Читать книгу Twice Blessed - Barbara Cameron - Страница 11

Chapter 3

3

Katie knelt on the floor and touched Rosie’s throat with trembling fingers, searching for a pulse. It was there, faint but steady. A thin trickle of blood dripped from a cut high on her forehead.

“Daniel, call—”

He had his cell phone in his hand. “Already calling them.” Turning away from her, he spoke into the phone. “Hello? Yes, we need an ambulance.” Turning away, he told the dispatcher the address.

“I’m here now, Rosie. It’s Katie. Everything’s going to be okay.” She dug in her pocket, found a handkerchief, and pressed it to

the cut.

Rosie’s lashes fluttered. Her eyes opened. “Katie?” She blinked. “Why are there two of you? Is that you and me?”

“Oh no, Daniel!”

He came to kneel on the floor next to her. He took her hand.

“Why is she seeing double?” she asked him, turning to look at him, the bloodstained handkerchief in her hand. Tears ran down her cheeks.

“She hit her head. I’ve heard that someone can see double after they hit their head. Calm down, the paramedics will be here in any minute.”

Just as he said, the paramedics arrived a few minutes later. Katie stood out of the way while they did a brief exam on Rosie, carefully scooped her up and put her on a gurney, and wheeled her out to the ambulance.

Hours later, Katie sat in a cubicle in the emergency room holding Rosie’s hand as they waited for results of her tests. Funny, thought Katie. Her own headache had vanished the moment she discovered Rosie lying there at the bottom of the stairs, a basket of laundry spilled at her feet. Fortunately, Rosie had stayed conscious and told them that she’d tripped going upstairs and hit her head, not fallen down the flight of stairs. She hadn’t had to have x-rays to check for broken bones.

“This is silly,” Rosie complained. “I want to go home.”

“You might have a concussion.”

“I just have a bump on the head. I want to go home,” she repeated. “Please?”

“Just as soon as the doctor says it’s allrecht. Promise.”

Sitting here, worrying over how pale Rosie looked, she felt very much older than her schweschder at that moment. She’d had some bad moments waiting. At first, every time Rosie closed her eyes Katie had talked to her, urging her to stay awake until a nurse happened to be in the room and told her that it wasn’t true that you had to keep people with a head injury awake. They’d been together since the very beginning, had slept together in the womb and spent most of every day working together and being a unit.

Katie had never thought about what it would be like without Rosie in her life, but as time ticked on and she sat waiting with her, she thought about the possibility and she shivered.

“Cold?” asked the nurse?

“Yes,” she and Rosie said at the same time.

The nurse smiled, left them, and returned with two blankets that had been warmed. Bliss, thought Katie as she thanked the woman. She wrapped one around her shoulders while the nurse tucked the other around Rosie.

The minutes ticked on and fear edged into her mind again. God is here with us, Katie reminded herself and began praying.

The doctor walked in a few minutes later and introduced himself. “Rosie, you have a mild concussion. I’m going to let you go home with your sister here if you promise you’ll take it easy and no going up and down stairs for a few days until you feel steady.”

“Promise.”

“Doctor, what about her seeing double?”

“If she continues to have problems bring her back. Otherwise, the double vision should fade pretty quickly. Make sure she sees your regular doctor in the next day or so.” He grinned. “Right now I’m the one seeing double. But I guess you hear that sort of thing all the time.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “Yes, we do.”

He chuckled and handed her a list of instructions, then left them.

“See? Bump on the head. Told you. Now, hand me my clothes. Please.”

“Here I was hoping for a quiet night at the house while they kept you.”

“No, you weren’t,” Rosie said confidently. “You know you wouldn’t have gone home.”

Katie handed her the clothes she’d worn to the hospital and held her arm when she got off the gurney and swayed a little. Once Rosie was dressed, Katie called their driver and got them a ride home.

She found Rosie in the garden the very next day.

“The doctor said you were to rest,” Katie told her sternly. She’d looked for her sister all over the house, calling and calling her until she’d thought to check the garden.

“This is restful.” Rosie lifted her face to the sun, enjoying the warmth after being stuck inside most of the morning.

“The doctor meant inside the house, and you know it.”

“I feel fine.”

Katie wanted to stamp her foot. “You’re behaving like a kind.”

“You’re nagging,” Rosie said mildly. “I’ll be fine. I just wanted to come out here for an hour or two.”

“Then you’ll go inside? And you’ll stay there until I come home from work?”

“I—”

“Don’t say a word about going in to work. That’s absolutely not going to happen. And if you argue with me I’m calling grossmudder.”

“You’re acting like you’re my mamm.”

Katie threw up her hands and stomped back into the house. She walked into the kitchen, washed her hands, and began packing a snack for work. It was the first time she could ever remember going, to work without Rosie. She wasn’t comfortable leaving Rosie alone, but she told herself that being here wasn’t enough to make Rosie stay in bed anyway. Maybe she could ask their next-door neighbor to check on her.

She went upstairs to take her shower and as she unpinned her kapp, she found herself staring at her image. Maybe she was worrying too much. The doctor wouldn’t have sent Rosie home if she needed a nursemaid. Rosie had said the double vision had stopped and so had the headaches.

She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was past time to be getting into the shower and dressed for work. Rosie wouldn’t be at the store that afternoon, so she’d better be ready to do the work of two.

***

Rosie sat back on her heels and watched Katie stomp off toward the house. She sighed. Katie meant well, but she just didn’t think she could stay inside the house another day.

Then again, an hour outside had made the headache return. “I think this might not have been a gut idea,” she muttered to herself. Pulling a handkerchief from her pocket, she wiped the perspiration from her forehead. She’d give it a few minutes and then go inside. That way Katie wouldn’t think she’d persuaded her to do what she wanted.

A few minutes later, Rosie glimpsed movement out of the side of her eye. Blackie had slithered out into the open and lay on the ground a few feet away, silently observing her.

“I’m sure you just heard that,” Rosie said as she plucked some weeds and threw them to the side. “I know she’s worried about me, but sometimes she makes a bigger deal about being a few minutes older than me than she should.”

Rosie sat back on her heels. “I think this might not have been a gut idea.” She wiped at the perspiration on her forehead again. It felt hotter out here, and her head had started hurting.

The garden had always been her haven . . . where she felt most herself. It had scared her how suddenly things could change. One minute she’d been thinking about having the house to herself and doing some mending and the next she’d woken up to being loaded into an ambulance.

Her head had hurt badly enough to make her stay in bed for two days, but today she’d just wanted to be outside in the fresh air, plunge her hand in the rich soil, and see how her fruits and vegetables were growing.

Now that she’d had some time out here, she saw that she was overdoing. She brushed the dirt from her hands and prepared

to stand when she heard a buggy pulling into the drive. Turning, her eyes widened when she saw Jacob get out of it and stride

toward her.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you out here.” He opened the gate and strode toward her.

Puzzled, she stared at him. “It’s my garden.”

“I heard that you were in the hospital earlier this week.”

“It was just the emergency room.”

“Saul said you have a concussion. Should you be out here working?”

“It’s not work. I love it.” But she was wondering if she could get to her feet without embarrassing herself. She felt a little dizzy.

He brought his hand out from behind his back and held out a small bouquet of daisies. “I guess if it was just the emergency room you don’t need these?”

No one had ever given her flowers. “Well, I do have a concussion.” She took them and smiled. “Danki.”

She stood and swayed a little with the movement. His hand shot out and caught her by the elbow. “Are you allrecht?”

“Fine. I think I might just have stayed out in the sun a little longer than I should have.” She glanced at him. “Please don’t tell Katie I said that. She’ll say ‘I told you so.’ ”

He kept his hand under her elbow as they walked toward the porch. “I have a sister who does that. Katie won’t hear it from me.”

They made it to the porch and safely up the stairs.

“Do you need to go inside?”

“I think I can sit out here for a few minutes if you don’t need to get going.”

“I came by to see you.”

She smiled as she sank into a rocking chair. “That’s very nice. Are you settling in well at your new home?”

“Just fine,” he said as he sat in a chair beside her. “One day when you’re feeling better, I hope you’ll visit and give me some advice on organic farming in this area.”

“Well, I think Abram will be of more help, but I’d love to talk to you about it.”

Katie came out and looked surprised to see Rosie and Jacob sitting there. “Jacob, I didn’t know you were here.”

“Just got here.”

“Rosie, you look a little flushed. Maybe you should go inside and lie down.”

“I will in a few minutes.”

Now Katie was staring. “You will?”

“Ya.”

“I thought she’d argue with me about going into work,” Katie told Jacob, looking baffled. She straightened. “Can I get you something to drink?”

He looked at Rosie. “If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love something cold.”

Katie nodded. “I’ll bring you and Rosie some iced tea. Rosie, shall I put those daisies in some water for you?”

She held them out. “Danki.” As Katie took them from her their eyes met, and Rosie saw the question in them. Katie knew Rosie had never received flowers. Neither of them had.

After her sister hurried into the house Rosie turned to Jacob. “You didn’t give me up.”

“Told you I wouldn’t.”

When Katie returned she brought a plate of sliced zucchini bread with the tea and set the tray on the table between the chairs.

“You aren’t joining us?” Jacob asked her.

She shook her head. “I’m getting ready to go to work. Rosie, I put a pillow and sheets on the sofa so you can lie down when you come in. I’d rather you didn’t climb the stairs to your room while I’m gone.”

“Allrecht.” Rosie picked up her glass of tea and took a sip.

“That wasn’t a question,” Jacob noted as he lifted his glass.

“Most things aren’t with her,” Rosie said with a slight smile.

He chose a slice of bread and bit in with appreciation. “This is good. Aren’t you going to have some?”

She sighed. “Have you ever grown zucchini?”

He shook his head.

“Well, they grow and grow and grow. We have harvested so much zucchini. I don’t think I can look at another zucchini.”

Jacob laughed. “Well, I’ll be happy to take this off your hands. It’s gut.”

“You’re welcome to it. We’ll wrap it for you. And you know, you won’t lack for baked goods here.”

He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin from the tray. “Why is that?”

“There will be a lot of maedels stopping to welcome you with a plate of baked goods.” When he colored, she tilted her head to study him. “Why do I have the feeling this has already happened?”

“Well, a few have stopped by to welcome me into the neighborhood.”

“I see.”

“None brought something delicious.”

“Really?”

“Stop teasing me,” he said.

“But it’s so much fun,” she told him, pretending to pout.

“I didn’t tell Katie—” He stopped as Katie walked out onto the porch.

“Didn’t tell Katie what?” She walked over and sat in one of the rocking chairs.

“How delicious the zucchini bread is,” he said as he picked up another slice.

“Glad you like it. Rosie made it.”

“I told him we’d send the rest of it home with him.”

“Gut idea. I’ll go wrap it up.”

“Don’t go to any trouble—” he began, but Katie had already jumped up and headed for the kitchen.

“She’s quite energetic.”

“I think she got a bigger portion of that than me,” Rosie acknowledged.

“I should be going so you can get some rest. Do you need some help getting inside?”

“Nee, I’m fine.”

“It’s no problem, no problem at all.”

“Now you’re the one teasing.”

He grinned at her and she thought, he’s flirting with me!

Katie came out with the package of zucchini bread. “I put in some apple butter bars for you, too.”

“You’re very generous. Danki.” He turned to Rosie. “I’m glad to see you’re doing better than I expected. Maybe if you’re up for it we can go for a ride in a couple of days?”

“That would be very nice. Thank you for the flowers.”

“My pleasure. Have a gut afternoon,” he said, looking at Katie, then at Rosie, before he descended the stairs.

“Well, well, what a surprise,” Katie said as she resumed her chair.

“You’re surprised that a man stopped by to see me?”

“Well, aren’t you?”

Rosie stared down at her hands and saw that there was dirt under her fingernails. She was in her oldest dress she wore when she gardened. And a kerchief that had seen better days covered her hair that probably looked untidy—it had hurt too badly to brush her hair well and pin it back as severely as she usually did that morning.

“Ya,” she said, nodding. “I’m tired. I think I’ll go lie down on the sofa now.”

And as she walked inside, she found herself smiling. Maybe she didn’t attract men as easily as her sister, but she didn’t need to. If just one man as nice as Jacob liked her, that was enough. That was more than enough.