7. Visiting Hours

Chrissy gets some visitors.

As Dani was entering Chrissy's hospital room she almost ran into a nurse on her way out. The nurse gave her an appraising look and said, “Oh, good! 'Miss Sunshine' has a visitor. Now she'll have someone else to b***h at besides me for awhile!”

Dani heard Chrissy's voice come from within the room, “Why don't you go wash some bedpans!”

The nurse turned and snapped, “You behave, or I won't be so gentle the next time I change your catheter!”

“That was gentle?! Send in a student nurse next time!”

The nurse shook her head and sighed as she squeezed past Dani. “She's all yours,” she muttered.

“Hello, Chrissy!” said Dani in a sing-song voice as she entered her room with a vase full of flowers and a shopping bag, “How are you doing?”

“I'm trussed up like a mummy, I hurt, I have to go to the bathroom by remote control, and now you walked in! I'm just peachy!!” snarled Chrissy.

Such a remark coming from anyone else might have hurt Dani's feelings, but because it was Chrissy she just laughed it off with a dismissive gesture. “How can you be such a sourpuss on a beautiful day like this?” she responded.

Chrissy looked at the grey rain that pelted her window and growled, “Does your balloon ever land, Dani?!”

Dani laughed again. “Ian was right,” she said, “You do need cheering up.”

“Yeah, well, unless you've got a bottle of bourbon in that bag you probably won't have much luck on that score!”

“Sorry, no bourbon. But I did bring a bag of your favorite nacho chips,” she said as she pulled them out of the shopping bag.

Chrissy's countenance softened just a little. “Really? The uber caliente ones?”

“Four alarm!” answered Dani. “ And... I tore the pages out of a crossword puzzle book and clipped them onto this clipboard so that you can do them one-handed.” Chrissy took the clipboard from her with her good hand and looked at it appreciatively. “And last but not least,” continued Dani, “I brought these.” She held up three classic movie DVDs. “Which one do you want to watch first?”

Chrissy studied the DVDs for a few moments before she pointed, “That one - 'To Have and Have not'.”

“Ah. You're a Bogart fan, too?”

“Bogey's okay,” answered Chrissy, “but I really like Bacall in that one. She's one tough chick!”

Dani inserted the DVD into the player and pulled up a chair next to Chrissy's bed. Chrissy held out the bag of chips toward her. “Want some?”

“No, thanks! I brought my own. Those ones of yours will melt my fillings.”

As they waited for the movie to start Chrissy looked down and muttered awkwardly, “Um... Dani? I... I'm glad you stopped by, I guess. Sorry... you know... for snapping at you. I've had a rough time of it”

“Shhh... it's starting.”

~*~

Chrissy stared out her window at the azure blue sky and sighed. She was depressed! Summer was passing by outside as she languished inside in a hospital bed. Her pain had become tolerable since her doctor had discussed different pain management options with her. She knew Ian must've said something to him about it. Part of her was angry with him, but another part of her was touched by his concern. And she was feeling better! Whatever pain she still had was a good kind of pain, the kind that came from bones mending and flesh healing. She decided not to confront him about it.

She heard someone enter her room and turned her head to find Meredith Fini walking in.

Meredith and her husband, Tony, were the owners of the factory where Ian worked.  Much older than Chrissy and very well-to-do, she was an unlikely, but close, friend.  “Hello, Chrissy,” she said with a warm smile, “Ian said you were ready for visitors.” But before Chrissy could respond, Meredith's look turned to one of concern and dismay. “Oh! Look at you!” she said, “Don't these hospitals know how to take care of people?! It's scandalous!” She held up the bag that she was carrying and continued, “Luckily, I brought my own first-aid kit.”

She pulled up a chair next to Chrissy's bed, sat down and dumped the contents of the bag into Chrissy's lap. It was full of cosmetics and other beauty aids. “We have vastly different tastes in make-up, but I think I was able to find some things you'd like.” She picked up a couple of different shades of eye-shadow. “Which one do you like better?” Chrissy pointed to one and Meredith started to apply it to Chrissy's eyes.

She spent the next forty-five minutes applying make-up to Chrissy's face and giving her a manicure. She gossiped the whole time about people that Chrissy didn't know or care about, but she didn't mind. It was so nice to be pampered, especially by a woman who usually paid others to do such things for her. She finished up by applying some mousse to Chrissy's hair and mussing it up with her hands to give her that 'uncombed' look.

“There!” said Meredith, holding a mirror up for Chrissy to see, “How's that?”

Chrissy actually smiled. “Thank you, Meredith. I do feel much better now.”

“Well, looking good is an important part of feeling good! You'd think these medical people would know that by now! Every hospital should have a few beauticians on staff, that's what I always say.” She began gathering up the cosmetics and putting them back into the bag. “I'm going to leave these things here for you and I'll be back day-after-tomorrow to do it again.”

“Thanks, Meredith. You're a good friend.”

“You just get better and get back to that family of yours!”

~*~

“Hello, Chrissy!” said Derek as he entered Chrissy's room. “Ian said you were ready for visitors, so I thought I'd stop by and see how one of my star employees is doing. I'm not bothering you, am I?”

“Oh, hello, Derek,” she answered looking up from the novel she was reading, “No, you're not bothering me, as long as you didn't bring Patrick along with you.”

Right at that moment, Patrick walked into her room. “Chrissy! You just have to get me the phone numbers for all of these hot nurses that are taking care of you!” he said with his annoying laugh.

Chrissy stared at him blankly for several seconds. Then she turned to Derek and asked, “Derek, would you take that pillow out from under my leg?”

“Sure... then what?”

“Smother me with it!”

Author's Note

Suggestions and criticisms always welcome.

Reviews

[Tina Kline]

Good chapter. Nice to see her friends coming to see her and helping her feel a little better. Good story. I'm enjoying it a lot!

..and yeah, it can be creepy how the adds target the subject matter of the writing. I've had adds for coffins show up a few times because I'd mentioned coffins. Now that is creepy too!

[Craig2591]

Thanks! Coffins? That's creepy on many levels! LOL

[Barbara Walker]

I have no criticism, great chapter!

[Tabitha t]

I like these small sequences. They realy show how chrissy is changing. good job and very entertaining.

[Craig2591]

Thank you.

[Craig2591]

I mentioned a catheter in this chapter and now I'm getting ads trying to sell me catheters on my page. Creepy!

[Kaya]

I thought it was sweet of Ian to interfere, and so romantic that theyre close enough now that she minds less. It's absolutely adorable. The visits were all really cute too... I loved how with every visit she seemed even more like her usual self!