Chapter 6 - Hospital
All too soon Monday came around. They were told to go together to the hospital between eight and nine o’clock in the morning. Vic was ravenous when he woke, he had been eating double over the weekend and she could feel the hollowness of him refilling. However the doctor’s orders were clear, “nil by mouth” on this day.
So she played the policeman, enforcing the rule while he grimaced, pleading, “So Hungry.”
She returned her sweetest smile, “Tough, can’t the man who lived on lizards and frogs for months survive a few hours without breakfast of bacon and eggs. Don’t worry; I’ll have a double burger waiting when you wake.”
“So long as it is you holding it, I guess I can last that long,” he said.
All too soon the taxi was waiting downstairs. They packed light, a change of clothes in an overnight bag they found in the cupboard along with toothpaste and shampoo, and a couple novels from the bookshelf.
The hospital was familiar from her pregnancy visits and several of the nurses knew her by sight, now a minor celebrity. They waved and smiled. She was due for her own check up on Wednesday and hoped that would be the day that Vic was discharged. After filling in lots of forms they were taken to a private room and Vic was shown his bed. They settled in, both sitting on the bed, side by side.
The morning passed in a steady stream of visitors, Buck and Julie popped in to give best wishes, half an hour later it was Vic’s mother and sister, followed by her own parents and cousin, Ruth, who had stayed over the weekend and was flying back to Sydney tonight. Anne sent apologies; she, David, Sandy and Alan were tied up. So for half an hour she had a nice chat with her Mum, Dad and Ruth. She liked the way they had accepted Vic into her life, sensing this man’s importance to her.Then it was just them again. She could tell Vic was anxious, she thought it must be about the operation. She asked, “What is the matter? Are you scared about what they are going to do today?”
He shook his head, “No, not really, I just have this bad and anxious feeling in the back of my mind, as if everything since I came back and they let you out of prison is too good to be true. I wish I did not have to leave you, even for a few hours.”
She hugged herself to him, “Well I am here now and all is fine. So let us just keep enjoying what we have, one day at a time. I will stay here today until you wake up after the operation and I will come back each day until they let you out.”
A knock on the door came. It was a nurse with a sedative, saying it was now half an hour until he was taken to be prepped for surgery. Then they were left alone for the last half hour. Vic became dreamy and started to doze in bed. Susan sat next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder, willing all to go well. It seemed only a few minutes until the orderlies arrived with a trolley to take him to the theatre.
Susan walked alongside, holding his hand until the surgical theatre doors where she had to leave him. She gave him a last wave, and watched until the trolley turned the corner out of sight. She knew she needed more clothes, almost nothing she had fit her anymore. Last Friday her father had given her an envelope holding $1000 cash with this in mind. So for the next couple hours, while the surgery proceeded, she decided she would go to Casuarina Shopping Centre and buy a couple loose fitting dresses, that gave space for her babies, and some other bits and pieces, nothing too much, as in a month her shape would change back and her ordinary clothes would fit once again.
Outside a taxi was waiting and it brought her to the shops. She bought a cheap overnight bag and a selection of loose fitting things, two shapeless dresses with a floral pattern and a couple of tracksuits and T shirts for comfort, along with a pair of runners and some undies and socks. Then she indulged in a large ice cream. In sympathy for Vic she had skipped her own breakfast too. Now, with the babies taking a huge share, her blood sugar had fallen away and she was really hungry.
It was time to get back to the hospital; another taxi had her there in no time. Vic was in the theatre and they indicated it would be at least another hour before he was out and awake, but all was proceeding fine.
Emily went to the café and bought a plate of hot food and ate it, while she istracted herself with flicking through magazines to pass the time. They were all old editions. She was pleased, not wanting to take the chance of stumbling across herself in the pages.
She returned to the waiting room outside the theatre. Vic had just come into the recovery ward, the operation completed. It would be another half hour before he was recovered enough to come back to the ward and she could see him. The time passed with excruciating slowness but at last his trolley came out and she walked alongside his barely awake form. He would open his eyes and try and look around then drift back to sleep. She took his hand and held it and, when he looked her way, she gave him a reassuring smile.
In the room the nurse fussed around, checking his observations and saying, “As he comes to his leg is going to painful. I have a shot of fentanyl to give him for pain relief but it will keep him groggy for a few hours.
Vic opened his eyes. “You’re right, it does hurt big time, but at least this time I have a pretty girl to hold my hand and another to give me a jab to make it all float away. Last time it was just me and a huge crocodile for company, so this is definitely an improvement.”
They all laughed.
Then the nurse asked. “Ready for your jab now?”
Vic nodded, “You bet, anything to kill the pain. Christ my leg hurts.”
Soon it was done and the nurse left. At last it was just them. She took his hand, held it and stroked it. “I am so glad it is done and now I have you all to myself,” she said.
“Me too,” he said, fixing her with a boyish grin.
They sat for a while. Vic’s eyes kept closing, as he drifted off, but each time he would pull himself back, and look at her. Finally he said, “I need to keep looking at you, over and over, to convince myself you are real. Did I tell you I love you?”
She smiled back at him, “I think it is the first time but I guessed it, and I love you too.”
Then he said, “I think I would really like to be married to you.”
“Me too,” she said, “but I want you to ask me when you are properly awake, and not full of drugs, before I say yes.”
He nodded. Now it was as if he had set his mind to rest. He drifted off into a deep sleep.