Maddie swallowed, hard. She wanted to say something else, but they’d given her drugs to make her comfortable, apparently. She opened her mouth to speak and went right to sleep.
“Is she going to be all right?” Great-Aunt Sadie asked when Odalie and Cort dropped into chairs in the waiting room while Maddie was sleeping.
“Yes, but it’s going to be a long recovery,” Cort said heavily.
“You can’t tell her,” Odalie said gently, “but there seems to be some paralysis in her legs. No, it’s all right,” she interrupted when Sadie looked as if she might start crying. “We’ve called one of the foremost orthopedic surgeons in the country at the Mayo Clinic. We’re flying him down here to see her. We’ll go from there, once he’s examined her.”
“But the expense,” Sadie exclaimed.
“No expense. None. This is my fault and I’m paying for it,” Odalie said firmly.
“It’s my car, I’m helping,” Cort added.
She started crying again. “It’s so nice of you, both of you.”
Odalie hugged her. “I’m so sorry,” she said sadly. “I didn’t mean to hit her. I wasn’t looking, and I should have been.”
Sadie hugged her back. “Accidents happen,” she sobbed. “It was that stupid rooster, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” Cort sighed. “He ran right into the road and Maddie ran after him. The road was clear and then, seconds later, she was in the middle of it.”
Odalie couldn’t confess that she’d gone that way deliberately to show Maddie she was with Cort. She was too ashamed. “She’ll be all right,” she promised.
“Oh, my poor little girl,” Sadie said miserably. “She’ll give up, if she knows she might not be able to walk again. She won’t fight!”
“She will. Because we’ll make her,” Odalie said quietly.
Sadie looked at her with new eyes. Her gaze fell to Odalie’s dress. “Oh, your dress,” she exclaimed.
Odalie just smiled. “I can get another dress. It’s Maddie I’m worried about.” It sounded like a glib reply, but it wasn’t. In the past few hours, Odalie’s outlook had totally shifted from herself to someone who needed her. She knew that her life would never be the same again.
A sheriff’s deputy came into the waiting room, spotted Odalie and Cort and approached them, shaking his head.
“I know,” Odalie said. “It’s my fault. I was driving his car—” she indicated Cort “—and not looking where I was going. Maddie ran out into the road after her stupid rooster, trying to save him. She’s like that.”
The deputy smiled. “We know all that from the recreation of the scene that we did,” he said. “It’s very scientific,” he added. “How is she?”
“Bad,” Odalie said heavily. “They think she may lose the use of her legs. But we’ve called in a world-famous surgeon. If anything can be done, it will be. We’re going to take care of her.”
The deputy looked at the beautiful woman, at her bloodstained, dirty, expensive dress, with kind eyes. “I know some women who would be much more concerned with the state of their clothing than the state of the victim. Your parents must be very proud of you, young lady. If you were my daughter, I would be.”
Odalie flushed and smiled. “I feel pretty guilty right now. So thanks for making me feel better.”
“You going to charge her?” Cort asked.
The deputy shook his head. “Probably not, as long as she survives. In the law, everything is intent. You didn’t mean to do it, and the young lady ran into the road by her own admission.” He didn’t add that having to watch the results of the accident day after day would probably be a worse punishment than anything the law could prescribe. But he was thinking it.
“That doesn’t preclude the young lady pressing charges, however,” the deputy added.
Odalie smiled wanly. “I wouldn’t blame her if she did.”
He smiled back. “I hope she does well.”
“So do we,” Odalie agreed. “Thanks.”
He nodded and went back out again.
“Tell me what the doctor said about her legs,” Sadie said sadly, leaning toward them.
Odalie took a long breath. She was very tired and she had no plans to go home that night. She’d have to call her family and tell them what was happening here. She hadn’t had time to do that yet, nor had Cort.
“He said that there’s a great deal of bruising, with inflammation and swelling. That can cause partial paralysis, apparently. He’s started her on anti-inflammatories and when she’s able, he’ll have her in rehab to help get her moving,” she added gently.
“But she was in so much pain…surely they won’t make her get up!” Sadie was astonished.
“The longer she stays there, the stronger the possibility that she won’t ever get up, Sadie,” Odalie said gently. She patted the other woman’s hands, which were resting clenched in her lap. “He’s a very good doctor.”
“Yes,” Sadie said absently. “He treated my nephew when he had cancer. Sent him to some of the best oncologists in Texas.” She looked up. “So maybe it isn’t going to be permanent?”
“A good chance. So you stop worrying. We all have to be strong so that we can make her look ahead instead of behind, so that we can keep her from brooding.” She bit her lower lip. “It’s going to be very depressing for her, and it’s going to be a long haul, even if it has a good result.”
“I don’t care. I’m just so happy she’s still alive,” the older woman cried.
“Oh, so am I,” Odalie said heavily. “I can’t remember ever feeling quite so bad in all my life. I took my eyes off the road, just for a minute.” Her eyes closed and she shuddered. “I’ll be able to hear that horrible sound when I’m an old lady…”
Cort put his arm around her. “Stop that. I shouldn’t have let you drive the car until you were familiar with it. My fault, too. I feel as bad as you do. But we’re going to get Maddie back on her feet.”
“Yes,” Odalie agreed, forcing a smile. “Yes, we are.”
Sadie wiped her eyes and looked from one young determined face to the other. Funny how things worked out, she was thinking. Here was Odalie, Maddie’s worst enemy, being protective of her, and Cort just as determined to make her walk again when he’d been yelling at her only a week or so earlier. What odd companions they were going to be for her young great-niece. But what a blessing.
She considered how it could have worked out, if Maddie had chased that stupid red rooster out into the road and been hit by someone else, maybe someone who ran and left her there to die. It did happen. The newspapers were full of such cases.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Cort asked with a faint smile.
Sadie laughed self-consciously. “That if she had to get run over, it was by such nice people who stopped and rendered aid.”
“I know what you mean,” Cort replied. “A man was killed just a couple of weeks ago by a hit-and-run driver who was drunk and took off. The pedestrian died. I wondered at the time if his life might have been spared, if the man had just stopped to call an ambulance before he ran.” He shook his head. “So many cases like that.”
“Well,