Scott Wittenburg - See Tom Run

Just then, the doctor came into the room and went over to Tom. Peg arose and stood off to the side as he examined him.

“I’m Doctor Wheeler, chief resident on call. And you are one lucky man, Mr. Grayson,” he said as he shone a penlight into his eyes.

“That’s what I hear. So what happened? I don’t really remember.”

“Well, apparently you drove to the store in the snowstorm and left your motor running while you were inside. By the time you returned to your car, fumes had built up inside to a fairly dangerous level. I was surprised you didn’t smell the raw fuel until your wife informed me that you had sinusitis and couldn’t smell much of anything. Carbon monoxide of course is odorless.”

Tom struggled to remember. He could vaguely recall being at the supermarket but couldn’t remember why he would have gone there without Peg.

He looked over at Peg. “What was I getting at the store?”

“Pop and cigarettes, remember? We were playing euchre with Frank and Jules.” Peg was visibly alarmed that he couldn’t remember.

Tom thought back for a moment and it came to him in bits and pieces. The Warrens had been over to play cards, euchre of course, in the family room. The kids had been playing in the living room. It had been snowing hard. He’d gone to the supermarket to pick up more Seven Up and smokes for Julie.

“I remember now. So where are Frank and Julie now?”

“They went home about an hour ago. They’ve been here all evening but finally decided to take Brittany home and put her to bed.”

“So exactly how long have I been in the hospital?” Tom inquired.

Peg glanced at her wristwatch. “About six hours.”

“Jesus! And I’ve been passed out all this time?”

Doctor Wheeler replied, “You’ve been totally unconscious from the effects of the poisoning. Fortunately, you were not exposed to enough CO to do any permanent damage. We’ve given you oxygen to raise your O2 level. Basically, you have been in a very deep sleep all this time.”

“So I can go home now?”

Peg and Tom both stared at the doctor expectantly.

“Actually, I don’t see any reason why not. Let us get a few more readings and if everything looks okay, we’ll turn you loose.”

“Great, doctor!” Tom said, elated. “Thanks for everything.”

“My pleasure.”

Dr. Wheeler did a check of Tom’s vitals, spoke briefly to the nurse then left the room.

“I can’t believe this!” Tom declared. “I wonder how long my Jeep has been trying to kill me.”

Peg glared at him accusingly. “I don’t know, but I hope this has taught you a lesson, Tom. How many times have I told you that I smelled gas when we were out in that thing? And every time you said I was just imagining it.”

“Hell, I was telling you the truth-I really haven’t ever smelled gas in it.”

“Which is exactly why you need to do something about your sinuses! This just shows how important it is to be able to smell properly. It almost cost you your life!”

Christ, Tom thought, does she ever let up on the I-told-you-so’s? “Okay, dear, you’ve made your point. I’ll go see an ENT specialist next week. So where is the Jeep now?”

“At the dealership. I told them to tow it there so it could be getting repaired.”

“Thanks. Will they give me a loaner, you think? I need a car.”

“I’m sure they will.”

The nurse returned with the discharge papers and went over them with Peg and Tom. He was to get plenty of rest and call 911 immediately if he felt any shortness of breath, heart palpitations, became nauseous, got a headache that wouldn’t go away or if he started hallucinating. Twenty minutes later, the Grayson family left the hospital with Peg driving her Accord.

Tom was surprised at how exhausted he felt by the time they pulled into their driveway. He could barely keep his eyes open but insisted on helping Peg put the kids to bed. After kissing them both goodnight, he undressed to his shorts and undershirt, climbed into their king size bed and promptly fell into a deep, fitful sleep.

Tom slept in until 10:30 the next morning. Although he had been asleep for nearly eleven hours, he still felt weak and somewhat out of it. He could hear the kids playing downstairs as he lay in bed, mulling over what had happened the day before.

He was in utter awe of the fact that he had actually passed out in his Jeep while parked in the supermarket parking lot. How in the hell could he have missed smelling raw gasoline fumes for chrissakes? Granted, his nose was on the fritz with sinus issues, but to miss smelling raw gasoline? It was hard to fathom.

But evidently, he had done just that. And he had been told that inhaling the potentially lethal cocktail of gas fumes and carbon monoxide (Jesus, were the gas line and exhaust system both leaking?) would have killed him if it hadn’t been for someone coming to his rescue. Tom now wondered who had discovered him and made a mental note to ask Peg so he could properly thank him or her for saving his life.

He also wondered why the fumes had overtaken him so quickly-almost immediately after he’d gotten back into his Jeep, evidently. That didn’t make any sense at all. The doctor hadn’t elaborated on this phenomenon and had probably been wondering the same thing himself. It seemed as though he would have had to be inside the Jeep several minutes before the fumes would have enough time to knock him out like that. He made another note to ask Peg if she had an explanation.

He thought back to his grocery run and recalled that he had been thinking about Tracy Adams and the rape incident the entire time, just as he had been for weeks now. In fact, he had been so engrossed in the matter that he was still racking his brains over it when he’d left the supermarket and got back into the Jeep That was it! He had decided to sit there in the Jeep and deliberate until he came to a decision once and for all on what to do!

And in the process, he had breathed in enough noxious fumes to render him totally unconscious for six hours…

Scary stuff, he thought.

And now, as he lay there, Tom realized that he wasn’t any further along on that matter than he’d been before.

But he had a very good idea of what his decision was going to be: let the whole thing slide and don’t rock the boat. He would be a complete fool to get involved and jeopardize his marriage and his career.

Case closed.

Tom stretched, yawned and got out of bed. After splashing cold water in his face, he went downstairs and made a beeline for the coffee maker.

“Morning, sweetie,” he said when he entered the kitchen. Kelli was sitting at the kitchen table eating cookies and milk.

“Hi, Daddy,” Kelli said. “You slept really late!”

“Yeah, I was pretty tired, I guess. How are you doing?”

“Good. I wish I never had to go back to school, though!”

“Why do you say that?” Tom said, pouring himself a mug of steaming hot black coffee.

“It’s so nice to be able to play all the time-I wish we had Christmas vacation all year!”

“But wouldn’t you miss your friends and your teachers?” he asked his daughter.

“Well, my friends, maybe. But not my teachers!”

“Not even Mrs. Edwards?”

“Well, maybe I’d miss her, but none of the others.”

“What about your old first grade teacher, Mrs. Burke?”

Kelli gave him a pained look. “Oh, Daddy! Is this gonna be one of your teacher lectures, again?”

Tom chuckled. “Nah, I’m just trying to give you a hard time. Where are your mom and brother?”

“In the family room. Tyler’s watching cartoons and Mom’s cleaning, I think.”

“Put your dishes away when you’re finished there, okay?”