Wrangled (5 page)

Another guy in pajamas came over then and
explained they was gonna send me, still layin’ on the bed, through the hole in
the doughnut, and it was gonna take pictures of my innards. It was just like a
X-ray, he said, only sideways, whatever that meant. All’s I cared about was he
said it wouldn’t hurt, and I just had to lay still. I could do that. In fact, I
couldn’t do anything else.

After the CT scan, everybody came back, put
me back in the first bed, and took me back down the hall to the same room
again. I wished they’d tell me what they was doin’, but unless I asked, they
didn’t say nothin’. Except, they all laughed when I asked could I get some
grub. Don’t know why that was funny, I’d missed dinner and I was hungry.

I slept for a while after that, and the
beeps and hisses of the machines made me have weird dreams, some where I was
layin’ on the hay bales with Annalee, and she had no clothes on. I could see
those tits, with big pink nipples, plain as day, and I was reachin’ to touch
‘em. Just then, someone bumped my bed and I woke up, gaspin’ for air.

“Mr. Wayne, sorry to wake you, but your
breakfast is here.” It was a different nurse, and her cheeks was all pink. I
was confused for a minute, until I remembered where I was and why. Somethin’
was awful uncomfortable down between my legs, and I strained my eyes to see
what was goin’ on down there. Under the sheet was a big ol’ lump, and suddenly
I knew why the nurse’s cheeks was pink and I had a pain there like I’d never
known. I had a hard-on to beat sixty, with the tube from the catheter stickin’
straight up out of it. At least, that’s what I figured, from what I could see
that was under the sheet. The embarrassment took care of it pretty quick,
though. The pain faded as my dick got soft. Nurse didn’t say a word about it,
though.

After breakfast, the doctor came to see me.
I was finally gonna get to know whether I could ever ride again, or whether my
life was over.

“Mr. Wayne, good morning. How are we
feeling?” I still didn’t know how
he
felt, but I was gettin’ tired of
bein’ talked at like a kid.

Instead of answering, I said, “What’s the
word, Doc? Am I gonna be ridin’ next week?”

He smiled a little at that. Guess he’d
heard that one before, too. “Well, maybe not next week, Mr. Wayne. We’ll leave
it up to you after a few months. You have sustained what we hope is only a
minor injury to your neck, a sprain. You might call it whiplash.”

Oh, yeah, I knew about whiplash. Bronc
riders got it sometimes, but they went back to ridin’ as soon as it healed. I
began to have hope.

“Technically, you have some torn ligaments
in your neck, but your spinal cord hasn’t been affected, other than some possible
bruising.”

“How do I get over that, Doc?”

“There isn’t a lot we can do for it
medically. We’re going to give you a neck brace to help you keep it relaxed and
rested. We’ll recommend you treat it alternately with ice and heat, and avoid
any activity that might cause a violent movement to your neck. No bronc riding
for now,” he smiled.

“I don’t ride broncs,” I said. “I’m a
tie-down roper.”

“Well, that’s good, but I still wouldn’t
recommend riding for several months, at least. In any case, you’ll be in a
full-leg cast for at least six weeks. After that, come back to see us and let’s
see how you’re healing.”

“Okay, Doc.”

They took me to another room where another
doctor set my broken leg and put me in a full-length cast they told me not to
get wet. I started wonderin’ how I was gonna take a bath, but they had some
other stuff to tell me. I wasn’t to put any weight at all on it until I come
back for a follow-up in six weeks. I had no idea how I was gonna manage the
bunkhouse, with its six steps up to the front porch, but I guessed Uncle Hank
and I would figure it out when we come to it.

More people come in with a slew of papers
for me to sign, and then Uncle Hank was there to take me home. I don’t know
what I looked like, but it was probly funny, with my neck stretched up in a
heavy brace and my right leg stickin’ straight out. I had to ride in the back
of the boss’s SUV, on a pallet of blankets they’d put down for me after foldin’
down the back seats, because I was too tall to fit sideways in the car and I couldn’t
bend that leg. What a humiliatin’ position to be in.

~~~

It turned out Uncle Hank and the boss, Mr.
Russ, had it all figured out between
‘em. Instead of
takin’ me to the bunkhouse, Uncle Hank took me right to the back door of the
ranch house, where Janet supervised while they carried me in on their crossed
arms, with my arms around both their necks. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but
all the hands were gogglin’ at me on the outside, and all the girls were
gathered on the inside, holdin’ back the kids so’s they wouldn’t get in the
way. By the time they got me all the way down the hall to the bedroom they’d
fixed up for me, I was bone-tired, and they was huffin’ like a steam engine. I
had some heft to me, had grown some muscle since high school, all of it earned
in ranch work.

Uncle Hank said he had to get back to work,
and left after puttin’ his hand on my shoulder and squeezin’. Mr. Russ stayed
to explain things.

“Cody, your uncle said you were worried
about the hospital bills. I want you to know that you’re fully insured; all of
you hands are. It’s group insurance, the same as any employee in any of my
businesses. The only thing you’ll be responsible for is the deductible, and I
know the hospital will work out a payment plan for that. As for your job, don’t
worry about that, either. It’ll be waiting for you when you’re fully recovered.
Until then, you’re my guest here in the house where you can be more
comfortable. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Truth be told, I was struck dumb with what
he’d already said. All my worries wiped away, all I could think of was I was a
damn lucky man to be where I was instead of some ranch that woulda turned me
out because I couldn’t work. Now I owed the boss even more than ever, and I
aimed to pay him back somehow, soon as I could.

“Nossir, you’ve done so much already. Only
thing I can think of now is, I’m kinda sweet on Annalee, if you didn’t know it.
I want to make sure she knows I’m gonna be okay.”

“She knows, but I’m going to send her in to
see for herself,” he said. “She wants to see you, and I believe she’s appointed
herself your head nurse. You let me know if there’s anything else, you hear?”

“Yessir. Thank you!”

“No worries. You’re a good hand, Cody. I
don’t want to lose you, and that isn’t anything to do with Hank being your
uncle. You get better, and when you can go back to work, we’ll talk about how
to best use your talents.”

That set me to wonderin’ what he meant. So
far, the only talent I’d shown was a talent for gettin’ myself thrown into a
fencepost. If that counted for somethin’ in ranchin’, I sure didn’t know what
it was. When the boss left, I closed my eyes for a minute, and then I was gone,
finally gettin’ a restful sleep for the first time since I woke up in the
hospital.

The curtains were open in the room when I
woke up, mid-afternoon sun streamin’ in and hittin’ me in the eyes. It was
kinda a struggle to sit up, between the leg cast and the neck brace, but I
finally managed it. Then I rested back on the headboard and a couple of pillows
I stuck behind me, and looked around. This was a fine room, finer than any I’d
ever slept in. The walls was dark green, and there was antelope heads on the
wall on one side, and a big paintin’ of the mountains on the other. On the
other side of the room from the bed was a big chester drawers, but kinda low,
and on it sat a TV. Next to the bed was a stand with a lamp and a radio with a
clock on it, and a remote control for the TV. There was a bell, there, too,
like you’d see in a store, that you could just hit the top and it would chime
out once. Under the bell was a note, that I figured was for me, so I picked it
up to read it.

‘Cody, let me know when you’re awake and
I’ll bring you some lunch. I’m so glad you’re home. Annalee.’

That cheered me right up. Annalee and some
lunch, both. I couldn’t think of anything better. I hit that bell four or five
times, real quick.

No sooner did I stop ringin’ the bell when
Annalee came runnin’ in, and stopped dead at the foot of the bed when she saw
me.

“Cody, what’s wrong?”

“Nothin’s wrong. The note said to ring the
bell…”

“Oh,” she said, with a whoosh of breath,
sitting down on the end of the bed. “You were ringing so fast, I thought it was
an emergency.”

“It is,” I grinned. “I’m plumb starved to
death. The note said you’d bring me some lunch.”

Annalee got up and come to the side of the
bed, then, and touched my cheek. “One ring is enough, Cody. If you pound on
that bell like that again, you better be having a heart attack, you hear me?

“Yes’m,” I said. “Can I please get that lunch
now? I could eat a whole beef.”

Her pretty blue eyes twinkled as she said,
“I’ll see what I can do about that Cody Wayne. You keep your hands off that
bell for a minute.”

She was back in a few minutes with a
sandwich, made with Janet’s good homemade bread and thick slices of roast beef,
pickle and onion. It tasted better than any food I’d ever eaten before, and I washed
it down with fresh milk. Annalee even brought me a slice of lemon pound cake
for dessert. Then she sat down in a chair in the corner and watched me eat
every bite.

“You don’t have to stay and watch me eat,
Annalee. Don’t you have studies, or kids to watch or somethin’?”

“Are you trying to get rid  of me?”

“Never!” I declared. “I just feel bad for
eatin’ in front of you.”

“Don’t,” she said. “We had lunch hours ago,
and I’m not hungry. But I need to make sure you don’t strangle on the food or
something. And help you if you need to get to the bathroom.”

That put me right off my feed. No way was I
gonna let her come into the bathroom with me. But, I wasn’t sure how I was
gonna manage otherwise.

“Uh, Annalee, I don’t think…”

“Oh, silly me. Of course you don’t want me
in the bathroom. You let me know when you need to go and I’ll go get Russ.
He’ll know what to do.”

That wasn’t much better. First I’d have to
come out and tell her I needed to piss, plain as day, and then I’d have to let
Russ help me do it. No way. I’d bust my bladder before I’d do that. I set my
jaw.

“We’ll see. Thanks for the lunch, Annalee,
it was good,” I said.

“You’re welcome, honey. Do you want me to
stay and talk to you, or read or something?”

I was stuck on ‘honey’, and didn’t hear her
question, only the question mark floatin’ in the air. “What?” I asked.

“Do you want me to stay and talk to you, or
read or something.” This time there was no question mark, but I understood.

“That’s nice of you Annalee, uh,
sweetheart, but I think I’ll just watch TV or somethin’. You must have other
things to do.”

I didn’t know it was possible for a girl to
look happy and disappointed at the same time, but Annalee did. Her eyes started
sparklin’ when I said ‘sweetheart’, but I could tell she wanted to stay. I
needed to figure out what just happened, though. She never called me ‘honey’
before, and I never called her ‘sweetheart’, but it felt kinda natural on my
tongue.

“Okay, hon. You ring if you need me, but
just once, got it?”

“Yes’m, I got it. And thanks again for
lunch.”

She walked out kinda slow, and I thought about
callin’ her back, tellin’ her what would make me feel real good was some of her
kisses. But, I didn’t. I had some thinkin’ to do.

If I was gonna be laid up in this bed for
at least six weeks, I needed some stuff. A way to get myself up and to the bathroom,
for one. Somethin’ to do besides watchin’ TV and talkin’ to Annalee. Or kissin’
her, though that might be one thing to take up a bunch of time. I needed to
figure out if I’d be ready to rodeo next spring, and if so, how to save up for
my first entry fee if I couldn’t work for four months.

I started out thinkin’ about Abo, and how
was he gonna get any exercise with me not ridin’ him. I didn’t want him gettin’
no bad habits from other riders, ‘cause I had him trained to neck-rein and
listen to my voice instead of direct-reining like most of the others did. But I
reckoned Uncle Hank could keep him in line. So, that was one problem solved,
except I didn’t know how I’d get word to Hank that I wanted him to do it.

Then my leg got to hurtin’ somethin’ bad,
so I took one of the pills the doc gave me, and started thinkin’ on how to earn
money for the entry fees. Next thing I knew, I was wakin’ up again. Damn, those
pills was dangerous! Next time Annalee come in, I was gonna ask her to cut ‘em
in half for me or somethin’. It was pitch dark outside the windows, and I was
hungry again, but first I was gonna need some help gettin’ to the bathroom. I
thought about it a while. Could I maybe roll off the bed and crawl in there by
myself? I rolled over and looked down at the floor. Nope, probly not a good
idea. It was further down there than any bed I’d ever been in before. If I rung
my bell, Annalee’d come, but dammit, I didn’t want to have to tell her. On the
other hand, pissin’ myself and the bed wasn’t an option either. I finally
settled on the lesser of the two evils and rung the bell, just once.