After he finished the article, Brian returned to the picture of Williams in her foxhunting outfit. As he stared at it, he found himself wondering how much her and Peerless’s financial success were dependent on Peerless quickly denying claims, as had just happened to him. After entertaining the thought for a few minutes, Brian decided to move on and return to the Peerless website. He had more immediate concerns, like requesting a review of the claim denial for Emma’s ED visit, which he sincerely hoped would result in a reversal and possibly save his family’s fortune.
With that unpleasantness out of the way, Brian gave Camila a break from being with Juliette by spending almost an hour reading The House at Pooh Corner to his daughter in her bedroom. After finishing the fourth chapter, Brian looked up to discover Juliette had fallen asleep. Being as quiet as possible, he tiptoed out.
“How much information do you want on each of these guests for the potential Foster gig?” Camila asked as Brian came into the office and sat at his desk. She was at her desk on her computer.
“The more the merrier,” he said as he booted up his machine. He hoped that the Foster affair would take place despite the growing concern over a second wave of Covid. With that thought in mind, he went online to look at the Personal Protection LLC bank balances to figure out if there were adequate funds to somehow at least appease the hospital while Emma was an inpatient, especially in case Peerless wasn’t going to participate. As he expected, the balances weren’t encouraging, and they were going to be hard put to cover basic expenses and put food on the table if some significant business didn’t materialize during the next month.
“Our cash flow is a bad joke,” Brian voiced out loud. It was depressing, and for many reasons he wished he and Emma had not decided to take the vacation on Cape Cod even though they had gotten the cottage for a steal. Continuing in that trend of thought, he wished they had at least avoided the beach barbecue. Things could have been so different.
“As if I didn’t know,” Camila said. “We’re in dire need of some luck. Fingers crossed for this Foster event. One thing I’m going to insist on: Stop paying my salary until things turn around.”
“Camila, we couldn’t,” Brian countered and meant it.
“I know that neither you nor Emma have taken any salary for months. It’s only fair, especially since you’re giving me room and board.”
“At this point you are more like family,” Brian said. “How about we defer your salary? I’m willing to consider that under the circumstances.”
“That’s fine, if that’s what you want to call it,” Camila said.
With Camila’s suggestion of deferring, he looked back at the numbers. From that perspective it seemed possible that Brian could manage five to ten thousand dollars to placate the hospital, provided the bank was willing to continue deferring the mortgage payment on the house. With the mortgage question in mind, Brian decided to put in a call to their banker, Marvin Freeman. As the call went through, Brian thanked his lucky stars that he and Emma had not taken a business loan to start their security company and instead renegotiated the mortgage on their house. After the usual superficial pleasantries, Brian got right down to the reason for the call.
“Our business is suffering, as you might expect with this coronavirus situation.”
“You and a thousand other businesses.”
“What do you think the chances are that we could renegotiate our mortgage yet again to give us some operating cash to carry us through?”
“We just renegotiated your mortgage not even a year ago, Brian,” Marvin said. His voice lost some of its friendliness, becoming significantly more businesslike.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Brian said. “What about a business line of credit? Something to get us cash if we get desperate.”
“What kind of collateral are you thinking of offering for a credit line?” Marvin asked. “Do you have any stocks and bonds?”
“No, we don’t have any collateral. The house is our only asset.”
“Having no collateral ties my hands, my friend. There’s no way I could get a line of credit for you without it. Plus, the bank is already allowing you to defer your mortgage payments for the immediate future.”
“Yes, and I appreciate that, Marvin. I suppose in a way that is already a line of credit.”
“You could look at it that way, but I should warn you that it is not going to last.”
“I understand, but thanks, Marvin.”
“Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
Disconnecting from the call, Brian went back to staring at the meager bank balances. After hearing the bank’s position, he really didn’t think he could pay MMH very much without putting himself, Emma and Juliette, and his fledgling business in jeopardy. Now more than ever, it seemed tragic to live in a wealthy country where basic emergency healthcare could put a decent, hardworking family like his at risk.
Chapter 8
August 27
Brian stepped out of his front door a little after eight in the morning, and as he put on his face mask, he surveyed the street in front of his house. The roadway was in the process of being repaved but so far had only been ground down and striated. It was a mess, dangerous to walk on, and he had no idea when it was going to be put back together. In many ways it seemed symbolic of his life in the past week.
Emma was still hospitalized after a week and not doing as well as Brian hoped. During her first twenty-four to forty-eight hours in the ICU, he had been told she’d improved and had regained a reasonable degree of orientation. But then when she was transferred into a normal hospital room and he was able to see her, he found her mental state varied from day to day. Sometimes she didn’t even seem to recognize him, and she spent most of her time sleeping. She had continued to run a fever, suggesting that the EEE virus was still active despite whatever antibodies her immune system was making.
But at least being in a normal hospital room made it possible for Brian to see her, and thanks to Camila, his mother, and Emma’s mother, he’d been able to spend considerable time doing so while the women took turns taking care of Juliette. His poor daughter missed her mother and was sulky, irritable, and withdrawn despite a lot of effort on the part of all three extra caretakers. To everyone’s concern, Juliette wasn’t even eating properly. Brian was enormously thankful that taking care of her wasn’t on his shoulders alone, as he wondered if he would find the patience it required. Just being with her during the night could be trying enough when she’d wake up crying.
Although he had taken one entire afternoon to run out to Southampton to check out the Fosters’ palatial summer home and meet the bride-to-be so that Camila could come up with a budget for the wedding, he spent every other day with Emma. It was his feeling that the nursing staff wasn’t spending the time necessary to make sure his wife was being appropriately mobilized. From his EMT training, Brian knew how important it was for a patient not to remain in bed continuously.
Multiple times every day, Brian forced her to get up and walk up and down the hallway despite her constant complaining. While walking with her two days before, he’d noticed a change in her stride. It was a kind of clumsiness that was almost imperceptible at first, but slowly progressed over the next twenty-four hours. Yesterday morning when he got her out of bed, it was definitely more apparent, and he brought it to the attention of Dr. Shirley Raymond, the hospitalist responsible for Emma’s care. She in turn alerted the neurology consult who had been following Emma. This new symptom, labeled by the doctors as spasticity, had raised Brian’s concerns, and as he started out toward MMH Inwood, he wondered if he would find Emma even worse today.