Goose in the Pond - Earlene Fowler [125]
“Tell him,” I said to Dolores.
Then I passed out.
16
“YOUR WIFE MAY experience some memory loss, Chief Ortiz,” the doctor said, studying my chart. He had spiky black hair and wore ostrich cowboy boots. “Dizziness, nausea, headache, confusion. What she’s got is a plain old concussion, if a concussion can be called plain. It appears pretty minor, but she’ll need to rest a bit. And someone should keep an eye on her for the next few weeks, for any lingering symptoms.”
“No problem,” Gabe said. “I’m going to handcuff her to our bed.”
The doctor looked over his round steel-colored glasses and smiled. “Lucky for you I’m not a gossip. The Tattler would probably pay me a mint for that little gem.”
Gabe and I looked at each other soberly. The doctor had no idea how ironic his statement was.
“Did you call Dove?” I asked when we were alone. I struggled up in the hard hospital bed. My head spun with vertigo, and I carefully eased back against the pillows.
“Yes,” Gabe said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Lie still. You heard the doctor. You need to stay quiet.”
“What did she say? She’s going to kill me.”
“She was ready to come down and storm the barricades, but we talked her out of it. Told her you were fine and that I’d bring you home tomorrow.”
“We?”
“Me, Ben, and Garnet.”
“Aunt Garnet? Are they speaking again?”
He brushed a strand of hair out of my black eye. “Apparently the library wasn’t the only place that saw some action tonight.”
I gave a weak laugh. “Who gave in first?”
“According to Dove, it was a mutual decision brought about, believe it or not, by your infamous cousin Skeeter.”
“Skeeter’s here?”
“He showed up on our doorstep earlier this evening, lovesick as an old hound. Dove’s words. He was telling her his side of the story when Rita sashayed in and started getting ready for a date with Ash. She made certain Skeeter knew exactly who she was putting the leather miniskirt on for and why. To make an extremely long story short, Skeeter threatened to find Ash and relieve him of some of his more important personal body parts, and Rita naturally protested. Actually what Dove said was she pitched a hissy fit. Then Rita locked herself in our guest bedroom and threatened to kill herself by eating a box of Dexatrim.”
I gave him a doubtful look. “Is that possible?”
He scratched his dark cheek stubble and grinned. “I have no idea, but it scared Dove enough to call Garnet and tell her to get over there and talk some sense into her loony granddaughter. Oh, and just a warning. Dove’s a bit upset at you.”
“I wasn’t even there!”
“She apparently really rubbed Garnet’s nose in the fact that all the nutty genes had leached down the family stream into her granddaughter’s pool. That was before she heard what crazy thing you were doing at the time.”
“Don’t you dare compare me to Rita. What she did was crazy, what I did was—”
“Crazy,” he finished. “Irresponsible. Impetuous. Immature.” He paused.
“You can stop there,” I said, slapping his hand. “Before I get mad.”
He raised his eyebrows. “We won’t talk mad until your concussion is completely healed. Anyway, to continue with the story, Ben drove Garnet down from the ranch, and they all eventually talked Rita out of the bedroom. By this time I’d called Dove to tell her about you. I told her to tell Skeeter that Ash wasn’t going to be a problem for a very long time.”
“What about Dove and Garnet?”
“Ben says the whole Bible verse/domino incident appears to have run its course. They were talking a mile a minute about how irresponsible young people are today, how we don’t know what we want, how all we think about is having a good time. They were packing up Dove’s things as they talked.”
“Hallelujah,