Fred Goes to Hospital

By the time Thursday came around, Fred was a mess. Myrtle really didn’t understand why he even went to work that morning. She wasn’t really surprised that Fred didn’t notice she had her eye-patch off for the drive. She also thought he should have been removing the soft collar from time to time now, but she hadn’t said anything about it because he already had enough on his mind, and now she suspected the collar was really all that was holding him upright. In fact, his knees threatened to buckle on him a couple times after he climbed out of the car when they got there. She was just glad he’d been able to get out on his own. He’d been sitting so frozen and stiff in the passenger seat, she wondered if he was having some sort of seizure.

"Fred... Fred... are you okay?" she’d asked softly.

"Oh... sure," he sort of whimpered.

"Fred, I’m not sure you should go to work like this," she’d suggested gently.

But Fred had only turned a pathetic gaze on her and pointed out the windshield as if to say “go.”

Once they were there and Fred was out of the car, she asked, "would you like me to go in with you?"

"Oh no," he said instantly, his eyes getting a little wild.

Myrtle understood. That would probably just be embarrassing for him. More so than if he fell down on his way to his office. So she just reminded him that she’d be back there just after noon, watched him go through the door, then drove herself to work.

She was glad she went in that morning. Not only did it give her a few more hours to catch up with her work, it was a bit enlightening too. Along about 11 a.m. one of the students who’d come to see her about Mr. Pelham walked into her office. Myrtle looked up from her work.

“Is it true that Pelham complained to the Dean about you?” she asked.

The question took Myrtle by surprise. She knew there was an active rumour mill amongst the students at Upton, but it seemed odd to think she was a subject of it. “Yes” she said. Then she smiled. “I told him he couldn’t afford to make any more enemies, but apparently he thinks he can afford to make one of me.”

“You could be in trouble though, couldn’t you?” asked the student.

“Yes,” answered Myrtle honestly. “But I don’t really see it being a huge problem,” she continued. “Depends entirely on how the Dean chooses to see it.”

With that, the student nodded. “Well then, don’t you worry,” and with a little wave, she disappeared back out the door.

Myrtle sat staring. She was torn. Part of her had that warm and fuzzy feeling one gets when someone is being supportive, but part of her felt just a little more worried than she’d been before. She sighed, hoping that whatever happened, it wouldn’t happen until she returned to work on Monday.

Myrtle tried to put it out of her mind and get the last few chores finished up that couldn’t wait. She certainly didn’t want to be late picking up Fred. He might be nothing but a puddle of sweat on the walkway as it was.

Sure enough, when she got there, it was a very ragged-looking Fred waiting for her. The way he stood rumpled and slumped with his electric shaver in his hand put Myrtle in mind of a homeless person. It suddenly occurred to her that he must not have shaved that morning. She hadn’t noticed, but now saw a slight shadow on his face that did nothing for this image. It also occurred to her to wonder what Fred had been doing inside. Though she hadn’t known Fred for very long, she’d noticed a certain knack for error that sort of followed him around. She hoped he hadn’t done any actual damage while “working.”

She needn’t have worried. Unbeknownst to either her or Fred, Helen had rerouted all of Fred’s routing work for that week to a junior shipping clerk. She did so on Mr. Grieve’s orders, of course, but knowing Fred as well as she did at this point, she might have done it on her own anyway. Andy Dieter, the junior clerk who got Fred's work, saw it as an opportunity to shine, and both Helen and Mr. Grieves saw it as necessary to keep things going without incident. Fred would be off for awhile after his surgery anyway, despite what he thought. They just did the switch early. Fred hadn’t really been doing much of anything. He just didn’t seem to notice.

Anyway, Myrtle's worry about it was fleeting. She had her hands full just getting Fred safely into the hospital. Once she got him into the chair at the Admissions desk, she excused herself to go park the car properly. She’d left it in a temporary spot close to the entrance so Fred didn’t have to walk very far. It was a strange parking lot, part of the hospitals’ fund-raising strategy. It took Myrtle a while to figure out how the parking tickets worked. By the time she got back, Fred was already gone. The Admissions nurse told her he was being taken to his room and it might be a while before Myrtle could see him. So she got the room number from the nurse, then went to the hospital cafeteria for some lunch.