Endings by Elizabth Sullivan

Takes place 30 years after Beginnings.

"Alma?" The Head Nurse of The Foxwood Rehab Center appeared at the receptionist desk in the front lobby of the large facility. "Sheri said you needed to see me?" Alma, a pretty seventeen year old working the summer to buy a car, nodded eagerly.

"You see that man out on the patio? The really old one?" she flipped through some papers on her desk. "I had his name here a minute ago. He just came in this morning with a broken hip?"

"Okay, I know him..." Abigail told her. At 39, she knew the man was only about sixty, not as old to her as to the teenager in front of her.

"Well, anyway, he was here and we were talking and I thought maybe you'd want to know because maybe he shouldn't be sitting out there all by himself?" Alma said, as though that would be enough information for Abby to go on.

"What should I know?" the nurse asked patiently. For anyone under twenty, anyone over fifty had to be physically and mentally decrepit. Abby knew the gentleman's medical history. He'd fallen while working on his house and broken his hip. Now, after surgery, he was here at the Rehab Center for a week of therapy before being sent home.

"He was telling me about how his wife might not make it in ‘til later ‘cause their one daughter is real sick and needed somebody to watch the baby and get the other kids off the school bus and I said that was too bad to be alone his first day here because, y'know, being he's that old and all maybe he'd be upset or get confused or something. I mean, y'know, I didn't say THAT to him I was just thinking it but I still said it was too bad..."

Abby restrained herself from sighing deeply and checking her watch. Alma would get to the point, but the gentleman in question might be discharged home before she did. "What is it you think I should know?" she asked. Alma was a sweet girl and probably just wanted to be sure someone was looking out for the man on his first day here. Maybe he'd made some reference to it himself that the girl hadn't gotten to yet.

"He said it was okay because his Dad was going to visit him later. He said he'd be waiting outside there for his Dad."

This concerned Abby a little. "Thanks Alma, I'll go have a little chat with him." It wasn't unusual for people to have a little disorientation after surgery, but it should've cleared up by now. His chart didn't say anything about delusional behavior. Maybe they'd have to put a Wanderguard alarm on him.

At first she thought he was asleep, his eyes were closed and his head tipped back in the sunlight as he sat in the wheelchair near the front door. One blue eye opened though at the slight ‘woosh' of the automatic door shutting.

"Ma'am." he greeted the nurse smiling down on him.

"How are you doing? It's not too hot out here for you is it?"

"Oh no Ma'am, I like the heat." The temperature was in the low seventies, but he wore a long sleeve shirt.

"Alma told me you're expecting company?" Maybe Alma had heard wrong.

"My wife might not come until later. One of our girls is down with a migraine, gets ‘em all the time. She's got youngun's t'care for, so my Ellie went to watch over her." His light brown hair was half gone with gray, and the lines on his face spoke of a lifetime spent outdoors. Abby had just about decided everything was okay when he continued.

"My Dad though is on his way. Woulda come sooner, woulda been here this morning with me, ‘cept he got a ticket for driving with an expired inspection sticker, had to get that taken care of this morning...Mom busted a gut when that happened. Yelled him up one side and down the other. Think maybe she was madder though ‘cause the sheriff what gave him the ticket is her niece's husband..."

Abby nodded appropriately as he talked, taking mental notes to type into his file just as soon as she got back to her workstation. The doctor would order a psych eval on the spot. As she was about to firmly offer him a ride back inside - where someone could keep a close continual eye on him - she heard a sharp whistle behind her and her patient broke out into a huge grin.

"There he is!" he announced proudly. Abby turned to see two elderly people, a man and woman arm in arm walking up the sidewalk toward them. The man was ninety if he was a day, with a thin but sturdy look. His white hair hung to his shoulders and emphasized his tan face. The lady on his arm was a few years younger, shorter, with short white hair and eyes that saw only the man in the wheelchair. "Mom! Dad! You're early!" he called to them, then added: "Weren't speedin' were you?" and he turned his grin up to Abby. "Don't worry, Mom don't let Dad speed..."

He held up his arms to his mother for a hug and a kiss, then gripped his Dad's hand and patted the patio chair next to him for his father to sit down. The older man's hands trembled slightly in what Abby surmised was early stage Parkinsons. She mentally flushed all her previous suspicions and concerns. "Wanted to get here in time to have lunch with you." his Dad said. "How are you Sprout?"

"I'm good, they're taking care of me. Mom, Dad - this is Abigail Sibley, she's been takin' care of me since I came in this morning...." Vin Tanner said. "Mz. Sibley, this is my Mom and Dad - Nettie and Jake Parker."

END