The supervisor wanted to fight back, Maude could tell, but she was afraid of Edmund.
“Furthermore,” Edmund said to the supervisor, “I want you to send an aide to get Miss Drayton exactly what she wants.Eating will not affect any tests I’m ordering for her. If they don’t serve what she wants downstairs, then I want you to phone a service to go to a restaurant nearby and get exactly what she wants.”
“Yes sir.”
Then Edmund looked at their patient. “What would you like to have for breakfast this morning, Maude?”
“I would love some pancakes and bacon. I haven’t eaten in two days.”
Edmund frowned.“Two days?Why?”
“The trip to Dillon took nineteen hours and I wasn’t trying to eat on no stank bus. I figured I’d . . .”
Edmund knew what she was going to say. She figured Natasha’s brother would have had the decency to feed her before she turned right back around to make that nineteen hour bus ride back home. But he didn’t even have the decency to call her a ride. Or give her one. His guilt was mounting.
He looked at the supervisor. “Send an aide to get her pancakes and bacon.”
“And a Pepsi please.”
“And a Pepsi,” said Edmund. And the supervisor, giving Maude a harsh look, did as she was told.
“Oh and Nurse Camp?”
The supervisor stopped and turned to him. “Sir?”
“I want Miss Drayton moved to the presidential suite forthwith.”
Now he was going too far. Maude could see it all over that pinch-faced nurse. “Thepresidentialsuite? But sir, that suite is reserved for the most exclusive of dignitaries that visit this hospital.”
But Edmund would not be deterred. “You heard my order. If she’s not moved in thirty minutes, I’ll have you fired for insubordination.”
“Yes sir.”
“And do not clock out until every order I was given is carried out. Mills is ultimately responsible. I’m not laying his neglect at your feet. But my orders had better be carried out.”
“They will, sir,” the supervisor said. She couldn’t help but look at Maude again with that disgusted look on her face. But Maude smiled at her. She was tired of being treated as if she was a piece of trash that had blown into that hospital. Now that the shoe was on the other foot, and that highfalutin’ nurse supervisor was being treated like trash too, it felt satisfying to Maude. A little like justice. Although she knew it was only temporary.
“What are you waiting for?” Edmund asked her. “Go!”
Yes sir,” the nurse said and glanced a final time at the woman they all thought was just another poor, powerless black patient. And then she left the room.
“Can you release me after I eat?” Maude asked Edmund. “I called Greyhound. They have a bus pulling out just before noon today that’ll take me home to Dillon. I don’t like it here.”
“I’m taking you home to Dillon,” Edmund blurted out before he had even considered such a thing.
Maude was shocked. “You?”
“You heard me accurately.”
“But are you sure? It’s nineteen hours on a bus alright, with all the stops we have to make, but it’s something like fifteen hours by car. It’s still a very long drive.”
She had no clue about Edmund’s lifestyle. Or the fact that he owned his own plane. The idea of him driving fifteen hours or even having his driver drive that long was ludicrous.
But going all the way to Dillon, Georgia, by whatever means, was ludicrous too. Especially since he knew it wasn’t to rush to the aid of his sister the way he used to do time and timeagain, but because something deep inside of him wasn’t ready to let Maude go.
But she’d never know that. “I need to go to Dillon myself and find out what’s going on with Natasha,” he decided to say, although he’d given up on that sister of his years ago. He was going to take Maude back to Georgia because of Maude. Why? He couldn’t begin to know. But he knew she was the reason.
But hearing his response was music to Maude’s ears. “That would be wonderful, sir. She’ll be so happy to see you.”
