Some Nerve by Jane Heller

Author:Jane Heller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061873423
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter Seventeen

When I finally arrived on the sixth floor, I made a very showy demonstration of stopping in to see each and every patient; I didn’t want anybody getting suspicious of my keen interest in the patient in 613. And it was keen, all right. I was dying to know if he’d died. Or if he’d had that study Jonathan White had told him to have and was now improving quickly enough to be discharged soon. And I wondered what sort of reception I’d get when he saw me, given our last encounter.

Once again, I steadied my nerves as I knocked on his door.

“May I come in?” I said. “It’s Ann, your favorite volunteer. I’m ready to call a truce if you are.”

“Oh, jeez.” A pause. “Yeah, sure. Come on in.”

It wasn’t the most gracious welcome, but it could have been worse.

“Hello, Luke,” I said, striding merrily up to his bedside. He had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was matted to his head, and there was stubble lining his jaw. He was still handsome but he needed a shave and a shower badly. If only the paparrazzi could see him now, I thought. “How are you feeling today?”

“You don’t have to wear a rubber suit around me, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m over the upchucking.”

I smiled. “I’m not worried about that at all.” Well, maybe just a little.

“Actually, I’m glad you’re here.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I barked at you after I—” He shrugged. “I reacted like a dumb kid. You were very decent about it, Ann.”

An apology and a compliment? And he remembered my name? I was amazed, but then I reminded myself that he had no idea he was conversing with a bona fide media parasite. “Believe me, I can relate. I’ve certainly felt humiliated once or twice,” I said, having been humiliated once or twice by him.

“This whole thing has been so weird for me,” he said, ignoring my comment and keeping the focus on himself, the way all actors do. “I mean, I’ve never been sick in my life and all of a sudden they tell me I have a heart condition? It sucks. It totally sucks.”

“It does,” I said. “But I’m sure the doctors will find a way to—”

“They found a way all right,” he interrupted. “On Wednesday morning they wheeled me into the ‘cath lab’ for this test where they sedate you and stick wires up your veins.”

“Did it hurt?”

“It didn’t hurt so much as blow my mind. They got my heart to do its out-of-rhythm thing and then they had to shock it back to normal. I had no idea what was going on until I saw a guy coming at me with paddles. He was yelling, ‘Clear!’ just like on ER. Then I felt this jolt of electricity and I must have blacked out. Afterward, I said, ‘What the hell was that?’ The doctor goes, ‘You were dead for half a second and we brought you back.’ Talk about a nightmare.

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