Lady Blues: forget-me-not: A Gus LeGarde Mystery (LeGarde Mysteries Book 10) by Aaron Paul Lazar

Author:Aaron Paul Lazar [Lazar, Aaron Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aaron Paul Lazar
Published: 2014-03-02T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

On Tuesday morning at ten, I drove to the nursing home to visit Kip. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw three patients—former patients—being escorted outside by family members. An elderly Chinese gentleman, who had been completely mute, walked with what appeared to be his wife and two sons toward a black Saab. He moved slowly, but chatted with them, laughing and joking. They loaded his bags and waved to me on the way out.

A woman who I’d mentally referred to as the yellow bathrobe lady passed me on the arm of a young man. Dressed in a dated white suit and heels, she squeezed past me at the entrance. I almost didn’t recognize her. We exchanged smiles and she walked tall toward a life she’d lost years ago, to be reclaimed a few weeks after starting the Memorphyl.

The Novacom rep maneuvered a cart along the hallway with three large boxes of Memorphyl on top. He passed and ignored an elderly black man dressed in a suit, who carried his own suitcase and walked slowly on his wife’s arm. The expression of joy on her face nearly brought me to tears. Her husband had been lost to her, and now he’d returned.

Smiling at them, my heart swelled and the word miracle repeated in my brain.

I rounded the corner to Kip’s room to find Debbie loitering in the doorway, her cart of pills by her side. She leaned in, as if listening to something of great interest.

I moved up beside her and realized she was watching Curtis and Kip. Kip held the phone to his ear, and spoke with emotion into the receiver, nodding and smiling and nodding some more.

“He’s talking to Bella,” she whispered. “She’s coming home next week to see him.”

A romantic wave washed over me as I leaned against the doorsill and unabashedly listened. Kip raised a hand to me, and I waved back. Curtis beamed beside him.

I listened to the conversation for a while, then glanced down and noticed the cart full of pills.

The white cups of pills, normally full of bright pink, were now filled with yellow.

“What happened to the Memorphyl?” I asked Debbie in a hushed whisper.

She shrugged, still smiling at Kip. “It’s no biggie. They just changed the colorant. Said it was irritating some of the patient’s stomachs. Something about allergies to the dye.”

I nodded. “Oh, good. That’s one drug I’d tell them not to mess with. It’s not only a treatment, it appears to be a cure.”

With a wistful smile, she brushed a loose lock back from her face. “A cure is right. We’ve discharged four people today. They’re going home to resume their lives. Pretty soon these memory centers will be out of business.”

She laughed, but the words struck a chord of truth. What would happen if all the Alzheimer’s patients were cured?

Curtis excused himself from his father’s side and stepped toward us. “Hello, Gus.”

I shook his warm hand and gestured to his father. “Bella?”

He grinned. “Yes. They’ve been on the phone for a half hour already.

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