inside, his eyes checking if everything was indeed present. It was. He closed the lid again. He looked at both women. 'Thank you.' He got two smiles in return. Then his body cringed in a spasm as he began to cough fiercely. Out of the corners of his squeezed eyes tears started to drop, with such an intensity the pain ripped through his chest, lungs and his body. Lucy and Sue watched with horror as he fitfully slumped back onto his pillow. 'I'm going to ask a nurse if there can be something he can have to stop these attacks', said Sue as she got up. Wearily Walter stared at her as she left the room.

Outside she met the nurse who had taken care of him. 'I'm afraid there's very little we can do about those attacks', she said sympathetically. 'It would be better for him to be on oxygen with some medication, but even then he will still have them.'

'There's really nothing that will take away the pain?'

'The cancer and a couple of pneumonias over the years have damaged so much, every contraction, even breathing is painful. And with his frail heart, the doses of anaesthetics are limited. Too much will cause his heart to stop.' She wrote something down on a note. 'But I'll see what I can do for him.'

'Thank you.'

A little while later, when Sue had rejoined Lucy and Walter, the nurse and a doctor entered the room. 'We'll give you something to sleep Walter', said the doctor. He looked at the women. 'I'm afraid you have to leave, to give him rest.'

'We'll be off', said Lucy. They said goodbye to Walter and left.