Seeing Things by Patti Hill Read Free Book Online

weight-bearing restrictions?” Dr. Milner asked.
    I confessed to the gruesome sentence my surgeon in Grand Junction had passed. “No weight on the ankle for six to eight weeks.”
    â€œYou know, Mrs. Wainwright, you could be a pinup girl for bone density. If you’re amenable, let’s adjust those orders to ‘weight as tolerated.’ Now, that won’t get you onto the dance floor tonight, but getting around should be easier. Once Gary gets you fitted, I want you to ease your weight onto the injured ankle. If the pain is between a two or three, proceed with caution.” He tucked the clipboard under his arm. “I hear from Suzanne that you’re a hiker.”
    â€œI’ve climbed nineteen fourteeners, and I didn’t start until after my husband and I retired.”
    â€œThat’s truly humbling, but I must make you promise to save number twenty until you’ve completely rehabilitated that ankle. I don’t want to see you airlifted off a mountain on the ten o’clock news. You’re out for this season, young lady.”
    â€œNext year?”
    â€œIf you’re a good girl and do what I tell you.”
    â€œI suppose I could try being a good girl if it gets me back on the mountain.”
    He stopped at the door. “You probably already know this, but Suzanne beats me out as surgeon of the year on a regular basis—but only by a few votes.” He said this with a wink in his voice. “Your daughter-in-law knows how to relate to hurting people. She’s truly gifted.”
    â€œThank you, doctor.”
    Gary returned with the boot. The sound of Velcro ripping made me shudder. He held the boot for my inspection. I saw the shape of a black, knee-high boot, period. Rather than ask to feel it, I listened. Old ladies have healthy egos too. “When your ankle gets to aching,” he said, “press this bulb to pump more air into the boot. You’ll figure out quickly what makes you feel better.”
    Huck watched over Gary’s shoulder as he adjusted the many Velcro straps. Once I’d proven my boot-pumping skills, I looked around for a congratulatory wink from Huck, but he was gone, probably chasing after a corn snake somewhere along the river. And, oh, how I longed to be with him.
    I’M NOT MUCH OF one for lying around in bed, even if it’s a fancy bed that adjusts this way and that. Since sequestering myself in the bedroom as Suzanne ordered, I’d got to thinking of the bedroom as a cell. After a few days of living under house arrest, Bee and I ventured out to the living area while Lupe busied herself cleaning the upstairs bathrooms. Unless I wanted a matching cast on my right foot, I needed to locate area rugs, power cords, footstools, anything that would send me hurling. Besides, this was my first chance to snoop around a bit, see the house as more than a glance of wood here and a glimmer of stainless steel there.
    Just outside my bedroom door, the great room lay to the left, the kitchen straight ahead. I shuffled my way toward the great room sofas until I caught my toe on an area rug. The exuberance of red poppies woven against a white and green background well nigh toppled me. Leave it to Suzanne to find the thickest rug on the market, one that couldn’t be ignored even by the legally blind. The rug rose a good two inches from the floor. Bee nosed my hand.
    â€œYou stay off this rug. Do you hear me? Don’t shed whatever you do. A muddy paw on that white, and you’ll find yourself in a maximum-security kennel.”
    Bee whimpered. I scratched behind her ears. “You know better than that. No dog of mine will be sent off to live in a cage.” I bent to be thanked with a wet kiss.
    Finding the light switches proved easier than usual, pounded out of copper as they were. And besides a set of leather chairs with ottomans, the room proved easy to negotiate. However, glass vases and mica lamps topped every