Page 4 of Break Line

“Here we go.” Louisa set the cup of ice and can of soda on the tray. “Have you made your choices?”

Nathan nodded as he popped the top of the can.

“This is exactly what I had for lunch – good choices. I’ll see if I can sneak you a shave ice as well.” She winked at Nathan as she left the room.

He checked his phone for messages. There were several texts and voicemails from the university. He dreaded listening to all of them, but contacting his secretary was his first priority, then the dean, and a few others. He’d have to start working through them. He set the phone on the tray and grabbed the remote to turn on the TV.

Nathan flipped through the channels, searching for something, anything, to break the silence.

Doctor Kelley walked through the door. “How are you feeling, Mr. Fletcher?”

“Good, I guess, but my leg burns.”

“Let’s look at it, shall we?”

The doctor pulled the rolling stool close to the bed. Taking out a pair of blunt-tipped scissors, he began snipping away the bandages. He handed the old bandages to the nurse to discard in the biohazard container.

“You’re lucky Mr. Wanoki found you when he did. You lost a lot of blood. Five units during surgery. Let’s see what we have here.”

Nathan sat up a bit to look at his leg. His left thigh was a roadmap of staples. A nine-inch arch covered the middle part of his thigh.

“Can you roll to the right, so I can inspect the back of your leg?”

Nathan rolled toward the side of the bed, feeling a pulling as he tried using his leg to help him turn.

“Just roll from the hip, I’ll move your leg for you. You don’t want to strain any of the tissue.”

Doctor Kelley inspected his work for a few seconds, then helped Nathan roll onto his back. He eased slowly onto the stool. Leaning forward with his hands clasped in front of him, he began, “You have some mottling and redness around the wound. The interior tissue doesn’t seem to be responding as well as I had hoped, but there are still a few things we can try. You’re not going to be able to put any weight on that leg for a couple of weeks, and then we will get you set up for physical therapy. You should be able to walk on your own after twelve weeks.

Nathan hadn’t considered that he wouldn’t be able to walk. “But I will be able to walk, right?”

“You should be able to as long as your leg heals.” Doctor Kelley stood, tucking his glasses back into his pocket. “I’ll leave instructions for them to change your bandages three times a day. We'll do a round of antibiotics through the IV along with the pain meds. The swelling should subside in the next day or two. Then we can see for certain what we’re dealing with. I’ll be back later this afternoon to check on you.”

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