Page 17 of Words Unspoken

She looked at Noah who was looking thoughtfully at her.

“I have been his secretary for twenty-two years. It is a long time to work with someone. I respect him. He is my boss. We have become friends,” she tried to explain and looked back at Max who looked at her with pity. Noah looked at Max, he was not convinced of what she had just said but he also didn’t know about the extent of her feelings like Max had just figured them out.

“Excuse me. I need to check on Michael.” What she really needed was to escape. She headed down the corridor and ducked into the chapel. Maybe it was best. She needed to pray that Max would not open his big mouth and tell his brothers about her feelings.

Chapter Four

Michael could feel reality intruding. His head was thumping. Less than woodpeckers. Perhaps little gnomes with clogs on, stomping and dancing around. They were having a party and he certainly did not feel very festive. He raised a hand to his head, feeling the bandage and it all came flooding back. With a sigh, he lowered his hand.

“You missed your brothers visiting,” Kelly chirped. She wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his upper arm and proceeded to strangle it mercilessly. “The three of you are quite handsome.”

Michael opened his eyes to see her smile down at him.

“Ready for some pain meds?”

He nodded gratefully and the room spun.

“Dizzy?”

He gave a much shorter nod.

“The doctor said that could happen. Here, I will lift the head of the bed then you can sit up a little better,” she stepped on a pedal and the bed obeyed her command. He downed the pills that she gave him. Thankfully, his throat was feeling improved, so it only felt like he was swallowing gravel rather than cut glass.

“Now, I am going to check with the nurses, but I think you have a scan coming up to see how the swelling of your brain is doing. The sooner the swelling goes down, the sooner we will know how your pain is going to be.” Michael had liked her before but now the little nurse was far too cheery. She really needed to tone it down.

What had she said about the pain? He tried to focus. Ah, yes. One of the side effects of the surgery is that the doctors could not promise that the pain would go entirely away. Even now, it was better than it had been for the last few months, so Michael supposed it was an improvement. At least he had not seen any black things floating around lately.

He wondered where Ann was. He wondered what Noah and Max had thought about this ghastly turban on his head. It felt huge. He poked at the bandage a moment then decided he did not want to accidently remove it and find out if his brains were leaking out. He sat on his hands to prevent them from exploring on their own.

A few minutes later Kelly was back and took him and his bed to push around the corridors once more. This time he closed his eyes and tried to breath evenly. The dizziness hit him and of course, he could not manage to say a word about it. It was like a bad carnival ride. The good news was that he didn’t disgrace himself by puking, or retching really, since his stomach was empty other than pills and water.

Michael endured scans of his head, a machine clicking and whirring around him. Eventually he got a repeat ride back to the private room that was his for the duration of his stay. He desperately hoped the dizziness would go away. He was not going to be confined to a bed or chair for the rest of his life. Vertigo was not going to become his constant friend, he vowed.

Dr. Hemmond came in smiling. He pulled up the chair and sat down. “Good news, Mr. Ramesly. The lab results have come back for the tumors. Both were noncancerous. This means that you will not require any chemotherapy or radiation. We will have to schedule regular scans to make sure that no cells were forgotten and or that new ones decide to grow again but I feel confident that this will not be the case.”

Michael felt relieved. He had no desire to be a cancer patient or to go through surgery ever again.

“I have checked today is scans and the swelling is going down very well. How is your pain today when you woke up before medications?” Dr. Hemmond began counting and Michael nodded at six.

“Better than yesterday. Good, good,” Hemmond made a note on his sheet. “I think things are going very well. There is no sign of infection. Everything is going the best it possibly can.”

Part of Michael wanted to protest that. Losing the ability to effectively communicate was not the best that things could be. However, he was sure there could be worse alternatives. He could be dead.

“We will keep you here and see how the skull fuses. In the meanwhile, has the dizziness decreased?”

Michael indicated that it had not really changed using a grimace and a hand gesture.

“Let me know if it gets worse. Hopefully as the swelling decreases the dizziness will disappear as well,” Dr. Hemmond put his pen back in his lab coat pocket. “Do you have any questions?”

Michael shook his head no. It was not like he could articulate even if he had any. Mostly he just wanted to know when he could go home. Not to the downtown condo but to the beach house. That is where he wanted to be right now. Sitting on the deck and listening to the waves.

Dr. Hemmond took his leave and Michael stared at the ceiling. Besides sleep, he wondered what he was going to do in the hospital if no one was around. Michael had never really been bored before and it was not the most pleasant sensation.

More importantly, what was he going to do with the rest of his life?

There were no more twelve to eighteen hour days at the office. No more presentations or meetings. It was kind of a relief but also concerning. Michael really didn’t know what was going to take up his time now. He would have to take up some sort of work or hobby.

Ann came in and she looked entirely worn out. She had never been so beautiful to him. She plopped into the chair beside the bed and watched him.