Part 17 (2/2)
Loretta was about to say something, when the woman in the white coat interrupted, ”Joshua, I'm Doctor Schiffman. I'm the doctor who admitted you.”
He turned to her and asked, ”Why can't I feel my left leg?”
”That's what I'm here to find out,” she answered.
She was about to remove the bed sheet to start her examination, when the Rabbi signaled her to wait. ”Joshua,” he said, ”you have done a great mitzvah, a great deed. You have saved my daughter, Rachel, and her friend Esther from harm, and I vant you should know that you are a hero. Ve vill not forget this, never.” The rabbi began to weep.
Rachel put her arms around her father. ”Don't worry, Papa,” she said, ”everything's all right, we're okay.” She wiped his tears with her hand.
”Yes,” the rabbi said, ”you are, thanks to Joshua.”
”Excuse me,” the doctor interjected, ”but I really must examine Joshua now. I think it would be best if everybody left the room except for Mrs. Eubanks.”
”Miss. Eubanks,” Loretta corrected. It was just like her to make sure folks got things straight, even at a time like this.
”Yes, ve vill leave,” the rabbi said as he stepped closer to Joshua, reached out, and put his hand on Joshua's forehead. ”But ve vill be back to visit our hero, and ve vill be here for anything you need. He turned to Loretta, took her hand with both of his, and added, ”Anything you need!”
With that, the rabbi walked out, Rachel and Esther following. As she was about to exit, Rachel turned her head to Joshua and mouthed the words, ”Thank you.”
No one else seemed to notice this private exchange between them. He was pleased by it, but his mind was really on his leg and the doctor's examination.
”Let's see what we have here,” she stated, lifting the sheet. ”Now, Joshua, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I'm also going to ask you to do some things for me. Just try to do your best.”
He nodded. Loretta stood by, watching closely. Her expression made him nervous.
”First,” Doctor Schiffman said, ”has anyone told you what happened to you?”
”No!”
Schiffman looked at Loretta with surprise. ”He just woke up,” Loretta said defensively. ”You see that for yourself.”
”But you told me that he also awoke during the evening,” the doctor stated.
”I couldn't tell him then,” Loretta answered.
”Tell me what?”
”Joshua, when you were fighting with those boys in the street, one of them stabbed you,” the doctor said.
”Stabbed me! Where?”
”In the back, I'm afraid. That's why you're having that problem with your left leg. You see, there are nerves that run from your back into your legs, and it seems that the knife went into one of these nerves and damaged it.”
”What does that mean? I'll get better, won't I?”
”I hope so, but it's too early to tell.”
Loretta ran her hand through his hair. ”Of course you're gonna get better, Joshua. You're a strong young man, and you'll be just fine.”
In the past, he would have found her words soothing, but now he wasn't sure. Doctor Schiffman looked at his legs, and said, ”Okay Joshua, I want you to wiggle the toes on your left foot.”
His head was propped up and he could see his toes. They weren't moving.
Doctor Schiffman tried rea.s.suring him. ”Don't worry,” she said, ”I'm sure you'll do better tomorrow.”
He found her unconvincing.
”Now try to move your foot around by rotating your ankle,” she said.
Nothing.
”Try to lift your whole leg up in the air.”
This time he struggled, turned, and pushed down from inside his gut. He created some interesting contortions, but produced no movement in the leg. Schiffman took a pin out from her pocket, and touched it to his big toe. ”Do you feel a p.r.i.c.k or anything?” she asked.
”No.”
She proceeded with his other toes.
”No.” Each and every time.
She worked her way up his leg, and as she got above his knee, he began to respond. The higher she got, the more he felt. ”A good sign,” she stated, noting her findings in his chart. Neither he nor Loretta asked just how good.
She performed the same examination on his right leg. He felt everything.
”It seems the only involvement is with the peripheral nerves on the left side,” she said.
Joshua and his mother looked curiously at the doctor.
”Oh, I'm sorry,” Schiffman said, looking up from her notes. ”That means that the damage was only on the left side, and mostly to the nerves that affect the lower leg. That's good, it means that the damage is very localized, small and contained, which also means that your chances of recovering your feeling and movement are good.”
”Are you talking about a complete recovery?” Loretta asked.
”It's hard to tell right now just how much of a recovery, but my gut feeling is positive.”
Joshua was beginning to like this doctor.
Schiffman gathered her things together, and said, ”I have to go now, but I'll be back in a few hours to check on things. I'm also going to have a neurologist come in. That's a doctor who specializes in this kind of thing.” She touched Joshua's arm. ”Get some rest, and stop worrying!” To Loretta she said, ”You too!”
She smiled, turned, and left them alone.
Later that day, Joshua awoke again from the darkness. Loretta's chair was empty. Behind the curtain, in the next bed, he heard someone groaning and snoring. The noise was annoying, but he was glad to know he wasn't alone.
It took about a minute for him to notice that there was a third person in the room, standing quietly in the corner. The room was dim, and his vision was slightly marred from the fight. He thought he might be hallucinating, that the medication was doing funny things to his mind.
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