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no guarantees. Is she does come out, she'll have a long
convalescence. She was banged up pretty bad."
"Do you know what happened?"
"You'd have to get the details from the police, we don't
know everything. But it seem that she ran a railroad crossing,
we don't know why. She hooked her car by the bumper and
was dragged some distance. I'd say she pretty lucky. If she'd
been caught by the train broad side, or if she hit the train
broadside, you'd be down at the morgue right now."
Pat glared at the doctor for that remark.
"Sorry, tact is the first thing you loose around here.
Anyway, you can wait here or go home. We'll call you when
we have news."
"We're staying" Julie had said firmly.
"Fine there's a waiting room up near surgery. It's more
comfortable than the one down here. I'll have an orderly
show you where it is. The surgeon's name is Jan Keesley.
She's the best we have."
Pat noticed that he didn't add anything like "I'm sure she'll
be fine."
The doctor, however, did add, "Your friend will have a
long, hard recovery, she'll need her friends."
They waited what seemed like two eternities for word from
the surgery. Pat had bugged the desk nurse six or seven
times. She brushed him off every time, but he had to do
something. He and Julie were feeling miserable. The guilt was
setting in. Samantha was a bad driver to begin with, and they
knew how upset she was when she left Julie's.
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Finally, the doctor came in and sat down beside them. She
was middle aged and very trim. She had the look of a long
distance runner. Pat remembered her blue eyes and thinking
how kind they looked.
"She's going to make it."
Her friends exhaled noisily.
"It was a tough one, she took one hell of a ride. We put
some pins in her to hold her broken bones where we could,
but we mostly worked on her organs. I had to repair a tear in
her liver, and she lost her spleen and gall bladder. She can
live without those. She'll need more surgeries in the next few
days to set the rest of her bones. I'm not an osteopath, I
couldn't tell you if her arms repairable or not. But she'll live.
Do you have any questions."
They each had a million questions, but none that the
doctor could answer. Julie reached across the table and
grasped the surgeon's hand "Thank you."
The woman smiled in return. "She should be waking up
soon, they'll come and get you when she's able to see people.
I should warn you, she's pretty beat up. Took a three-mile
ride from what I heard."
They waited in silence again and were eventually
summoned to a private room. Julie wanted to go in alone and
Pat wouldn't argue with her. She gasped when she first saw
her and Samantha turned a dreamy eyes to her and merely
said "Oh."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Julie whispered and her tears
started flowing.
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"Yeah." Samantha muttered. True to the doctor's words,
she was a mess. The bandages were white and sterile, but
the flesh that was exposed was bruised and puffy.
"What do you need?" Julie asked through her tears. "What
do you want me to get for you?"
"Some pajamas, I guess, and a robe, for when I can get
out of bed. I suppose I'll be able to read, so bring my spare
glasses and I had a couple of books on the kitchen table I
haven't started yet. God, I don't know, just figure it out ... did
I really hit a train?"
That's what they told us."
"Us?"
"Pat's with me."
"Oh." Her voice got cold and thin again. "I really don't
remember much after I left your apartment. I was headed
over to David's. I don't remember if I got there or not. I don't
remember anything about the accident." She just stopped
and drifted back into a fitful light sleep. The next few days
passed in a soft blur. Pat and Julie fetched everything the
Samantha wanted. At some point Samantha's mother
appeared and added a flurry of chaotic energy to the whole
situation. She was a partner at a Gold Coast law firm and
seemed to move three of four speeds faster than everyone
else. She was genuinely concerned and stay through the
remainder of Samantha's surgeries. No one was unhappy to
see her go.
* * * *
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Samantha didn't have a father per se. He had left to go
"find himself" when Samantha was born. No one knows what
he found, they never heard from him again. Samantha's mom
had thrown herself into her work and her school. She went on
to law school and then became and associate at an up-and-
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