A New Life

There comes a time in life where something occurs which affects you for life.  I’ve had several such incidents which has changed my life.  This newest experience has been one of pain and introspection.  So for all who read this , let me tell this experience to you…

“Meow!  Meow!”  A small orange kitten was trapped on a branch of a towering hedge.  Now these bushes were planted by our neighbor.  Then they put in a privacy fence with the bushes on our side.  They stopped taking care of this jungle and we were forced to trim it.  Unfortunately, the miserable things had grown quite high and were more like trees!  The scared kitten was at the top of one branch!  Along comes Mandi and I with ladder to get him.  First, I told Mandi I was going to get him for I was taller.  My prerogative!

Up I climb.  I was only three feet high.  I cut the miserable branch which came down and hit Mandi.  The kitten came down with it and I was trying to get him off the branch.  Suddenly, I found myself on the ground with this excruciating pain shooting through my bank.  I remember feeling an electric shock fire through my body and I found out I couldn’t sit up.  I quickly moved back down on the ground and pulled my phone from my pocket.  Mandi had finally extracted herself from the branch, knelt beside me immediately.  I could tell she was blaming herself and I had to tell her many times it wasn’t.  This was my fault.  

The ambulance arrived and I’m on a backboard being placed on a stretcher.  I see my husband and daughter both in tears as I am wheeled past them into the ambulance.  

I’m going to tell you riding in an ambulance isn’t much fun when every bump it hits sends a surge of pain through the body.  We arrive at the hospital: a few more bumps then the transfer from stretcher to bed!  OMG!  That was intense. 

Part 2:

I left off with being placed on the er bed.  As I said the pain was intense.  I went through it all x-rays, cat scan , and finally a mri which freaked me out.  I had been at the hospital about a day.  After the mri, I was moved from Northbay to Countryside for surgery.  The transitions were equally intense with me wishing for the bliss of sleep and pain medication.  At 7:30 am I meet my surgeon in pre-op.  He looks at me and says, “you broke your back”.  I cannot tell you all the thoughts which flew through my head.  He showed me the picture of my mri and L3 was demolished.  When I do something, I make sure it’s done.  He told me what they were going to do.  I understood it completely.  But I was still reeling from the fact I had broken my back!

Cut to afterwards:  the surgery was a success.  My spinal surgeon had worked on my back for quite a while.  Longer than they had thought.  I saw what it looked like then and found that I now have a number of screws in my back.  

In barely a day I was back on an ambulance heading to my rehab facility.  The same place where my mom was a resident at.  The pain was the worse I have ever felt.  We arrived, another transfer (I was really hating them) into a room and bed.  

I don’t remember much of the first two days.  I was in some hallucination of my own mind due to the pain.  I could hear someone talking to me and I hung onto that person’s voice.  Finally, I felt as though a veil had lifted from me.  I could hear and see everyone and talk to them.  Mandi was there with me , she was feeding me !  She told me I had been out of it.  She then spoke to me quite seriously:  “Mom, you have to do what they tell you to do or you won’t be able to come home.  Please work with them, they want to help you.”

I listened to her, they started with getting me to sit up.  I screamed.  The electric shock went through my whole body.  In my mind I could see a black hole everytime I did this.  Those first few days were filled with this pain every time I attempted something new.  From sitting, to standing, to transferring into my wheelchair and sitting in it.  There came a day when that pain was gone and I could do these things without too much pain.

The weekend arrived and I found I wanted more pt, so I would walk on the simple leg exercises they taught me.  Simple exercises a normal person could do.  But for me and the patients around me at the beginning they were hard and sometimes painful.  After days they became easier as they helped strengthen my legs.  

With each new lesson I relearned how to walk with my walker, I relearned how to dress myself using a reaching tool and then without it.  I was working on strengthening my arms, my legs, my stomach muscles and my back muscles.  I learned to stretch my arms to reach things.  All these things I had known my whole life I had to relearn .  

Finally the 53 staples were removed from my back.  I still wear my back brace , but I’m to wean myself from it.  The area of the staples has healed.

Now, I just want to go home.  I’ve grown and learned a great deal.  I have met many wonderful people who work tirelessly taking care of myself and the other patients here.  My fellow patients have been a wealth of inspiration!

Am I healed?  Parts of me are, but I have plenty to work on.  However, I have grown past what I can do here.  Now if I can only get the bathroom down better!  Sigh.  So much more to do, but I’m able to do things by myself now!  That’s what it’s all about, to get back to doing what I enjoy and keep working on walking until the walker is gone!  It’s getting closer every day.

So, has this influenced my life?  Yes, more than you may believe.  I know what it is like to not be able to sit,  to not be able to stand, to not be able to walk.  To not be able to do anything that I used to do.  I would tell my pcs that I felt like a turtle who had fallen over onto its back.  Just flopping trying to turn back over or hoping someone would come to help.  Jane Goodall was correct!  The first signs of civilization is when someone stays to help another from an injury.  Without my nurses, patient care techs, the janitors, the techs, the pts I don’t know how I would have gotten to where I am.  Waiting and roaring to go home.  Five weeks of hard painful work to be right where I am now.

Quiet Shadow

 

Quiet. It shouldn’t be so quiet, but it is. How can a city be so quiet? Deep in the recesses of thebuilding a door shut. Subtle, but there. Finally. A few minutes later a man exited, turned right,and began walking north on 5th Ave. Bet he’s heading to the Library. The man moves quickly,not many people out on a night like this one. The Polar Vortex had brought the city to a stop. Afew were venturing out into the sub-zero temperature, but most were inside. Taking shelter fromthe wind and cold. The man stops and fiddles with his coat. “Nice, he gets a nice warm CalvinKlein Plaza Overcoat and I get a TALOS”, thinks his shadow. He moves forward again, slipping slightly on the ice, but staying on his feet. His hands are buried deep in the coat’s pockets anda scarf covers his mouth. A black fedora tops his head. The shadow moves quietly and swiftly,flitting along the street like a wraith, constantly behind the man, watching his every move. He hits another patch of ice and slips barely catching his balance this time. “Careful, it’s too soon to be out of the game”. He stops again and checks the ground in front of him a little closer. “Now what is he looking at? “ He moves along, but at a slower pace. The shadow follows after a moment, then kneels at where he had slipped.

“I don’t see anything, a patch of ice...Ahh, wellyou are the smart one”. The shadow moves, this time not directly behind the man, but above.

“Love this equipment.”

The man moves along 5th Avenue walking past the library. He turns left at 42nd and walks to Broadway. “Where is he going?” The shadow moves ahead of him and settles in the darknessprovided by the Newsweek building at 42nd and Broadway. The man turns right onto Broadway heading north again. He glances at the windows of a building and stops in his tracks. He turns around and seems to be searching for someone or something. He moves his right hand deeper into the pocket of the coat as if gripping something, looks around again, then turning back to the north he begins moving faster along the sidewalk. He turns east on 43rd Street, crossing it and entering the Casablanca Hotel. He nods to the attendant on duty, crossing the floor to the elevator. Upon exiting the elevator, he walks down the hallway, stopping at a door, entering it, and closing the door behind him. He locks the door and removes the overcoat. In the right pocket he removes a Walther P99. In the left pocket, he removes a small package. The reason why he had been in that building. He smiles and walks to the bed, flipping on the lights and the tv. He glances out the window and seeing nothing unusual on the street below, he turns his around, smiles again, and falls on the bed

The shadow watches this with interest across the street, hidden within the frame of the building.

The man doesn’t move. The shadow touches the side of the cowl and the vision is magnified.

“Hmm. What in the world happened?”  Then a figure is seen slipping down from the room above.“ Fascinating” 

The new person descends quietly into the room and checks the man. Moving swiftly, the person goes through the man’s clothing, and the furniture. The individual picks up the package, pockets it, and slips back up to the room above. All this took less than 3 minutes and the shadow took it all in. “Okay, now who are you?” Moving quietly across the street on a zipline, the shadow watches this new person closely outside the window. The thief(murderer?) grabs some items, packs them in a small backpack, wipes the room, and walks out of the door.

The shadow waits to see which way the person will go once leaving the hotel. After an hour has gone by, a woman leaves carrying the same backpack. She is wearing a heavy coat with a bright yellow scarf around her face. The shadow taps the balaclava: “We have a problem.”

A voice answers back.

“Yes, we’re seeing everything. Follow her. We’re sending people to check on Overcoat”

“Understood”

. The shadow moves quietly above the woman. Suddenly, the woman stops and enters a vehicle which pulled up next to her. It leaves silently going in the opposite direction.

“Damn!”

 The shadow drops to the ground and runs after it flitting through the street almost invisible to others. The car moves slowly through the snowy and icy streets until it rolls to a stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The woman steps out and walks toward the Cathedral. The shadow moves stealthily toward the car and slips a small tracking device on it; then crept around to a spot hidden in the penumbra of the famous landmark. A disembodied voice says:

“Knightwraith, Overcoat is alive and conscious. He’s complaining of a massive headache. Be careful.”

“Will do.” Knightwraith answers back. “I’ve attached a tracker to the car. We are at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”

“Good. We’re picking up the signal. Anything else?”

“No. She appears to be waiting for someone.”

“Keep the monitor on. No more surprises are needed tonight”

.”Understood.”

The woman moves toward the door of the Cathedral, then stops again. She lifts a hand and gestures. Another figure walks toward her. Knightwraith watches closely as the two talk. Then the woman shakes her head and turns to leave. The second person grabs ahold of her and suddenly, the woman seems to fighting back. She pushes away from the other and runs toward the car slipping and sliding over the ice. The other lifts an arm and suddenly, she crashes to the ground. Her partner in the car starts to come to her, but falls as well.

“What the hell is going on?”

The two on the ground react with spasms then lay silent. The new person, a man of slight height, shakes his head, goes to the woman, grabs the package, and walks away. Humming a tune as he goes.

“Did you see that? “ Knightwraith asks.

“Yes”

. Wait. Do not follow. Zobel Wulfe will take over.”

“Understood. Is Zobel nearby”

“Right across from you and moving after this new person. Go check on the woman and her friend. If they are alive, we will bring them in for interrogation”

.“Alright.” Knightwraith walked over to where the two bodies lay in the snow. Already a slight covering of snowflakes was gathering on them. Knightwraith knelt down and touched the pulse of the woman. Faint, but still alive. Then turned and checked the other. This one too.

“Needimmediate extraction.”

“It will be there in less than one minute”. Time to come in Knightwraith. It’s getting to complicated out there.”

“Yeah, and cold. We need to figure a way to have a heat and cooling system in this.”

A van pulled up in front of the Cathedral.

“What’s the matter, Knightwrith, can’t handle the

cold?” asked a man with a hooded down winter coat on.

“It’s a little chilly for this outfit.”  Knightwraith answered back. “Now if I had on a coat like yours, Drake, I’d be comfy cozy!”

Drake laughed and teased: “I don’t know, you look pretty hot in that outfit”!

“Very funny! Now don’t you start being a sexist idiot!”

Drake chuckled at that remark.

“Don’t worry about that. It will never happen. Too many idiotsrunning around being jerks. Me, I prefer to be reinforcing good taste and the ability to know the difference between being a jerk and cultural.”

Knightwraith tilted her head, stared at him, and then proclaimed, “Nice bit of double talk there. I’m surprised you aren’t running for office!”

“I just might do that! Maybe a small beginning, like oh, a School Board position.” Drake looked thoughtful for a minute.

“Hmm, it might be a good idea!”

Knightwraith shook her head and pulled the coat on he handed her.” I take it that Dark Wolf is hunting.”

“Oh yeah, You should have seen how he jumped out of the glider when it zipped past. He hit-the ground running and kept on going with the two other wolves at his heels.” Drake answered her.

“Talk about the dangers of a wolf pack, those three looked ready to strike at the prey rather quickly”

.

Knightwraith nodded. “ If I hadn’t seen what that guy did to these two, I would pity him. But,  I hope Dark Wolf catches him fast. Way too weird of a guy to be wandering around the streets of the “Apple”

.Drake turned toward her and agreed. As the four other personnel loaded the two bodies in the van, Knightwraith, read through the information she was receiving on her focal hud. In short order, the van pulled away disappearing into the whiteout of a winter’s blizzard and leaving no marks of ever having been near the Cathedral 

Now coatless Knightwraith shimmered into invisibility as she moved through the falling snow picking up the traces of the man and the three wolves.  She lifted up off the ground following the tracks, smiling as she moved quickly.  “ Time to help the wolves bring done the bad dude with an emp.”

Angels and Demons

 Angels and Demons

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024

An excellent Gothic Mystery. One of the best I’ve had the pleasure to read. Imagine a demon attacking innocents for some reason. Then a man whose birth coincided with an eclipse and the return of Halley’s Comet. What special abilities would he possess in order to stop the demonic creature from inflicting a death like coma on more people. You have just a small idea of what awaits you in this story. Plunge in and enjoy this fascinating tale!

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Remembrance

 Remembrance

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

An interesting story with the secret society, The Templars.. As evil.seems to flourish throughout the world, the Templars work to end the mastermind behind the evil. Yet, even the Templars are unable to save the life of FBI computer genius, Courtney Rose. Her brother, Jonathan leaves his faith and the priesthood to find her murderers, only to discover that he is being led to a place where he can begin his remembrance to his sister. Ark is a captivating novel about one man's grief can lead to the end of evil and rejoicing of lives thought gone

The Mummy With NoHeart

 The Mummy With No Heart.

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024

A good tale which continues Avery and Carter’s friendship as they find themselves together again dealing with the paranormal. This time they are joined with Avery’s sister whose knowledge of Ancient Egypt is needed to end a curse on the world which they unknowingly released. It’s a little long, but a story that is enjoyable, and a mummy that needs its heart.

They Were Me

 They Were Me

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024

I admit when I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure I would like it. The thing is I couldn’t stop reading, thinking, and listening to the characters. They were people I knew and they were me. It’s when I realized my discomfort was due to recognizing myself and so many others I have known in this tale of love, forgiveness, and friendship that I read it in earnest. The need to see what happens to them filled my love for the characters. It’s truly an amazing story which fills you with hope and in that hope is love.