Enemy Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

the operating room swung open and Rose was wheeled out on a gurney.
    Ella hurried to her mother, and fell into step beside the nurses taking her to the recovery room. Rose had IVs in both arms, and looked battered and bruised, as if someone hadbeaten her half to death. Her graying black hair was tucked into a white cap, and Ella could see a bandage beneath. “I’m here, Mom, and I’ll take care of everything. You just get better.”
    “She can’t hear you now, dear,” the nurse wearing green scrubs told her gently as they walked down the hall. “She’ll be unconscious for a while longer, but the doctor will be out to talk to you soon.”
    “Willmy mother be okay?” Ella whispered the words, struggling to keep her voice from breaking.
    “The doctor will explain all that to you,” the nurse said obliquely, then disappeared, along with Ella’s mother and an orderly, through the double doors leading to the recovery room.
    Ella paced back down the hall, restless and afraid, sensing that the news wouldn’t be good. What the hell was the doctorwaiting for? She stared at the double doors leading to the operating room, tempted to go in. As she took a step toward them, Dr. Natoni came out.
    He looked grim, and even worse, cautious. Ella suspected that, in this case, it meant that there’d be no absolutes as well as no positive good news. She braced herself.
    “Mind if we sit down?” Natoni said, gesturing toward the sofa. “I don’t know aboutyou, but I’m beat.”
    She followed him wordlessly, impatience tearing at her restraint. “Don’t string me along, Doc. Get to the bottom line.”
    He shrugged. “Okay. Your mom will live, Ella, you don’t have to worry about that. It was a miracle and the seat belt, I suppose. There doesn’t appear to be any brain damage, just a mild concussion, but her legs were badly broken, and there’s some major nerveand tissue damage there. She’ll need a wheelchair for a while until she starts to heal. But even though we have a good prognosis, it’s possible she may never be able to walk again without crutches. The worst-case scenario would be a wheelchair, but I don’t see that happening.”
    The relief that Ella had felt upon learning that her mother would survive was suddenly replaced with the disturbing newsthat Rose could face life on crutches, or even a wheelchair. Her mother was finally adjusting to widowhood and beginning to discover a new life for herself. She was active socially, taking comfort in old friendships now renewed. Yet once again she would have to adapt, rebuild, and find new ways to define herself. It was all so unfair. Her mother had been through enough.
    “This isn’t conclusive,you understand. The extent of her recovery depends on how her physical therapy goes and how she heals. I’m betting that eventually Rose will regain full mobility. She is such an active, positive person, I can’t see her giving up.”
    Ella heard the reassurance in Dr. Natoni’s voice, but his words seemed to come from a distance. Inside, she still felt the fear and anguish her mother had experiencedfrom the accident.
    “I think her belief in the old ways will really help her now. As an MD, I’m not a traditionalist. Far from it. But I do know that mental attitude can be crucial to the recovery process. Once she’s over the initial trauma, your brother might be able to do more for her than we can at this facility.”
    Ella glanced across the hall into the waiting room where she’d spent the pastfew painful hours. Leo Bekis, in handcuffs, was being led over to a row of chairs along the far wall, where some of his relatives were waiting to see him. Bekis would most likely sleep the night away in jail, then wake up with nothing more than a few muscle aches and a bad hangover. Her mother, meanwhile, might face months or years of pain and frustration trying to learn to walk again unaided.
    When Leo tried to talk to his visitors, his speech was so slurred and incoherent the