LITMIR.BIZ

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as if the fun had been drained out of her in the last year and a half. No, she wasn’t here for the skiing or the scenery or the climbing or the clear, clean air. She was here to get her self back on track. To find what she’d lost back there in Chicago’s Memorial Hospital—trust, hope, and a fresh outlook on life. Did Rosie know all that? If she did, she’d never let on.

      “But if the doctor says he should be hospitalized, he must still be in pretty bad shape,” Amanda said, getting back to the subject of the patient.

      “Oh, yes.” Rose looked over the papers on her desk. “I’d say so. He’s pretty much immobilized and has a chest tube insertion.”

      “No wonder the doctor doesn’t want him to leave the hospital. When was the accident?” Amanda asked.

      “A week ago. And it’s been chaotic in our little hospital ever since. Friends, relatives…”

      “Well, that’s normal.”

      “Friends, relatives flying in from all over the globe? Ignoring the posted visiting hours? Partying in the hall? Is that normal? Not here it isn’t. Not to mention catered meals, loud music coming from his room. Definitely not normal. Oh, yes, we have the occasional hot dogger who busts out of his room and tries to go back up to the slopes as soon as he’s conscious, but this is different. This guy happens to be a sheik. He has money and money talks.”

      “A sheik as in desert tents, harems and camels?” Amanda asked.

      “A sheik as in oil money, private school education, and stunning good looks, too, according to the nurses at the hospital. I haven’t seen him myself, just talked to him on the phone.” Rosie sighed. “That was enough.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “I mean, the man knows what he wants and he wants to go home. He doesn’t seem to realize how sick he really is. That he’s lucky to be allowed to leave the hospital so soon. Their ski cabin is not what you or I would call a cabin. It’s a house on the lake which is big enough to house the entire extended family of sheiks and then some. According to family members, there’s a live-in housekeeper and a suite with a private entrance available for the nurse. Let’s hope the man has come to his senses and realizes he can’t go back to San Francisco with a chest tube between his ribs.”

      “Do I have a choice in this?” Amanda asked. Being a private duty nurse to a guy like that could be a problem. A different kind of problem than the one she left behind, but still…

      “Of course,” Rosie assured her. “You could go right into Intensive Care at the hospital. They’re always shorthanded and I’m sure they’d love to have you.”

      “And the sheik?”

      “I told him I’d do what I could. If I can’t find anybody, and it can’t be just anybody, he’ll have to stay in the hospital.”

      Amanda nodded.

      “Why don’t you go by the hospital,” Rosie suggested. “You’ll want to see it anyway. It’s nothing compared to St. Vincent’s in Chicago, but we’re proud of it. A few years ago we had to take the long drive to the hospital at the South Shore just to have a baby or an X ray. The whole town got together to raise the money to build the hospital. Pop in and take a look at our boy the sheik and see what you think. And don’t forget dinner tonight at our house.”

      Amanda stood and put her jacket on. “I can’t keep imposing on you, Rosie,” she said. “You’ve already done so much.”

      Rosie came around her desk and hugged her friend. “You are not imposing. I’m just so glad to have you here. Of all my friends…well, let’s just say I don’t have that many anymore what with my life these days. You’re the best. You always were. I’ve never known anybody I could talk to like you. We shared so much. I’ve missed that. You knew all my secrets and you kept them. I didn’t know how rare that was, now I do.” Rosie stepped back and wiped a tear from her eye with the back of her hand. “Now look what you’ve done. You’ve made me get all emotional.”

      “Me, too,” Amanda confessed. Her lower lip quivered. A friend as good as Rosie was hard to find. Maybe that was why she’d never found another one. Maybe that was why she was here, because everyone was only allowed one best friend. If so, was it right to keep a secret from your best friend, even now, after being apart for so long? If it was the biggest secret of your life and the most shameful, it was. It had to be.

      “Six o’clock,” Rosie said firmly. “My au pair is making fondue. And don’t worry. If the sheik is obnoxious, the hell with him.”

      With those words ringing in her ears, Amanda drove slowly down the main street toward the hospital, passing restaurants and motels that catered to the ski crowd, including the one where she was staying. Rosie had invited her to stay with her, but Amanda wanted her own space. Even if it was only a room. It would do until she found an apartment.

      The hospital was located one mile outside of town. It was small, smaller than she’d imagined. But then she was used to the big-city atmosphere of St. Vincent’s Hospital on Chicago’s north side with its adjoining medical school. Just its parking garage was ten times the size of this whole hospital. Amanda reminded herself that the town had built the hospital because they’d wanted it so badly. She also reminded herself she was looking for a change. It looked as if she was going to get it. Had she let Rosie’s natural enthusiasm delude her into thinking she could really be happy in a small mountain town full of rabid outdoor types?

      Happy? What was that? All she asked was that she not be depressed. That she stop thinking about the past. That she not cry herself to sleep at night and dream about the one person she wanted most of all to forget. If she could achieve that much then she’d be content. Contentment was her goal. Only that. She had a long way to go just to get there.

      As she walked into the lobby she noted a few patients in wheelchairs who glanced at her with curiosity and a lady in a hospital gown demanding something from the receptionist. The familiar smell of disinfectant was in the air causing her to feel apprehensive. Amanda had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. While she had never considered escaping from caregiving, from doctors and nurses, or from the gossip and the back biting in a hospital, she had thought she could possibly escape from her own fears and her own mistakes. She’d needed a change, but maybe this was not the place for the change. She had to get away from Chicago, but maybe she’d come too far. Or not far enough. She tried to imagine working here, but she couldn’t.

      Instead of joining the hospital staff, maybe this sheik business was the way to go. It was a short-term job, no breach of contract if this wasn’t the right place for her. No obligations. The more she thought of it, the better it sounded.

      Amanda told the receptionist whose name tag said Carrie who she was.

      “You’re the nurse from Chicago,” Carrie said with a friendly smile. “How do you like it here?”

      “It’s…it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen the Sierras before.”

      “People call it paradise,” she said modestly. “You gonna take the job with the sheik?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “He’s a handful. Cute, though. He doesn’t like being laid up, I can tell you. No patience. None whatsoever.” Carrie turned to the nurse’s aide who stopped to say hello and be introduced to the new nurse. “Am I right, Amy? The sheik in 34C. Isn’t he something else? Phone calls, visitors, flowers, people coming and going. But nothing seems to cheer him up. He’s got everything money can buy, but that’s not what he wants. He wants to walk out of here and he wants to leave today. Determined, wouldn’t you say, Amy?”

      Amy agreed wholeheartedly. Amanda had had all kinds of patients, passive and easygoing, rich or indigent, willful, determined and obstinate. Some had visitors, some got flowers. Some were ignored. Those were the sad cases. It seemed to her the determined, stubborn types got well the fastest. It wasn’t based on anything scientific, it was just her observation. Someday she’d do a study on personality types

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