Kathleen's Story (3 page)

K
ATHLEEN SPENT HER
first two weeks as a volunteer in the admissions office filing paperwork and taking patients to their rooms in wheelchairs once they were admitted. Holly pulled duty delivering gift shop items, flowers and food trays, and garnered a coveted assignment as playroom helper on the pediatric floor. Raina prepared patients for transport to operating rooms or tests. She often ran errands for nurses and residents from floor to floor because she knew her way around so well.

As junior volunteers, they could work up to three days a week, reporting to the volunteer office on the first floor to check in and receive their assignments. From there they reported to the department head who had requested a volunteer, and worked until the task was finished or the department head no longer needed them. Then they would return to the volunteer office for another assignment, or go home if it was late in the day.

Kathleen liked the admissions office and wanted to remain working there. The work was easy, and she felt as if she were working in a regular office instead of a hospital. Her supervisor was delighted with her wheelchair skills, and when she asked Kathleen how she had acquired them, Kathleen only said, “I help out a sick woman in my neighborhood.” Not the total truth, but not a lie either.

The only thing that gave her pause about the Pink Angels program happened on the first day she reported to the admissions office. She met a girl, Beverly, who was a year older and leaving the program. She was assigned to familiarize Kathleen with her duties. “Can I ask why you’re leaving?” Kathleen inquired over the file drawers in the back room. “Don’t you like it here?”

Beverly thought for a moment. “It wasn’t what I’d expected it to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“I became a volunteer because I wanted to help people. I thought this would be a good way to do that.”

“It isn’t?” Wasn’t that why
she
had allowed Raina to talk her into joining—because she wanted to help?

“Let me tell you what happened to me. I volunteered last summer and liked it, so I stayed on to work after school and on weekends every now and again. Then last month, I was taking a patient
up from the emergency room to be admitted when all you-know-what broke loose.” Beverly paused, the stack of folders she was showing Kathleen how to file forgotten. “An EMS crew came running in, pushing a stretcher with this unconscious man. He was white as a sheet and one of the EMS guys was sitting across the guy’s chest doing CPR. Another was holding IV bags. There was blood everywhere. I was pinned against a wall with my woman in a wheelchair and we couldn’t move, so I had to watch.

“It was horrible. His leg was broken off and I saw his bone sticking out.” Beverly shuddered. “I thought I was going to be sick.”

Kathleen’s stomach lurched at the girl’s description.

“Anyway, I finally got my patient out of there, but I was totally shook up. Later, I went down, you know, just to check on the man, and…and…” Moisture formed in Beverly’s eyes. “And he was dead.”

Kathleen swallowed hard. “That’s terrible.”

“The ER was busy and so no one had come up to take him to the morgue, and he was just lying there. He looked asleep, but he was dead.” Beverly swiped under her eyes and sniffed. “I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. That’s when it hit me. Hospitals help people live, but people die here too. I started getting scared that I’d see
something like that again and I knew I couldn’t take it. I asked Connie to put me someplace out of the way and this is it.” She gestured at the room full of cabinets and computers. “It worked for a while, but now I just want to be a regular person. I’m not cut out to be a volunteer. So that’s why I’m leaving.”

Kathleen told Raina and Holly the story and although they were both sympathetic, neither wanted to reconsider her decision to join the program. “We’ll never see anything like that,” Raina said confidently.

“I agree,” Holly said. “So far, it’s been nothing but fun.”

Kathleen wasn’t so sure, but from that day forward, she asked to remain in admissions, and except for taking patients up to their rooms, or a pregnant woman to Labor and Delivery, she stayed off the upper floors and away from Emergency. She had a lunch break at noon and another break around three. She met Raina and Holly in the parking garage at five and rode home listening to Raina and Holly chatter about their experiences.

From time to time, Kathleen looked for Carson’s name on the sign-up sheet in the volunteer office, but she never saw it. She told herself that odds were he didn’t even think of her beyond that first day. Still, she wanted to see him again. He might have made her angry, but he
was
gorgeous and he
had
flirted with her. She kept the secret
buried, even when Holly asked point-blank if Kathleen had ever talked to “the hunk from orientation.”

“Too busy with my workload,” she had said.

It was the middle of June. Kathleen was walking through an underground tunnel used to move quickly between buildings of the giant hospital when she heard someone call, “Wait up!”

She turned to see Carson jogging toward her. Her heartbeat accelerated, but she tried for an air of indifference.

“I thought that was you,” he said, stopping in front of her. “It’s Kathy, isn’t it?”

“Kathleen,” she corrected, feeling oddly let down. He didn’t even remember her name.

He shrugged and tossed her a disarming smile. “Where you headed?”

“I’m delivering a file to a doctor in building two.”

“I’m just starting the program today. Have you missed me?”

“I hadn’t noticed you weren’t working.” She hoped he wouldn’t see through her white lie.

“I’m wounded. Aren’t you ever going to be nice to me?”

She felt color creep up her neck. “I—I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay. How about we call a truce?” A lazy, sexy smile crossed Carson’s lips.

“I’m not at war with you.”

“Still, I’d like to start over.”

Kathleen hugged the folder to her chest, wishing he didn’t affect her the way he did. “Um—all right, where have you been?”

“I’ve been catching up on schoolwork.”

“School’s been out for weeks.”

“Private tutor. It seems I skipped a few too many classes, and the headmaster was holding my grades and free pass to my junior year until I made up some tests.”

Privileged
, Kathleen thought. In her school, he probably would have flunked. “Glad you made it,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound cynical.

He bowed from the waist. Straightening, he asked, “Where did Connie assign you?”

“I’ve been in the admissions office since my first day. How about you?”

“I’m stuck with files and paperwork in my parents’ office.” He leaned forward and in a mock whisper added, “I think they want to keep tabs on me for a while. You know, before turning me out on the general hospital population where I might do damage.”

“I can’t imagine why they’d want to keep tabs on you.” The remark was out of her mouth before she thought about it. And it sounded sarcastic. She could have bitten her tongue.

Carson laughed. “I don’t think you have a very good impression of me, Kathleen.”

“I—I don’t know you at all.” She hugged the folder tighter.

“That’s true. Maybe we should fix that.”

Her mouth went dry and her heart thudded.

“Look, I’m having a party at my place Saturday night. It’s my birthday party, but no presents. A lot of my friends will be there. There’ll be food, pool water—all the trimmings.” He grinned. “Why don’t you come?”

“I don’t think—”

“I saw you with two girls at orientation…”

“Raina and Holly,” she supplied.

“Bring them too.”

“Raina’s got a boyfriend.”

“He’s welcome to come.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to mingle with kids she didn’t know. Her mouth was so dry that she didn’t trust her voice not to crack, so she simply nodded.

Carson reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper and the stub of a pencil. “Here’s my address. Come around eight.” He wrote quickly, jammed the paper into her hand, which was still locked around the folder and turned and jogged back through the tunnel the way he’d come.

By the time Kathleen found her voice, he had disappeared through a set of double doors. “I’ll have to see if my friends can come with me,” she said into the empty air. “I won’t come unless
they do. And there’s no way I’m wearing a bathing suit,” she added under her breath. She looked down at the piece of paper and at Carson’s address on Davis Island, one of Tampa’s most prestigious neighborhoods. She turned the paper over and saw that he’d written on the back of a week-old parking ticket. It figured.

“Whoa, missy. Where are you going?”

With her hand on the doorknob, Holly froze at the sound of her father’s voice. She’d almost made it out of the house without his seeing her. She took a deep breath, pasted on a cheerful smile and turned. “To wait for Hunter on the front porch. He’s driving me and Raina and Kathleen to a party. I told you about it at dinner last night. Remember?”

Mike Harrison scrutinized her. “You’re not leaving the house dressed like
that.”

She glanced down at herself. “What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?”

“Your navel’s hanging out and your top’s too low. Your shorts are also too short.”

“Dad, it’s a pool party.” She held up her bag. “My suit’s in here.”

“I don’t care if it’s a party on the Riviera. No daughter of mine is going out in public half naked.”

“All my friends wear clothes like this and their parents never say anything! It’s just fashion!” Her voice had risen.

“Thanks for the enlightenment, because I’ve never heard that argument before—‘all my friends get to do it.’”

Holly clenched her teeth, willing Hunter to come down the stairs and rescue her. Where was he, anyway? “I’ll put on my suit as soon as I get to the party.”

“Let me see your suit.”

Too late she realized she’d backed herself into a corner. She’d packed a bikini, a suit he didn’t even know she owned, instead of her one-piece tank suit. “It’s a new one,” she hedged.

He took the bag, opened it and extracted a tiny white string bikini. His face went livid. “You’re grounded, Holly.”

“But Dad—”

“Go to your room.”

“I—I’ll get my other suit.”

“Too late. If you don’t have sense enough to pick the right suit the first time, how can I trust you to pick another?”

“I only own one other suit!”

“But you picked this one to wear. Where’s your sense of modesty? You told me that you’ve never met these kids before. What are you trying to prove?”

She stamped her foot. “I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m modest. I know how to act. I’m not going to embarrass you and Mom, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“This discussion is over. Your room.” He jerked his thumb toward the staircase.

Hot tears brimmed in Holly’s eyes and she wanted to explode. He’d made her feel like a scolded puppy, yet she knew from past experience that the conversation was indeed over. She scrambled up the stairs, almost knocking Hunter over at the top.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, grabbing her arm.

“Dad won’t let me go!” she cried. “And why weren’t you ready ten minutes ago? It’s all your fault.” She ran to her room and slammed the door.

From the foyer, her father shouted, “There go your TV privileges! You don’t act that way in this house, you hear me?”

Holly jerked all the linen off her bed, wadded it and tossed it on the floor. Then she threw herself onto the bed, kicked her feet and wept. She heard voices below, and minutes later Hunter knocked on her door. “Go away!”

He came in uninvited and eased onto her bed. “Hey, don’t cry. It’s not worth it. I argued your case. I told him I’d keep a close watch on you, but he wouldn’t change his mind.”

“I really want to go,” she said between sobs. “I hate him.”

“Come on, you don’t mean that.”

She sat up and turned on Hunter. “He’s a bully and sometimes I really do hate him. He
makes me feel like I can’t be trusted about
anything.”

“Look, he rode me hard too when I was twelve and thirteen.”

“But I’m
fifteen.”

“Barely fifteen,” Hunter corrected.

Her birthday had come in mid-May. Holly had skipped third grade and was always the youngest of her friends. And at home, she was the baby. “When’s he ever going to let up on me? I’ll never be old enough to do anything if he had his way.”

Hunter punched her shoulder playfully. “I’ll bring you some birthday cake.”

“I don’t want any stupid cake. I want to
go
. These are kids from Bryce! It’s the coolest school in the city.”

“I’ve heard they’re a bunch of snobs. I’m only going because Raina’s making me. And she’s only going because Kathleen’s making her. We probably won’t even stay that long.”

Holly sniffed, staring down at her hands. “Go,” she said. “Tell Raina and Kathleen to call me first thing in the morning.” He squeezed her shoulder and stood.
“First thing,”
she repeated. “Before we have to go to church.”