Monday was not enjoyable. Since I was going to be under anesthesia most of the day, they cut my meals off the afternoon before. Marilyn kept Charlie at the hotel. I signed papers and listened to warnings and then I was asked to count back from 100. I got to 99 and was out like a light. By the time I woke up, it was almost dinner time, and Marilyn was sitting there with Charlie by the bed. I stayed awake long enough to say, “Hello,” and then fell back asleep. By the time I woke up again, it was the middle of the night and they were gone.
They came back first thing Tuesday morning, and we all met the surgeon. The good news was actually more than I could hope for. While there had been extensive damage to the joint and the ligaments, they decided to do the repairs in a single seven hour session rather than two or three smaller sessions. That meant less time in the body shop and more time on the highway, so to speak. The bad news was that there had been extensive damage. I was going to need a couple of weeks before I could try walking on it, and a full recovery was very doubtful. My career was shot.
Two more weeks like this was going to drive me batty. We could still make future plans, though. Marilyn decided to switch Charlie over to formula, and she spent a morning that week talking to a staff gynecologist about going on the Pill. Fortunately, although all of her medical records were still at the Fort Bragg clinic, Marilyn still qualified to see a doctor here. When I was able to get out of here, we’d both be able to do something about the horniness that had been attacking the both of us. We started planning my escape.
That weekend I had visitors. Suzie caught a bus back to Baltimore, but then Tusker and Tessa and little Bucky went down to pick her up, and they all drove down to Silver Springs to see us. Marilyn and I had been joking about Tusker and his family driving down on his bike, with Bucky in a sidecar, but they came down in an old Ford he owned.
That Saturday was the day my catheter came out. Suzie was there when the nurse came in. “Cool! Can I watch?”
I spluttered something incoherent. “Suzie! No!”
“Carl, don’t be so uptight. I’m a nursing student. I’ve seen penises before,” she replied.
“I don’t care how many penises you’ve seen! You’re not going to see mine!”
“You’re no fun at all.”
I shook a finger at her. “Why don’t you go home and tell Dad about all the penises you’ve seen? I’ll bet that will be a fun conversation!” She had the good grace to blush at that.
Tusker and Tessa were looking a little frazzled, but otherwise happy. Tessa was doing some part-time work at the biker bar, as well as doing the books for the bike shop and taking care of Bucky. Tusker was working all hours at the shop, and only had Sunday off. On the other hand, they seemed to be treading water with the money, and their little business was growing. They already had two full time employees, and were looking for a third. Bucky had his mother’s build and features, but his father’s bright red hair, and was a good kid. He was three now, and got into everything.
Suzie told us some unhappy news, also. Daisy had gone to the big puppy playpen in the sky. She had passed away in her sleep a couple of weeks before she had gone back to school. “I’m sorry, Suzie. She was a good dog.”
Suzie looked very sad, but didn’t cry. I knew she would have cried when it happened.
“How old was she?” asked Tessa.
Suzie looked over at me curiously. “I don’t know. How old was she?”
I had to think a bit. When I came back through in 1968, she was young, but not a new puppy. “I’m not absolutely sure, but I think we got her in ’65 or ’66. It was the summer, that I remember. That would make her 14 or 15. What’s that in dog years? Over a hundred, at least!”
“She hung in there!” commented Tusker.
I smiled at him. “That she did! She was a good dog.” Suzie and I told a few Daisy related tales. Finally I stuck my finger in front of Charlie, and he latched onto it. “Once we get settled, we’ll have to get a puppy for this guy to chase around.”
Marilyn’s eyes opened at that. “A puppy!” Her family is not a pet type family. They didn’t have dogs or cats, or even fish in the fish tank.
I grinned. “All boys need a dog!”
Tessa laughed at that. “My sisters and I all had cats.”
That made me laugh even harder. “That’d be even better. My mother is deathly afraid of cats! It’s the perfect anti-Mom defense!”
Tusker and Tessa took Suzie back to Baltimore and got her on the bus to Newark. It was a good visit, and after they left, I said to my wife, “I think we ought to move back home.”
Marilyn stared at me in disbelief. “Home? Your home? With your family?”
“No, no, nothing like that. I’m not that crazy! No, I mean, to Maryland. You want some place out in the country, and I don’t want to shovel snow. There’s still a lot of farm country in Maryland. It’s not all suburbs. Northern Baltimore County is still very rural. I’m sure we can do something up there.”
“I don’t know…” she said slowly.
“Listen, once I can get loose from here, we’ll drive up and look around. I’ll show you! I know there’s plenty of farmland and such up past Cockeysville and Hereford.”
Marilyn shrugged her shoulders. “Speaking of which, how are we going to do that? You can’t drive yet, and the Toyota is awfully small!”
“I have no idea.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was still at the mercy of the Army. Walter Reed was not about to turn me loose. In fact, once they had done what they could for me, they would ship my sorry ass posthaste back to Fayetteville.
I just nodded. “I can pretty much guarantee you that if you ask the concierge at the Hilton, you’ll get some help. They can also point you towards a shopping mall. Don’t buy much, but I’ll need some stuff. Get me a shaving kit, some sweats and underwear. That sort of stuff, something I can move around in without my ass hanging out the back side. I wear a size 12 shoe, by the way.”
Marilyn can be very passive-aggressive about this sort of thing, but finally agreed to pick some stuff up for me. She absolutely hates driving in a city, probably because she’s a lousy driver. It’s no big deal for me. Back when I was learning the first time through, I learned on the Baltimore Beltway, five lanes at 70 miles an hour!
Marilyn picked up a few things for me, although the sneakers she bought me were the wrong size. I was still stuck at Walter Reed, though. By the end of my second week, my bandages were removed and a much smaller bandage and wrap were put on my knee. I was then transferred to a rehab section, to get me back on my feet. I spent the next week learning to use crutches and starting a delightful regimen of torture, to get me moving my knee and learning how to walk again. I couldn’t believe how weak I was. When I wasn’t in rehab, I spent time in their gym doing bench presses. I had lost over twenty pounds, between the hike out of Nicaragua and my time in jail, and hadn’t come close to getting back in shape. My clothes hung on me loosely.
I spent Christmas in the hospital, with just a few presents, since it was so far from home and none of us had a chance to shop. Marilyn went out and picked up a few things for Charlie, and we promised each other we would do something when I was released. It still took almost four weeks after the operation before I was finally released. I sent Marilyn home with Charlie, back to our apartment. There was no way I could ride comfortably in the Toyota, at least not yet. Besides, it was the Army’s job to take me home. I got sent a day later, in a Herky Bird rigged for medical transport, and then an ambulance took me to the hospital at Bragg. I got another physical, had to stay the night, and was scheduled for more rehab. When I was released the day after, Marilyn came with my Impala, and Charlie loaded in the back seat.