This piece was written while I working
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Till Death Do Us Part
by
F. Alexander Brejcha
"She's
going to die damn it!" Brad slammed
his fist against the padded arm of his swivel chair as he hung up the
phone. The dent in the soft burgundy
leather hissed softly as it filled in.
Peggy
stuck her head in through his office door, a curious look on her face. "What was that, Doctor Davis?"
"Never
mind," he snapped. "No. I'm sorry.
Just trouble at home. And will
you please just call me Brad? Now, who's
next?"
She
disappeared and he heard papers rustling for a second before she popped back
into sight. "That's it before
lunch. Doctor Magner cancelled, since
you already settled his problem by finally increasing his budget."
"Well,
he was right. He did need it. But he just doesn't realize that it's not as
easy as he thinks to break loose more money from the board. They don't give a rat's ass if I'm President of the hospital." He frowned
briefly and then waved Peggy out of his office and leaned back in his chair. With an unexpected gap in his busy
schedule, his problem at home thrust itself into his mind again, and drew his
eyebrows together as he reluctantly considered the plan that had been brewing
in the back of his mind for the past few weeks.
His problems with Magner over diagnostic equipment had sparked a
reluctant idea. But it was the only
solution. Susan just wouldn't budge; she
had made up her mind and wouldn't listen to anything he said. Reluctantly he pulled out his address-book
and looked up the latest number that had been penciled in and underlined.
It rang four times before a
low, sultry voice answered.
"Hello?"
"Maria, I've got to see
you. What we talked about... it's the
only way. We have to do it." He felt his voice shaking, the words tumbling
out in a rush. He had been afraid to
consider this, it went against his grain, but he was at his wits end.
"Are you
sure?" The soothing voice at the
other end pressed him.
He nodded, and then realized
she couldn't see him and grunted assent.
"Can you convince your
wife to come in?" Maria asked.
"Yes. I convinced her she needs a thorough physical
anyway and I've made arrangements with someone in Radiology to switch x-ray
films so they'll show some nice nasty kidney stones. She's not symptomatic yet, but I can convince
her she's just been lucky and that it's the perfect chance to take care of them
now, before there's a problem. The
Lithotripter is a safe enough device so that having the stones blasted won't
worry her. I can show her how we can use
sound waves to disintegrate kidney stones and I'll arrange things so that
she'll be admitted instead of taken as an outpatient, so we can do some other
tests on her. You'll both be admitted to
the same room, and you'll be alone with her... until it's done." His voice broke for a moment. Swallowing nervously, he continued, "and
I'll have you admitted for the same thing.
It'll give you an excuse to talk."
"How much time will I
have?"
"I'd really rather not
drag it out. It might make someone
suspicious."
"Won't people think it
funny that your wife doesn't get a private room?" Maria sounded concerned.
"No problem." He was relieved to have an easy question to
settle. "She hates being alone in
the hospital. She'd rather be in a
semi-private room."
"I guess that's it
then." Maria sounded
reluctant. "Are you sure you want
to do it this way?"
He was suddenly angry, glad
to have a distraction. "Hey, I'm
paying you plenty! More than the
standard rate because of the unusual circumstances. But this is my plan, and we'll do it my
way. You're a professional, you should
be able to handle it!"
"Relax. I'm not trying to back out. It just seems like such a round-about way of
doing it." He could almost imagine
Maria holding up a hand defensively as she continued smoothly. "You just tell me when to show up."
* * *
#
Two days later, he was
set. The room had been readied and both Maria
and his wife were on the way up to the floor, and the Lithotripter had
suddenly, mysteriously gone on the fritz.
He wanted to give Maria more time.
His plan had worked like a charm, and Susan had agreed to be admitted.
Brad was secretly amazed at how
easy it was to arrange things without leaving any traces. From his position he could arrange almost
anything, unofficially, as if policies and procedures didn't exist.
His wife didn't stand a
chance.
He had left specific
instructions that the regular nursing staff was not to deal with his wife. He had hired private duty nurses with strict
orders not to enter the room unless the call light was on, and no one else was
allowed in without calling on the phone first to see if it was all right. He intended to give Maria every
opportunity. It was vital no one find
that she had been involved. She was in
the hospital under an assumed name with phony insurance numbers. He had handled the admission of both of them
personally, as a gesture of magnanimity since Maria was to be his wife's
roommate; even as he had made it very evident that he had absolutely no idea
who Maria was.
Now he sat in his office and
waited.
He had hired Maria because
she was the best. She had never failed,
as far he had been able to discover. She
had a way of winning trust and getting close that was unrivaled, and that made
her job so much easier.
But as he sat there, toying
with a freshly sharpened pencil and turning it over and over in his hands, he
suddenly felt a flash of overwhelming guilt at what he was doing. It was a violation of everything he believed
in and had fought for all his life. If
there was one thing he had known about his marriage, it was that his wife had
trusted him.
Suddenly the phone rang and
his hands jerked, snapping his pencil in two.
He reached spastically for the phone and answered, to hear Maria's husky
voice on the other end.
"It's done. You can come to the room now and take care of
things. I'm getting dressed and
leaving. You know where to send the
money."
* * *
#
As he cracked the door and
slipped into the half-light of the room, he had to stop and let his eyes adjust
since the curtains were drawn and dimming the little light that came in from
the overcast and rainy day outside. But
he soon saw his wife's still body and his heart twisted. The door swung slowly shut behind him as he
approached the bed and sat down on it next to Susan. His hand reached out of its own accord to
brush back a wave of chestnut hair that had spilled down over her face.
Her eyes opened.
"Hello." She raised her head and reached over to turn
on the light. Her face was carefully
controlled as she fixed him with an intent look. Her mouth twitched with repressed
emotion. "Maria explained
everything," she began. She looked
around somberly. "Where is
she? I wanted to thank her."
His voice was shaky and
cracked as he explained that Maria had left, and asked her just what Maria had
said, a hollow feeling in his chest.
Susan reached for the bed-control
and raised the top of the bed into a sitting position, her jaw set tightly as
she studied his face. "She
explained that you faked my physical and had me admitted here with her just to
get the two of us together so she could do her thing." He swallowed nervously as she took a breath,
a twinge of pain crossing her face.
"You lied to me, went behind my back..." Suddenly she was crying and she reached for
him.
Confused he moved towards her
and took her in his arms, tears running down his cheeks as she buried her face
on his shoulder and gripped him convulsively.
"And you did it all
because you loved me," her muffled words came out between sobs, "and
wanted to save my life when all I wanted was to be stubborn and risk loosing
you."
"I had to darling! You were so scared about what had happened to
your parents that you were frightened by the idea of heart surgery."
"I lost--"
"I know, you lost both
of them because of problems during their operations. But that was over fifteen years ago! Open-heart surgery is routine now. You'll be in and out in no time. The fact that you're young makes your chances
so much better. We'll--"
"We?" She lifted her face and he looked down to see
her moist face crinkling in an impish grin.
"Well, the
doctors," he conceeded, "will be able to repair the damage and your
arterial graft will be as good as the original.
In your case," he amended, "better than the original
and--"
"I know," Susan cut
him off gently. "Maria made me
realize all that. You went to all the
trouble to bring her out East from
"And ready to go before
you can change your mind," he finished, a tentative smile flickering on
his face. "I've got an operating
room standing by, with the finest heart surgeon in the city, just waiting for
you. And," he laughed, "he
knows his ass is mine if he even leaves you too much of a scar!"
"Okay." She reached up and kissed him gently. "I surrender. Call your surgeon and tell him I'll come
quietly."
- end -