Ring Around her Heart

By Shirley Thulin

Previous Chapter

Chapter 5

Synopsis: Joan Morgan, superintendent of nurses at Hillcrest Hospital, is criticized by her roommate Kathy Kirk, and by Dr. Desmond, for trying to shock Tom, a young patient, out of his despondency and to think of his possibilities. Kathy invites Joan to spend a week end at the Kirk family farm. While there, Tom’s mother, Mrs. Aines, tells Joan that she is following the wrong course and is doing harm to Tom, instead of helping him.

As the months passed, Joan found herself enjoying her visits with Kathy’s folks more than she felt she should. She enjoyed the big bright moon and the clean fresh air, but, most of all, she was growing very close to little Joey.

Today, however, Joan wasn’t thinking about the farm. She was having a hard time concentrating on much of anything, because she knew that David had been trying to get Tom to show some interest in studying. “If you want me to, I’ll coach you in English,” she had heard David tell him. But so far, Tom would not commit himself.

Joan kept watching for David to finish his morning’s work and come to her floor, because she had a surprise for Tom. If only it works, she thought . . . but it will . . . it’s just got to. By noon she still hadn’t seen David and was beginning to wonder if he were at work, when she saw him waiting for the elevator.

“David!” She hurried down the hall. “David, guess what? I had a sudden inspiration yesterday. I went to a bookstore and got an English workbook . . . you know, the kind they use in high school? What do you think?”

“I don’t know, Miss Morgan, but it sure is worth a try.”

“I want you to take it to him. Are you sure it’s English that he needs help with the most?”

“No, I only guessed. It’s English for most of us fellows. I’ll take it in to him on my lunch hour. Thanks, you’re great.”

As the elevator doors closed behind David, Joan smiled to herself. I’m far from being great, she thought, but still, I feel I really am accomplishing a great deal here. I feel that I am an efficient head nurse. She walked with a confident step to the end of the hall where the second floor nurses’ station was in quite a hum of business.

As she approached, the voices died down a bit. The quiet laughing stopped.

“Two-forty-four is in quite a lot of pain. When did she have the last hypo?” Joan asked, reaching for the chart wheel.

Then she caught sight of the look in both Miss Jackson’s and Kathy’s eyes. She didn’t need to look up to know that Doctor Desmond was somewhere near. She busied herself with the writing on the card and pretended not to notice. I hope it doesn’t show in my eyes as it does in theirs, she thought.

By now, she knew her heart gave an extra little sigh whenever he was near, and this upset her. I’m too old for a schoolgirl crush, she kept telling herself. And she felt sure that’s all it was, just an attraction. She also felt that he had made her feel this way on purpose. The way he had of looking at her, of teasing her . . . just the same way he did all the others, she knew . . . still, she felt he was especially attracted to her. Sometimes when their eyes met, she could feel he wasn’t teasing . . . even when he was scolding her, the message was there.

Doctor Desmond was talking to Kathy now, and the sound of his voice, so deep, so sincere made Joan all warm inside. That’s pretty good, she thought. He’s talking medical terms to another girl, and I get all flustered! She put the chart in its place and turned to go when he spoke her name.

“Miss Morgan.”

She turned toward him.

“Have you finished your rounds?”

“Not completely.” She didn’t want to tell him that she still had Tom to visit, but was purposely waiting until after David had been there. She knew that to mention Tom’s name always brought a strained feeling between them.

“Doctor Niles wanted me to ask you to come in and see him when you’re through.”

“Oh, thank you. Did he say what he wanted me for?”

The young doctor smiled. “No, he didn’t. Have you been breaking any hospital regulations?”

Joan quickly looked at Kathy and Miss Jackson. She couldn’t tell for sure if their smiles were like his, good naturedly laughing with her, or if they were secretly laughing at her.

As Joan stepped into Tom’s room, she was disappointed. She had thought he would be busy with the exercises in the workbook. She had pictured him all smiles, all enthused. But, instead, the shades were still drawn, and the workbook was on his night stand.

“Hi, Tom,” she said.

“Hello.”

“How would you like to sit in your easy chair for a little while today?”

“How would you like to quit being so impossible? You know I can’t sit up in a chair.”

“Oh, but you can. The casts come off today.”

“Really? Why didn’t somebody tell me?”

“You didn’t ask. Usually the first thing a patient in a cast asks is, ‘how long does this thing have to stay on?’ but you haven’t asked, so nobody thought to tell you.”

“Miss Morgan . . . what will it be like? I mean to have the casts off”

“Well, for one thing, you will weigh a lot less, and it will be easier for the nurses to make your bed, and we can help you to sit in a chair because with the casts off your legs, your knees will bend. Your back will feel weak where it has been supported by the cast, but you’ll feel a lot better.”

Tom was smiling. For just a brief moment, he was smiling. Then the old cloud came back to his eyes. “Yeah,” he said, “big deal. So I can sit in a chair. Then what?”

“Then you can put the tray across your lap and put your English book on the tray, and. . .”

“Oh, so that’s it. You gave David that book to give to me. Well, you can take it back.”

“Now, Tom, it’s not going to hurt you to just do a little each day. It will help to pass the time away. The exercises start out real easy, see?” she picked the book up and walked towards him.

“Yeah. I know . . . real easy. Well, I can’t even do the real easy ones. Now, what does that do to your theory, Miss Morgan?”

Joan pressed her lips together. She felt like shaking Tom. She felt like shaking him real hard, and she felt like crying. She did neither. She just quietly placed the book back on the bedside table and walked out.

Joan started to walk down the hall toward the nurses’ station, but Doctor Desmond and the nurses were still there, so she slipped out the hall door and went down the steps. She was discouraged about Tom, and she was angered at the way all the young nurses made such a fuss over Dean Desmond. What makes me the most angry of all, she thought, is the way he just stands there enjoying it so much. Who does he think he is, anyway? she asked herself. After all, he isn’t the only doctor in this hospital . . . but he is the best looking one, she had to admit.

Joan opened the outside door and felt the warmth of the afternoon sun on her, giving comfort. She hadn’t stopped for lunch, and now she was too upset to be hungry. David was watering the roses by the south entrance. She went over to him. “This part of your job, too?” she asked him.

“Oh, I do a little bit of everything. Have you talked to Tom?”

“Yes. He isn’t interested. He makes me so angry.”

“I know. When I was there, he told me I was just wasting my time. Said he’d never be able to pass the entrance exams. I told him that’s what I was there for, to help him.”

“Oh, David, there has to be something we can do.”

“Maybe he’s worried about money for college. He didn’t say so, but I bet his mother doesn’t have much money, what with being a widow and all those kids.”

“Oh, David! I’ll bet that’s it. Why didn’t I think of that? He naturally wouldn’t say anything. He wouldn’t want us to know. Well, we can fix that in a hurry. There should be some kind of a scholarship or grant or something we can get for him. Oh, David, for the first time, I feel as though we’ve come through the woods.”

Joan hurried inside. As she left the elevator, she almost bumped into Kathy.

“Well, where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Oh, Kathy, I think David and I have made some progress with Tom. He seemed interested in going to school, but then all of a sudden he changed. David says he thinks Tom cooled off because of his family’s finances … so I am going to find out about. …”

“Joan, I wish you were right, but. . . . Oh, Joan, money has nothing to do with Tom’s attitude. His father left a trust fund for his education. There is plenty of money for his schooling.”

“There is money? Then why?”

“Could be that he just wants you to leave him alone, as he keeps telling you.”

“Kathy, I can’t quit. I just know there’s a way to get him back on that farm.”

“Well, your persistence is to be admired. Only, you are asking for a lot of heartache. What about your theory not to become too attached to your patients?”

Joan couldn’t answer that one. She hadn’t felt as though she were becoming too attached to Tom, not until Kathy mentioned it. Now she could see that it was true.

Joan was on her way to the second floor when she remembered that Doctor Niles had wanted to see her. She wondered what he wanted. She smiled to herself as she remembered what Dean had said, about disobeying hospital regulations. She knew she didn’t have to worry about that, still, maybe she had slipped up on something, she thought.

She tapped at his door, and there was no answer. She turned to go when she saw him walking toward her. A strange feeling came over her. He’s a fine looking man, she thought. If only he wasn’t so brisk and all for business.

“Hello, Miss Morgan. Let’s go inside. I have some things. …”

“I hope I haven’t been neglecting my work, Doctor Niles.”

“On the contrary. Here, sit here. I just have some applications I want you to look over. We need two or three new nurses. There are never enough nurses. . . . You are doing a fine job, Miss Morgan.”

Doctor Niles looked at her and his gaze held hers. She felt as if he wanted to say something more, but he didn’t. She took the papers he handed to her.

“Are these applications recent?” she asked.

“Yes. I think you should look them over and give me the names of three or four you think sound the best.”

“I will, Doctor Niles.” She took the papers and stood up.

“Oh, Miss Morgan. I have just been in Tom’s room. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of days. What have you done to that boy?”

“What have ” She looked up at the Doctor. His eyes were soft, and it seemed to her that he was almost ready to smile that big smile of his again, but it was just a pleasant smile … a little smile.

“Do you know what he was doing when I got there?”

“No.”

“He was sitting in a chair with some kind of a schoolbook on his lap.”

“He was?”

“Yes. He said you had given him the book.”

“Yes . . . I. . . .”

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high, Miss Morgan, these cases are changeable, but I think you have made good progress.”

“Oh, thank you, Doctor. I hope so.”

“Now, if you’ll just look those papers over this evening, I’ll expect a report in the morning.”

Joan thanked him. “I’ll have them ready,” she said and tried to hold her voice calm, though there was a happy little tune trying to bubble from between the words she spoke.

Suddenly Joan felt hungry. She hurried to the lunchroom. I hope they haven’t closed, I’m so late for the lunch hour, she thought. She also hoped she would see someone to talk to. Doctor Dean Desmond would do just fine. She wanted to tell him how Tom was. . . . She wanted to let him know that, at last, she was getting through to Tom.

Joan entered the room and looked around. There were a lot of late diners. She spotted Miss Jackson and Doctor Desmond sitting in a corner of the room. She decided not to bother them. She had picked up a tray when she heard it — the piercing sound of the ambulance. At first it was so small a sound that she knew the ambulance was still blocks away from the hospital, then as it came closer, the sickening scream filled her whole being. She quickly looked around her. No one else had seemed to hear it. Everyone was still eating and quietly talking. Why had the sound cut through her like this? She certainly had heard sirens before. She put her tray down and hurried towards the emergency entrance.

The ambulance was carrying someone she knew . . . she was sure of that, for long ago, in the night, she had heard the siren just like this.

(To be continued)