Page 76 of Drawing Home
Kyle returned with two Styrofoam cups filled with weak coffee.
“This waiting is impossible,” she said.
“Do you want me to check and see what’s going on?”
She shook her head. “I already asked.”
“Ask again. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.”
Maybe he was right. Still, after years of working at the hotel front desk, Emma hated to hassle people while they were just doing their job. But this was about Penny, and she couldn’t waste time being polite.
She went up to the nurses’ station and said, “I’m sorry, but I need to check in again. Penny Mapson? Any word on her?”
The nurse looked up wearily and told her they were doing the best they could. “We’re treating over a half a dozen patients from this incident, so please, just be patient. The doctors will speak to everyone.”
Emma told herself that maybe the waiting was a good sign—that Penny was basically fine and the doctors were busy with more serious issues. Not that she wished anyone else’s child harm. But she had to find some way to deal with the fact that her child was somewhere around here and she couldn’t see her.
She returned to the waiting room. Time crawled by until a nurse finally called out, “Mrs. Mapson?”
Emma nearly jumped out of her skin. Kyle stood up with her.
“Please, just wait here,” she told him.
In the hallway, she was met by a reed-thin man with dark olive skin and rimless glasses. His narrow face appeared young but his hair was threaded with gray.
“I’m Dr. Saroyen,” he said, shaking her hand. “Your daughter is going to be fine. Her leg is broken, but luckily it’s not an open fracture.”
“Okay,” Emma said, nodding. “A broken leg.”
“A fractured tibia. She won’t require surgery, and the orthopedist is splinting her leg now.”
“Emma!”
She looked up. Mark was striding down the hallway, dressed in jeans and a sports jacket.Talk about things going from bad to worse.
“Mark, this is Dr. Saroyen. Doctor, this is Penny’s father.”
The doctor repeated the information to Mark. When he finished, Emma asked if she could see her.
“Yes, but before you do, there is one more thing. It was clear that several of the teenagers on the boat were intoxicated at the time of the accident. I asked your daughter before I administered pain medication if she had been drinking or taken any drugs. She admitted she had taken a Percocet earlier in the evening.”
“Awhat?” Emma said. It was a rhetorical question, but the doctor went on to explain that it was an opioid. As if she didn’t know—all too well. She pushed away thoughts of her mother.
“Where the hell did she get that?” Mark said, looking at Emma.
“Not in our house! You know how I feel about prescription drugs.”
“Please,” the doctor said. “This is an important issue but one that should wait for another time. I know Penny is anxious to see you.”
They followed him down the bright corridor.
“You reek of alcohol,” Mark said.
Oh, how she regretted calling him!
Dr. Saroyen opened the door into a room divided by a curtain. Penny was on the far side, sitting on a table, while a woman, presumably the orthopedist, wrapped her leg with a wet, bright pink bandage. Penny’s hair was frizzy and wild, and she had a bruise on her cheek. Emma’s heart ached. She hugged Penny, apologizing to the doctor, although she didn’t care if she was interrupting the splinting. She began to cry.
“I’m okay, Mom,” Penny said.
