Chapter 12
The Prodigal Brother
Ralph Campbell stood on the porch of his huge, beautiful farmhouse, staring out over the sweeping front lawn, the snow was coming down gently, beautiful individual flakes fluttering gently from the dark early morning sky. They coated the branches of the big maple tree and covered the pines in the forest beyond. The tire swing still hung from the tree; it too had a coating of snow. Ralph remembered the first day Lanh saw that tree and she begged him to hang a tire swing from a branch on that tree. She was so cute pleading her case, so he put the swing up for her... just for her... and she swung on it all summer long, her long ebony hair trailing in the breeze behind her. A tiny high school junior, captain of the debate team, academic leader of the class, laughing and playing in that tree like a grade schooler, climbing it like a lithe monkey. Then, in a blink of an eye, she and Don posed under its familiar branches at their wedding, but it was a few years later that her brother Bao and his wife, Lanh's high school chum Rosa, showed up with children who would want to use that swing.
Lanh became his little girl. Yes, Sandy came to him with four daughters and now seven grandchildren, but tiny Lanh became his girl the moment he watched Don escort her onto the ice out at the arena on their first date. She was so small, and so scared, and Ralph fell in love the moment he saw them together. As they slowly skated around the rink Ralph called out to his departed wife, "Look Emily, our boy found his love!" He cheered their victories and wept at their defeats. He marveled at their academic achievements and Don's military advancements, but suddenly Don was injured, and Lanh was winging her way to Germany to be with him, and Ralph had nightmares over his poor little girl, how terrified she must have been! But Lanh's inner strength carried her and Don to their next adventure.
It all came to a halt last night when Don called in tears, he reported that Lanh, Mai, and Karole all were run over by a car. Kim-ly grabbed the baby and she left immediately with her brother Huy and her father Duong for Colorado. She called back a little after midnight and reported that Mai was slightly injured, Lanh's leg and wrist were injured, she also had internal injuries and was unconscious. Karole was near death. As for Don, he was so eaten up with grief and guilt that he was inconsolable. He clung to Kim-ly's baby Danh as he would a lifeboat, the child providing him with the soul source of sanity.
The sun was coming up, but the thick clouds let very little sunlight through and the snowfall began to increase in intensity. It reminded Ralph of the first Christmas the kids had together, it was dark and very blustery that year, the kids were snowed in, and thanks to his little girl they had the best Christmas since before Emily died. But that was then...
Ralph had received several calls throughout the night but the last one from Kim-ly, her voice filled with terror. "Lanh woke up in pain, her side was black. The nurse took one look at her abdomen, and they wheeled her straight into surgery." Since that call Ralph paced the floors of that big old farmhouse and cursed himself. "I should have put my foot down," he muttered, "I should have said No! Stay here where it's safe!" But that's not a father's job. He watched the snow fall and prayed for Lanh and Karole... that's a father's job.
Sandy stepped out onto the wide snow-covered porch; she was covered with a blanket and carried a cup of coffee out to Ralph. Folgers - the Minnesota cure-all. She wrapped her arms around her man and tried to warm the sorrowful father. "Any word?"
"No, she's still in surgery, Don hasn't spoken to anyone."
"She'll be ok," whispered Sandy.
"I worry about Don," said Ralph. "If we lose her, we'll lose him too."
"You don't think that he would..." She left the question hanging in the air as the snow started to come down heavier. "Come inside by the fire, I made sticky buns."
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Huy Nguyen's hand was shaking as he held his phone to his ear. "It's bad honey, it's really bad. I don't believe this is happening." He, his dad Duong, and sister Kim-ly raced through the night to catch the last flight to Denver from Grand Forks ND. From the airport they drove through the dark quiet of the first minutes of Christmas morning north to Mercy General hospital in Loveland CO. Throughout Colorado families were sleeping, hoping for what may be the best morning of their lives unaware of the drama that was taking place in Mercy General hospital.
The room that their mother Mai was assigned to was empty, it looked like it had never been used. Mai had abandoned her room to stay on the couch in her daughter Lanh's room and no convincing on the part of the hospital staff could convince her to move back to her own room.
Ahnjong took a deep shaking breath and began asking questions she didn't want to ask. "How is Lanh?"
Huy Nguyen didn't want to answer, it was like avoiding the question would make it less real. Eventually he said, "She's in surgery." When they had arrived at Lanh's room it too was empty, even Lanh's bed was gone.
"Surgery! It's Christmas morning! I thought her surgery was tomorrow."
"She woke up with a lot of abdominal pain and they sent her down for CT scans and found internal bleeding," said Huy. "They rushed her right into surgery."
"Oh my God, how is Don?" asked Ahnjong.
"Bad. God knows the last time he ate or slept, he only speaks to Karole or to Krissy. We found him and Mai in the surgical waiting room but He's in and out of the waiting room, walking back and forth between Lanh's room and Karole down in the ICU."
"Try this, next time he's in the room with you, ask him to keep an eye on Mai and everybody leave, let mom talk to him."
"And if that doesn't work?"
Ahnie frowned, "Well, he's attorney-in-fact for Karole's care, is he capable of making sound decisions for her medical care right now? You are a lawyer, have a chat with an official in the hospital."
"I don't want to, but you're right. Let's get mom on her feet and we'll start moving forward with her case." After talking with his wife, Huy went looking for his mom and his brother-in-law. Don wasn't in Lanh's room, the empty space where her bed was sitting scared and depressed him, so he's been moving back and forth between the ICU where Karole was lying unconscious and the surgical waiting area where a large status board showed that Lanh was the only patient undergoing surgery and there's no information to show her status, which worried Don even more.
Huy located his mother in the surgical waiting room. She was going to be discharged today so he led her back to Lanh's room where she sat and leaned on Duong who held Krissy and they talked quietly in Vietnamese. "Ok, you guys stay here, I'm going to go find Don and Kim-ly," Huy announced, and he headed for the ICU. Down there he found that Karole was still unconscious, and that Don was not there. "Has Don been here?" Huy asked one of the nurses.
"He was here not too long ago checking in on her," said the nurse.
"How is she doing?"
The nurse looked at her monitor and smiled. "It's funny, but ever since her husband ordered her to get better, her stats have stabilized."
Huy was surprised to hear the ICU nurses calling Don Karole's husband, he chose not to correct them. "He what?"
The nurse attempted to suppress a smile as she looked at the computer screen. "That's what the previous shift noted, he ordered her to heal herself."
"Well," Huy laughed, "he used to be a sergeant, maybe he thought that would help. Can you do me a favor and keep an eye on him? All three women that were injured were especially important to him, and I'm worried about his mental health."
"How so?"
"We don't know when the last time he slept was, or eaten, he's got us worried." He handed the nurse his card. "I'm his lawyer and his brother-in-law."
"Are they getting divorced?" asked the nurse. "I shouldn't ask but it's strange that they have two different lawyers."
"Pardon?"
The nurse showed Huy another business card, "this fellow showed up right after she arrived, we thought he was an ambulance chaser, but he had all of her personal information right. He wanted to know everything about her condition and wanted to be kept updated."
