Page 49 of All Bets are Off

“Want me to wait out here?” I ask Logan.

“No. I want you to hear everything the doctor says. She’ll feel better with you there, anyway.”

We go into an examination room. The nurse if very good with Gloria, who still seems confused.

“What am I doing here?” she asks.

“You’re just here at the doctor’s for a little checkup,” the nurse says brightly, fitting the blood pressure cuff on her arm.

My hand brushes Logan’s, and when I see his face, I lace our fingers together, pressing my palm against his and giving it a little squeeze of reassurance.

We answer some questions, during which time Gloria becomes agitated.

“I want to go home,” she says. “Take me home, Logan.” She looks at him the way she used to, and I can tell Logan’s struggling with the situation.

“We need to see this doctor, Mom,” he says.

“Nothing’s wrong with me. Please, take me home. I don’t like it here.”

“It’s just a checkup, Gloria,” I say. “Everyone has to have one, right?”

Gloria frowns at me like she isn’t sure who I am or where I came from. A look of fear and vulnerability enters her eyes that’s difficult to see in a woman who has always been so independent and strong, and my heart clenches.

A brief knock at the door announces the doctor’s arrival before he pushes it open and walks in, a manila folder in his hands.

“Mrs. Fields? I’m Dr. Bridges,” he says to Logan’s mother. She looks away from him, and Logan introduces himself and me, briefly explaining about the first appointment in Atlanta—Dr. Bridges confirms he received the file from that office—and Gloria’s behavior since. I supply information when I can. It feels weird to be talking about Gloria with her sitting right here with us, but when I look at her, she doesn’t seem to be listening.

“The first thing I’d like to do is run some tests,” Dr. Bridges says after studying the file for a few moments. “Blood, urine, chest x-ray, brain scan, spinal tap. All of these can be done in the adjacent hospital. I’ll call to check availability.”

“Will she have to stay overnight?” Logan asks.

“With luck, we can get it all done this afternoon, and she’ll be home for supper.” He smiles, then looks at Gloria, who is struggling to button her sweater, fingers fumbling every time she gets the button close to the hole. “I will be right back, Gloria.”

When he’s left the room, Logan looks worriedly at me.

“He sounds very thorough,” I say encouragingly. “That’s good thing.”

Dr. Bridges returns fairly quickly.

“Follow me down this hallway, and we’ll enter the hospital from the back.”

“You have time to do all this today?” Logan asks.

“When I read your mother’s file earlier, I made sure I had the time,” the doctor says, walking with us. The unfamiliar surroundings, the doctor, orsomethinghas triggered Gloria to remember her relationship with Logan, and she clutches his arm as we walk, almost tripping several times before we get to the elevators.

“Do you frequently have trouble walking, Gloria?” Dr. Bridges asks her. When she doesn’t answer, Logan answers for her.

“She’s been a little clumsy in the last week or so. Her eyesight’s also weakened.”

We arrive at a lab, and a nurse leads Gloria to a chair to have blood drawn.

“I’ll get us some coffee,” I tell Logan when Gloria goes into the bathroom with the nurse to get a urine sample. Later, I’m glad I grabbed some crackers and granola bars, too, because the tests take hours. Gloria insists she isn’t hungry, but Logan and I coax her to eat a few crackers. The more time that passes, the more querulous she becomes. The spinal tap, which the nurse tells us can be painful, does not go well. We can hear her yelling all the way down the hall. Logan’s tense, and I do my best to be there for him.

It’s four o’clock before we get to leave. Dr. Bridges makes an appointment with us for the following Monday, and we take an exhausted and complaining Gloria back to her apartment at Garden Oasis.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Logan

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