Chapter 8: Recuperation

Mom went back to work down in the ER the next morning, which I found a blessing. I mean, I loved my mother, but she was driving me completely nuts hanging around the room with me. She still dropped in at lunchtime, but I could handle that. Otherwise, I had her bring in a few books from home that I could read holding up with my left hand.

Kelly came over after school on Tuesday. She had worked out an arrangement to take a different bus over to the hospital, and then either Mom would take her home, or Mrs. O’Connor would come over to get her. She brought over my homework, and a big ‘Get Well’ card signed by everybody in my homeroom. I still wasn’t sure about my feelings for Kelly, but when she came in the door, I felt something I hadn’t felt before with any other girl.

She handed over the Get-Well card, and then had to help me open it. I told her the latest info on my condition. Early in the morning Doctor Friedell, the orthopedics doctor, had spent the morning putting all my bones back in place and putting casts on. My right arm had a cast from just above my elbow all the way down to my fingers, plus splints for most of my fingers. My left foot was also in a cast, but that was a lot smaller. My ribs simply got taped up. Otherwise, my prognosis was good. I would probably be allowed to go home on Friday, assuming my kidneys healed, and they were able to remove the catheter. The thinking was that I would have some degree of mobility using a single crutch on my left side. On the downside, I was probably going to be wearing the casts for a couple of months. They might be adjusted or scaled down after a few weeks and I could probably get a walking cast on my foot at some point, but I was wearing casts for six to eight weeks, minimum. After that I would need some physical therapy and a lot of exercise to get back into shape. On the positive side, I would probably be able to be in condition and healthy in time for football practice this summer.

Kelly also brought over a copy of the Monday edition of the Matucket Times-Dispatch, the local newspaper. I made the bottom of page B-3 in the Metro section - “Gang Beats Local Hero” - which mostly got things right, though they couldn’t publish any names. All four assailants had been charged with aggravated battery but had been released into their parent’s custody. Conspicuously mentioned was the fact that I went down while protecting my girlfriend from sexual assault. “You’re famous!” gushed Kelly.

“How can I be famous when they can’t even publish my name”, I replied.

“Well, you’re a hero.”

I laughed at that. I was starting to get the hang of speaking around the stitches, or maybe I just wasn’t hurting as much. “Yeah? How come the hero on television just has a few flesh wounds?”

“Well, maybe you’re not that heroic a hero,” she teased. “You’re still my hero.” With that she leaned in and carefully gave me a very long kiss, and even slipped me a little tongue.

I couldn’t do much in return, but I was able to bring my left hand up and hold her head close. I sighed as she finally pulled away. “One of these days I’ll be able to give you a decent kiss.”

“I can’t wait!”

Any hopes for another kiss were interrupted by a nurse coming in to check my vitals. Kelly blushed and opened a backpack and pulled out one of my binders and some textbooks. “We didn’t have your locker combination, so they had to use a bolt cutter and take your lock off. We put a new one on. I’ll give you the combination when you go back to school. Don’t be surprised if they have a banner or something up when you get back. You’re famous right now.”

I rolled my eyes. “Great! Just what I wanted.”

“Randy and the other boys have all been kicked out of school. I don’t think I told you yesterday, but I was called down to the office yesterday and had to tell Mrs. Hollister what happened. She had read about it in the Times-Dispatch and wanted to know if it was true. I don’t know how she figured it was them and you. I guess that detective talked to her.”

“Huh. I didn’t think she could do that, I mean, it didn’t happen at the school,” I said.

“I don’t know. I think what did it for her was the fact that Randy was planning on, well...”

“He was planning to come after you. I don’t know if he would have raped you, or just hit you, too,” I said bluntly. Kelly blushed and nodded. “I’m just glad I was there to help you. I think your dad was right. Candy Pants would have come after you eventually, no matter what, simply because of me.”

“Anyway, I heard he was going over to East Matucket. I don’t know about the other guys, but they weren’t in school, either.”

We chatted for a few minutes more, and then she went over my assignments. She was going to leave my books with me, but doing my homework was going to be a problem. I was right-handed, and my right arm had fiberglass and splints on it all the way down to the fingernails! How I was going to take tests or quizzes I had no idea! Kelly offered to write for me, and she had a computer at home. We had one, too, in Dad’s study. Once I got home, I could probably figure out typing one-handed. We joked about having a mouse taped to the cast so I could move it around that way.

At some point, schoolwork began to be less interesting than Kelly, probably because she kissed me again. I wasn’t quite sure about my feelings for Kelly, but I wasn’t going to complain about that form of medical treatment. That’s how my mother found us when she came up at the end of her shift. We heard a loud “Hmmmmm!” sort of sound as Mom cleared her throat at the open door.

Kelly jumped back, her face as red as her hair. I looked a bit less embarrassed. I could honestly say that I wasn’t the instigator, simply because I could barely move!

“Interesting sort of homework,” she said. “Biology?”

Both Kelly and I babbled something, and Mom ignored it. “Cool it around here, you two. Don’t forget you’ve got some extra equipment at the moment, Grim.” The reminder of the catheter made me blush as red as Kelly! I sure hadn’t mentioned that to her! Kelly left me with my books and homework sitting on the tray table that was next to me, and then Mom told me she’d be by later and took off with Kelly. Kelly shot me a guilty look combined with a smile as she waved going out the door.

The rest of the week went about the same. Detective Crowley brought over a typed statement for me to sign, and then he had to hunt down a nurse to witness me marking an ‘X’ on it with my left hand. He was putting together a big stack of paperwork for the District Attorney, including reports on my medical condition and photos of me taken in the emergency room. That would show that the crime was ‘aggravated’ battery and not ‘simple’ battery.

Bo Effner and Brax Hughes came over one day and brought over a couple of other guys from the JV team. Tony Vancuso was the right-side defensive tackle and Jerry “Moose” Moosbrugger was the left-side defensive end. Both would be moving up to varsity with me, assuming that I was well enough to play. It would truly piss me off if Candy Pants had managed to bust me up so bad I couldn’t play football again. I promised myself that I would hunt him down after he got out of jail and bust him up one-on-one if that were the case.

Other visitors who came over were my aunts and uncles and cousins. All my cousins were guys - Mom said there was a flood of testosterone in the family - and every one of them had the same reaction. I looked like a zombie, only worse. Great!

Regardless, the clinical diagnosis by Thursday evening was that I was probably going to live long enough to be released on Friday and go home. The highlight of the day was the removal of the catheter. That would allow me to get out of bed and hobble around. I was also dreading it. I mean, really! Somebody stuck a tube up my dick! At least I was unconscious when it went in. It couldn’t have been all that much fun. Now they were going to have to yank it back out? What if it got stuck or something? Would it have to be cut out? I hadn’t even gotten around to using it with anybody else, only myself at that point.

This wasn’t something I could talk about to anybody, either. Mom was a nurse, but she was my mother. Dad ... no I wasn’t talking about my dick to Dad. Kelly? Forget it! I just worried all day long and tried to steel myself for the pain. I had once been hit in the nuts in gym class by the long knot on the end of the rope we had to climb. I figured this would be even worse.

Mom didn’t make it any better. She was there when the nurse came in to remove it. She laughed and said, “Want me to do it, Grim?”

“Mom! No!”

Nurse Carter laughed at that as she began to pull on some rubber gloves.

“Grim, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before,” said my mother.

“Maybe so, but not in a long while!”

She laughed. “You guys think it’s so special. I’ve got a father, two brothers, a husband, and three sons. You’re all the same, Grim.”

“Forget it!” I grabbed the bedsheet and held it in place.

The nurse had been laughing all through this as she prepared for removing it. At that point she pulled down the bedsheet. Thankfully Mom looked away, even though she was smiling. Nurse Carter quipped, “Yep, all the same.” Mom laughed and I groaned. “Ready?” asked the nurse.

At that moment Mom pointed towards the window. “What’s that?”

I twisted my head to the side and looked but didn’t see anything. I felt this weird tugging down below, but that was over in a couple of seconds. “What?”

“My mistake.” She turned back as Nurse Carter pulled the sheet up.

“All done,” said Nurse Carter.

“Huh?”

“That was it. Come on. We want to get you up and see if it works, or if it’s still broke,” she said

I was stunned by how fast it went, though I really wasn’t interested in repeating the process. The nurse and Mom helped me to sit up and swung me around so that my legs were hanging over the side. I was wearing one of those gowns that was open in the back, so the entire world could see my butt. Between the two of them they got me to my feet (actually, my foot), and helped me into a wheelchair. They pushed that over to the bathroom and wheeled me in, and then Mom left while Nurse Carter helped me up and onto the toilet. I blushed, but managed to pee, and then turned bright red as the need for a dump came over me. The nurse helped me stay upright as I twisted around and managed to wipe my tail with my left hand.

It was going to be a monumental pain in the ass!

Before I got back in the bed, Mom and Nurse Carter changed the sheets. Then I was helped back into bed. The nurse said, “Good news. Everything seems to be working. I’ll let the doctor know, and I’ll get somebody up from Physical Therapy to show you how to use the crutch. You’ll probably be home for lunch tomorrow.”

“Thank you! Don’t take this wrong, but I want to get out of here.”

She laughed. “Don’t take it wrong, but we want you to go, too.”