Chapter 121

She did, and I called Peter and asked him and Charles to prepare for hosting the show tonight. Damn it! It hurts even more this time. I may have broken something important.

“A doctor is on his way ... so are your parents,” Jenn said putting on clothes.

“It smells like sex in here, do something about this please ... one of you?”

Yeh pain had actually increased, when Janice flew through the door, “Oh my god Michael, what happened?”

I was still on the ground, holding myself just above my right knee. The pain was shooting up and down my right leg.

“I must have had a bad dream, and I rolled off the bed landing on the same leg in the same spot. It hurts like Hell, Mom!”

Brian and Brigitte got hold of me and had me sitting on the bed as people started coming in. Stu and Izzy broke through. “Michael, if you wanted a night off, you didn’t have to break your leg to do it,” Stu said getting a slap from his wife.

“EXCUSE ME!” the Doctor said parting the masses of people like Moses and the Red Sea.

“Clear out,” Janice said, “Except for Charles, Peter and Jennifer.”

“We’re staying,” Stuart said, clutching Princess who had started to cry.

“OK, everybody else, please ... quickly?” my mother said.

“Have you broken this leg before?” he asked me after gingerly feeling my leg.

“Yes, he has,” Jennifer said. “He was beaten up a few years back and the three boys practically killed him.”

“She’s my wife and is overstating things just a little, but yes, I broke my leg ... something they called a green stick break. I never asked what that meant at the time. It that what this is doc? By the way, my name is Michael Thomas.”

“I know who you are, I have purchased ten tickets for your show this evening. By the way, my name is Doctor James Curran. We need to get you to the hospital and get a cast ASAP. The EMTs are on their way.”

“OK, guys ... Peter and Charles, you know what to do, use Mom as a guide and Stuart if you need to. You have all done this before, now do it again ... this time for the people of San Diego. I assume that by the time the show is over, I will have a cast on. Pick me up from... ?”

The doctor didn’t much appreciate my presumptiveness, but said, “He will be at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital on Zion Avenue. He will need a doctor’s OK to leave the hospital.”

“Unless I go AMA, isn’t that correct, Doctor?”

“Yes, of course,” he said. “You are as competent a patient as I have heard you are everything else.”

The EMTs arrived as Princess gave me a quick kiss as I left with them. The hallway was lined with my Society, as the word had been passed quickly from person to person. They didn’t strap my head down or anything; it was just the indignity of it all. Jenn was with me all the way in the ambulance and gave me a kiss goodbye.

“Pack for me,” I said as the door was closed.

Dammit!

I did have my phone with me, and it was fully charged ... finally some good news. They got me to the ER of Kaiser Permanente, and I was sent directly into a room by myself, and they moved me to the bed. It took three people.

Doctor Curran had come along and he called in a nurse to help off with my pants. A middle-aged, but nicely shaped black woman came in and said, “Off with your pants, Mr. Thomas.”

“You hadn’t even bought me a drink and you are expecting me to take off my pants ... you first?”

“I heard you were a scoundrel of sorts. I’m married with six children,” she said breaking into a husky laugh.

“It doesn’t show,” I said, as she began to unzip my pants.

“Let me do it, please?” I said, slapping at her hands noticing how delicate they were.

I could only get them to my knees, and she got them off me. “Put your leg up and lay it flat, please?”

My doctor came in the room saying, “We are going to first take an x-ray to determine exactly how broken your leg is. Is it very uncomfortable at the moment, on a scale...”?

“ ... From one to ten,” I said. “With ten being the worst pain you have ever had ... I would call it a nine and 127/128ths, but not quite a ten.”

“You have got the right attitude, Michael,” he said. “If the break is as I suspect, we will have you in a cast within the hour. Try not to stress out.”

After the time it took to take x-rays, and several doctors looking them over, since Doc Curran had left, it was decided I had a non-displaced simple fracture. I had to endure some manual manipulation, but when they brought in the goodies to put a cast on, I was aghast.

“What is that stuff?” I asked pulling my head up to see the materials she had.

“Have you never had a cast before? I thought you did,” my nurse said.

“It was below the knee and above the ankle. That looks very difficult to walk with.”

“The doctor said you would need a complete ankle to upper leg cast. That is what I’m about to put on you, Mr. Thomas.”

“Call the doctor, now!”

“Mr., Thomas...”

“NOW!” I demanded.

“What is going on in here, nurse?” Doc Curran said over the phone that was being held up against my ear for me.

“I cannot have a cast that disables my ankle and my knee, I’m a professional performer and I don’t have the time for this full leg harness I’m about to be strapped into. Call my mother if you need to, but I refuse this treatment. Exactly, where is this break on my leg?”

“Your fibula (Calf Bone), exactly midway between your patella and where your foot connects to your fibula.”

“Do I have a corresponding break on my tibia?”

“No, why?”

“This is exactly where my previous break occurred, and they gave me a cast from just above the Tarsals to just below the Patella.”

“Nurse take a look at the that x-ray again, please?” the doctor requested.

She looked over it is saying, “I see the remodeling, Doctor. May I give him an Aqua cast of that length, please?”

“Go ahead, on my authority. Do I need to come back?”

“No Doctor,” she said. “I have put on over 500 of these Aqua casts. Goodbye, Sir.”

“Are you some kind of very young doctor, Mr. Thomas?” she asked me. “I thought you were a singer and performer?”

“I know what I know, because this has happened before. While I was laid up, I researched it, because I was told there was a chance of it happening again, sooner than later. While you are doing that, may I use my phone, please?”

“Yeah, go right ahead,” she said. “This may be a little uncomfortable, Mr. Thomas.”

“I doubt that, and call me Michael, please?”

“My name is Sheila, how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind at all, I just turned sixteen just a few days ago, but I have a wife ... sorry?”

“You certainly are very sure of yourself. I like that in my men,” she said with something of a cackle.

She began the processes of putting on my aqua cast, as I asked, “Is it true?”

“Is what true, Michael?”

“That once you go black, you never turn back,” I said as straight-faced as I could.

Her giggles morphed to a wonderful loud laugh and she said, “If I was younger and you weren’t married, I would likely let you find that out on your own Mr. Thomas.”

She went on with the application explaining every step she was doing. She just transformed in front of my eyes ... it was very cool. As was the cast on my leg.

I was taken back to my room and I got a text from Princess that had a picture of her bare breasts. There was a note attached, ‘Stuart took the picture.’ My naughty sister.

I got my ear buds from my pants and listened to music as I fell asleep wondering how everybody was doing.

Sometime after midnight, Brian, Janice, Jenn, Princess, Peter, Charles and Stuart all showed up. Dad handed Charles a piece of paper who showed it to me -- a check for $8,043,000.

“Sheila, get the doctor, I’m leaving now.”

“Just you wait a minute, Mr. Michael. I will be right back,” she said.

Before anybody could say anything, Doctor C was there saying, “It appears that Mr. Thomas is ready for travel. All I ask is that he stay off his feet for a minimum of 48 hours.”

“Doctor,” Janice said, “My son is a little bit hard-headed. We have a wheelchair we travel with, for exactly this kind of situation. Could he still perform as long as he stayed in the chair?”

“He seems very knowledgeable, and that can often backfire, but Sheila here is my toughest nurse. He had her smiling and laughing, from what I undertand. I got back here right after the show and I must tell you, Mr. Thomas. Even without you there, I was quite fascinated. I can only imagine how much more impressive the evening would have been. Where are you performing next?”

Dad jumped in saying, “The stadium that the Arizona Cardinals play out of, called the University of Phoenix Stadium. From what I hear we should be having another sell-out there, but we need to get going ASAP. It’s a six-hour drive from here.”

Mike Bell showed up with our wheelchair, with his sister Lily holding his hand. She had been crying.

“Take care of yourself, Mr. Thomas. Be careful ... please?” the doctor said.

Sheila took the chair and Stuart and Peter helped me in it. I saw Lily’s eyes filling up and I asked her to sit on my left leg, which she very carefully did, kissing me on the cheek.

“Let’s roll Autobots,” I said to laughter from all around.

“So now, you are Optimus Prime?” Stuart said.

“That would make you Ultra Magnus, wouldn’t it?” I said back to him. “Why weren’t there ever any female Autobots or Decepticons, in the movies?”

“I wondered that as well,” Peter said.

“That could be an excellent movie,” I said. “Wouldn’t it?

The girls were all giggling over our guy discussion as we got to the bus. Peter picked me up and carried me into the bus setting me down. “Thanks Peter. It’s good to have a strong friend.”

“I have gotten strong from picking up Kitten and throwing her on the bed ... did I just say that out loud?” A slap on the back of his head confirmed it, “Don’t give away any of our ... secrets, Petey,” his wife said.

Jenn got in the window seat; Lily got back on my left leg. I carefully moved her to across my entire lap and folded my arms around her.

“Michael,” she said, “You are so warm. thank you for letting me be your friend.” As Stuart and Brian walked by, I set an appointment for us to have some corporate meetings over the next week.

Lily’s brothers, Mike and Jeff walked by with Jeff saying, “If she bothers you, send her to us.”

“TRACY?” I yelled.

“Yes,” she said popping up behind my head surprising me and Lily a little.

“I could use one of those half pain pills I have gotten before. I don’t remember who gave it to me, do you Jenn?”

“I think it was Jennie Robinson,” she said.

“I’ve got something in my purse,” Tracy said. “Here?”

She showed me a good-sized pill. “What is it?” I asked.

“It’s for period pain, you know ... menstrual cramps?”

Lily giggled.

“You want me to take a pill meant for women and their period pain?” I said ... causing some snickers from around me.

“A pain pill is a pain pill, darlin’,” she said. “It’s a prescription version of Midol, it has Hydrocodone, Acetaminophen and Caffeine. One of them can’t hurt you.”

“OK, is taking a whole one all right, or should I take only half?”

“I sometimes take two of them. One should be fine ... don’t be a woose, Michael.”

Jenn handed me our big bottle from before, that she had filled from the hotel and I took the pill and drank about half of it. I relaxed eventually with my leg practically feeling numb.

“Do I need to get off your lap, Boss?” Lily asked.

“No honey, it’s all right. You’re just fine where you are.”

“Michael, you don’t treat me like a little girl, like everyone else does. Why is that?”

I got a look from my wife, who said, “Because, Michael loves everybody, especially little girls just like you, Miss Bell.”

Looking up at me, she said, “Is that true ... do you love me?”

“Not as much as your parents do, or your big brothers, but I do care deeply for you.”

I suddenly had lips against mine. Thankfully, she didn’t know about opening her lips or at least wasn’t prepared to do that with me ... thank goodness.

“Thank you for not pushing me away, Michael. Anna told me you are a great kisser.”

“Oh, she did, did she?” I replied.

Jennifer was giggling so hard during all of this. “Do you mind if I kiss him, Lily?”

“Can I watch?”

“Sure,” she said as our kiss began. It was remarkable, and I realized I would likely respond ... which with Lily on my lap could be problematic. I can tell her it was my leg reacting, so we kept on kissing ... and kissing.

“Michael!” came in perfect Bell Brothers harmony, with Jeff pulling his sister off my lap. “What-are-you-doing?”

“Your sister wanted to watch us kissing. I didn’t see why not?”

“She’s only twelve years old, are you crazy?” Mike said.

“He may be,” Jennifer said. “You both know how much Michael cares about everybody. It was a simple request, and I was willing to let her watch us. It’s not like she and Michael kissed ... he is my husband.”

I saw a look between her and Lily, and there was a smile of ‘I’m not telling’ on her face.

“Still,” Jeff said, “Giving her any help, can only trouble our parents, you understand what I’m saying, Boss?”