Lou Tabakow by Faithfully Yours

Author:Faithfully Yours
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-04T18:27:12+00:00

* * *

A chubby little man with a round face and alert twinkling eyes entered the room. He seemed to radiate happiness and contentment. “Well, I see the patient’s finally come around,” he said, cheerfully.

“What happened?” asked Tee.

“Your ship crashed just beyond that grove.”

[139] Tee clutched at him. “The ship! How bad is it?”

“I think you were in worse shape than your ship. You must have had it under control almost to the end, though how you stayed conscious with space fever is beyond me.”

“Space fever? So that’s it. I remember getting sick and light-headed and just before I passed out I flipped out of subspace and the automatic finder, of course, took the ship to the nearest planet. I must have landed by reflex action. I sure don’t remember anything about it.”

“Well,” the man laughed, “I have seen better landings, but not when the pilot had a temperature of one-o-five. Anyway, you’re safe now. Welcome to Elysia.”

There it was again. Safe! Safe! Tee raised up, then fell back weakly.

“Is anything wrong?” asked the little man, alarmed.

“N … nothing, I just … nothing!”

The man was looking at him questioningly.

“Elysia,” mused Tee. “I seem to remember an old old myth brought from the original Earth.” He waved toward the sylvan setting, outside.

The little man smiled. “Yes, the old settlers named our planet well.” He caught himself. “Oh, I’m sorry; I’m Dr. Chensi. This is my home.”

Tee smiled. “Well at least you’ll have to admit I showed good judgment crashing next to a doctor’s house.” Then more seriously, “Thanks, doc, thanks for everything.”

“My degrees aren’t in medicine,” replied Dr. Chensi. “I’m afraid I had little to do with your recovery. My daughter’s the one who nursed you. Oh, here she is now.” He raised his voice. “Come in, Lara.”

Since Dr. Chensi was using the only chair she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Here,” said the doctor, teasingly, “what kind of nurse are you, mussing up your patient’s bed?”

She pouted prettily. “He’s my patient.” Then looking down at Tee with a smile, “You’ll be up and around in no time now.”

“Time!” cried Tee, raising up. “What’s the date? I’ve got to know!”

“You’ve been delirious for two weeks,” answered the doctor. “Another two weeks of convalescence and you ought to be as good as new.”

“But two weeks, I can’t—”

“Can’t leave before then anyway,” replied the doctor calmly. “I knew you’d want your ship repaired so I had it hauled to the port. Won’t be ready for two more weeks. So you might as well relax.”

Tee bit his lip, and clenched his fists to keep from trembling. It was a moment before he could trust himself to speak without a quaver in his voice. “Nothing else I can do, I guess. Thanks, anyway. And by the way, there’s enough credits in the ship’s safe to pay for the repairs, I’m sure.”

“I think we should start the patient walking tomorrow,” said Lara, in a mock-professional voice. She [140] punched the ends of Tee’s pillow. “Now you’d better get some sleep.

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