Chapter 9 Necessity is the Mother of Invention
"If you want to keep her occupied, but please don't let her take apart the appliances – again," Leena pleaded with Gloria. "The last time, the repair man asked if we had ten kids in the house."
Gloria smiled at the idea of Helena's antics equating to ten children as she sat with Leena having coffee. She was up before the rest of the house after checking in on her patient to make sure she was sleeping and alone. She didn't need to tell Myka that HG was on bed rest but she worried that Helena would sweet talk Myka into staying with her last night. She pointed out to the patient that Myka needed her rest, too and could tell that Helena did not care to have that pointed out to her. 'Humph, as if I didn't know that myself.' HG mumbled. But Gloria had witnessed too many times when Helena undid Myka's common sense and finagled her way into getting what she wanted.
Now the sound of showers turning on and doors opening and closing meant the house was awake. Artie came in for his usual meeting and asked Gloria how the patient was doing. She reported that she was making good progress, no fever but today the bandage would have to be changed and asked if Myka could stay a little longer at lunch to help with that.
Helena agreed to stay in bed and Myka came in to say goodbye. "Please take care of yourself," Myka implored but HG said that was what Gloria was there for. "Then take care of Gloria and don't give her a …eh….," and the words stuck in Myka's throat because she did not want to upset the Brit.
"You need not fear that I can do anything to that domineering woman," HG said allowing Myka to slip off the hook.
"I will see you at lunch time," Myka said kissing the patient's head and then added, "If you're good," and Helena pretended to be insulted.
Truth be told, nothing would keep her from seeing Myka for lunch today. She lay there listening to the inhabitants get ready for work and then there was a hush over the house. She waited to hear the slow climbing steps of the woman who would be her assistant today in bringing the brilliant idea she had last night to fruition. Gloria walked in with a tray of tea, toast and scrambled eggs - very dry the way HG liked them.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Gloria greeted her favorite patient.
"By any chance, does any of your limited medical training afford you the skills required to operate a soldering gun?" HG asked in seriousness.
"Well, let me see," Gloria said not taking offense and placing the tray down in front of the propped up Brit. "What exactly is that?" she asked and ignored HG rolling her eyes.
"I can operate it with my left hand but you will have to hold the wire to attach to the screen," HG said and she lifted up a piece of screen. Gloria looked at the object and wondered where she had gotten it. HG guiltily looked at the window. The nurse went over to the window and lifted it up. There in the screen - that was secured outside the window - was a hole, the same size as the screening material on the bed. '"How did you? Why did you? Helena!" Gloria said looking around to see how she did it. There on the night table was a wire cutter.
"I have a brilliant idea," HG said to the stunned nurse.
"Is your brilliant idea to make it more difficult for your body to heal? Lord girl, you cannot be left alone!" Gloria said worried that the action had caused her discomfort. "What will you tell Leena now?"
"I will tell her that I needed screening material for the cast you and I are going to make today!" HG said with great enthusiasm.
"The what? Oh darlin', you can't go making up things just cause you don't like what you got. Now you're gonna become an inventor?" Gloria asked and laughed.
"Madam!..." HG started to say because of the audacity of such a statement but thought better of it. No need to upset the woman whose assistance she needed today.
"Come on, you need your energy if you're gonna go around cutting up screens and God knows what else," Gloria said putting the napkin across her chest. "I suppose you can eat this by yourself?" Gloria asked because she knew HG was hell bent on proving she did not need any assistance.
Helena obliged the woman and ate with veracity, not because she was hungry, but because she knew Gloria would not let her up until she ate. By the time Gloria came back up with the pills she had forgotten, the plate was clean and the tea cup empty. Helena had no time to enjoy it this morning.
"My word you are hungry today. Well, that's a good sign," Gloria said and handed Helena the antibiotic. "Do you need the pain pill?"
"No, not at all," Helena lied because it made her groggy. "Now help me get dressed. We have a lot to do."
Gloria got the clothes and helped HG into them. As glad as she was to have the patience's cooperation, she wondered at what cost. The stairs proved to be a difficult task still and HG held onto the banister and took them one at a time with great effort. Gloria begged her to consider staying upstairs but HG would not hear of it. That would be too hard on Gloria who would then have to come up two flights of stairs from the basement. "Just give me a little time to do this and then I promise, I will rest," HG said.
"Now what am I getting for you sweetie?" Gloria asked even though Helena felt she had been extremely explicit and careful in describing the soldering gun, role of wire and assorted other items she needed.
"It looks just a like gun," HG explained again. Gloria went downstairs into the vast basement and found the items that HG had described. For her part, Helena texted Pete and asked if she could borrow one of his remote controls from his collection of cars that were operated by the devices. He affirmed she could but begged her not to dismantle anything in his room.
Helena spread out all the things that Gloria brought her and apologized for asking her to make a trip back upstairs to get the remote. 'If Dr. Calder saw me doing this, I'd have a lot to answer for', Gloria thought as she descended the stairs with the device in hand.
"Gloria?" Vanessa said from the front door entry. "How is Agent Wells? Resting I hope."
Gloria grabbed her heart with the hand holding the remote and quickly put it down. "Well, resting for Agent Wells, yes," Gloria answered hoping the doctor did not go directly into the dining room.
"Is she upstairs? I wanted to look at her burns," Vanessa said approaching the staircase.
"Agent Wells is …. In the living room," Gloria answered and prayed that HG heard the doctor's voice. All the doctor had to see was HG with a soldering gun in her hand! But HG did hear the doctor come in and moved herself to the couch where she laying when they came into the room.
"Agent Wells," Gloria said with more surprise in her voice than she wished. "Dr. Calder is here." She couldn't look at HG who had the most mischievous look in her eyes.
"How are you feeling Agent Wells?" the doctor asked and sat on the coffee table next to the couch. She immediately pulled at HG's clothes - the way doctors do when they want to see your injuries and don't need permission. "This needs to be changed today," she said to Gloria who already knew that.
"I was going to do it after lunch," Gloria said because it could be very uncomfortable. The doctor checked HG's head which hurt only when she pressed on it and looked at her lip where the cut was still tender. "You'll put the salve on the burns?" she asked and then looked at HG's hand. "This looks a little swollen. Are you keeping it elevated and resting it?" she looked right at HG.
"Oh yes," Helena lied because she wanted this woman out of her hair and the house.
"It looks swollen to me. Make sure she keeps it elevated," Vanessa said to Gloria. Gloria walked the doctor to the door and by the time she got back, HG had pulled herself up and was back at the dining room table.
"Helena," Gloria said in a tone that mothers use when they break your name up into syllables. "You heard Doctor Calder say you needed to rest."
"I'll rest in a minute. Just help me with this," the Brit pleaded as she handed Gloria the gun. "Now, when I put the wire on the mesh, you point the gun at it," HG instructed and the nurse gave in because she knew HG would be unbearable if she didn't let her do this.
"I'm not helping you any more if you don't stop and take a rest," Gloria said an hour later because HG had not stopped for a minute barking orders and using her limited mobility to attach wires to the screen. "Just one more thing," HG implored and pulled a cold storage bag up from the table. "Help me cut this," she said and took the large scissors to it. "I hope Leena does not mind you doing this although - it is better than the small appliances," Gloria said but HG paid her no mind. The pain was getting worse but she didn't want to let on for fear the nurse would cease her activity.
Helena talked her way into another forty five minutes and at the end of it, the mess screen was encased between the material of the cold storage container. "Give me your arm," HG commanded and Gloria complied, amazed at what Helena had just made. The material was soft and waterproof and felt cool against the nurse arm. Helena grabbed the remote control and turned the wheel gently. The device made the contraption on Gloria's arm close gently and securely and molded itself to her shape. If Gloria didn't know better, she would think her own arm was in a cast.
"This is amazing! How did you come up with this?" the nurse asked.
"You should see some of the things I have come up with," Helena said without thinking. "Now take this one off," the Brit said of her own cast.
"What?" Gloria asked.
"Take this off now and I will use the new one," HG said of the next logical step.
"Helena, I can't take yours off. You have to saw it off, honey," Gloria explained.
"Go downstairs, then. On my workbench is a saw…..," HG said undeterred.
But Gloria refused and reminded Helena she had promised to rest if she allowed her to work on this project of hers. HG gave it her best shot – in fact several shots – to persuade the nurse to retrieve the saw but she would not budge. "My job is to take care of you even if you refuse to do it yourself," Gloria said trying to get out of the Wellsian cast.
"You know I can call Myka with my other hand and tell her not to come home at lunch, right?" Gloria said and got immediate cooperation.
Helena retired to the couch and wouldn't admit it but she had overdone it. Her head hurt, her side burned from sitting up so long and she could feel the cast on her arm getting tighter. She drifted off to sleep as Gloria helped Leena with lunch.
"What the heck happened to the screen in HG's window?" Leena asked scanning the kitchen to make sure everything was in place.
"Oh, she was a little bored this morning," Gloria said.
"Oh brother," Leena said resigned to the fact that they had an inventor living under their roof who thought the entire house was one big supply closet.
If Helena's plan for lunch was to have Myka to herself, she was in for a letdown. She woke up to the sound of everyone coming in the front door. She couldn't exactly complain to Gloria who had nothing to do with the fact they were all there for lunch but she looked at the nurse as if to say 'this is not what I bargained for'.
It wasn't only the abundant leftovers that made everyone come back but also because Artie had some updates. Myka asked him to wait until lunch was over but one thing lead to another and before he knew it he was telling HG; "So the Regents have decided that they will handle the matter with Karen Carson. The authorities had agreed to hand her over and the matter will be settled." Helena sat there quietly but her breathing sped up and became labored. It was the first time since the incident that Helena gave thought to her assailant. She remembered hearing the sound of the bullet shattering the glass and heard one of the EMT's calling for backup for a wounded suspect. She had no idea that Karen was in the same hospital as she was and no one told her that she had survived. Helena never asked.
"What exactly does that mean?" Helena finally said looking at Artie.
"It means you don't need to worry. She will be taken care of," he said evading the details because he was under strict orders not to disclose them. That didn't appease the Brit at all and Myka worried about the look on Helena's face.
After lunch, Artie, Pete and Claudia returned to the Warehouse while Myka stayed behind to help.
"Now darlin, I ain't gonna lie, this is gonna hurt some," Gloria said as she sat on one side of HG with Myka on the other. She had suggested HG go back upstairs because she would need her rest after this ordeal was over. She explained in detail to Myka that as gentle as you tried to be, taking the bandage off a burn could be painful and then applying the salve meant you were touching the wound. "You'll have to hold onto her, Myka," Gloria said.
Myka pulled HG's face to look at her. "Squeeze my hands as tight as you can, Helena," Myka said. Helena was about to dismiss the suggestion when the pain seared across her abdomen and tears filled her eyes. "Oh bloody hell," Helena said in a pain ridden whisper as she held onto Myka's hands. Myka leaned down and kissed her forehead. "OK, Hel. It's ok."
"OK, Helena. The worst is over. Good girl," Gloria said when she was done dressing the wound.
And then in a rare slip of the tongue for the mild mannered woman, Gloria said out loud – "I'd like to get my hands on the son of a bitch who did this to you," and immediately apologized for her language. It made Helena smile in spite of the pain.
"Show Myka my invention," Helena instructed Gloria as she drifted back off to sleep.
Gloria put her hand on Myka's back and rubbed it. She knew seeing Helena like this – in so much pain – was tough for Myka. "I'll take good care of her," she assured Myka. Knowing that - was the only thing that would allow Myka to leave.
Gloria had just said goodbye to Myka when the doorbell rang. She opened it to see the pale young man she had attended to only a couple of days ago in Detroit. He looked a lot healthier than he did before the antibiotic took effect.
"Hello, Mr. Dumont," Gloria greeted him. "Helena was expecting you."