“I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just taking longer than I thought it would to recover. I need to have more patience.” Anat’s hand dropped to her leg and she rubbed along her thigh as if it ached.
Zyah considered how many times her grandmother might have done that while she was whining to her about Player. Anat had comforted her over and over, yet now that Zyah thought it over, she had seen her grandmother rub her leg through the quilt on more than one occasion.
“We both liked the physical therapist. Terrie Frankle? She’s from someplace in Washington, isn’t she? A traveling therapist?” Zyah asked cautiously. “Do you still like her?”
“Very much. She’s quite sweet. She loves to travel, and when the clinic was looking for someone, she jumped at the chance to come here. She had heard of Sea Haven already because she met Francine, Lizz’s granddaughter, when she was traveling on a train to San Francisco to a job there a while back. She’s been all over.” Anat sounded very enthusiastic. “I like to listen to her stories of her travels while she works on me. It helps, so I concentrate on listening instead of feeling the pain.”
Zyah didn’t like the sound of that. “Should you be feeling pain? Do you tell Terrie that you’re feeling pain?”
“I have,” Anat admitted reluctantly. “She said a little pain is necessary, but it shouldn’t be too much. I never know how much is too much.” There was a little quiver in Anat’s voice.
Zyah glanced at her watch. It was too late to call the doctor’s office, but she was going to first thing in the morning. She wanted another X-ray of her grandmother’s leg, just to see if it was healing correctly. She also wanted to talk to him about physical therapy and just how much her grandmother should be doing. It was so unlike Anat to say anything at all negative that the little she had said meant the pain was severe and she was really becoming distraught over the therapy. No one else knew her the way Zyah did.
“Mama Anat, you should have told me when the physical therapy began to get painful. I know you told Terrie, but I know you so much better than she does. The therapists expect patients to complain to them about pain. She has no idea how stoic you are. If you ask her if it’s supposed to hurt, or say that it is painful, she just chalks it up to what every patient says. I know better, because I know you.”
“You have so much to do. You’ve been out looking for jobs to pay the bills. I didn’t want to worry you, Zyah.” Again, Anat rubbed her thigh.
Zyah noted her hand was trembling. Her heart fluttered. “Maybe I should take you to the hospital tonight and get your leg X-rayed again. Does it hurt the way it did when you first broke it? Can you tell if the bone is fractured?” She tried not to sound anxious. “Either way, we’re calling the doctor, tonight or tomorrow.”
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Anat denied. “We can wait until tomorrow and call the doctor. I’m certain he’ll say the pain is normal from the physical therapy.”
Just the fact that Anat knew Zyah would call the doctor and she wasn’t objecting meant her leg really hurt. Zyah was angry with herself and a little angry with Player all over again because she’d been so focused on her own shame and loss that she hadn’t read her grandmother’s distress and physical pain.
“Are you positive we can wait for tomorrow?”
“Absolutely. I don’t want to go to the emergency room. I’d rather have you talk to the doctor first. You know I really dislike the emergency room.”
Zyah knew that was the truth. Her grandmother would much rather clean her house, the entire yard and maybe her neighbor’s house and yard before making a trip to the emergency room. She thought it was such a waste of time sitting there waiting to be seen.
“I can wait just as easy in the comfort of my home, and the doctor can make my appointments for tests,” Anat said.
It didn’t matter how many times Zyah explained to her that sometimes haste mattered, not even after she’d been rushed to the hospital after the attack. Anat had a major aversion to emergency rooms, hospitals in general, and now, it seemed, she wasn’t going to be readily cooperative if it meant more tests.
Night had fallen outside, and inside the bedroom, Anat had the lights blazing. That was the one striking difference Zyah noticed. Before the break-in and vicious assault, Anat rarely had more than one light on; now she preferred to have lights on throughout the house and even outside. She didn’t sleep very well.
Zyah didn’t like the idea of being away from her in the evenings, but Anat had insisted she help out her friend’s granddaughter, Francine, although Francine had taken off with a man the first chance she got, so it would have been better if Zyah had just stayed home. Now, if she took the job in Healdsburg at the restaurant even two evenings a week, that would be leaving her grandmother alone, and clearly, she was frightened.
Zyah had money, but most of it was tied up in her retirement and deferred accounts. She could pull it with penalties, but she preferred not to if she could make enough money to keep her grandmother comfortable and pay the bills, not an easy task with the wages paid in the area. She’d always lived on the minimum it took to get by, sent her grandmother money and saved the rest for when she would need it. Maybe now was that time. Fortunately, she’d bought the house outright for Anat a few years earlier. They didn’t have a monthly mortgage, and that helped.
“Last night, when you were gone, you asked if any of my friends from the Red Hat Society would come and stay with me,” Anat ventured slowly.
Zyah heard the hesitancy in her voice. This was just as serious as the pain in her leg from her physical therapy. Zyah had to work at keeping her heart rate under strict control. Her grandmother would know the moment it was elevated. She pulled the privacy screen over the windows, not liking that the room was lit so bright and anyone outside could see them in the bedroom.
“Yes. You said Inez and her husband, Frank, came and played cards with you. I learned that Frank snores, but not very loud.”
Anat laughed. “That’s true. Inez and I both fell asleep a couple of times while playing gin. I was ahead.”
“Of course you were.” Zyah was patient, waiting for her grandmother to get to the point of the conversation. “There are very few people who can beat you when it comes to cards, Mama Anat. I always wondered if your gift included reading other people’s cards.”
Anat laughed, the notes sounding light in spite of the seriousness in her eyes. She rubbed her thigh again. “Someone came up on the back porch and tried the door. It was locked. You installed that fancy new lock just a few days before, but both Inez and I heard it slide open as if they had a key. Fortunately, you had put a chair under the doorknob. Inez went to check the door and the deadbolt was unlocked but the chair held. She called Jackson Deveau. She says he’s like a son to her. He came right away and took a report.”
Zyah could feel the color draining from her face. Her legs turned to rubber, and she sank into the armchair across from her grandmother before she fell down. “You didn’t think I should have been told this immediately? Before I went to the job interviews? When I came back home this morning? Mama Anat, your safety is more important than anything. Why in the world didn’t you tell me?”