Reckless Road (Torpedo Ink 5)

Zyah glanced at her watch. It was too late to call the doctor’s office, but she was going to first thing in the morning. She wanted another X-ray of her grandmother’s leg, just to see if it was healing correctly. She also wanted to talk to him about physical therapy and just how much her grandmother should be doing. It was so unlike Anat to say anything at all negative that the little she had said meant the pain was severe and she was really becoming distraught over the therapy. No one else knew her the way Zyah did.

“Mama Anat, you should have told me when the physical therapy began to get painful. I know you told Terrie, but I know you so much better than she does. The therapists expect patients to complain to them about pain. She has no idea how stoic you are. If you ask her if it’s supposed to hurt, or say that it is painful, she just chalks it up to what every patient says. I know better, because I know you.”

“You have so much to do. You’ve been out looking for jobs to pay the bills. I didn’t want to worry you, Zyah.” Again, Anat rubbed her thigh.

Zyah noted her hand was trembling. Her heart fluttered. “Maybe I should take you to the hospital tonight and get your leg X-rayed again. Does it hurt the way it did when you first broke it? Can you tell if the bone is fractured?” She tried not to sound anxious. “Either way, we’re calling the doctor, tonight or tomorrow.”

“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Anat denied. “We can wait until tomorrow and call the doctor. I’m certain he’ll say the pain is normal from the physical therapy.”

Just the fact that Anat knew Zyah would call the doctor and she wasn’t objecting meant her leg really hurt. Zyah was angry with herself and a little angry with Player all over again because she’d been so focused on her own shame and loss that she hadn’t read her grandmother’s distress and physical pain.

“Are you positive we can wait for tomorrow?”

“Absolutely. I don’t want to go to the emergency room. I’d rather have you talk to the doctor first. You know I really dislike the emergency room.”

Zyah knew that was the truth. Her grandmother would much rather clean her house, the entire yard and maybe her neighbor’s house and yard before making a trip to the emergency room. She thought it was such a waste of time sitting there waiting to be seen.

“I can wait just as easy in the comfort of my home, and the doctor can make my appointments for tests,” Anat said.

It didn’t matter how many times Zyah explained to her that sometimes haste mattered, not even after she’d been rushed to the hospital after the attack. Anat had a major aversion to emergency rooms, hospitals in general, and now, it seemed, she wasn’t going to be readily cooperative if it meant more tests.

Night had fallen outside, and inside the bedroom, Anat had the lights blazing. That was the one striking difference Zyah noticed. Before the break-in and vicious assault, Anat rarely had more than one light on; now she preferred to have lights on throughout the house and even outside. She didn’t sleep very well.

Zyah didn’t like the idea of being away from her in the evenings, but Anat had insisted she help out her friend’s granddaughter, Francine, although Francine had taken off with a man the first chance she got, so it would have been better if Zyah had just stayed home. Now, if she took the job in Healdsburg at the restaurant even two evenings a week, that would be leaving her grandmother alone, and clearly, she was frightened.

Zyah had money, but most of it was tied up in her retirement and deferred accounts. She could pull it with penalties, but she preferred not to if she could make enough money to keep her grandmother comfortable and pay the bills, not an easy task with the wages paid in the area. She’d always lived on the minimum it took to get by, sent her grandmother money and saved the rest for when she would need it. Maybe now was that time. Fortunately, she’d bought the house outright for Anat a few years earlier. They didn’t have a monthly mortgage, and that helped.

“Last night, when you were gone, you asked if any of my friends from the Red Hat Society would come and stay with me,” Anat ventured slowly.

Zyah heard the hesitancy in her voice. This was just as serious as the pain in her leg from her physical therapy. Zyah had to work at keeping her heart rate under strict control. Her grandmother would know the moment it was elevated. She pulled the privacy screen over the windows, not liking that the room was lit so bright and anyone outside could see them in the bedroom.