Desert Heat

A nurse from the nurse’s station looked up, saw her, and started toward her just as a pair of arms closed around her from behind. “Where is he?” Joa

“Hush now,” Ken Galloway said, holding her, trying to calm her.

“But where is he?” she repeated, her voice rising. “I’ve got to see him.”

The nurse was there now, too, reaching out, offering solace, but Joa

“I want to see him,” she sobbed. “Where is he? Where?”

“They took him back to the operating room.”

Joa

The nurse shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Brady. We tried to find you, but he went into cardiac arrest. Afterward, we had two doctors in to check him, and they both pronounced him brain dead. The form was there in his file, and everything was in order. We contacted the medical examiner and he gave us permission to go ahead. With harvesting organs, there isn’t a moment to lose. I thought you knew.”

Before Ken Galloway could stop her, she lunged out of his arms and raced back out through the waiting room. Another grim-faced family was just then filing into the room to start their own vigil of waiting and worrying. Seeing them, Joa

In the hallway, her mother was just stepping off the elevator. “Joa

Without glancing at her mother, Joa

“I don’t know,” Joa

Later she would have no remembrance of fighting her way through the lobby or of recrossing the busy intersection at Elm and Campbell. When she came to herself, she was sitting in a tall wooden chair in a shaded patio somewhere on the green, flowered grounds of the Arizona I

“What seems to be the problem?” a woman was saying. “Are you a guest here?”

Joa

“No,” Joa

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” the woman said impatiently. “I didn’t mean to chase you away, but you were crying as though your heart was broken, and I wondered if there was someone I should call for you or if there was anything at all I could do to help.”

Joa

“Thank you,” she said. “I believe you already did.” She stood up.

“Where are you going?” the old woman asked.

“Back to the hospital,” Joa

The gaunt old woman’s skin was wrinkled and parchment thin. She must have been nearing ninety. Age and wisdom both allowed her to see beyond the surface of Joa

She nodded slowly. “I see,” she said. “So it’s like that, is it?”

Joa

The woman reached out and patted Joa

EIGHT

Leaning on her cane, the old woman escorted Joa

Quickly she placed a long-distance call to the Methodist parsonage in Bisbee. Jeff Daniels answered.

“Hello, Jeff,” Joa

“You sound upset, Joa

She tried to answer but at first the words caught in her throat. “Andy’s dead,” she managed finally. “It happened earlier this afternoon. Please don’t tell Je

“She’s outside with Maria

While she waited, Joa

“Hi, Mom. Reverend Maculyea and I have been outside playing on her swing. I think she’s weird. And Jeff, too. They have a swing, but they don’t have any kids.”

“Je

And clearly her distress was obvious, even to a nine-year-old. “What’s the matter, Mom?” Je

Joa

Her a

“Is he really?”

“Yes, really, honey. I’m sorry.”

Again the phone seemed to go dead in a baffling, achingly long silence, one Joa

“I know, Je

Je

At last, in the background, she heard Jeff Daniels speaking soothingly. After a shuffle, the phone was handed over to someone else while Je

“Jeff told me,” Maria

“So did I, but according to the nurse he went into another episode of cardiac arrest. This time they weren’t able to bring him back. Two separate doctors came in and certified that he was brain dead. And then they took him away. I wasn’t even there.”

“I’m so sorry, Joa