“What are you talking about?” Edward asked her, following
her to a box on the wall where she pulled out masks and told them to put them
on. She called into her radio for
another nurse to come right away and for them to wear a mask upon entering the
room.
“What is going on?” Philomena asked, strapping on the mask
and helping her sons. She looked at Terry’s arm and knew what the nurse had
seen; a positive tuberculosis test.
The other nurse came into the room. “I want to rerun the TB
test and get these people tested. I think we need to start them on antibiotics
prophylactically. See if the doctor agrees.”
“Come with me please,” the other nurse told them. She led
them to an examination room and told them to leave their masks on.
A doctor came into the room. “I understand you’re Terry’s
family. It’s so nice to meet you.” He was wearing rubber gloves. “Sorry, I’m
required to wear the gloves. Since you have the masks, I don’t have to wear
one.”
Philomena nodded. “That’s alright doctor. We were only with
Terry for a few minutes. Can we have gotten it that fast?”
“Well, it can be spread among the other members of a family,
especially if he’s been coughing around you,” he said. “I must say you don’t
look like most of the homeless families we run into.”
Gary slid a glance at Jerry. “We aren’t homeless,” he said.
“We haven’t seen our father in ten years. We just found him.”
The doctor smiled. “Oh! Well, in that case, I think you’ll
be just fine. Did you kiss your husband?”
“No, I didn’t. We held his hands though.”
“Come wash your hands,” he told them, and turned on the
faucet. “Scrub really well between all your fingers and the nail beds. Wash all
the way to the elbow and keep your arms up so the water runs down your arms and
not back to your hands.” He handed them each towels to dry. “Now when you go
back in to see Terry, wear a mask and be sure to use gloves. When you leave be
sure and use the hand sanitizer. You’ll need to wear protective clothing too.
Meanwhile, I’ll order an antibiotic shot for each of you and then give you a
prescription." He gave them directions for the medication and when to be tested and how often and told them where they could get tested.
Philomena’s eyes widened. “Doctor, will we be able to take my
husband home?”
“Ma’am, I’m afraid not. I was looking over his latest x-rays
when the nurse called me,” he said. “We’ll keep him comfortable, but he really
doesn’t have long. His lungs are pretty well consumed. I’ve actually put a
special order on his room now that we know it’s not just pneumonia.”
The boys held onto their mother as the three of them cried.
“All these years only to lose him,” Gary said.
“Edward,” the doctor told the social worker, “You’ll need to
follow the same protocol.”
Edward nodded. “I’m so sorry Mrs. Braxton. I understand
you’ve been through this before. No one should have to go through it twice;
much less over the same person.”
Her eyes were red and her face was soaked with tears. Jerry
pulled tissues out of an offered box and handed some to his mother and then his
brother before taking some for himself.
They removed their masks with the doctor’s permission and cleaned up as
well as they could. Philomena went over to the sink and splashed her face with
cold water and patted it dry with paper toweling.
“Are you going to test the people at the shelter?” she
asked. “I understand he was there for awhile.
“I guess we’ll have to,” Edward told her. He pulled out his
cell phone and dialed. “The health department is headed there now. I sure hope
he’s not contagious.”
“Well, he got it somehow,” she said. “Doctor, when can we
see him again?”
“Tonight,” was the answer. “I’ll leave you to the nurse for
now.” He nodded to the nurse who entered the room with a tray with four
syringes already filled with an antibiotic. “I’ll bring in the prescriptions in
a minute.”
A month later Philomena greeted people at her door again as
she had ten years earlier dressed in black. Her sons were in her living room
with a few of their friends who had come for support.
Detective Corcoran took Philomena’s hand. “I’m so sorry it
turned out this way, but at least now you have the closure you didn’t have
before.”
“Yes, I do. Ten years ago I didn’t feel like he was gone.
Now I do; but I got to say goodbye,” she told him. "You know, we were
prepared this time, we knew what was coming, and we should be used to it since he
was gone for ten years supposedly already dead, but still, it hits you right
between the eyes like a jolt you didn't see coming. " She wiped away a tear.
"But as you said, the mystery is solved," she said choking on the
words.
“Yes, but you have a new problem. You were able to take care
of the mortgage problem, but now you have a huge hospital bill that he left
behind. Are you going to be able to handle that?”
“Actually, because he was never declared dead I was able to
keep the life insurance policy. Everyone thought I was crazy. We didn’t have a
funeral the last time, only a small memorial and that was here. The policy paid
for the cremation and the hospital bill. He didn’t leave me in debt. He never
wanted to do that to us.
“Hmmm, I’m surprised they let you keep paying on it not
knowing if he was still alive, but I guess you’ve showed us all. You always
believed he was still alive. I guess that fellow we found in the river was the
driver of the car after all.”
“Yes, and I told you Terry would never lead the police on a
chase.”
“Yes, you sure did,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to remember
to listen to family members more. I know people tend to see what they want
about someone, but you were absolutely correct about Terry.”
