Chapter 1
JOHANNA GORDON RAKED HER fingers
through her short curls and glanced at the clock centered on the wall between
her diplomas. Seven-thirty. No wonder her shoulders ached. She’d been hunched
over the desk since four.
With
a sigh, she closed a folder and added it to the neat stack on a corner of the
desk. She pursed her lips. For two weeks, the budget for the nursing department
at the hospital had consumed her time. Unfortunately, money would remain her
focus until she found areas to cut costs without compromising patient care or
breaking the current contract with the nurses. Not that Hudson Community’s CEO
cared about either option. She stretched to ease the tension between her
shoulder blades.
“Why
couldn’t I...” An idea occurred and she smiled.
Something to consider. Richard Jamison didn’t
care which programs were dropped as long as his pet projects remained intact.
Just this morning he’d reminded her she belonged to administration and to
remember where her loyalties lay. Not with him. She’d risen through the ranks
and saw more than the profits and losses he tossed around.
The
loudspeaker on the wall crackled. “Dr. Red to the Emergency Room.” In staccato
fashion, the operator repeated the message three times.
With
a well-honed response, Johanna rose, grabbed her briefcase and, in three
strides, reached the door. The call for any surgeon meant an emergency
requiring immediate surgery. Her body quivered with excitement. She dashed
through the empty outer office, crossed the hall and hit the call button for
the elevator.
Just
like an old fire horse, she thought. The alarm clangs and I’m off running. She
stepped into the empty car. What was her hurry? How much help would she be?
She’d been away from the bedside for ten years.
As
she exited on the first floor, she nearly collided with Rachel Hill. Her
friend’s dark hair had slipped from the neat bun at her nape. Like a sail,
Rachel’s lab coat flew behind her. She carried two units of blood.
Johanna
frowned. Rachel usually worked the day shift. “Bad accident?” Johanna asked.
“The
worst. A six-year-old hit by a car. And to think I volunteered to switch.”
As
Johanna matched strides with her friend’s half-running gait, the soft leather
briefcase slapped against her thigh. “Need an extra pair of hands?”
“Hardly.
If there was another body in the room, they’d be standing on the patient. Be
glad you’re out of the zoo. Not that I blame people for caring about a child,
but if the patient was old, indigent or dying... Don’t let me get started.”
“Want
to talk?” Together they dashed up the five steps to the emergency room level.
Rachel
straight-armed the door. “Maybe I do. Dinner on—” The door closed and cut off
the rest of her words.
Johanna
frowned. By the time they found an evening to fit Rachel’s schedule, she would
have forgotten the incident that had triggered her anger. Instead of talking
about the hospital, she would discuss her children. Despite their closeness,
this topic always added to Johanna’s aching knowledge that she had no one.
She
continued to the exit. For the past few months, she’d wondered if the climb up
the administrative ladder had been the right choice. Ten years ago, she’d been
an ER nurse, meeting challenges and solving a dozen crises every day. The
decision to leave the ER had been made for financial reasons. The higher salary
had paid for her sister’s and her
parents’, home health aides. Six months ago, the family obligations had ended,
leaving Johanna with an empty social life.
For
a moment, she stared at the red brick building. The hospital’s center section
was five stories, while the angled wings were four. The sight always made her
think of a bird in flight. Lately, her office here had seemed more like home
than the house eight blocks away.
A
reluctance to move held her prisoner. Spray from the lawn sprinklers misted on
her face and arms. She studied the bank of peonies along the walk leading to
the hospital’s front entrance. Their sweet scent mingled with the aroma of wet
earth. With a sigh, she overcame the inertia and crossed the street.
Brisk steps
carried her down the hill. In the distance, the Hudson
River reflected the colors of the setting sun. At the bottom of
the hill, she turned the corner. She hurried past houses dating from colonial
days to a turn-of-the-century Victorian that towered over two houses built in
the last ten years. Each house had a unique charm.
She
paused beside the yew hedge surrounding the yard of the house where she’d lived
all her life. As she strode up the walk, her hand brushed the clipped edges.
The scent of roses reached her. Red, pink and white blooms covered the
trellises at either end of the porch.
She
climbed the steps, turned and paused. With arms crossed on her chest, she
stared at the street. As though trying to erase a chill, her hands moved along
her arms. A soft sigh escaped. The ice of loneliness couldn’t be rubbed away
like frost from windows on a winter morning.
Her
hands dropped to her side, but she made no move to go inside where shadows of
the past gathered. She had no desire to face memories of the years when she’d
been a devoted sister and a dutiful daughter.
She
looked at the darkening sky. Sometimes, she felt her entire life had been lived
in the moments between day and night—with every instant tinged with gray, and
every action controlled by duty and responsibility. Were they virtues or walls
she’d erected to keep from reaching for life?
The
sound of children’s laughter carried across the hedge from the house next-door.
Like a gusting wind, envy rose. Her childhood memories held few laughing
moments, just those of trying to teach games to a sister who lacked the ability
to learn.
With
a habitual gesture, she combed her fingers through her hair. Life should be
more than ritual and routine.
As
she moved from the edge of the porch, a pair of lovers, lost in each other’s
eyes, strolled past. Johanna’s eyes burned with unshed tears. For her, only
dreams of romance existed and, in her fantasies, she found adventure.
She
unlocked the door and stepped into the hall. The screen door closed with a
snap. She flipped the light switch and the ceiling fan stirred the stale air.
In
the living room, she dropped her briefcase on the sofa and turned on the CD
player. Strains of Tchaikovosky’s Sleeping Beauty followed her into the dining
room.
Memories
swamped her. The room became a miniature hospital ward where an elderly man and
woman lay in twin electric beds. Matching walkers, wheelchairs and commodes
stood against one wall.
Six
months before, after the second death in three weeks, she’d scrubbed the walls
and floor in an effort to ward off grief through frantic labor. After returning
the hospital equipment, she’d hired a painter to re-do the room. The freshly
painted walls and the refinished oak floor failed to blur the lingering
memories.
Why
did I allow my life to take this road?
Duty
and responsibility. The voices were her parents’.
In
the kitchen, she seasoned a chicken breast, put it under the broiler, made a
salad and cleaned strawberries for dessert. As she ate, she searched for ways
to fill the long hours until Monday, but ideas remained as illusive as the
shadows in the house. Why did the weekend seem longer than the five-day work
week?
After
dinner, she opened the kitchen door and stepped onto the stoop. A crescent moon
hung above the trees at the end of the yard. Wind rustled the leaves of the
locust and oak trees and carried the scent of roses. She rested her hand on the
wooden rail. Was there a different way to live?
She closed her eyes
and entered the fantasy world she’d created as a child to escape what couldn’t
be changed. A few minutes later, with a sigh, Johanna forced herself to resist
the lure of escape into the world of her dreams. As a child, she’d needed these
fantasies to escape reality. Was this a habit she couldn’t escape? How could
she resist being in a world she could control?
She closed the kitchen door, slid
the bolt into place and turned the security lock. Before going upstairs to the
bedroom, she made rounds of the first floor to check the windows and front
door.
