Cowboy Protector

1. Roman-2

The sound of something beeping woke me up. I tried to open my eyes, but it was extremely difficult. Finally, I managed the simple task, only to find a small figure moving about the room.

I noticed that my left leg was lifted into the air by some sort of contraption. There was a tightness in my chest. I also felt something underneath me, keeping my a*s off the bed.

With all the lines hooked up to me, it took me no time at all to realize where I was, and then I remembered why I was there in the first place. “That f*****g bull.”

The figure turned around and moved toward me. The closer it got, the better I could make out that it was a pretty girl. “You’re awake. Good.” She leaned over me, the scent of flowers filling my nose. “You’ve been asleep for a few hours. Are you in any pain?”

Her nametag said, Brynn. And her eyes were green. A blonde ponytail hung down her back. She was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. “Hi.” I smiled at her, and it hurt to do that, but I did it anyway.

“Hi,” she said as she smiled back at me before putting something against my mouth. “You shouldn’t try to smile. Your lower lip is split a little. Not enough to require stitches but enough to bleed if you try to smile. Here, drink some water. It’ll help.” She looked around, and I saw her pick up a cup off a table and then come back to me.

“Thank you,” I said as I sipped on the straw, not worrying about anything with her looking after me.

“No problem, cowboy,” she said, and I noticed that her voice had a thin twang to it. “Do you need anything for pain? You were given some by the paramedics, but it might’ve begun to wear off by now. I don’t want you in any pain.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“It’s my job.” She put her fingers on the inside of my wrist, lifting it up a little. Even though I was mostly numb, I felt a bit of electricity coming from her touch. “Your pulse is good.” She eased my hand back to lie on the bed. “You are one tough dude, Mr. Ethridge.”

“Roman,” I said. “Mr. Ethridge is my dad.”

“Roman.” She ran her finger over her nametag. “I’m Brynn. I’ll be your day-nurse while you’re staying with us at Carthage Hospital.”

“How long am I going to be here?” I was fine right where I was, but it wasn’t easy finding conversation topics — and I wanted her to keep talking to me.

“I’m not sure. Doctor Green will be in to see you shortly.” She pulled out her cell phone and tapped on the screen. “I’m letting him know that you’re awake now. He’ll be in soon to explain your injuries.”

“Why can’t you tell me what they are?” I didn’t know who Doctor Green was, but I knew I would much rather hear her sweet voice delivering the news to me than anyone else’s.

“I’m not really supposed to do that,” she said and put her phone away. “Doctor Green will do that. So, the pain — are you in any?”

“I don’t feel a thing,” I lied, not wanting her to think I was some wimpy guy who cried over a little — or a lot of — pain.

Shaking her head, she said, “That’s not good. If you feel nothing, then you might have spinal cord injuries, which would mean surgery for you.”

“I can feel. I’m just not feeling any pain. I’m tough, like you said.”

“Don’t let that bravado get in the way of me treating your pain, Roman. I don’t care who you are or how well your body is built. Everyone feels pain.” She softly ran her hand over my left leg that was strung up. “I want to know if this is too high. Are you uncomfortable? Does your hip feel like it’s in a bind?”

“Nah.” There was no real pain in my leg. “Is my leg broken?”

“Doctor Green will tell you about that.”

“So, it is broken?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You can just tell me. I won’t tattle on you.”

She looked at the door, which was closed, then back at me as she bit her lower lip. “No. I can’t.”

It seemed to me that she was a little afraid of this doctor she’d told me was coming to see me. “Is this guy mean? Or is it a woman?”

“The doctor is a man,” she told me, straightening the blanket that covered me. “And he’s not mean, just strict. He’s a great doctor, and you can trust him. Now, I really need you to tell me if you need anything for pain and where it hurts.”

I had the feeling she would get into trouble with the strict doctor if I didn’t tell her the truth. “My a*s hurts. My chest is tight, and it’s uncomfortable.”

“Thank you.” Her smile lit me up inside. “I’ll put you on a morphine drip. It will allow you to give yourself a boost of painkillers every half hour. But only use it if you need it. I don’t want you using it only to feel high. It’s so easy to get addicted to pain medication.”

“Thanks for caring.” I could sense that she was a kind person. “I’ll use it responsibly.”

The door opened, and in stepped the strict doctor. His salt and pepper hair told me he was middle-aged, and his lips formed one thin line. He looked strict too. “I’m Doctor Green, Mr. Ethridge.”

“Call me Roman.”

He looked at the chart in his hands instead of looking at me. “Have you been given anything for pain?” He looked at Brynn with a burning expression. As if daring her to have done something wrong.

“I just told the nurse that I am experiencing some pain, and she’s about to hook me up,” I said, trying to draw his attention off her.

“Good,” he huffed as he finally looked at me. “Well, you’ve really done a number on yourself. You have bruised ribs on both sides of your chest.”

“I thought so.” It actually felt like they were broken, but I took his word for them just being bruised.

“You have a severely bruised coccyx, which is also quite swollen. That’s why we have that donut underneath you — to alleviate the pressure on it. The lower vertebra suffered trauma as well. Your left tibia has a hairline fracture, which is lucky for you because there’s a hoof print right in the middle of your shin that’s black and blue. As a matter of fact, you have hoof prints on your chest too. I’m not sure how you managed not to break more bones in your body.”

“I drink milk every single morning, and I take vitamin D supplements. When you ride bulls, it pays to keep your bones strong.”

Brynn came up beside me, holding a bag of something clear then hooking it onto the contraption that held some other bags of fluid. “It’s very smart of you to think about keeping your bones and your body in great shape if you’re going to be doing dangerous activities.”

“Nurse Davis, please refrain from commenting on a patient’s physique,” the doctor said. “It’s unprofessional.”

“Sorry, sir.” Her eyes came to mine. “I apologize for what I said.”

“No need.” I looked at the stern doctor. “It’s cool, man. She didn’t offend me at all. I’m dying for a Dr. Pepper. Y’all got any around here?”

“No. You can’t have any soda right now. And I’m sure she didn’t offend you with her remark. It’s not you I’m worried about.” He put the clipboard into the little box at the end of the hospital bed. “You’ll be staying here for about a week or so.”

“A week?” I didn’t want to be laid up that long. “And what about my leg being up like this? How am I supposed to go to the bathroom or take a shower?”

“You won’t be able to get up to do those things. A nurse will help you when you need to use the toilet. And you’ll be given sponge baths.”

The sponge bath was more than okay with me. Especially if Brynn would be the one doing them. But the help with the bathroom was not. “I want to be able to go to the bathroom by myself.”

“Then you shouldn’t have gotten onto the back of a thousand-pound animal,” the doc said without an ounce of emotion in his expression or his voice.

“It was fifteen hundred pounds, for your information. And I didn’t know I would end up not being able to go to the bathroom without help.”

“Well, now you know.” He looked at Brynn. “Monitor him for fifteen minutes to make sure he doesn’t have a bad reaction to the morphine, then get to the other patients.”

“Yes, Doctor Green,” she said with reverence in her voice.

“I’ll check on you each morning when I make my rounds, Mr. Ethridge. If you need anything, just press the nurse’s button on your bed.” And then he left without even saying goodbye.

“He’s a real treat.” I rolled my eyes at Brynn with the sarcastic remark.

I saw the little grin that she tried to fight off, and for a moment all the pain left my chest. If I could coax some of those sweet smiles from her each day, I’d be healed in no time.