“I’m sorry you saw the gun,” he said. “Can we drop it there?”
“You don’t want the Demerol because it will make you drowsy, right?”
He met her eyes, but didn’t reply.
“This was going to be your last one, anyway,” Lari said. “I could
get you some aspirin, if you want.”
“Please.”
“Are you in pain?”
“No.”
“If anybody asks, you took it, okay?” she asked. “It would be easier that way.”
She went to the bathroom, and in a moment, with a mighty roar, the toilet flushed.
“Thank you,” he said when she came out.
“I’ll get the aspirin,” she said, and went out.
She came back in a minute with a small tin of Bayer aspirin.
“These are mine,” she said. “You didn’t get them from me. Okay?”
“Thank you.”
“There’s a security guard at the nurse’s station, I guess you know. He’s giving everybody who gets off the elevator the once-over.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“In the morning, they’re going to send you a physical therapist, to show you how to use crutches,” she said. “When she tells you the more you use your leg, the more quickly it will feel better, trust her.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll see you around, maybe, sometime.”
“Not in the morning?”
“No. I won’t be coming back here. I’m only filling in.”
“I’d really like to see you around, no maybe, sometime. Could I call you?”
“There’s a rule against that.”
“You don’t know what I have in mind, so how can there be a rule against that?”
“I mean, giving your phone number to a patient.”
“I’m not just any old patient. I’m Margaret’s Prince Charming’s buddy. And, anyway, don’t you ever do something you’re not supposed to?”
“Not very often,” she said, “and something tells me this is one of the times I should follow the rules.”
She walked out of the room.
Matt watched the door close slowly after her.