“I’m Dr. Rayson,” he said, offering Neal his hand.
Neal let go of Annie’s fingers and shook Rayson’s hand.
“Your baby’s just fine.”
“Where is she?” Neal said, then remembered that one of the nurses had already told him.
“Down in pediatrics, in the nursery. Somebody’s on the way up here with her right now. After we looked her over in the ER, we sent her up there to make sure she was okay, but there wasn’t much doubt about it. The car was only traveling about ten miles an hour, backwards, and your daughter was strapped into her car seat. The impact was negligible.”
“Backwards?” Neal said, glancing back at Annie’s unconscious face. “What happened, anyway? Is she going to be all right?”
The doctor avoided the second question. “Apparently, your wife was buying something in a store, a mini-market on Windy Hill Road, I think it was, and she left your daughter in the car. It either slipped out of park by itself, or your wife forgot to put it in park. I don’t think the police know for sure.”
Neal shook his head slowly. “She would never forget to put it in park, not with Natasha in the car.”
The doctor nodded, but the doubt on his face was obvious.
“She wouldn’t forget,” Neal said defensively. “She was—I mean, is—a fanatic about taking care of that baby.” Neal was appalled that he had accidentally spoken of Annie in the past tense, as if she were already...
Neal glanced at Annie and then looked back at Dr. Rayson. “What happened to my wife? I don’t understand. Is she going to be all right?”
The doctor and nurse exchanged glances.
“It’s hard to say at this point,” Rayson said. “It’s always touch-and-go in cases like this. She sustained a severe concussion, but there don’t seem to be any serious problems associated with it at this point. With a little luck, she ought to come around in a few hours. Of course, she won’t be back on her feet again for a while.” The doctor picked up her chart and read from it. “Three broken ribs, a fractured hip, a broken wrist, and various other contusions.”
Neal winced. “But...I still don’t understand what happened to her. I thought you said she was inside the store.”
“She ran out and tried to stop the car from rolling backwards. According to the police, she got caught between it and another vehicle, a pick-up truck, I think it was, when she was trying to get the door open.”
The visual image this description conjured up in Neal’s mind made his head start spinning. Next, the room started spinning.
“Hey,” he heard the doctor say, as if from a long tunnel.
Neal felt a strong set of hands supporting him. A moment later, he found himself sitting in a chair next to Annie’s bed.
“You almost passed out on me, friend,” the doctor said.
Neal looked up at him. “What?”
The doctor was peering at his foot. “What happened here?”
“Nothing, really. I...stepped on something, that’s all.”
Dr. Rayson looked puzzled.
“Something sharp,” Neal added.
“Let me have a look at it.” Rayson squatted in front of him, but Neal hardly noticed. He was preoccupied with how Annie’s car had come out of gear. And what about the emergency brake? There was no way Neal could believe that Annie could forget to put the car in park, let alone forget to put on the emergency brake. Not with the baby in the car. No way.
“Are you sure no one jumped into the car and tried to steal it?” Neal asked, as Rayson carefully removed Neal’s sock.
“I’m pretty sure. We wondered the same thing. But there were several witnesses at the store—the car just started rolling on its own.”
“On its own,” Neal mumbled. If Annie didn’t leave the car out of park and the emergency brake off, and nobody had tried to steal it, then the car had just magically started moving on its own...
Or...
“Here she is!”
A slender, brown-haired nurse had just entered the room, carrying Natasha in her arms. An orderly was on her heels, lugging the car seat with him. He set it on the floor, at the foot of the bed, and sauntered back out of the room.
“You’ve got a serious infection, friend,” the doctor said.
Neal looked back down at his foot. Dr. Rayson gently turned it sideways, so Neal had a better view. “Those red streaks on your ankle...it’s not a good sign.”
“Oh, shit,” Neal muttered.
“Yeah,” the doctor said sympathetically. “Are you on any antibiotics?”
“No.” Neal glanced at Natasha, who was still in the nurse’s arms. She was wearing the orange jumper that Annie’s mother had made. Her little eyes were open, staring at him. There seemed to be a smile on her face.
“You need to be put on something immediately,” Rayson said, “before this infection gets any worse.” He motioned to the pudgy nurse. “Get a wheelchair and take Mr. Becker down to ER.” The doctor turned back to Neal. “They’ll fix you up down there, and then you can take your daughter home.”
“Who...me?” Neal said.
The doctor and the nurses exchanged glances.
“Yes, you. You are the baby’s father, aren’t you?”
Neal looked at Natasha, at the smile on her little face. “Yeah, but...”
They were all watching Neal with interest, waiting for him to continue..
“I...I mean, my foot. How can I take care of her with an infected foot?”
The doctor sighed. “You’re not dying, Mr. Becker. After you’re on antibiotics, you just need to stay off your feet as much as possible, keep your right leg elevated. But you can certainly stand up long enough to heat formula and change diapers.”
Neal groped for some other excuse. The last thing he wanted was to be left alone with Natasha.
The nurse who was holding the baby said, in a soft voice, “Is there anyone who can help you out? Your mother, sister, somebody?”
There was a page over the intercom for what sounded like “Dr. Rayson.”
The doctor glanced in the direction of the hallway, then looked back at Neal. “Well? Is there?”
Neal did a quick inventory of anyone who might be able take Annie off his hands. But he drew a blank. Neal’s own mother was out of the question—he couldn’t ask her to come all the way from Louisville. And his sister lived in Detroit. Except for Annie’s mother, that was it.
Dr. Rayson turned impatiently to the nurse who was holding Natasha. “Did you get a hold of the grandmother yet?”
“No, doctor, she’s still not answering.” The slender, soft-spoken woman had moved a little closer and Neal could read her name tag—SUSAN MATLOW, it said.
“Well, keep trying to call her.”
Neal wasn’t surprised they couldn’t reach Annie’s mother. She was never home, always running around with one of her boyfriends.
The doctor looked at Neal. “You don’t have any idea where your mother-in-law might be, do you?”
Neal shook his head, though he was distracted by Natasha. The baby was watching him intently. The smile on her face seemed to be widening.
“Can’t she just stay here for a few days?” Neal blurted. He looked pleadingly from one face to another.
Susan gave Dr. Rayson a hopeful glance. She seemed to have already formed an attachment to the baby.
“I’m afraid not,” Rayson told Neal. “Your daughter’s in perfectly good health. It’s against the rules, not to mention the fact that we’re completely full as it is.”
“It will just be for a couple of days,” Neal said, panicking, “maybe just one day. Just until you can find Annie’s mother.”
Susan said, “We do have enough room in the nursery at the moment, doctor.”
Rayson whirled around to her. “Dammit, Susan, you know better than that! This isn’t a day care center, it’s a hospital.”
“Sorry, doctor.”
There was another page for him over the intercom. A second later, an out-of-breath nurse poked her head in the door. “Doctor Rayson, you’re needed in 604, stat!”