Diamonds and Cole by Micheal Maxwell Read Free Book Online

up a chair.
    The initial shock was over. Cole tried to look either in her eyes or not at all. The sound of her voice was so familiar yet the tremors kept it from being wholly hers. They were sitting about three feet apart facing each other. Cole noticed that her toenails were badly in need of clipping. The room was bare and undecorated: a bed, a small closet, a door to the toilet and the television. Cole stood and took the remote from the stand on the bedside table and clicked off the television. Then he sat back down.
    “Oh,” Ellie started, “I hardly notice it’s on anymore.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “Little over a year. Allen put me here shortly after I lost the use of my legs.”
    “Tell me about this disease.”
    “Gee, I feel like I’m being interviewed. Is this on the record, Mr. Sage?” Ellie smiled. Her wit still sparkled in her eyes.
    “I’m sorry, I...”
    “You used to take teasing better. I was diagnosed a little over two years ago. They think ALS is hereditary but nobody really knows for sure. At first, I took a medication called Riluzole, but it made me so dizzy I couldn’t function. Then I tried this stuff called Baclofen. It gave me these weird muscle twitches. I sound like a pharmacist. There really is no way to stop the disease’s progression. It disconnects the nerves where they connect to your spinal column. Little by little as they disconnect, the parts of your body to which the nerves sent signals lose their ability to function. I am one of the lucky ones, they tell me. It went to my legs first. Physical therapy helped a little. Stretching, stuff like that, to keep my muscles from contracting so much, but that stopped when I came here. The thing that’s a real drag is the pain. My butt hurts all the time!” Ellie laughed, “Used to be a bigger pain. Not much of it left anymore.”
    “There is no...?” Cole hesitated
    “Cure? Nope. So here I am.”
    “I am so sorry, Ellie.”
    “Here now, we’ll have no pity parties around here. So, tell me about you. I saw you on CNN when you won that award. I was so proud of you. What have you done lately?”
    “Not much. I wrote a piece just before I left, part of a series I think, about mental health and the elderly.”
    “You’d have a field day around here.”
    “Why here, El? Why are you in this place? Isn’t there a facility that people who have, I mean, people with...”
    “ALS, come, you can say it. I’m not afraid of it.”
    “ALS.”
    “Yes, Cole, there is, but Allen, my husband, isn’t willing to pay for it. He’s a real estate salesman.” Ellie did an imitation of Groucho Marx raising his eyebrows and flicking an imaginary cigar. “And a pretty bad one.”
    “Are you serious?” Cole spoke before he thought.
    “Yes, I’m afraid so. So you know about my bad choice. Any ladies in your life I should know about?” Ellie said coyly.
    “Only you,” Cole said softly.
    “Stop, I’m serious.” Ellie smiled.
    “No, no one. There are so many things I want to ask you.” Cole changed the subject excitedly, “What have you done with yourself all these years? Do you still paint? I mean, well I guess not in here but...”
    “I did for a while, but after I married Allen I became the ‘house mom.’ It sort of got lost somewhere.”
    “Mom! I guess I never thought of, well that’s cool. Tell me about him, her, them? Boys? Girls?” Cole had relaxed and he felt the old connection to Ellie. It wasn’t gone. As they spoke, he had begun to see her through this new form.
    “One of each that were Allen’s when we got married, and my angel, Erin.”
    “Wow, I had no idea. Guess I should have figured. So what are they doing? Ages?
Tell all.”
    “Chad is—was—at Desert Community. Ann is at San Diego State, or maybe she’s finished by now.”
    “What do you mean is , was . That doesn’t seem like you, not to know.” Cole broke in.
    “I haven’t seen or heard from them since I came here.”
    “I’m not