629 This turned out to be a pleasantly littered...
629
This turned out to be a pleasantly littered little
officeHadlock sat behind the desk and leaned
back in his chairThere were pictures on one wall
Some, I assumed, were of the doctor's family, but
there were also shots of him shaking hands with
George Bush the First and Maury Povich
(intellectual equals, in my book), and one of him
with an amazingly vigorous and pretty Elizabeth
EastlakeThey were holding tennis rackets, and I
recognized the courtIt was the one at El Palacio
"I imagine you'd like to get back to Duma and get
off that hip, wouldn't you?" Hadlock asked"Must
hurt by this time of the day, and I bet it's all
three witches from Macbeth when the weather's damp
If you want a prescription for Percocet or
Vicodin-"
"No, I'm fine with the gucci men watches aspirin," I saidI'd
labored to get off the hard stuff and wasn't going
back on it at this point, pain or no pain
"Your recovery is remarkable," Hadlock said"I
don't think you need me to tell you how lucky you
are not to be in a wheelchair for the rest of your
life, very likely steering yourself around by
blowing into a straw
630
"I'm lucky to be alive at all," I said"Can I can
assume you didn't find anything dire?"
"Pending blood and urine, I'd say you're good to
goI'm happy to order X-rays on your rightside
injuries and your head, if you've got symptoms
that concern you, but-"
"I don't I had symptoms, and they concerned me,
but I didn't think X-rays would pinpoint the cause"The reason I went over your stump so
carefully was because you don't wear a tiffany co jewelry prosthesis
I thought you might be experiencing tendernessOr
there might be signs of infection
"I guess I'm just not readyConsidering the work
you're doing, I'd have to say 'If it ain't broke,
don't fix it' applies hereI can't wait to see them on display at
the ScotoI'm bringing my wife
"That's great," I said This sounded
limp, at least to my own ears, but I still hadn't
figured out how to respond to such compliments
631
"Having you turn up as an actual paying tenant at
Salmon Point is sad and ironic," Hadlock said
"For years - you might know this - Elizabeth
reserved that house as an artist's retreatThen
she became ill and allowed it to be listed as just
another rental property, although she did insist
that whoever took it would have to lease it for
three tiffany canada months or longerShe didn't want any Spring
Breakers partying in thereNot where Salvador
Dalí and James Bama once laid down their storied
heads
"I can't say that I blame herIt's a special
place
"Yes, but few of the famous artists who stayed
there did anything specialThen the second
'regular' tenant comes along - a building
contractor from Minneapolis recovering from an
accident, andElizabeth must be very
gratified
"In the building biz, we called that laying it on
with a trowel, Dr"And the people who were at your
lecture didn't think soI
632
only wish Elizabeth could have been thereHow she
would have preened
"Maybe she'll make the opening
Very slowly, Gene Hadlock shook his headShe's fought the Alzheimer's tooth and nail,
but there comes a time chanel bags pink when the disease simply
winsNot because the patient is weak but because
it's a physical condition, like MS
Once the symptoms begin to manifest, usually as a
loss of short-term memory, a clock begins to run
I think Elizabeth's time may be up, and I'm very
sorryIt's clear to me, I think it was clear to
everyone at the lecture, that all this fuss makes
you uncomfortable-"
"You can say that again
" - but if she'd been there, she would have
enjoyed it for youI've known her most of my life,
and I can tell you she would have supervised
everything, including the hanging of each and
every picture in the gallery
"I wish I'd known her then," I saidWhen she was forty-five and I
was twenty, we won the mixed doubles amateur
tennis tournament at The Colony on Longboat chanel classic bag K