Chapter One
“Daddy?” Courtney runs over to her fallen father, clutching the corner of the coffee table as he grunts in agony. “Daddy, what is it?” she yells out with concern as her curly strawberry blonde hair falls over her shoulder brushing her father across the cheek and nose. He opens his mouth but only low utters of sound comes out; no noises or tones that seem remotely close to words. “Daddy, is it your chest? Does your chest hurt daddy? Daddy please talk to me!” Courtney cries out with panic as she holds her father's hand as he slides slowly and painfully down the edge of the table and on to his back. Their plush sand colored carpet caught his head, as he fell not making a sound. His head hitting the floor like a ten pound bowling ball. “Oh my god!” she thinks to herself while tears stream down her porcelain face as she sobs over her lifeless father.
Whirls of loud sirens wail over the Beckenhoff household as the ambulance screeches into the black paved driveway. Somewhere within the rush and panic of the evening Courtney must have dialed 911; although her memory of the situation is a blur as though it happened years ago and moments before the ambulance arrived.
Four emergency service people rush in, three average size men and one short small-framed woman with her short blonde hair pulled tight in a bouncing ponytail. The team immediately assesses the situation and executes their job thoroughly. As her father is being wheeled out of the front door of the house where she had experienced her first boo-boo; a flood of memories came pouring in as she held her daddy’s hand as he was furiously rushed into the ambulance awaiting him outside. “What is it?”
Courtney asked while running to get into the ambulance long hair bouncing off of her back like a ball and paddle. “It appears your father may have suffered a stroke, but we won’t know anything for sure until he is seen by the doctors.” The small blonde woman replied as she helped load the gurney onto the ambulance. Courtney speaks aloud with her head in her hands. “A what? There’s no way; he’s in perfect health and walks two miles every morning before breakfast.” The weeping, now childlike woman couldn’t escape the heart wrenching flashes of her once big strong daddy lying helpless on the floor.
“No, no, no.” Her green eyes flood with tears again as she begins to cry uncontrollably. She squeezes her eyes shut and opens them again as if doing so she will suddenly awaken from a horrible dream. Terror and panic once again fill her chest realizing she is not dreaming. “Damn it! This has to be the world’s longest Ambulance ride” she thought as they continued to race down the street. The once beautiful slender woman is now reduced to an openly weeping child in the shell of a woman’s body. She stands up stretching her long shapely legs wanting to pace the floor but without ample room to even stand without bumping her head. With that quick and somewhat painful reality she quickly sits back down, with her body full of jitters and needing to release energy her knee starts to shake profusely.
Chapter Two
The emergency room was riddled with sickness and pain. Courtney quickly glanced around the room noticing a mother holding her twin girls as all three cried hysterically while the doctor gently rubbed the mother’s shoulder and mouthed the words “I’m so sorry”.
A male doctor approached with white and black peppered hair and copper wire framed classes, wearing turquoise scrubs and a white overcoat. “What do we have?” the doctor asked the EMS team. “A male Caucasian…presenting with…” the words trailed off into another language as she tried to read between the lines of all the medical terminology. “Ma’am nurse Joy is going to have to get some information from you.” The doctor said as he turned and looked Courtney in the eye. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Courtney replied half sobbing while wiping her face with a Kleenex she found while scrounging around in her undersized purse. Large purses simply didn’t fit into Courtney’s life, too much room to lose things in she always said. The doctor turned his attention away from Courtney focusing on the EMS team and said “Take him to exam room three, I’m on my way. Joy!?” The doctor called out while scanning the nurses’ station. “Ah, there you are, this is…” The doctor pauses waiting a reply from the slender woman who was now dabbing at dry red eyes. “Oh… Courtney Beckenhoff” she interrupted quietly while extending her free hand that was once hanging on to her ribcage for dear life.
“Hi Ms. Beckenhoff, I’m nurse Briggs but everyone here calls me nurse Joy. I think it’s because I bring them all so much joy.” The nurse continued to speak while smiling and walking to a private area “That was doctor Nuvall you had the brief pleasure of meeting.” “You can just call me
Courtney” she replied while taking long strides to keep up with the short but speedy nurse. “Okay, Courtney it is. Now I’m going to ask you some questions about your father and please be sure to answer them as thoroughly as possible. If you have any questions during or after don’t hesitate to ask. Nurse Joy certainly lived up to her name in the dismal place that she worked. By the end of the usually boring and annoying set of questions nurse Joy had the worried daughter smiling and laughing. For a split second Courtney almost forgot why she was there.
By the end of the night the once towering, robust Gregory Beckenhoff had been reduced to a shell of his former self. Eyes still terribly swollen and red from spending most of her Saturday crying the still shaken Courtney held her father’s hand as she stroked his face and thought how feeble he now looked. The doctors told her he was stable for now but would need to be kept in ICU for further evaluations and to better monitor his condition. Knowing her father had slipped into a coma she vowed to be by his bed side every free moment she had. Tonight was one of the only nights she had wished she weren’t an only child.
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