Come and Talk to Me Read Free Page A

she would reply with her eyes still closed.
    He looked at her heel; it had begun to bleed. He squeezed it a little wanting it to flow a little more freely to clean it out. That earned him a prompt slap on the arm. “Stop it! That hurts!” Tears had begun to fall down her cheeks, but her eyes were still closed.
    He put an arm around her back, one under her legs and picked her up. She wrapped her arm around his neck and buried her face into his chest instead of fighting him. He walked them back to the house.
    “She diabetic or anything?” he asked Sabrina.
    “No.”
    “You’ve never seen her pass out before?”
    “Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Reggie mumbled.
    “Well, have you?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Has she?” he asked Sabrina again.
    “No, but wait…she doesn’t do the sight of blood well. That much I know for sure. The neighbor girl roller-skated by one day and fell. We went rushing out to make sure she was okay. Her knee was scraped up bad. Reggie threw up and about passed out. I forgot about that; it was over a year ago.”
    “All that fuss over blood?” Troy laughed again. That earned him a prompt smack in the arm by his wife. “Oh goody. Now we’re a matching set,” he said to Van. “Men and the women who abuse them: Story at six.”
    Sabrina glared at him and he became quiet.
    “You going to toss your cookies?” Van asked Reggie.
    “No cookies.” She buried her head deeper into his chest. “I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”

Chapter 3
    R EGGIE S TORMED I NTO V AN’S R OOM . It had been two weeks since he had been admitted. The sight of her made him smile, even though he could tell she was about to blow.
    “Cookie?” He lifted up a small bag of white Oreos that had been brought to him as an afternoon snack.
    “No, thank you. You’re outta here in half an hour. There’s an ambulance arriving shortly to take you to St. Cloud.”
    “You heard from the VA? Why didn’t they get a hold of me?”
    “Because I didn’t hear from the VA. You’re going on my insurance.”
    “We can’t do that, baby.”
    “Yes, we can and are. I spent the last four days making the arrangements. I’m not having you sit here another day in pain while they get their thumbs out of their asses!”
    “Shh, calm down.”
    “Like hell. Those bureaucratic assholes know exactly what they’re doing. You were their ‘property,’” she said, using finger quotes, “but now they don’t give a damn about you.”
    He knew when it was best to keep quiet and let her rant.
    “They could have had you out of here long ago only they don’t want to foot the bill. They are banking on the fact we’ll do exactly what I’m doing. I don’t care what the co-pay is, you’re going today.”
    “It’s not so bad.” He picked up the button that dispensed the pain meds into his IV and wiggled it in front of her. “Yesterday I said I didn’t want to get hooked on the morphine and asked if I could have one of my dammit-alls. They said no, so…ding.” He pretended to push the button.
    “See!”
    “See what?”
    “They’re not doing dick about it. ‘Here’s more pain meds, Mr. Kimball.’” She went over and sat on the bed. “They’re going to kill you, my love. You’re having the surgery and you’re having it now.”
    “This coming from a girl who faints when she gets a thorn in her foot.”
    “You afraid of the surgery?” she asked him, reaching for his hand.
    “No. They’ve been over the details enough. I’m okay with it. I was just hoping the VA would pull through.”
    “You’re a flag-loving sap and I love you, but you’ve always given the military more credit than they deserve. They broke you, dammit, and they should fess up to it, but they aren’t so I’m stepping up to the plate.”
    “You’re so damn cute when you’re pissed. I especially love when it’s not at me.”
    “Well, no sex for two weeks will do that to a girl.”
    “Ah ha, the thick plotens.”
    “The thick plotens?