PART 5
“Lay her down here,” Nan
urged Hank. Hank laid the young woman
down on the examining table. Emily
wasn’t moving very much, but she was conscious.
Nan began examining her;
Hank stood by watching her. “Emily, I
know you’re in pain, but you got to let me know exactly where it hurts,” Nan
told her. She began to press down on
her stomach.
“Ahhh,” Emily yelled out as
Nan pressed down on her lower right side.
“Oh, no,” Nan said under her
breath.
“What do you mean ‘oh, no’?”
Hank had heard Nan.
Just then the clinic door
opened. “Nan? What’s going on?” Sully came in.
“Sully!” Nan called
out. “Thank goodness you’re here. I need your help. Get him out of here,” she
pointed to Hank.
“You heard her. Get out, Hank,” Sully told him firmly and
grabbed him to throw him out. Hank
unwillingly left the clinic. “Where’s
my wife?”
“Dr. Mike went on a house
call.”
“What can I do to help? “
Sully asked her.
I need you to put this rag
over her nose,” Nan handed the chloroformed cloth to him.
Sully laid it over Emily’s
nose, and Emily went into a deep sleep.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Appendicitis.”
“Can you wait for Michaela?”
“I don’t know. It seems to have progressed very quickly,”
she looked up at Sully with fear in her eyes. “I have to do surgery.”
Sully nodded with
understanding. Nan began cutting into
Emily. “No!” she said.
“What’s wrong?” Sully asked,
as he looked over at her.
Nan didn’t answer him. She took her stethoscope, put it up against
Emily’s chest, and listened. “No!” Nan
said again. She pulled back slowly.
Sully realized what had
happened. “Nan, I’m sorry.”
Nan didn’t say
anything. She went over to wash her
hands. She turned back around to face
him. “Her appendices burst,” she
explained in a very childlike voice. “I didn’t have time.”
By the way she looked, Sully
feared that she would begin crying…but it didn’t happen. She just stood there.
“Nan, you did everything you
could.” He tried to tell her.
Just then the door
opened. “What happened?” Michaela ran
in and slammed the door behind her. She
stopped as she saw the sight before her.
“She’s dead, Michaela,” her
husband told her. “Her appendices
burst.”
Michaela went over to check
the incision that Nan had made. “Yes.
They did,” was all she said. Michaela
looked over at Nan. Nan wasn’t
moving. Michaela walked over to her.
“Nan,” she put her hands on
Nan’s shoulders. “Nan, there was
nothing you could do. You acted
immediately. You didn’t have time to
save her.” She looked into Nan’s eyes
before saying. “I couldn’t have
saved her,” Michaela pulled Nan into her arms and Nan began to cry.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *
Michaela opened the clinic
door and walked out to face the waiting crowd that had gathered. She turned to Hank. “I’m sorry, Hank. She couldn’t be saved,” she said sadly.
“She killed her!” Hank said
loudly. “That woman killed her,” he
blamed Nan.
Nat was standing close by
with Brian and Dorothy. “She did not,”
Nat defended his wife. “She tried to
save her.”
“SHE killed her,” Hank
repeated before stomping away. He threw
his cigar down as he headed back to the saloon.
“Michaela, what was wrong
with her?” Dorothy asked her friend.
“Appendicitis. Her appendices burst. Nan didn’t have time to remove them. It wouldn’t have even mattered if I had been
here. I couldn’t have saved her
either.”
“Oh, poor girl,” Dorothy
said quietly.
“Nan. How is Nan?” Nat asked, worried about his
wife.
“Devastated. It’s her first patient that has died. I remember my first patient that died. I was devastated.” Michaela told him, as
Sully walked out of the clinic.
“Emily’s ready to be taken
out,” he said to Michaela, and then turned to Nat. “Nan’s inside cleaning up.”
Nat walked past Sully into the clinic.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * *
“Honey,” Nat said softly as
he walked up behind his wife. Nan was
cleaning her medical instruments. She
didn’t move. Nat touched her shoulders
and turned her around to face him.
“Nan, she couldn’t be saved. You
know that.”
Nan said nothing. She just threw herself into Nat’s
outstretched arms and began weeping.
“Shh, it’s OK,” Nat
comforted her. He rocked her in his
arms.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *
Nan finished up at the
clinic later that afternoon and left to walk over to the “Gazette” to meet Nat.
As she walked down the
street, she noticed a group of men standing in front of the saloon. One of them was Hank. He stared at her with an angry look as she
walked down the street.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
“Hank,” Matthew Cooper
walked up to the group standing in front of the saloon. “Don’t go stirring up trouble,” the one-time
sheriff warned him.
“And what if I do, Mr.
Lawyer?” Hank asked him. “You can’t do
anything. You’re not the sheriff,
Daniel is. He’s out of town for a couple
months,” Hank said with an annoying sneer on his face. “The men he’s got deputized are inside the
saloon right now having a grand old time.”
“Don’t try anything, or
you’ll regret it,” Matthew said before he walked back to his office.
“Hank, Matthew’s right. Don’t try stirring up any trouble. “ Jake
warned. Hank sneered again and walked
back into the saloon for another drink.
