The Term Sheet | Wattys 2016 Winner

Chapter 38

"Excuse me, I'm with a—"

"Where's my sister?" demanded David.

Dr. Abington stood up. He looked infuriated. At the sight of the two angry men, the young boy began to cry.

"Young man, please. I am with a patient right now. This can wait."

"No, this can't wait. My sister. Heather Alexander. You let her leave. Someone said she was supposed to go into my care, but I haven't seen or heard from her in a week."

The mother came over to comfort the young boy. She stared daggers at the doctor.

He shook his head, then looked down at the boy. "I'm sorry, Jessy. Please don't cry. Everything is okay. I'm just going to talk to this young man for one minute in the hallway and I'll be right back."

The doctor patted his patient's head and the boy calmed down. He and David moved to the hallway and closed the door.

"Heather? Yes, of course. Ms. Alexander was discharged last week. Angie, can you please look up Ms. Alexander's records?"

The secretary scowled at David and opened a file cabinet beneath her computer.

"Records show that she was discharged last Monday. Are you David Alexander?"

"Yes."

"It shows you as her legal guardian."

"But I didn't pick her up."

"It says in the record that you were running late to pick her up and she took to take a bus to meet to you downtown."

"And you believed her? What kind of place is this? I'm going to sue you all for everything you have. Where's all her stuff?"

"Sir, this is a self-check-in facility—our patients are free to come and go as they please. I'm surprised you don't know that already. She said she would come back to pick up her things once she got settled."

"Didn't that seem a little odd to you? If she said she was coming to live with me, why would she leave her things here?"

"Well, let's be honest, you haven't been the most...predictable visiting relative around here. Sadly, that's all too common. So of course we didn't think that was odd. We take people at their word."

"So you just let a chronically ill patient walk out of here on her own? Are you fucking kidding me?"

Angie frowned and her face flushed bright red. "No, you let her out of here. It's not our fault you didn't show up on time..."

"She never told me she was leaving!"

"She couldn't pay," said Dr. Abington as if that was the end of the subject.

"What do you mean she couldn't pay? My mother left her a trust."

"The trust ran out a year ago. Heather took out a loan with us in order to extend her care, and I know she was looking into options with insurance and disability. But she has been overdue with us for months."

"How much does she owe?"

"To bring her account back in good standing and ensure she keeps her room for the rest of this year, it's two hundred forty thousand."

David went white. "Is that with insurance?" he asked.

"Insurance will pick up some of that, but until we have details we can't tell you how much exactly."

Angie jumped in. "Look, all this can be worked out later. Right now, let's just all focus on finding Heather. I'll start calling local hospitals."

David stormed out of the room. Why didn't she ask for his help? How could she have deceived him? David sprinted to his car. He turned the key and it wouldn't start. He took a breath and turned the key again. Nothing but a couple clicks. He looked down at the dashboard. He had left the headlights on.

He slammed his head on the steering wheel and closed his eyes. He turned the key once more. A couple clicks and he could hear the engine trying to turn. He held the key just a second longer, and the engine finally started.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," David yelled.

The closest hospital was Legacy Good Samaritan. David pulled up to the emergency area and jumped out of his car, leaving it parked diagonally between two handicapped parking spots.

"Hi," said David, out of breath. "Is there a Heather Alexander here?"

"Are you a family member?" said a lanky young man with a slight stutter.

"Yes, I'm her brother."

"Let me ch-check."

The young man stared at his screen.

"It's loading."

David wondered how a hospital hired someone with a stutter this bad to man the front desk.

"Yes. She's in room, f-f-four nine two."

David ran to the elevator and pressed four. When he got to the room, he saw his sister with an IV, wires coming from various parts of her body and an oxygen mask. He ran up to her.

"Heather! What happened? Heather!"

A nurse saw him run into the room and followed him in. She was young and slender with the body of a runner.

"Are you family?"

"Yes, I'm her brother. What's wrong, why isn't she awake? What happened?"

"She had a fall and hit her head pretty badly. We have put her in a medically induced coma to let the swelling go down."

"How long has she been here?"

"Six days."

"Six days? How long until she wakes up?"

"Let me get the doctor."

"How long?" pleaded David.

"We don't know. The body takes time to heal."

David bowed his head and began to cry.

* * *

Andrew walked in quietly. "I came as soon as I got your message," he whispered.

"You don't have to whisper, she can't hear you. She's in a coma," said David.

"So how is she?"

"Apparently people saw her getting out of a bus downtown. She must have had a muscle spasm as she was stepping off the bus because she fell like a log, headfirst, and smashed it right into the curb. Doctors say they won't know the extent of the damage until she wakes up, but they're hopeful that there won't be any permanent damage."

"Fuck."

"Thanks for coming."

"What are best friends for?"

"I didn't know if we were still friends after yesterday."

"Pfff. You know what. I was thinking last night, replaying what happened over and over. I think I overreacted. I mean, you just sprung it on me without any preparation. It was like, hey sign this paperwork, you don't have a choice in the matter. Jeni just wants to see me happy, and if Cryptobit falls and burns, at least I'll know I gave it everything I could."

"What are you saying?" asked David.

"I'm saying I'm in. Let's do this. Let's get the funding, save the world, and get you some health insurance so you can pay for this goddamned hospital bill without going bankrupt."

David went up to Andrew and gave him a huge bear hug.

"That's enough, kemosabe. The hard work is still in front of us. Let's just focus on your sister for now. And for god's sake, get that beard back as quickly as possible. You look terrible. You look older without it than you do with it."

David smiled.