"Richard!? Richard!?"
Richard hears his mother call his name with urgency from the front door while he lounges on the sun deck out back drinking beer and smoking cigarettes on a crisply, cool fall evening in New England at a log cabin.
"Coming..."
Richard immediately rises from the lounge chair on the sun porch and enters the door to the house off of the deck. His father is half on a couch and half on the floor in the living room recovering from a hospital visit and cannot rise to go to the bathroom while Richard is visiting having driven his mother and father to the cabin home from a hospital twenty miles away.
"Alright. Take my hand," Richard says to his dad as his father tries to lift himself up off of the couch and half on the floor, but his father slips with socks on the slick wood floors of the living room and falls back onto the couch.
"June! June!"
"Here. Take my hand again," Richard says propping his left foot against his father's right foot at an angle. "You won't slip. Look at the angle."
In a sudden moment of confidence in his son, Richard's father grabs ahold of Richard's hand and Richard at 155 pounds pulls his dad of 250 pounds off of the floor and couch into a standing position while Richard leads his dad to the bathroom, holding his dad's right elbow with his left hand and holding his dad's right hand with his right hand.
"Don't reach for that! It has wheels and will slide out from underneath you. It won't support you," Richard says to his dad as they walk a few paces to the bathroom and his dad reaches for a table with wheels. Richard's mother, June, hovers in the vicinity of the son and dad seeing to it that her husband is put to bed in the downstairs bedroom after urinating in the bathroom.
Richard stands by holding his dad's right elbow as his dad urinates into the toilet and then they shuffle at his dad's pace to the downstairs, guest bedroom in the log cabin.
"There. Now aren't you glad that you sent me to that Iowa wrestling camp?"
"Yes. Yes, I am."
"What did he say?"
"Never mind."
"No. What did you say?"
"All I said was aren't you thankful that you sent me to that Iowa wrestling camp ..."
June, Richard's mother, removes her husband's sweat pants and underwear at the door of the bedroom while Richard's dad stands about to sit on the bed, but the pants are swaddled around his dad's ankles and Richard exclaims:
"Why did you do that? Oh! Jesus H. Christ! Alright, dad ... talk small steps to the bed, very small steps. Shuffle or you'll trip."
Richard's dad sits on the bed just in time before falling on the floor again tangled in his sweat pant bottoms around his ankles. June brings the urination bottle that the hospital issues earlier in the day at discharge. Richard's dad lies down and asks for a phone.
He calls his friend who lives up the road.
"Should I take the medicine?" Richard and his mother overhear Richard's dad say over the phone. "I can't manipulate anymore ..."
Richard and his mother stand at the kitchen sink within steps of the downstairs bedroom door and overhear the conversation.
"Why would he call Gil for medical advice?" June, Richard's mother asks.
"Because he plays a doctor on TV," Richard retorts: a joke at which his mother laughs.
Later in the night after Richard's dad is asleep and after Richard helps his dad once with urinating in the bottle that the hospital issues saying "just stick that cock in there and piss," Richard checks the urination bottle to see if it is filled, but finds out in the morning that his dad empties urine from the bottle throughout the night without Richard's help.
Richard hears his mother call his name with urgency from the front door while he lounges on the sun deck out back drinking beer and smoking cigarettes on a crisply, cool fall evening in New England at a log cabin.
"Coming..."
Richard immediately rises from the lounge chair on the sun porch and enters the door to the house off of the deck. His father is half on a couch and half on the floor in the living room recovering from a hospital visit and cannot rise to go to the bathroom while Richard is visiting having driven his mother and father to the cabin home from a hospital twenty miles away.
"Alright. Take my hand," Richard says to his dad as his father tries to lift himself up off of the couch and half on the floor, but his father slips with socks on the slick wood floors of the living room and falls back onto the couch.
"June! June!"
"Here. Take my hand again," Richard says propping his left foot against his father's right foot at an angle. "You won't slip. Look at the angle."
In a sudden moment of confidence in his son, Richard's father grabs ahold of Richard's hand and Richard at 155 pounds pulls his dad of 250 pounds off of the floor and couch into a standing position while Richard leads his dad to the bathroom, holding his dad's right elbow with his left hand and holding his dad's right hand with his right hand.
"Don't reach for that! It has wheels and will slide out from underneath you. It won't support you," Richard says to his dad as they walk a few paces to the bathroom and his dad reaches for a table with wheels. Richard's mother, June, hovers in the vicinity of the son and dad seeing to it that her husband is put to bed in the downstairs bedroom after urinating in the bathroom.
Richard stands by holding his dad's right elbow as his dad urinates into the toilet and then they shuffle at his dad's pace to the downstairs, guest bedroom in the log cabin.
"There. Now aren't you glad that you sent me to that Iowa wrestling camp?"
"Yes. Yes, I am."
"What did he say?"
"Never mind."
"No. What did you say?"
"All I said was aren't you thankful that you sent me to that Iowa wrestling camp ..."
June, Richard's mother, removes her husband's sweat pants and underwear at the door of the bedroom while Richard's dad stands about to sit on the bed, but the pants are swaddled around his dad's ankles and Richard exclaims:
"Why did you do that? Oh! Jesus H. Christ! Alright, dad ... talk small steps to the bed, very small steps. Shuffle or you'll trip."
Richard's dad sits on the bed just in time before falling on the floor again tangled in his sweat pant bottoms around his ankles. June brings the urination bottle that the hospital issues earlier in the day at discharge. Richard's dad lies down and asks for a phone.
He calls his friend who lives up the road.
"Should I take the medicine?" Richard and his mother overhear Richard's dad say over the phone. "I can't manipulate anymore ..."
Richard and his mother stand at the kitchen sink within steps of the downstairs bedroom door and overhear the conversation.
"Why would he call Gil for medical advice?" June, Richard's mother asks.
"Because he plays a doctor on TV," Richard retorts: a joke at which his mother laughs.
Later in the night after Richard's dad is asleep and after Richard helps his dad once with urinating in the bottle that the hospital issues saying "just stick that cock in there and piss," Richard checks the urination bottle to see if it is filled, but finds out in the morning that his dad empties urine from the bottle throughout the night without Richard's help.
No comments:
Post a Comment