Idioms...sayings understood by native speakers part fifty eight
Rick followed Charlie into the tiny house.
"Charlie, get your bath. Little Engine is already to go. Make it quick." Lynn was in her no nonsense mode. She did not even look up at Charlie when she spoke.
"Yes, Li Li." The boy gave Rick a pitiful look and headed to his room to get his pajamas.
"Lynn?"
She had a dust cloth in hand. "I can't believe how much dust can accumulate. I really can't."
She started on the coffee table rubbing hard. "I have to take better care of things here. If I don't they will just keep falling apart." She was talking to herself.
"Lynn." Rick walked towards her, wondering if she meant more than just the house.
She looked up seeing Rick was still there. She threw her rag down on the table. She stood up, glaring at the man who was timidly standing there, she snarled. "Why are you still here?" She shaking with emotion. "I think we are done for the day. You got your job back. I think the rest should be handled by the police. I just have to get me and Charlie back on track." She sat down on the couch and grabbed the rag again.
"You really think that I only like you because you remind me of my mom?"
He moved in a little closer.
"Look Rick. I know your mother must have been a terrific person. I just don't think I should be a replacement."
"Your right, she was. She was irreplaceable."
Lynn looked at him.
"My mom was eighteen when she had me, Lynn." He took out a picture from his wallet. "I was sixteen when she died." He held onto the picture of a woman with short hair, rounded face, with premature grey streaking through the dark brunette hair.
"Here." He held the picture up in front of the girl. "This is the last picture I have of her. This is how I remember her."
Lynn looked at the picture of a smiling chubby woman with her son, holding two fingers above his head.
"My mom."
"I don't look like her that much."
"You don't. My uncles remember a seventeen year old girl." He looked at the picture as he continued. "She was fun when she allowed herself to be. Serious. Extremely moral. She was honest to the point of pain. She raised her son to be a man. My uncles never saw her as that. My mom would walk on water if she had to to make things right. She wasn't perfect. She had a temper. But I knew I was loved. She told me once that because I did not have a father, she had to be both. It was a responsibility that she never shirked from." Rick placed the picture back into his wallet.
"But I am nothing like that."
"You are. I see it in you every time you deal with Charlie."
"Rick?"
"You really don't know what you are about. Neither did she."
He gently put his hands on her shoulders. "You are not my mom. But you are honest, kind to a fault. Loyal to the nnth degree. And pretty to boot." He bent down and looked into her eyes. "Because you don't know that about yourself, you let my uncle get to you."
He sighed and pulled her into a hug. "Can't you give yourself a little credit?"
Lynn started to cry. "I d d d don't know what to say."
Charlie came out of the bathroom and smiled. He went into his room.
---
Jenny held onto Carl's hand as they both fell asleep. The nurse came in and grinned at the young couple, She gently woke up Carl and whispered, "Do you want a drink before I take it away? You cannot eat or drink after midnight."
"Sure." taking a drink. He looked down at Jenny. She must be exhausted.
He looked up at someone clearing their throat.
"Um, Dr. Clark?"
"Yes. I would have come up sooner but we had an emergency."
"Mom?"
"No son. Nothing like that."
The exhausted man pulled up a chair.
"Your mom is holding her own. Her kidney values have improved. Her hemoglobin and hematocrit have stabilized. We just have to watch and wait."
"And pray."
"Yes. That too." He looked over at the woman sound asleep.
"Your fiance?"
"Yes. She hasn't left my side this whole time...except to check on my mom."
"A keeper, huh?"
"Yes. I don't deserve her."
"I don't really know any man who does deserve a good woman. As long as you remember that, you should last. Speaking of which, I need to head home. The woman I don't deserve will probably give me a what for for being so late." He got up to head out the door.
"Doc? Thank you."
The older man smiled. "Gotta go."
He pulled out his phone as he left the room.
"Janice?"
"I know, honey. It couldn't be helped."
"The kids should be in bed. They're old enough to be left alone. How about we go out for awhile?"
"No?"
"You want my butt to be in bed so you can get some sleep?"
"Sure honey. I am leaving right now."
He looked at the phone and grinned.
---
John lay in his bed.
Martin had given him a detailed account of the problems the family was facing.
He thought and thought and then grinned.
That should work. Threaten the weakest and the others will throw themselves in front to protect that person. That should work quite well.
He closed his eyes.
---
Rick yawned and poured his morning coffee. His cell phone rang.
"Good morning."
"Good morning." Lynn paused as if not sure what to say. "Um, Charlie and I were hoping you would stop by for breakfast before work."
"Really?"
He looked at the toast staring at him.
"Yes."
"Be right there."
He hung up and stared at the phone. Lynn had begged him to spend the night, but he couldn't trust himself and, for the first time, he knew he couldn't trust her. He ruefully smiled. He wasn't prepared. He had been too busy to think that way. Instead, he hurried home, after stopping by the pharmacy and then took not one, not two, but three long cold showers. He finished his coffee and grabbed his keys, noting the box on the table, he took it and put it away. Yeah, there would be a next time.
---
Charlie dug into his pancakes.
Rick smiled at the kid as he swallowed.
"Is it good, Charlie?"
"Yes."
"How come Wick didn't have a sleepover last night?"
Lynn looked at Rick and gently said, "Charlie, hurry and eat. We have to get to work and then go and see how Uncle Carl and his mom are doing."
"Wick?"
"Charlie, it was long day. I needed to get home."
The boy sighed. "Charlie remembers mommy and papa sleeping together. You guys should do that too."
"Ah, er.. um.." Rick looked at the kid. Out of the mouths of babes seemed all too fitting right now.
"Charlie. If you don't get done eating, we will be late for work." Lynn finished her coffee and headed for the sink to start washing up the dishes.
Charlie grinned.
"Charlie, what are you doing?" Rick spoke quietly, lest Lynn should hear.
He looked at Rick.
"Nothing." As he finished his plate and took it to Lynn.
Rick brought his empty plate up to Lynn. He watched Charlie head off towards the bathroom.
"Lynn?"
"That kid. I don't know what to do with him sometimes. I think he heard me last night."
"What?"
"Well, after I thought we ... might... and then you just got a funny look on your face... I thought maybe.. I don't know.. may be...I wasn't ...." She trailed off.
"Did you cry yourself to sleep?"
"Ah, er...I'
He put his hands around her waist and leaned onto her back resting his chin on her shoulder.
"What am I going to do with you?"
"What?"
He sighed. "I went home and took about three cold showers."
"Cold showers?"
"Yeah. Lynn, I wasn't prepared. I had to go to the pharmacy." He paused. "Think about it."
Lynn pieced the information together, then went, "Oh."
"Yeah. I want to have children, but not right now. Okay?"
"So it wasn't because I wasn't attractive enough?"
"Three.... Lynn. Three cold showers. And you still ask that question?"
She giggled. "Three?"
He couldn't believe she found humor in this.
"it was quite painful, by the way."
She giggled harder.
"Do cold showers help women?"
"How would I know? I think cleaning helps."
She giggled again.
"What?"
"I washed the kitchen floor four times."
He laughed.
"It isn't funny."
"Yes." he chuckled. "It is. Just know that when the opportunity arises, I will be prepared."
She rinsed the last dish and put it in the drainer. She removed her plastic gloves.
Turning she gave him one of her brightest smiles.
"You had better be."
---
Stanley grabbed his keys as he started to head out the door.
"Not so fast, Mr. Kuzavich."
Stacy held up his lunch. "I put a couple of healthy drinks in there, too. You cannot live on coffee."
Stanley made a face.
"Get over it. You married a nurse."
"I know. And I thank God every day for it."
"Stanley, I will call you around noon. Do you think you might have the results on that pill by then?"
"I will try, Stacy. Just make sure you call me. I don't like that place you are working at either. We will certainly have the information by tonight. Then we need to discuss whether you need to quit or not."
---
Stacy parked and headed into the building. She clocked in at the receptionist desk who gave her a pitiful look, holding a hand sanitizer.
"Nurse Stacy, you know the protocol." As the woman grabbed a bleach wipe and rubbed it over the phone.
Stacy held out her hands. "I am sorry." The woman squirted the sanitizer.
"You are to go and see the administrator."
Stacy gave a look of surprise and went down a long hallway to the administrators office.
"Please, come in and take a seat."
Stacy sat quietly and then, "What is this about?"
"Oh. We will get to that." The woman paused. "Miss Smith, I was wondering how you like working here."
"I like it."
"Well, there was an anomaly on your charting for one patient." She pulled it up and turned it so the nurse could see.
"It says here you did not give this patient the special V medicine. You documented that she could not swallow and you destroyed the pill?"
"Um, yes. I flushed it down the toilet. It was out of the package. There was no way I could have returned it."
"What if it was a narcotic?"
"Well,, then I would have certainly had another nurse watch me. I am sorry. I inquired what this was. My preceptor told me it was a research drug. Was it a narcotic? The admin med machine did not treat it as such."
"That will be remedied. I will cut you some slack, being a new hire and all. We don't want you to lost your nursing license... now do we?"
"Um, yes. I am sorry."
"Well, it is okay. Mrs. Sloan succumbed in her sleep last night. That pill might have been her only hope."
"What?"
"You are dismissed."
Stacy went out of the office. She shook her head. No way. One pill could not have made that much of difference.
She went into the bathroom and made sure all the stalls were empty.
Stanley saw the ID to his cell phone with a 911 attached.
"I have to take this call, Allison."
"Fine."
"What is it, Stacy?." He grabbed a pen and a legal pad.
"Tell again, only more slowly."
"Give me the name of the patient."
"Look, we will make it a coroner's case."
"Okay. Sloan, Sharon."
"I will make it like the family wanted it."
"She had no family?"
"Damn." He paused. "Just go to work. Act like yourself. I will take care of this."
"What happened?" Allison sat up in her chair.
"Just a second. " Stanley gave the woman an apologetic look. "Please, just give me a second. Then I will explain."
He hit the lab number. "Chuck?"
"Yeah, I need that analysis on that tablet I gave you this morning. Do you have it?"
"What?"
"It contained what?"
"Come up here and tell me. I want to know everything about that pill."
Stanley looked at the Attorney General, rather sheepishly.
"I have to tell you something."
"I am all ears."
---
Allison grabbed her cell. She found the number and hit speed dial.
"This is the Attorney General. I wish to speak to your director."
"Hey, James, how are things going in your neck of the woods?"
"I need you to pull the inspections of Phoenix Rehab Center."
"You don't need to?"
"You could do surgery on the floor?"
"Don't you think that is odd. Nothing was out of place?"
"I want an inspection. Now. Something is a miss there. The death rate is too high."
"I don't care how they take badly damaged people."
"Find out why their mortality is so high. There has been another death. Mrs. ..." she paused and waved at Stanley who held up the pad. "Sharon Sloan."
"I mean it. Go over it with a fine tooth comb. Do it today."
"Jurisdiction? Since when does the State Board of Health have to worry about that?"
"Consider this an official request."
"Do I need to have the governor talk with you?"
"Good. Today. Understand?"
---
Deshaun and Dejuan stood with the gas company logos on their chest, and hats pulled down over their face. This would be the final funeral home they would visit.
"Ready?"
"Yeah. You think this will work one more time."
"Oh course."
Deshaun entered into the front office.
"Hello?" He called.
A pretty receptionist emerged with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Oh, hello."
"I here to inspect the crematorium. There is a gas leak in the area and the gas company has sent out a request to all businesses to help in locating it."
"A..a.. gas leak? But I haven't smelled anything."
"Where is your crematorium, miss?"
"Downstairs in the basement."
"Then there could be gas build up there and you not know it."
"Really?"
"just one spark and this whole place could go up."
"Um, here."
She handed him the keys. "I will just go outside. I'll inform the bosses. They are picking up right now."
"That would be a good idea."
"Just go down the stairs and to the right. Okay?"
"Thankyou, Miss."
She nodded, grabbed her cell phone and headed outside.
Deshaun opened up a basement window as his brother skinnied through.
They set up the sound equipment and then went over to the furnace.
Dejuan pulled out his laptop and hit the keys to that paricular funace. He turned found the switch and turned it off.
He found the turn off valve to the gas pipe. then proceeded quickly about the work at hand.
He got up and smiled. "Done."
"Let's go." He helped his brother up to the window.
Then proceeded up the stairs.
"Miss?" Handing her the keys. "It seems everything is fine."
He tipped his hat a little.
"I have to move on. Got a lot of businesses to check out."
The girl nodded as she watched the man get into the gas truck and drive off.
Deshaun picked his brother up a coulple of streets over.
"So. It's done."
"There won't be any cremations here for about a week."
"That should help in keeping them from destroying evidence."
He looked at his Dejuan. "What?"
"I don't know... I am just feeling lucky today. How about we return this truck and then go see about that rehab center? That should be the weakest link."
"You think?"
"Yeah."
"You will tell me what you have in mind before you do anything stupid, right, Dejuan?"
"Stupid is not in my vocabulary."
Deshaun grinned.
to be continued.
