The Walking Read Online Free PDF Page B

is, he may have suffered some serious brain damage. But we have him on a blood thinner, and he's being given medication that will break down any clots."
    Miles shook his head. Look I don't understand. Is that what caused the stroke?"
    "A stroke usually occurs when blockage in one of the arteries breaks off, travels through the bloodstream, and becomes lodged in one of the blood vessels of the brain. This is what happened to your father.
    There's not much we can do about the stroke that already occurred, although the doctor will talk to you more about that when he sees you.
    The anticoagulant and blood thinner he's being administered are to prevent additional strokes. They often come in waves, the clots dislgdging sequentially or in pieces, or dislodging other
    blockages farther down the line, and this hopefully will prevent that from occurring."
    Miles was listening, but he was looking at his father. He turned back toward the intern only when the other man stopped speaking.
    "Would you like me to get the doctor?" "Yes," Miles admitted. "Would you?"
    The intern smiled. I'll be back in a few minutes." There was a chair against the wall by the foot of the bed, and Miles pulled it to his dad's side, sitting down. Lying there, eyes closed, a tube shoved up his nose, the man on the bed did not even look like his father. Not only did he seem older and thinner, but the features of his face appeared to be altered. His nose looked larger than it did ordinarily, his chin longer and more pointed. The teeth that were exposed between pale, partially open lips were much too big and much too white, out of proportion with the rest of the face. Only the single exposed hand, connected to the arm in which bottled nutrients and medication were being intravenously fed, seemed familiar.
    He recognized that hand. The sight of it, for some reason, brought on the tears that previously wouldn't come. Looking at the veined, mottled skin, the bony, excessively lined knuckles, he could conjure up images of the past that were not prompted by the still face, the sheeted body. He saw that hand helping him climb the metal ladder out of the YMCA pool, spanking him when he shot the Werthers' dog in the butt with a BB gun, showing him how to tie knots for his Boy Scouts merit badge, dribbling a basketball.
    It was this that made him cry, that triggered the emotional outburst for which he'd been prepared .......... He touched his dad's hand, patted it, held it.
    And when the doctor came in, five minutes later, he was still crying.
    Then
    The girl sat trembling in the darkness, her frightened features only partially illuminated by the flickering orange glow of the fireplace.
    Her hands were clasped tightly together, and though her fingers moved nervously, they did not leave her lap.
    "There is nothing to be afraid of," William said kindly. He smiled at the girl, trying to calm her nerves, but this only seemed to make her more agitated. "It will not be painful," he told her. "It is a very simple procedure."
    The girl's hands clenched and unclenched in her lap. Under any other circumstances she would probably be very pretty. Now she just looked troubled and scared. She took a deep breath, a sound audible even over the crackle of the burning log in the fireplace. "Will" she began. She coughed nervously, cleared her throat. "Will you have to see me?"
    William shook his head. "Not if you don't want me to," he said softly.
    "But I must warn you that it will come out. I can take care of that for you, but if you do not want me to see you, you will have to get rid of it yourself." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. "It will be embarrassing for you, but it will be easier if I do it all. I promise I will not look at you as a man. If it makes you feel any better, I have seen many other young women the same way."
    "Who?" the girl asked, her fear temporarily overtaken by curiosity'.
    William shook his head. "I cannot tell you."
    She thought for a moment, then met