Блейз Клемент - Cat Sitter On A Hot Tin Roof

A man with calm eyes and a metal patient record tucked under his arm watched me approach the stand. I figured he could see right through my skin into my brain.

I said, “Look, here’s the thing. I’m here to see Jeffrey Richards, and my friend is coming up the elevator in a minute with Jeffrey’s seizure-assistance dog. Her name is Mazie, and she hasn’t left Jeffrey’s side since they’ve been together. Jeffrey had surgery three days ago, and he and Mazie miss each other desperately. So we brought Mazie to see him.” For emphasis, I said, “She’s his best friend!”

He looked over my shoulder and smiled. “Would that man be your friend?”

I turned to see Pete and Mazie coming toward us. Pete seemed to be pretending to be blind. Even Mazie seemed in on the act, walking in front of him as if she were leading.

“That’s Pete Madeira and Mazie. Pete’s a clown.”

“Come on, I’ll take you to Jeffrey’s room.”

I motioned to Pete, whose strained face broke into a smile when he realized we seemed to have permission. We followed the man down the hall to a closed door. With a light tap, the man pushed the door open, and we all filed in.

Standing beside Jeffrey’s bedside, Gillis looked frazzled and exhausted, but ten years younger than she had four days ago. Knowing Jeffrey had come through the surgery and was back to consciousness must have been a tonic for her. When she saw us, she blinked in momentary surprise, then gave a choked sob. Hal wasn’t there. He must not have told Gillis that we were coming.

With his head swathed in thick bandages and his tiny body in a miniature hospital gown, Jeffrey looked like a pale alien child. The top sheet on his bed had been folded down, so his little bare legs stuck out from his hospital gown. I had a quick flash memory of Christy’s lifeless body and jerked my mind away.

Hal had told me that Jeffrey slept a lot, and he was asleep now, but frowning and fretful.

Mazie broke free of Pete’s hold and in one bound was on the bed beside Jeffrey. Gillis put out a protective hand, but she needn’t have worried. Mazie stepped with exquisite care to look down into Jeffrey’s slack face. Then, turning cautiously, she stretched out on the bed close to Jeffrey’s legs.

Jeffrey smiled, and as one person we all exhaled the breaths we’d been holding. Jeffrey’s eyes were still closed, but he no longer frowned or whimpered. The man with the patient record under his arm stepped forward and touched fingers to one of Jeffrey’s wrists. He had a kind face.

To Mazie, he said, “Good job, Mazie.”

Gillis said, “Dixie and Pete, this is Dr. Travis, Jeffrey’s surgeon. But I guess you know that since you got permission from him to bring Mazie in.”

Pete and I avoided each other’s eyes.

Dr. Travis grinned. “Hal talked to me. Maybe it would be better if you wait in the visitors’ lounge and let Mazie and Jeffrey be alone for a while.”

By alone , he meant with Gillis, who could not have been dislodged from Jeffrey’s side with a crowbar. Pete and I trailed out into the hall and found the visitors’ lounge, where we each took one of the leather recliners lined up along the wall and stared straight ahead. Pete’s eyes were blood-rimmed, and my own felt as if the inside of my lids had been scraped with emery boards.

Guilt was once again wrapping its slimy body around my neck. I had been so preoccupied with Laura’s murder that I’d failed to pay attention to my job. Even if nobody else had thought of it, I should have known to bring Mazie to see Jeffrey the minute he’d been put in a floor bed. I was a pet sitter, not a detective, and I should have put all my energy into making sure Mazie’s needs were being met instead of running around asking questions that were Guidry’s job.

Pete said, “Ever since I met that kid, I’ve been afraid something would go wrong with his surgery. I wish I hadn’t done that. All that fear probably made Mazie afraid.”

I guess guilt always tries to come along for the ride with everybody.

I said, “Mazie would have been worried and stressed no matter what you were thinking.”

I remembered Pete telling me once that his own daughter had died. I didn’t know how old she’d been, but the loss of a child at any age is devastating, and I felt a new kinship to him. Every parent who’s ever lost a child has a link of sadness that nobody else can ever understand.

The room was quiet, the only sounds a distant ping of elevator doors and the hushed voice of a woman speaking on the hospital’s PA system.

I leaned my head against the recliner and closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, Hal Richards was kneeling beside me and saying my name.

Like Gillis, he looked haggard with fatigue, but younger. “Thank you for bringing Mazie. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you came. Gillis and I are taking turns sleeping, and I was at the hotel. It was a brilliant idea to bring Mazie, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”

Pete said, “Mazie needed to see her boy. She didn’t know what had happened to him.”

Hal nodded somberly. “Jeffrey needed Mazie too.”

I looked at my watch and saw that two hours had passed since we’d left Mazie in Jeffrey’s room.

I said, “We should go now.”

With creaking sounds from the chair and his knees, Pete got to his feet and headed toward Jeffrey’s room. I followed, with Hal walking beside me. Pete opened the door and we all stopped to look at Mazie and Jeffrey. He was sleeping soundly, and she had moved so she covered both his legs like a blanket. When she saw us, she lifted her head as if she knew her time with Jeffrey had ended.

Hal said, “Hi, girl.”

Mazie’s tail wagged, and Hal went over to stroke her head. Meeting his wife’s eyes over Mazie’s head, Hal said, “Pete and Dixie are going to take Mazie home now.”

Pete said, “If it’s okay, I could bring her back tomorrow.”

Gillis gave him a radiant smile. “That would be great, Pete.”

Hal lifted Mazie and set her on the floor. Pete took her leash, and we all said awkward goodbyes. Silently, Pete and I went down the hall with Mazie walking between us. At the elevator, Mazie whined and strained against the leash when Pete led her inside.

He said, “She wants to stay here.”

As the elevator descended, Pete and I met each other’s eyes. Something about this visit hadn’t gone right, and we both knew it.

We made it all the way to the parking lot before Mazie jerked away and tore back to the hospital.

28

Streaking to the side door where we’d come out, Mazie ran full out and determined. She had her mind set on going back to Jeffrey, and she wasn’t waiting for any human to go with her. Pete and I ran to catch up. At the door, we met Hal.

He said, “Jeffrey’s crying again. Worse than before.”

Pete and I met each other’s eyes, both of us afraid the seizures had returned.

At Jeffrey’s floor, Mazie scrambled forward the minute the elevator doors opened, moving ahead so strongly that Hal had to run while he vainly tried to slow her to a walk. Jeffrey’s door was open, and we could hear him crying before we got there. It was the same droning sound I’d heard him make before, the same sound Mazie was accustomed to hearing when he was on the verge of a seizure. Jeffrey’s legs were kicking, and his face was grimly twisted like an old man’s. Dr. Travis was beside the bed, and the room seemed to contain a lot of other people wearing bunny smocks and anxious looks.

Mazie jerked away from Hal and leaped onto Jeffrey’s bed and settled her body against his side. Abruptly, the crying stopped, Jeffrey’s legs went still, his eyes closed and his face became calm. Everybody in the room smiled.