Nurse Hilary by Peggy Gaddis Read Free Book Online Page B

’ t at all, ” Hilary told him. “ I envy people your age. ”
    He was completely astounded.
    “ You envy us? Now you are making fun, ” he protested.
    “ I ’ m not. I ’ m being quite honest, ” Hilary answered him. “ Looking back over your lifetime, you must have seen some pretty wonderful things. The past fifty years have been filled to the brim with discoveries, inventions— ”
    His good-humored smile checked her.
    “ Not half as many exciting things as the next fifty years, ” he reminded her. “ I envy you the thought that you will be here to experience them, to share in them, to watch them happen. ”
    “ I suppose so. ” Hilary rested her elbow on the table ’ s edge, her chin in her palm, and studied him so thoughtfully that Jason was both amused and touched. “ Please tell me about your fifty years, Mr. Hodding! I ’ d love to listen to someone who was around during those years. ”
    “ Well, the first time I came to Atlanta, I was five years old, and my family traveled down in a covered wagon, camping out on the way, and taking five days for the trip that you make nowadays in a car in a couple of hours, ” he told her. He added quietly, “ They were not really my family. They were people who had taken me in when my own family was wiped out in a cyclone that hit our place in Pennsylvania when I was three. ”
    “ But—how awful! ”
    Mr. Hodding said quietly, “ I was too young to realize, of course. And the Christens were so kind and so good that I grew up without feeling too much lack of my own family. That came years later when I realized how alone I was in the world. ”
    “ You didn ’ t marry? ” asked Hilary.
    He looked down at his hand, strong and gnarled and work - worn, and shook his head.
    “ I was too busy, ” he answered, and smiled a brief, unmirthful smile, “ trying to get ahead, to make something of myself, to be important, to justify my existence, I suppose. ”
    He looked up at her, again with that brief, mirthless smile.
    “ So now I ’ m an old man, possessed of enough of this world ’ s goods to guarantee me comfort and security for my declining y ears, but without a soul who cares whether I live or die ,” he said slowly. “ Don ’ t let that happen to you, my dear. ”
    There were tears in Hilary ’ s eyes and her smile was tremulous.
    “ I won ’ t, Mr. Hodding, ” she promised him gently.
    The dining room was emptying, the waitresses were clearing tables and turning out lights, and Mr. Hodding rose as Hilary did, and looked about him as though surprised at the passage of time.
    “ My dear child, I ’ ve bored you to death, I ’ m afraid, ” he apologized.
    “ You haven ’ t at all—I ’ ve loved it! ” Hilary assured him as they left the dining room. “ Please tell me more sometime. I ’ ll be looking forward to it. ”
    “ You ’ re very kind, ” said Mr. Hodding, gave her his slight, old-fashioned bow and moved down the corridor toward the wing that housed the men guests of the Club.
    Hilary watched him for a moment before she turned to go to her own room. As she turned a light, a small red twinkling one, in front of one of the doors along the women ’ s corridor, caught her eye. She hurried towards that silent signal for help, wondering which of the practical nurses was on duty and had failed to see that light.
    She was startled as she realized it was on above the door of 312, to which Mrs. Barton had been assigned. She paused for a moment before she tapped lightly on the door and heard a murmur that she took to be permission to enter.
    She opened the door into a dark, over-warm room and heard a small, whimpering sound that was like a puppy in distress. Her fingers found the light switch, and warm amber light filled the room. The whimpering stopped, and Mrs. Barton turned over in bed and peered at her, tears wet on her cheeks.
    “ You said if I pushed the button, you ’ d come, ” she whimpered. “ I did—but you didn ’ t.