Whispers in the Wind (34 page)

Vera took Kenny’s hand in both of her own and bit her lips. She feared what his life might be like, but steeled herself as she said, “Doctor, it’s going to be hard to watch him have to adjust to being a cripple. But … but at least I’ll have him with me.”

“Right, ma’am. I can tell Kenny has real grit in him. He will be fine.”

Vera kept her gaze on Kenny’s motionless face. “Doctor, I don’t have the money to pay for this. My husband may never come back. I have no idea how I’m going to—”

“Don’t fret yourself about the money, Mrs. Atwood. Kenny’s life is at stake. We need to get started right away.”

Vera nodded, tenderly ran her fingers over her only child’s face, then bent down and kissed each bruise, as if kisses would make then go away. “Mama will be here when you wake up, sweetheart. Be the brave boy you always have been. Mama is here for you. I love you, son, more than anything in this world.”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks as the doctor guided her to the door, and when he opened it, Mitchell and Sylvia Bendrick were standing there in the hall.

“We’ll take her back to the waiting room, Doctor,” said Mitchell.

The doctor smiled. “Thank you.”

The Bendricks walked the heartsick mother back down the hall to the waiting room. They settled her onto the couch, and Sylvia covered her shaking form with a blanket she had found in the closet.

Sylvia looked at her husband. “Honey, you stay with her. I’m going to see if I can round up some hot soup and coffee. I’ll be right back.”

Mitchell noticed the strained look on his wife’s dear face. He knew she had to do something to keep herself occupied, and he knew that she believed that food was good medicine.

“I’ll stay right here, sweetheart. You just go find this lady some comfort food.”

Sylvia gave him a wan smile, understanding that this man she married so many years ago knew her very well.

It was after midnight when Dr. Robert Latimer came into the waiting room. Vera was now sitting up on the couch with Sylvia beside her. An empty soup bowl and an empty coffee cup sat on the small table beside the couch. Mitchell sat on a chair, facing the women.

The doctor stood over Vera and managed a thin smile. “The amputation went fine, Mrs. Atwood. Kenny’s doing fine. You need to understand that the recovery will be slow, but within a few weeks, Kenny will be able to begin learning to walk on crutches. We’ll keep him here at the hospital for a couple of weeks and do some therapy as he grows stronger.”

Vera nodded. “Thank you for taking such good care of my boy, Doctor. I just don’t know how I’m going to pay for this.”

“Like I said, don’t fret the money. We’ll talk about that later.
Now let me say this. With Kenny’s loss of the leg, it won’t be an easy life, but there will be many things that fine boy will be able to accomplish. He’s a strong boy, and with your loving care, he will make the necessary adjustments and do just fine.”

“I’ll give him all the loving care possible, Doctor. Having his life spared is the greatest blessing. Thank you, again, for what you’ve done.” She took a deep breath. “When will I be able to see Kenny?”

“He should be out from under the anesthetic in a couple of hours. He won’t be very clear-minded, but he’ll know you and be able to talk some. I assume you’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Of course.”

“All right. Be sure to let me know when you’re here. You can tell them at the receptionist desk in the lobby that I told you to find me. They’ll see that we connect. Okay?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“You go home now and get some rest. I can tell that you are very tired.”

Vera nodded. “Yes. That I am.”

“May I ask if you have a physical problem, Mrs. Atwood?”

Vera closed her eyes, bent her head down, then looked back up at him. “Doctor, I have consumption.”

“I thought it might be something like that. I’m sure it won’t do me any good to tell you to go home right now.”

“No. I want to see my boy and talk to him a little bit before I go home.”

“I knew that’s what you’d say. Well, you go home and get some rest after you talk to Kenny, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When the doctor was gone, Mitchell turned to Vera. “From what he said, I don’t know what to think about the hospital bill and his bill. But Vera, Sylvia and I will give you a month’s free rent. That’s about all we can do.”

“That will help a lot, believe me. Thank you both for your generosity.”

Some two and a half hours had passed when a nurse came into the waiting room to find Vera wide awake. Mitchell was dozing, and Sylvia was talking to Vera.

Mitchell stirred on his chair when the nurse looked at Vera. “Mrs. Atwood, Kenny is awake now.”

Sylvia helped the weary mother to her feet, and Mitchell stood up, rubbing his eyes. “Would it be all right if we come in with her, ma’am?”

“That’ll be fine, sir.”

Moments later, as the trio moved up beside the bed in the recovery room, Kenny looked up, a bit dull-eyed, but set his gaze on his mother. “Hello, Mama.”

Vera bent down and kissed his forehead. “Hello, sweet boy. Dr. Latimer told us the surgery went well.”

Kenny nodded.

Vera took hold of his hand. “Honey, do you see who else is here?”

Kenny focused on the two faces. “Oh, sure. Mr. and Mrs. Bendrick. Hi.”

Both spoke to him, then Kenny looked around. “Mama, is Papa here?”

“No, honey. He’s not here.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He ran away from the tenement when I was getting help, and I have no idea where he is.”

Kenny squeezed his mother’s hand. “I’m sorry for the way Papa treated you.”

“It’s not your fault, sweetheart. Thank you for trying to protect me. I’m just so sorry that this has happened to you.”

He looked up at her tenderly. “I love you, Mama.”

“I love you too, son. More than you will ever know.”

Suddenly Vera’s knees gave way. She made a tiny gasp and slumped to the floor.

Sylvia bent down over her as Mitchell headed for the door, saying he would get a nurse. When he stepped into the hall, there was a nurse just passing by. Mitchell said, “Ma’am, we have a lady in here who just passed out.”

The nurse hurried through the door as Mitchell held it open.

It took the nurse only a few seconds to tell that there was something seriously wrong with the unconscious Vera Atwood. She hurried away to get a doctor.

Kenny watched with droopy eyes as the doctor came in, took one look at his mother, and called for two attendants to come with a gurney.

While they waited for the gurney, Mitchell and Sylvia filled the doctor in on the events of the day, and explained that Vera had a serious case of consumption.

The doctor thanked them for the information, and as the attendants hurried away to take Vera to an examining room, the doctor told the Bendricks to wait with Kenny. He would bring word about Mrs. Atwood as soon as he could. With that, he dashed through the door and was gone.

Mitchell and Sylvia sat down on wooden chairs next to Kenny’s bed. As hard as the boy tried to stay awake, he finally slipped into a deep sleep, induced partially by the anesthetic that was still in his body.

Almost an hour had passed when the doctor came into the room, and noting that Kenny was asleep, he said, “I’m sorry to tell you folks this, but Mrs. Atwood just died. It was obvious that she was in the clutches of serious fatigue. That combined with the consumption was just too much for her.”

Stunned, the Bendricks asked when Kenny would be told about his mother. The doctor assured them that it wouldn’t be until the boy was feeling stronger.

“We would like to be here when he is told, Doctor. He’ll need someone he knows to help comfort and strengthen him.”

“Well, why don’t you come back tomorrow afternoon? We’ll see how he is by then.”

The Bendricks agreed and headed for home. They were worn out from losing the night’s sleep, plus the strain that they had suffered. Mitchell told Sylvia he would take the books and clothing to Dane Weston whenever he could after they got up tomorrow.

Late the next morning, the two police officers on the neighborhood beat who had helped Mitchell Bendrick obtain the paddy wagon, came to the tenement and told the Bendricks the police were searching, but had not found Leonard Atwood as yet. They assured him the search would go on.

The officers asked about Kenny and were sad to learn that he had to lose his leg. They were saddened even more when they were told that Vera had died.

Mitchell sighed wearily. “Sylvia and I would love to take Kenny into our home, but we just can’t afford it.”

One of the officers said, “With the amputation, Mr. Bendrick, Kenny is going to need special attention; something the orphanages wouldn’t be able to do, even if they had room for him. All of them are already overcrowded.”

Mitchell nodded sadly. “This is going to present a real problem. All I can do is talk to the directors of the orphanages and see if somehow one of them can take the boy in spite of his condition. I’ll get on that after I visit a prisoner in the Tombs in the morning, and we go back to the hospital to be with Kenny in the afternoon. We want to be there when he is told about his mother’s death.”

L
ate the next morning, a weary Mitchell Bendrick stood at the desk of the chief guard at the Tombs and watched as the man searched through the medical books and the clothing. When he was finished, he looked up and said, “All right, Mr. Bendrick, I’ll take these to the guard who will be bringing Dane Weston to see you in the visiting room. I’ll send another guard to escort you there.”

Some fifteen minutes later, Mitchell was escorted into the visiting room and saw Dane waving to him at window three.

As they were shaking hands through the bars, Dane said, “Thank you so much for bringing my medical books and my clothes, Mr. Bendrick.”

“Glad to do it, son.”

Dane’s brow furrowed as he studied Mitchell’s face. “You look tired, Mr. Bendrick. You all right?”

Mitchell nodded. “I am pretty worn out, Dane. Mrs. Bendrick is too. We both had a resdess night.”

“Some kind of problem at the tenement?”

“Well, yes, in a sense. You will recall that I told you about the Atwood family, who rented your old apartment.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I told you about Leonard Atwood’s drinking problem, and that his wife, Vera, was sick with consumption.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And I told you they have a nine-year-old boy named Kenny.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Well, something terrible happened. Let me tell you about it.” Mitchell then told Dane the story. As he listened to the account of young Kenny being thrown across the room by his angry father and of having to have his left leg amputated from the knee down and finally heard of Kenny’s mother dying at the hospital, he shook his head sadly.

“How awful, Mr. Bendrick. It’s so sad about Kenny’s mother dying and Kenny losing his leg. That poor little boy. So what does his father have to say about all of this?”

“Leonard doesn’t even know about Vera dying, nor of Kenny losing his leg. He ran away right after throwing Kenny across the room, knowing he was hurt badly, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. I seriously doubt that Leonard will ever come back. He’s got to know the police are ready to charge him with assault and battery for what he did to Kenny.”

“What’s the poor little guy going to do? Where’s he going to live?”

“Well, son, that’s a good question. The city’s orphanages are terribly overcrowded, and even if they had room for Kenny, I’m wondering if they would want him anyway, with his having so recently had his leg amputated. But I’m going to find out. As soon as I leave here, I’m going to start visiting the orphanages and see what I can do. I’m hoping I can find one orphanage director who will have sympathy about Kenny’s plight and take him in spite of the amputation.”

Dane’s brow furrowed. “I know about the crowded orphanages, Mr. Bendrick, and I realize his being crippled might be a problem, but there’s just got to be one orphanage director who will take the little guy in.”

Mitchell sighed. “There’s another problem too. Somebody’s
going to have to pay the hospital and surgeons bills. The surgeon tried to keep Vera from worrying about these bills, but he didn’t really offer any solution, either. He just wanted to get the surgery done on Kenny before gangrene set in and told her not to be concerned about the bills.”

Dane rubbed his jaw. “I have an idea.”

“Yes?”

“I am acquainted with Mr. Charles Loring Brace, the director of the Children’s Aid Society.”

Mitchell’s eyebrows arched. “Oh? The people who send orphans out West and find them homes?”

“Mm-hmm. Even if Mr. Brace knows that nobody out West would take in a crippled child, he at least might keep Kenny at the Society headquarters. They have rooms they keep the children in while they’re waiting to put them on the trains.”

“Well, it would be worth a try.”

“Mr. Bendrick, if anybody can help Kenny, it will be Mr. Brace. Would you go to the Society’s headquarters and tell Mr. Brace I need him to come and see me as soon as possible? I’ll explain the whole situation to him and see what he says.”