Chapter 4 (Edited)
(The week before Christmas, Pocono Regional Hospital)
Dr. Friedman walked into his room. "Good morning, Robert, I have good news for you. You are well enough to go home. You can continue your rehabilitation from there. I must say I am impressed with the commitment you made to getting yourself well after such a debilitating accident, no incident. Your head is nearly completely healed. The hair is growing in nicely, and you cannot see any of the surgical scars in the surrounding area. Doctor West is a true magician with his hands, and his knowledge."
"Thank you, Doctor, this day has been a long time coming. It's been nearly 8 weeks of physical therapy, and someone has to put chains on those women. They may be tiny in stature, but they are the most demanding women I have ever met. When they tell you to do something in a particular way, they don't let you get away with anything. I am amazed I survived this far."
"Robert, you still have a very long way to go. Your legs barely work. Your left arm functions well. Your right arm is about 45% functional. Your back below T5 is still not functioning properly. When the therapists finish with their massage of your back, your muscles all seem fine, and you should be able to stand. As soon as you put weight on your legs, everything back there falls apart. We have your x-rays and they look fine. There has to be nerve damage in there somewhere, and I have not been able to put my finger on it yet. Time alone may heal it, or it may not heal at all, and you will never be able to walk properly, again. I know that is not something you are willing to accept, but I had to tell you about that possibility anyhow."
"Doctor, I promise you this, by Memorial Day, I will be walking, by July 4, I will be jogging, and by the anniversary day of them bringing me here to your hospital, I will run from the Tobyhanna State Park, to your hospital, nonstop."
"Robert, that's nearly 7 1/2 miles, and you're going to run it, in less than one year?"
"My dad tells me that once I set my mind to something, nothing stands in my way. I made a promise to the one person in my life that I can never go back on, and I will not let her down."
"Robert, you have to let her go. Carolyn is gone. You cannot bring her back, regardless of all your good works, and your wonderful intentions. She was a marvelous human being. The police are working tirelessly, attempting to find those men who murdered her. Eventually, they will do it. They have enough physical evidence to bring them to justice. Don't do anything that will put you in jail with them."
"Dr. Friedman, putting me in jail with them would be the kindest thing the law could do for me. One by one they would vanish from the face of this earth. I would do to them, what they did to my baby, and it would not be pretty. '
They Butchered Her, Doctor!'
They took her apart as if her life didn't matter. Well, Doctor Friedman, they will find out that Carolyn's life mattered to me a great deal."
"If these men read any newspapers or magazines, they already know that, Robert. Your father-in-law has made it plain to the world in his interviews, that they will not be forgotten, not today, or tomorrow. They will never be forgotten in the hearts and minds of the families that they touched. They will be looked for until every family member has died, and their progeny has died after them. Their families will never be safe from retribution, because of what they did to Carolyn, and you."
"You must admit that my father-in-law pulls no punches. For a mild-mannered insurance salesman, he tells everyone exactly what he's thinking, when he is thinking it. That's why he is going to be very successful at his chosen career."
"You're probably right. I have scheduled a conference with him, while he's out here seeing you. I'll probably buy my retirement package through him."
"You could do a lot worse Doctor. I guarantee you, Mister Riefsynder will not sell you something you will not need. It just isn't a him to do it."
"I got the same feeling from watching him hover over you, while you've been with us. He is a very strong man, with very strong moral fibers."
"Those fibers barely bend. They will bend, because of Carolyn, but only because he will be helping me do it. He will not do it himself. I will be the instrument of that justice; he will be tempering me."
"I am not saying this to you. I am talking to the wall. "Wall, you have a built in 'Insanity Defense' if you are ever taken in to court. First, because of the trauma caused to you by the type of death caused to your beloved wife, by each of these men. Second, due to the iron plate we had to put into your skull. It is causing a mental defect unknown to modern medicine, and you are not responsible for your actions. You must be put into a mental institution, until you are fit to be released into the public once more."
"Speaking for the wall, Dr. Friedman, I thank you for your kindness. Can the wall call you, for your expert testimony, if one day in the future it becomes necessary?"
"Mr. Graziano, since I assisted in the operation to put the metal plate into your head, I will certainly appear in court on your behalf."
"That is very kind of you Doctor."
"I will see you this afternoon, one more time, and tomorrow, when they check you out of this wonderful facility, and send you home. Continue with your physical therapy, as if you were here, Robert, don't slack off, or you will fall behind."
"Doctor, I have a feeling that what Mr. Riefsynder has in store for me may be a little more intensive than what I have been subjected to so far. Every time he visits me, he grins. My father-in-law has never grinned at me before. Now, I lost his daughter, and he's grinning at me. There is evil behind those grinning eyes, and that grinning face, doctor, and I feel pain every time I look at him."
Dr. Friedman laughed.
Robert shouted, "Okay, Doctor, what do you know that I don't know?"
"I'm sorry, Robert, unless I'm willing to wind up looking like you are now, I must remain silent. Mr. Riefsynder, your father-in-law, is much larger than I am, and what he told me about what he is going to visit upon you, is both funny, and terrifying. You will get much better than you are now. It's just the way he's going to do it that makes me feel bad, no sorry, for you. I'll see you this afternoon, Robert."
As the doctor was leaving the room, Robert shouted, "I am going to hurt myself, so I have to stay here."
Dr. Freeman turned, and said, "Mr. Riefsynder said he's taking you out of here, either in one piece, or in several pieces. He didn't care which was the case. He just said you were going home."
"
OH SHIT! I am in trouble."
As he lay back, a wheelchair was brought into his room and the attendant said, "It's time for therapy, Mr. Graziano."
"Who's down there this morning Terry; Marie or Stephanie?"
"They're both down there waiting for you, sir."
"Oh crap, they are going to double-team me today."
"Yeah, that's what they were talking like, when they sent me up here to get you. They were giggling about it."
"Those two beasts were laughing about me?"
"I think it's just the Christmas spirit, Mr. Graziano."
"Yes, Terry, and I am their present."
After two hours of intensive physical therapy, Robert was brought back to his room exhausted. He was clean, because at the end of his therapy he was put into a heated bath to soak his muscles to keep him from cramping, and be washed. Later science would find the opposite was true. An ice bath would be the appropriate scientific truism, if you wanted to keep your patient from cramping.
He lay in bed thinking about Carolyn. He bolted upright when she said, "Hello husband, what are you up to?"
"Hello baby, you're looking beautiful today. They were trying to kill me in physical therapy this morning. My right arm is still not working properly, and my back still needs a lot of work."
"Are you complaining, Robert? If you are, I'd like to remind you that they did kill me, and I'm only here out of the kindness of our God."
"You will always be in my mind, Carolyn. No woman will ever replace you. You were my first and only. I will bed other women, because of a physical need, but I will never love another woman, as I loved you. I will never marry again. I married you, and I'm staying married to you, for the rest of my days."
"I knew that on the day that we wed. I never realized our time would be so short together, but it was wonderful, Robert. No girl had a better husband. No woman had a better or considerate lover. No lover had a better mate. As far as I was concerned, we were perfect together. Every time we made love; I was more than content. I could not wait to begin again, because I was with you. You were made for me to be with, Robert. I made the same choice you made nine years before we were married, and I never wavered as you did not. If it was not for the fear of becoming pregnant, I would have raped you on my birthday. You bought me that little pendant that I wore around my neck endlessly. It signified your love for me, and I loved you so much for it. I wanted you so desperately, and it took everything I had in me, to keep my legs closed. You helped, of course, you never touched me, in an indecent area. What more could any virgin want? Every girl in my class would talk about what they did with their boyfriends, both in their dens and bedrooms, and I always had nothing to say, because we never did anything titillating. I'm sure they thought we were the most boring couple around, but we were also the couple that was most in love with one another. We proved that to them, when we married in September."
"Are you happy now, baby?"
"I'm in your mind, Robert, how could I not be happy?"
"I know you're in my mind now, but where are you when I am awake?"
"Our God has me doing things with the children who are yet to be born. She is amazing, Robert."
"Our God is a woman?"
"You can't tell anyone I told you that. It is a truth that will not be universally known for over a thousand years. It's such a simple concept, however, because only a woman can give birth, and all life comes from birth. Our church will figure that out one day."
"Yes, but men have something to do with birth, don't they?"
"Yes, they do, but only tangentially. If you're not happy with a particular species, you go to a different flower and cross-pollinate it instead of the original source. It's just that simple."
