“That was delicious Luka.. I have to admit.. I’m not a huge fan of lamb.. But that was amaaaazing..” Kerry smiled, wiping her hands on her napkin. “The salad.. Everything was delicious. Where did you learn to cook like that!?”
Luka pushed himself back roughly from the table and cleared the dishes. “My wife taught me. She was a good cook. A good teacher.” He said gruffly, staring at her plate. “Are you finished?” He said in a dead monotone, the cheery man who’d poured wine in her glass and laughed as he overflowed it during dinner, was gone. It was an empty shell.
Kerry stared at him as he scooped up the crockery and stumbled to the kitchen. It was odd.. There was a chill in the air. The same sort of chill her mother had always said happened, when an angel died.
**************
“We’re losing him! We need more blood.. Dammit! Shirley, hang some more 0-neg.. Call the bank again!” Romano glared at Benton. “Can’t keep your patients under control down there? Isn’t this the second time we’ve had Malucci up here because of rampaging patients?” He snarled.
“Yes.. But, this is different, he was 4... It was an accident, his mother was dying.” Benton murmured, the surgical site filling with blood again. “Suction.” The cacophony-like sound of straws searching empty glasses of soda, filled the room, in beat with the screaming monitors. “Pack some more gauze in there.. The blood’s obscuring my work site.”
“Paddles.. Charge to 200.. Round of Epi..” Shirley handed him the paddles and stood back, watching Dave on the gurney, smothered in blood, the second time in two months. “CLEAR!” Romano barked, the surgeons, techs and nurses backing off.
“SHIT. Charge to 250..” Romano sighed looking at the man on the gurney, his mind wandering..
***************
“Sue?? Ms.Sobriki.. You can’t necessarily mean you plan to sue County? Your husband is infirm. He’s mentally incompetent. I assure you, if he was fit to stand trial, our lawyers, Malucci’s Lawyers, AND..” Romano looked pointedly at Barb Knight. “Mrs.Knight’s lawyers would be suing your husband for full damages, as well as him coming up on murder charges. I’m afraid as far as negligence you haven’t a leg to stand on.” He puffed his chest proudly and sneered at the woman.
“Oh.. So it’s not true that one of your doctors said, and I quote. ‘Why wasn’t this man put into restraints!?’ Even your own staff knows something was wrong. My husband was a danger to himself. That does demand action like restraints and sedation, correct?” Samantha Sobriki snarled back, tears stinging her eyes.
“We were waiting on a psych consult. We couldn’t do that without a consult.” Romano said feebly, making a mental note to seek out and kill the person who said this within earshot of the nutjob’s wife.
“Are you saying you couldn’t have restrained him or posted security guards or something?” She shot back angrily. “Your argument is weak, doctor. You will be hearing from my lawyers.” Samantha stood shakily snapping up her purse and stomping from the room.
*******
Luka slammed the last plate into the dishwasher. Why was he so angry? She’d complimented him on the meal. Kerry hadn’t done anything wrong. Kerry? He stepped out the doorway of the dining room. She was gone.
The front door wide open, he stumbled out into the snow, wrapping his strong, shivering arms around himself. “Kerry?”
“Luka.” She dead panned, staring up at the sky. There had to be a star somewhere. “It’s chilly out here.. An angel has died..”
“No...” Luka pulled the woman close, pulling the blanket around them that she had draped over her shoulders. The two sunk to the steps and they stared out into the night. “When a cold chill comes up in the air.. It’s not a dying angel.. The angels are weeping.”
Kerry looked over at him, his face taut with drying tears, slowly she nodded, nuzzling into his shoulder.
“The tears of the angels fell upon Abraham’s knife, so that it could not cut Isaac's throat." Luka said hoarsely. “Why couldn’t tears of the angels fall upon Paul’s knife?” He hung his head, his thick frame shuddering with pent-up sobs. “The angels are weeping, but it’s too late, Kerry.. It’s too late for Lucy and Dave... Their knife wasn’t dulled by angel’s tears... It was sharp... and it cut deep.”
*******
“Elizabeth..” Mark tread softly into the chapel. It was used for bereft parents, stricken with grief, people looking for forgiveness, for guidance. “Elizabeth?”
“Mark.. I.. I haven’t really been in a church since I left England, you know.” She replied with a faraway, small voice, her gaze centred on the figurine of Mary and baby Jesus.
“Beth..” He tried again, walking up to the pew, and sitting down beside her on the hard polished wood.
“He’s up in surgery again.. Malucci.. Abdominal trauma.. I..” Elizabeth placed her feet on edge of the pew, bringing her knees to her chin, wrapping her arms around them as she clasped her shaking hands together.
“You’re praying for him? Elizabeth..” Mark sighed.
“It’s the least I can do Mark.” She pleaded, falling to her knees in prayer.
“Why? You didn’t stab him!” He squeaked in disbelief.
“NO.. But we haven’t done much either. He KISSED me in hospital.. Have I gone to talk to the man? Have I gotten stuff sorted? NO.. I haven’t. I’m as guilty as Sobriki. Have I seen him since he’d gotten out of hospital? No.” She said stubbornly, bowing her head and murmuring the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." A finger went to her eyes as she dabbed away the tears.
Elizabeth raised her head to watch her husband stumble away. “Mark? The angels are weeping Mark.. Don’t shut them out. Listen.. Listen to the angels!” She called out to him as the heavy doors shut, the slamming resonating through-out the church.
As Elizabeth bowed her head again, she didn’t hear the quiet shuffling of somebody awakening from their nap in the back pew.
~~
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
~~
The voice shaky, it harmonized with Elizabeth’s till they were almost side by
side. The surgeon looked up and breathed a startled gasp.
“Ms.Sobriki.”
“I’m not a monster you know..” She said sadly. “My husband’s not a monster. What he did. He.. He’s not really like that. We.. We don’t even have a cat.. Or.. Or a dog for that matter.. He’s sick.. I didn’t want to believe it. He was fine that day. He complained of a headache, but it was stressful you know.. School, exams... We were all stressed out. But..”
Samantha sniffled, a choked strangled sob, as her gloved hand covered her mouth. “He just wanted to be careful. Wanted to make sure he was alright, just in case it was something serious like a tumour or syphilis or something..” She stared at her shoes. “Not that I’d give him syphilis or anything.. We were just worried..”
*******
“Spleen’s gone..” Romano snorted, tying it off. “This guy’s getting more space in here.. Maybe he should rent it out. One kidney gone.. Spleen gone. Maybe just stick a revolving door in his abdomen.. Easier access when he’s sent back up here again.” he sighed raggedly, cauterizing the wound and finishing up his work, closing up his blunt trauma patient.
Slamming the instruments back into the tray, Romano backed away from the gurney. “I’m done. Ship him up to ICU.. Keep an eye on him. Run a course of fluids, 1000mg Augmentin by IV.”
*******
Slowly Romano made his way to the chapel, standing in the doorway as the two women looked up. Elizabeth looked at the man pleadingly and Robert nodded. Samantha looked to Romano, as the surgeon in the illuminated church archway, whispered yes.
And the angels wept with joy.
Home Previous Chapter Next Chapter