Part 4.3 – Emergency Contact
Perry sat in the waiting area, his head in his hands, eyes riveted to the floor. He couldn't look at Mae, couldn't look at Jamie or Robbie, and he sure as hell couldn't look at Alice Street. The orderlies had escorted him to a corner in the waiting area, forced him into a chair, and now stood guard on either side of him in case he should attempt another run at Della's room.
Nurse Cynthia had emerged from room three-ten, her normally immaculate, starched uniform rumpled and stained a sickening mixture of orange and green, carrying bed linens similarly stained. Close at her heels was Louise, her uniform not as stained, but still showing evidence of Della's 'spell'. Perry's knees had begun to shake and his struggles against restraining hands resumed in earnest as he tried in vain to enter Della's room. It took four men and Mae to drag him away, with Alice Street bringing up the rear, her hazel eyes – Della's eyes – dark with shock. Only Mae seemed solicitous of his feelings, and every once in a while patted his knee. Everyone else avoided him entirely, their distance and combined silence a resounding rebuke of his behavior.
He wouldn't apologize. They must know he had been frantic about Della. How would they have reacted if they had stepped off the elevator into a scene like that?
Mae patted his knee again. "Kathy said when they get Della cleaned up and settled she'll come out and talk to us."
Perry raised his head. "Why does she need to be cleaned up, Mae? What happened? And why is Kathy back so soon?"
Jamie Street removed an ice pack from his eye, which was nearly swollen shut. "She came with us."
"What are you all doing here?"
"I called them," Mae reminded him. "I called them before I left home."
"Kathy called, too," Robbie Street added.
"The only person who didn't call was you," Alice Street joined in, her voice low and steady, so much like her daughter's.
Perry's temper flared. "That's because I was with your daughter. I promised I wouldn't leave her."
"So she could have died without us ever knowing she was sick," Robbie stated flatly.
"No," Perry shook his head emphatically. "That was never an option. If I wasn't leaving her, she sure as hell wasn't leaving me."
"You could have requested a phone in her room or asked someone to call," Alice Street pointed out, her voice rising a bit. "How could you not contact me? She's my daughter, Mr. Mason. I should have been called right away."
Perry ran his hands through his hair. "She became ill so quickly. All I could think about was getting her fever down and stopping the convulsion…"
"Convulsion!" Alice Street sat forward in alarm, flinging an angry look at her sister. "You didn't tell us anything about a convulsion."
Mae looked from her sister to Perry Mason and her eyes hardened. "I didn't know anything about a convulsion."
Perry's misery mounted. Her family, even Mae, didn't understand, didn't grasp how sick she had been, how he had acted on instinct and couldn't leave her for fear that she might stop breathing. And he couldn't have left her once she was in the hospital either. Not for a moment.
"What I want to know is why she was in Carmel and not home if she was so sick." Jamie was once again holding the ice pack to the left side of his face, so it was only one brown eye that questioned Perry.
"It was just a cold," Perry said defensively. "We finished a trial Friday and she was tired and achy. After a bath and a good night's sleep, she was fine. Saturday she had a sneezing fit that was frightening, but afterward she was fine again. She didn't have much of an appetite Sunday, so I forced her to eat and drink lots of tea. By early evening Sunday it was apparent she might actually be quite ill, but even then she rallied." He felt his face flush. She certainly had rallied. "And then she spiked a fever and started to convulse."
Everyone stared at him, each lost in their own questioning thoughts as to how he had such first-hand knowledge of the progression of Della's illness.
"Well, we're here now and can see to it that she's properly taken care of," Alice Street said briskly.
Perry's spine stiffened. "She's been very well taken care of."
"And we thank you for everything you've done, Mr. Mason, sincerely. But we're here now, and we'll take over."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Mrs. Street."
"Mr. Mason, she's my daughter."
"But she's my responsibility, Mrs. Street."
Alice Street stared at him incredulously. "What on earth! I'm her mother! What do you mean she's your responsibility?"
Perry met Della's mother's stare almost defiantly. "You're her mother, but I'm her emergency medical contact. If she cannot lucidly make her own decisions, I am legally empowered to make them. Not you, not Mae, and not her brothers. Me."