Just Beyond the Curve (12 page)

“He’s in Austin?” she asked skeptically.

“Yeah,” Jim replied. “He’s fighting for his life from
what I hear. They also say a crowd is gathered offering their
prayers and support.”

“Will you come watch me?” she asked, thinking about
her chance to become famous at the Wagon Wheel.

“Punkin, I wouldn’t miss it for the world! You’ll be
famous someday. I want some credit,” he laughed good-naturedly, his
bib overall covered, ample belly shaking with his mirth. His face
turned red with joy.

“I love you, Daddy,” Janice said, standing, and
hugging him around his massively wide chest and kissing his
cheek.

“I know Sweetie,” he replied, patting her gently on
the back. “You’d better get your outfit ready for tonight.”

“I’d better get you some breakfast first!” she said,
pushing herself up and off him.

“I’m fine Sweetie,” Jim replied. “I had a bite in
town when I went for feed. Guess I’d better go unload it. Them
horses will appreciate it.”

He pushed up from the table and went out the door
without looking back. She watched him go, knowing he was fighting
back tears. She knew every time he looked at her, he saw his wife
back when she was Janice’s age. He swore they could have been
identical twins. Janice agreed. She saw pictures and at first
thought they were of her, but couldn’t remember when or where they
had been taken. She knew they were her mother, but the similarity
was eerie.

It seemed days had passed before five o’clock that
afternoon came around. Jim drove her to the Wagon Wheel and walked
inside with her. The place was warming up and becoming crowded. She
wasn’t taking the stage until seven o’clock and then again at
ten.

Janice went back stage to her dressing room and
changed into her outfit. Jim waited for her out front. He sat at
the bar and had a beer. His heart beat fast with the excitement for
his daughter; the only person in the world he would willingly die
over. She was his only reason for living. He sipped his beer
thinking of her future, knowing that after tonight it would be
assured whether he was around or not. He had never told her about
his heart. Or how bad his condition had become. She didn’t need to
have that worry along with all the others she imagined. He also had
never told her of the half a million dollars that was waiting on
her in the bank when he died, plus the other half a million in
insurance when he finally croaked.

He smiled and sipped his beer slowly while he waited
for his daughter to appear on stage for the first time. He knew she
would be famous after tonight.

The house band took the stage at six o’clock and
played for an hour. The lead singer stepped back to the microphone
after the applause for his last song of the set, and said, “Tonight
we have a special guest; Miss Janice Reeves. A local girl. Now, all
you ol’ boys and some of you ol’ girls, keep your hands on your
heart, ‘cause this little girl is sure apt to steal ‘im! Give a big
welcome to Miss Janice Reeves! Come on out Janice!” he said,
stepping back from the microphone and waving Janice forward.

At the sound of the introduction, Jim turned on his
barstool and looked at the stage. He swung his beer mug up and
toasted his beautiful daughter. She saw him and smiled bright as a
flash of lightning on a dark night. He felt a twinge in his chest
and the mug became instantly heavy. He set it down and turned back
to the stage. He then felt the pressure release in his chest and a
stabbing pain.

Janice walked out on the stage unafraid and stepped
to the microphone. She threw her smiling, beaming father a kiss.
She said, “This song is for my father, Jim Louis Reeves. I love you
dad!” She then launched into her music and song.

During the first line of the song was when Jim
grabbed his chest, dropped the mug he had just picked up, grabbed
the edge of the bar and sank slowly to the floor.

Janice had her eyes on her dad as she sang. She saw
the wince, the grab for his chest and the bar and him sink to the
floor. Her voice faltered with fear and concern. “Daddy?” she
screamed fearfully, stripping the guitar strap over her head and
dropping the instrument to the floor with a crash. She baled off
the stage and ran for her father, crying her fears as she fought
through the crowd on the dance floor.

She fell to her knees beside her father, cradled his
head and stroked his cheeks. He stared up into her eyes and
whispered, “I love you sweetheart! Do it for me,” then his eyes
closed and he relaxed.

“I’m sorry, Miss,” the man kneeling across from her
said. “But, he’s dead.”

Janice didn’t hear his words. She already knew. She
felt it in her heart. “Daddy please come back!” she whispered. “You
never got to hear the song. I’ll never sing it again,” she added,
realizing her father was gone from her.

“He wouldn’t want that, Miss,” the man said
seriously. “You sing beautifully!”

When the ambulance came and took her father away she
rode in the ambulance with him. He was pronounced dead at the
scene, but she wanted him as long as she could have him. She would
never get to talk to him, or hear his voice or feel his gentle
touch again. Her world was suddenly empty, dark and void. She sat
in shock in the emergency room and cried until she could cry no
more.

She stood up after a long while and walked outside.
The sun was up and a crowd was gathered in the parking lot. Janice
passed them by in a trance, oblivious to everything but her own
pain and misery. She had to get home and alone so she could decide
what she was going to do. She was twenty-one and thought her life
was over. In fact it had only just begun.

She was in the middle of the parking lot when she
realized her car was in the parking lot of the Wagon Wheel where
she and her father had left it. She turned around and walked back
toward the hospital.

When she saw the crowd still gathered in the parking
lot she remembered that the singer John Travis, was somewhere
inside fighting for his life.

She started crying again and a gentle, kindly man
urged her into his arms and he comforted her. He smelled fresh and
clean.

*****

In the fifth floor waiting room the Travis and Rivers
family waited in tearful silence. Misty and Judy comforted each
other and Billy. Jake, Dempsey and Adam sat along one wall and
worried their faces tired and haggard. They had been up for nearly
twenty-four hours and were exhausted.

“Is he dead yet?” Billy asked, his face tear streaked
and drawn with worried exhaustion.

“We haven’t heard,” Jake replied, thinking Billy must
have dozed off for a while. “He’s still in surgery’s all we know.
They said they’d let us know soon as they could; fer us to just be
patient.”

“It’s been hours since you called, Jake! They should
know something by now!” Judy said miserably, rocking the baby with
nervous energy. The baby was sound asleep from what Jake could
tell.

“We can guess that he’s still alive,” Adam said
honestly, placing a huge hand on Billy’s head and neck
comfortingly. “Since they ain’t said nothing to us at all.”

“I’m gonna kill Danny Floyd!” Billy declared
seriously.

“He’ll
never
get out of jail again!” Jake
stated matter of factly.

“Did he say why he did it?” Judy asked sadly.

“No,” Jake replied with a slow shake of his head.
“Just laughed and claimed John had got his comeuppance!”

“He was jealous!” Billy declared angrily. “That’s why
he did it! I’m not very smart, but I know that!”

Misty hugged Billy to her protectively when he began
crying again. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him so upset.

“I don’t want him to die, Momma!” he declared
miserably. “I love John!” he added, burying his face in her
lap.

“We all do, Baby,” Misty said soothingly, brushing
his head with a nervous hand, then kissed the top of his tangled
head. “We just have to pray. God will do what He wants with John.
We’ll just have to accept it, Honey,” she continued comfortingly,
feeling her baby’s pain. She knew it was equal to her own,
therefore heart and soul wrenching.

Misty looked around at the sad faces of the people
she loved and knew her’s looked just as haggard. She loved them all
the more because they were here with her and her daughter and son
lending their support. She saw Adam’s huge hand on Billy’s head and
placed her own on top of it. She smiled pitifully, thinking what a
big, handsome man he was. She figured he may be a year or so older
than her, making him near forty.

Judy hugged her baby to her breast, leaned over
against Misty and was soon asleep. Adam saw she was about to let
the baby slip from her hands so reached over and lifted lil Billy
from her arms. He cradled the infant to his massive chest and began
to hum a country ballad. He had a surprisingly nice voice for such
a big man.

Misty saw the gentleness in the big hands and knew
she could easily love him if given the chance. She closed her eyes
and prayed for that to happen, along with the survival of her
son-in-law. She realized how much she loved his honest simplicity
and absolute purity from guile or deceit. God, she prayed, please
let my boy live! He deserves it she added, then began to cry. The
last thing she felt was a large, heavy hand come to rest gently on
her shoulder, then she was asleep.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Doctor Jared Black was in his late thirties. He stood
an impressive six foot eight and weighed over three hundred pounds
buck naked. His eyes were ebony black and set close together and
deep in his face. His nose was long and narrow, his brow high and
smooth, and housed an IQ off the chart. He had a photographic
memory and was renowned around Austin as the best all around
surgeon they had. As luck would have it John Travis had been hauled
in and placed under his scalpel. Even before John had been sedated
or x-rayed Doctor Black had his chest split open and his hand
buried to his forearm in the famous singer’s chest massaging his
heart and keeping it beating until he could get some blood pumping
through him.

Two minutes after being brought through the doors of
the emergency room John was wheeled into surgical ward three and
Doctor Black was issuing orders like a drill sergeant until his
patient was stabilized enough to be repaired.

Doctor Black worked robotically, not speaking unless
he wanted something. He was not one for idle chatter while he was
working on a human being. If they wanted to talk they could wait
until the final suture was tied, then he would talk. He had seen
too many ‘mistakes’ made by a distracted surgeon who thought he was
good enough to do twenty things at once, when in fact he could
hardly manage two.

The surgery seemed to go on and on, hour after hour,
until finally Jared Black said, “Let’s close Mister Travis up and
prepare him for his trip home. In a few weeks or so, that is.” He
smiled around at his assistants and winked. “Be proud, folks.
You’ve just saved a legend and a legend’s son’s life. I’ll go
inform the family.”

“You always get the easy job,” Sammy Spiro, the
anesthesiologist, said grimly.

“That is the rewards of being the doctor, Sammy,”
Jared Black said with a smile, then stripped his bloody surgical
gloves off with a rubbery snap and left the surgical ward, tossing
them into a biohazard trash can as he pushed the door open and went
out with a brisk, long legged walk.

Black stopped in the waiting room door and looked at
the miserable family. His eyes locked on Misty and almost instantly
decided she was the wife, the young girl was the daughter and the
boy the youngest son. Although the kids certainly didn’t resemble
the father.

He stopped in front of Misty and said, “Missus
Travis, I’m Doctor Jared Black...”

Judy stood and rushed to the doctor. “I’m John’s
wife. How is he?” she added her face a miserable mask.

“I’m sorry, Missus Travis,” he said seeing her face
pale and begin to crumble. “My apologies” he assured her with a
steady hand on her shoulder when she began to cry miserably. “Bad
choice of words!” he assured her. “He’s in post-op recovery,
Intensive Care. He’s alive. Barely. Please, let’s have a seat and
I’ll explain as best I can his chances.”

Judy sat beside Black on one side and Misty on the
other; hanging on every word the giant man said. Their eyes
searched the tired face, then the bloody surgical greens and
finally the soft, gentle eyes.

“John suffered three gunshot wounds to the upper
torso,” Black explained in layman’s terms. “One, we believe the
first, was to the upper chest, here,” he pointed to his upper left
chest. The second, we believe, was lower, as John fell back, was
here, to the upper stomach and the third, here, to the center
stomach region. The first collapsed his left lung; the second
pierced his stomach wall and lodged in his back muscle. The third
passed through his large intestine, left kidney and exited his back
above the hip. I expect, though it’s really too early to say for
sure, that given time he will recover. But that is just an early
prognosis...Our greatest enemy will be infection. The stomach,
intestine, and kidney are nasty places. John is currently on
massive, intravenous, antibiotics. His total recovery time is
unpredictable at this time. But he has youth and good health on his
side. That’s about all I can tell you at this time, but we, I, will
keep you informed.”

“Can I see him?” Judy asked immediately.

“Briefly,” Black replied gently. “No more than five
minutes. If you will follow me, Missus Travis.”

“Can I go?” Billy asked miserably, his face utterly
devastated.

“No, Billy,” Misty replied sadly. “Maybe later,
okay?”

“But Momma,” Billy pleaded.

“No buts, Billy,” Misty warned. “I said, not yet. I
mean, not yet.”