Walking on Water: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

“This is your wife?”
    “No,” Nicole said. “I’m a friend of the family.”
    He nodded. “All right, let’s find a room to talk.”
    I retrieved the basket of muffins, and Nicole and I followed the doctor down the hallway until he stopped and opened a door. “This will do.”
    Nicole touched my arm. “May I listen in?”
    “Of course,” I said.
    “Have a seat,” the doctor said, sitting down on an examination stool. His demeanor turned more serious. “I don’t know how much you already know, so I’m just going to walk you through the events of the past few days. Your father has suffered a serious heart attack. When he arrived in emergency we ran a catheter up through his femoral artery to his heart, looking for blockages. We found one, so we placed a stent in the artery to open it and allow the blood to flow through. He was then brought up here to the ICU, where we started him on medications to help his heart pump.
    “The next morning we ran an echocardiogram. We do this to make sure the entire heart is functioning normally, or, if it isn’t, to find where there might be muscledamage.” His expression fell a little. “Frankly, what we found wasn’t good. What your father had was a very serious type of heart attack—a blockage to the LAD.”
    “What’s that?” I asked.
    “LAD stands for left anterior descending artery. This type of blockage is sometimes called the widow maker, because the LAD is responsible for supplying blood to the left ventricle, which is primarily responsible for pumping blood to the rest of the body. If this area of the heart is oxygen deprived for a long time, the heart won’t pump effectively, which is what we term heart failure. There’s been damage; we’re just not sure of the extent.”
    Nicole looked afraid.
    “What do we do now?” I asked.
    The doctor breathed out slowly. “Right now, it’s a bit of a game of wait and see. As I said, we’ve got him on medications to help his heart pump. As long as he’s being given these medications he’ll have to be monitored closely, which means he’ll be required to stay in critical care. If his condition improves, we might send him to a step-down unit. But for now, we just need to see how his body responds to his treatment. Fortunately, aside from his heart issues, your father is in good physical condition. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t still be with us.”
    Nicole took my hand. The doctor looked at her, then back at me. “I’m sorry the news isn’t better. But your father’s a strong man. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him recover. I’ll keep you informed. Are you in town for a while?”
    “Indefinitely,” I replied.
    “Good. It always helps to have family near. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
    “Thank you,” I said.
    “Yes, thank you,” Nicole said.
    “You’re welcome,” he replied. He looked at us for a moment, then said, “I need to check on a patient. You’re welcome to stay in here if you like.”
    “Thank you,” Nicole said again. He smiled at her, then stood and walked out of the room, leaving my head spinning a little. Nicole wiped a tear back from her cheek.
    “Are you okay?” I asked.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should be comforting you.”
    After a moment I stood. “I’m going to go see him now. Do you want to come?”
    She stood too, then grabbed a couple of tissues from a box on the counter and wiped her eyes. “You go ahead. You two need some time to catch up.” As I started to walk out she said, “Don’t forget the muffins.”
    I grabbed the basket from the counter and walked down the hall to my father’s room. I set the muffins on a stand near his bed, then stood at his side, watching him. A monitor beeped with his heart, and I could see its motion on a digital screen. My father’s life was that jagged little green line on the monitor.
    It was several minutes before his eyes flickered, then opened. For a moment he just looked at me, as if he wasn’t sure who