Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) (16 page)

Again Samantha looked at him knowing that now he was getting to the root of the situation and thought of the old quote,
‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ She knew that her oldest son was capable of genius, but had never really pushed himself to his potential.

She stood up and gave him a hug, “
Of course, I’ll do what I can for you.”

Jeremy sighed deeply returning the hug, “
Thank you, Mom. You always come through for me.”

When Jeremy arrived at Nor
a’s house that evening she called, “Come in, we’re eating chocolate cake and ice cream”.

Stepping in the door, he said, “
Smells delicious. Any left?”

“
Sure, what have you been doing today?” Nora casually asked as she got up to prepare him a dessert.

“
Slaying dragons and climbing mountains,” he said shaking his head with a smile.

“
Well,” Nora laughed, “You should have used enough energy to appreciate this cake and ice cream.”

Laura looked at him puzzled, “
Sounds like you had an eventful day. Was it something bad?”

“
I was just joking,” he brushed it off. “I’m really curious about Nora’s job? Did you get it?” he asked turning to her.

“
Yes,” she answered proudly, “I will be working from ten in the morning until six thirty in the afternoon.”

“
That’s good. I’ll be able to visit with you after work,” he said, then thought, “I need to amend that. You will be able to visit with me after you get off work.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I will be working at the law office during the day and Mom agreed today to help me set up a lab, so I can work on my project after hours,” Jeremy shrugged. “I’ll be working but I still want you to come by,” he said cutting his eyes over to Nora.

“
Sure, Jeremy, I planned to do that anyway,” she answered trying to be lighthearted about it. She didn’t know how to take this serious Jeremy.

Monday morning Jeremy reported to his dad
’s law office and received his instructions about what they needed him to research for them. He proceeded to pull out the appropriate books from the shelves to begin his research.

Nora reported to the hospital
with new confidence ready to get started. After being introduced to the people with whom she would be working, she walked around to all the rooms in her unit introducing herself to all her patients. She noticed one patient in particular who reminded her of her dad. She noticed the name Bill Blakely. She quickly scanned to see his diagnosis was stomach flu.

Samantha
went to the Lumber yard and ordered a portable building to be placed in the back corner of her flower shop lot.
I needed a new building anyway
she told herself. At the flower shop she placed an order for the most powerful microscope she could find.

Jeffrey stepped into the law office all dressed up; he introduced himself and shook hands all around.

The office workers snickered behind their hands, finally Cindy Lawrence who sat at the reception desk said, “Jeffrey, you know that we all know you.”

“
This is the Jeffrey who plans to join the firm and I am here to learn all I can.”

Cindy happily said, “
Wonderful, your Dad didn’t tell us that you were coming.”

Jeffrey smiled conspiratorially and placed his hand by his mouth and hoarsely whispered, “
I didn’t tell him.”

Cindy formed an Oh with her mouth.

She promptly placed a stack of papers in his hands as she proceeded to explain how to file them. “Let me know when you’re through and I’ll find another job for you.”

Jeffrey stood holding the papers thinking
this isn’t going exactly as I planned
.

As soon as Cindy saw that Mr. Littlefield was available she slipped in
to his office to ask about Jeffrey working in the office.

Donald had a big grin on his face by the time she finished telling him about it. “
Really? My boy, Jeffrey! Well, I’ll be!” he exclaimed.

He presented a somber face to Jeffrey when he approached him,
“What do you mean by coming in here, telling Cindy that you are going to work here?” he demanded.

“
Well, Sir, I want to learn about the stuff that Jeremy is doing here and I knew he would teach me what he knows about it. Sir,” Jeffrey said looking cautiously up at his father. “When Jeremy started, he was the same age that I am. So I wanted to learn, too.”

Cindy sat at her desk with a paper in front of her face to help hide her smile, because Mr. Littlefield was raking poor Jeffrey over the coals when she k
new he was tickled that his boy wanted to be part of the law firm.

Mr. Littlefield never cracked a smile as he looked at Jeffrey
with his arms crossed over his chest. He acted as if he was judging whether Jeffrey was worthy to be part of the team. Finally, he deemed that Jeffrey had squirmed enough and said, “I will let you work with Jeremy, if he wants to teach you the ropes. If Cindy has other work for you to do, it will come first. Do you understand?”

“
Yes, Sir,” Jeffrey let out his breath, “You will not be sorry, Sir.”

“
Okay, see that I don’t.” Donald turned and walked past Cindy’s desk and raised his eyebrows and grinned at her.

Again Cindy had to hide behind her paper to hide her smile.

After Donald returned to his office and closed the door, Cindy pointed, “Jeremy is right through that door.”

Jeremy looked up surprised when he heard Jeffrey enter the room.

“Whew!” Jeremy shook himself, “Dad just gave me the third degree about being here.”

“
Did he know you were coming? I sure didn’t,” Jeremy asked.

“
Well,” Jeffrey squirmed a bit, “No. I figured I’d have a better chance if I just showed up ready for work.”

“
You know how he can be,” Jeffrey continued. “He might say no, if he didn’t want to mess with me. If I sprung it on him at least he would have to send me home.”

Jeremy raised his eyebrows similar to what his father had done and said, “
It looks to me like you did it the hard way, but you did get results.”

“
Jeremy, I want you to teach me everything you can about what you do here.” Jeffrey stated. “By the end of the summer I want to be able to do this on my own.”

“
That won’t be hard to do. I can have you ready to research this stuff with little assistance in just a few days.”

“
Cool!” Jeffrey commented. He sat down and Jeremy soon had him up to speed on what he should do.

Chapter Fourteen

By the end of the first week, Jeffrey carried the load of research at the law office while Jeremy studied his science books.

Samantha had the portable building placed on the
back of her lot. She had electricians, dry wall workers, painters, and plumbers contracted to complete this building so Jeremy could set up a lab. Samantha wisely surmised that she would be able to find a use for the building after Jeremy was finished with it, and if not there were four more boys growing up who may need it.

Nora quickly stepped back in the role of nurse
’s aide and made her rounds distributing ice water, cleaning and making the patients comfortable. She stepped into Bill Blakely’s room to check on him and visit with him because he reminded her so much of her Dad.

When she walked up to the side of his bed, he looked to be in pain and he was white around his mouth. She reached for his wrist to take his pulse and realized it was beating way too
quickly. She turned on the patient light, and then stepped into the hall to find the RN on duty hoping she was in the hall. She alerted the LPN at the desk that Mr. Blakely seemed to be in distress and he was sweating and was white around his mouth.

Nora
stepped back to give the RN and the LPN space to work but stood by to see if they had any orders for her. Soon a call came over the intercom for the doctor to come to Room 212 STAT. After an hour of work he was determined stable but an ambulance came to take him to St. Johns hospital in Tulsa.

“
What happened?” Nora asked the nurse.

“
He had a heart attack but we stabilized him long enough for him to get to the St. Johns Hospital’s heart unit in Tulsa,” Ruby McCullough the RN answered.  They have very good doctors there. They will take good care of him.”

“
I hope so,” Nora said weakly blinking back tears. She leaned against the wall because her legs felt weak.

“
Are you okay?” Ruby asked. “You don’t look too well yourself.”

“
I’m okay, or I will be,” Nora replied wiping her face with her hand.

“
You’ll need to toughen up a bit if you want to be a nurse.” Ruby admonished. “No, you want to be a doctor. You can’t let something like this get to you. Do you realize that if you panic or go weak, you are no use to a patient who is having an emergency like this?”

“
Yes, ma’am. I promise I will do better next time.”

“
May I take a short break?” Nora asked weakly.

“
Yes, you may go but I expected better from you, Nora Ray,” Ruby went back to the nurse’s station shaking her head. She muttered to herself, “The help you get these days from the younger generation.”

Nora entered the break room and sat down. Jamie had just come to work and entered to place her lunch in the refrigerator. One glance at Nora
’s face and she knew immediately that Nora was barely holding back the tears.

“
What happened, Nora?”

Nora took a deep breath to clear her throat, “
Did you take care of Mr. Blakely last night?”

“
Yes, he was admitted last night before I left, something about stomach flu, I think,” Jamie said thoughtfully.

“
Jamie, you wouldn’t believe how much he looks like my dad,” Nora looked at Jamie with tears in her eyes. “I went into his room because I wanted to get to know him. He sort of felt like family, you know?”

“
Okay, what happened?”

Barely holding back the tears, Nora said, “
He had a heart attack, just like my dad.” She laid her head on her arms on the table.

“
You poor dear, I’m so sorry,” Jamie put her arm across Nora’s shoulder and sat down beside her. “Do you want to go home? I’ll talk to Ruby and see if she can spare you now that I’m here.”

Nora sat up quickly, wiping her face with napkins left on the table. “
No, please. Don’t ask for me to go home. This is my first day. I think I’m already in trouble with Ruby anyway. I need to keep working.” She looked at the break room clock. “I’ve already been in here too long. I need to get back to work.” She gave Jamie a hug and said, “Thanks.”

Nora returned to her hall
to complete her shift.

When Jamie saw that Nora was safely away from the n
urse’s station, Jamie asked to speak privately with Ruby.

“
When I arrived to start my shift, I walked into the break room to put my lunch in the refrigerator and Nora was sitting at the table very upset.” Jamie stated.

“
Yes, I think she needs to toughen up if she wants to be a doctor.” Ruby declared.

“
What you may not know,” Jamie explained, “is that Nora thought that Mr. Blakely reminded her of her dad who died this winter with a heart attack.”

Rub
y closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, much like Nora did in the hall earlier. “I am so sorry I spoke to her the way I did. She never said a word about her dad.”

“
That’s why she was in the room and found him in pain. She wanted to get to know him better.” Jamie shook her head, “It’s so sad.”

“
Thank you, Jamie, for explaining this to me.” Ruby hung her head, “I need to apologize to her. I can’t say I would have done any better under the circumstances.”

The next morning
Ruby called St. Johns to check on Mr. Blakely. He had been sent to Rochester Methodist Hospital, in Minnesota, by private airplane for his operation.

“
The Mayo-Gibbon mechanical pump-oxygenator that they have there,” Ruby explained to Nora later, “is used for an operation inside a heart. The machine enables the surgeons to operate on a ‘dry field’ so to speak. The oxygenator has only been used since 1955, so it is fairly new technology for us. The machine directs blood into itself acting like a heart and lung for the patient.”

“
I wonder if that machine could have saved my dad’s life,” Nora asked.

“
Could be,” Ruby stated. “There’s not many of those machines out there. Even if a patient is well enough to get to Minnesota for an operation, not many people can afford it. Apparently our Mr. Blakely has insurance or resources so he could have the operation.”