“Knew something had to wake you,” Ronnie quirked.


“Mmm? Oh, morning Ronnie,” she said, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Morning Maria, how was your weekend?”


“It was fine, Rose. How was yours?”


“Good.” She sniffed the air. “Oh, that smells wonderful.”


“Maria’s cooking is always wonderful. That’s why I keep her around,” Ronnie teased.


“I knew there had to be some reason,” the housekeeper joked back. She turned her attention back to the injured woman. “How are your legs feeling?”


“They ache a lot but the heat seems to help.”


“Good. You just do what the doctor says and I’m sure you’ll be up and about in no time.”


“Yeah, as long as she doesn’t try to do everything for herself,” Ronnie chimed in. “We had to make a trip to the ER.”


“You did? Oh my!” Maria looked from one to the other. “What happened?”


Ronnie filled the housekeeper in on the incident while Rose tried unsuccessfully between forkfuls to change the subject. The head of the house was just finishing up her breakfast when the doorbell rang. “That must be your nurse,” she said to the young woman.


“I’ll see to her coat and then bring her in here,” Maria said.


A few minutes later the nurse entered the room. “Hello. My name is Karen Brown and I’ll be your nurse,” she said to Rose.


“Hi, I’m Rose Grayson.” She held her hand out to the nurse.


“Ronnie,” the executive offered.


“Well, I suppose the first thing I should do is wash up and take a look at those stitches on your cheek.” Karen looked up at Ronnie. “How long has she been home?”


Ronnie chose not to correct the nurse about Rose’s residence status. “They released her Friday afternoon.”


“Have you done any passive therapy?”


“No, but she’s been up in the wheelchair a little bit.”


“That’s not passive therapy,” Nurse Brown corrected. “Well then, I suppose we’ll clean the wounds and we can get started.” She glanced at Rose’s cheek and the stitches that ran across it.

“There’s no sign of infection there. When are you supposed to go back and have your stitches removed?”


“Friday. With any luck I’ll be up and walking again soon.”


Karen pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, Miss Grayson. Your legs have been through a tremendous trauma. It’s going to take a great deal of time and effort before you’ll be able to get around on your own. Let’s not worry about walking yet and just concentrate on getting you healed.”


Ronnie stood up and grabbed her empty cup. “I’m getting some more coffee. Do you want some, Rose?”


“Yes please, thank you.” She held out her cup.


“What about you, Miss Brown?”


“Oh no thanks. I don’t drink caffeine.”


“Fine, I’ll be back in a minute.” She headed for the door but was stopped by the melodic voice.


“Ronnie?”


“Yeah?”


“Could you give me a few minutes?” Rose gave an embarrassed smile. “I have a couple of things that I need to take care of.” She looked pointedly at the bedpan sitting on the small stand.


“Oh, uh, okay. I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”


But Ronnie did not go in the living room. Instead, she haunted Maria while the older woman tried to get her daily chores done. “So, you saw her, what do you think of her?”


“She’s not my nurse. You should be asking Rose about her.”


“But do you think that she’s all right? I mean, the agency said she was a registered nurse. Should I have gotten more information about her? I can call Susan and have her run a check with the State Board.”


“If you think you should, Ronnie,” replied Maria, the duster in her hand flying over the antiques.

“Has she said or done anything you don’t approve of?”


“Well…no, not really.”


“Then what’s the problem?”


“No problem. I just wondered if I should or not, that’s all,” the executive replied, her tone slightly miffed. She stood there silently for a minute, the tension building within her. “I have a lot of work to do and my computer is in there.”


“You have another one upstairs in your room that you could use if you had to.”


“But the data I need is on this one,” she lied, knowing full well both computers connected to the network housed at the corporate offices.


“Ronnie, if you need to get in there I’m sure Rose would understand.”


The tone in Maria’s voice made the tall woman realize just how she sounded. “No, I’ll use the one upstairs. Let me know when lunch is ready.” She turned and raced up the stairs.





Once inside her room, Ronnie flipped on the switch of her computer and sulked over to her bed. She looked around the room, realizing, as if for the first time, how quiet and empty it was. The thick carpets and solid wood floors kept the sounds from below from filtering up to her. “This is stupid,” she scowled, returning to her computer desk and sitting down. “I have work to do.”


The folder she clicked on however, was not a work folder. It was to her solitaire game. She followed by reviewing her appointment book and noting that Christmas was only seventeen days away. Well, it would not hurt anything if she looked around the Internet for a while. Browsing the Macy’s site gave Ronnie no ideas at all about a gift to get for her mother. She had seen several items she thought Rose would like though. By quarter of twelve, Ronnie still had no presents for the members of her family. “The gift that always fits,” she decided, clicking on the gift certificate form. That problem solved, she shut the computer off and trotted downstairs to have lunch with Rose and watch Judge Judy together.


When Ronnie entered Rose’s room, she was pleased to see Karen was finishing up. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t forget to do those exercises I showed you. You have to keep those muscles active as much as possible or it will only slow your recovery.”


“I will, thank you,” the young woman replied.


“Fine.” The nurse turned her attention to Ronnie, correctly assuming she was the one in charge.

“I’ll be back tomorrow around nine.”



* * *

Lunch was a simple fare of soup and sandwiches, eaten while listening to the feisty judge reprimand someone for thinking she would believe they had repaid a loan but just could not find their receipt. By the time the credits rolled, both women were looking at empty plates. “Maria can make anything taste good.”


“Oh, she’s a wonderful cook,” Rose agreed. “Has she always worked for you and your family?”


“As long as I can remember. Her mother worked for us too, but she retired shortly after I was born. Maria’s been everything from housekeeper to baby-sitter to referee ever since.” The high pitched chirp of the phone interrupted her. “Probably another telemarketer,” she grumbled.


“Aren’t you going to answer it?”


“No. Maria screens my calls for me.” As if on cue, Maria knocked on the door. “Okay,” Ronnie called while reaching for the phone. “This is Veronica Cartwright.”


“Um…yes, Miss Cartwright, this is Jonathan Barker from First Albany Savings and Trust. How are you today?” Recognizing the name of the bank’s senior vice-president, Ronnie’s posture stiffened and she pushed her chair over to the desk.


“Yes, Mister Barker. What can I do for you today?”


“Well…I don’t mean to bother you at home but I felt this matter required your immediate attention.” She did not miss the touch of nervousness in his voice. “Mister Cartwright hasn’t returned any of my calls and I am afraid at this point I have to seek recourse somewhere else.”


Ronnie rolled her eyes and picked up her pencil, lightly tapping it on the desk. “What’s this about?”


“Well…as you know, when a loan is defaulted, we are obligated to go to the guarantor in order to recover our losses and since you are the cosigner on Mr. Cartwright’s personal loan….”


“I cosigned a loan?” The pencil stopped moving. “When was this?”


“Oh, I um…” She heard papers shuffling about on Barker’s desk. “Yes, here it is. I have your signature dated April fifth as a cosigner for Mr. Thomas Cartwright’s personal loan.” A touch of nervousness crept into his voice. “You did cosign a personal loan for him, didn’t you, Miss Cartwright?”


The pencil began tapping rapidly. “I guess I must have forgotten about it, Mister Barker.”


“Well, I’m sure it was just a simple oversight on Mister Cartwright’s part but I am afraid that we haven’t received a payment in over five months. I really can not let this go on much longer.”


“No, of course not.” The pencil moved with more force. “You can transfer the overdue amount from my personal savings account.”


“Well, I appreciate that Miss Cartwright but I am afraid at this point the loan is considered to be in default and we have to ask for full repayment.”


“Fine. You can take whatever is owed from my account.” She nestled the phone between her ear and shoulder, freeing up her hand to grab a piece of paper. “Can you please tell me the exact repayment amount so I can mark my records?”


The pencil dropped to the desk and clattered onto the floor. “What?”


“I said the total with interest and late fees comes to seventeen thousand six hundred forty-two dollars and twenty three cents. I’ll have that withdrawn from your account immediately.”


“Mister Barker?”


“Yes?”


” In the future, make certain you check with me personally before approving any more loans for any member of my family.”


“Certainly, Miss Cartwright.”


There was a pause before Ronnie realized that he had said something else. “Excuse me, I’m afraid I didn’t hear you.”


“I asked if there was anything the bank could do for you today.” the banker repeated.


“No. I think you’ve done enough, thank you.”


“Have a good day, Miss Cartwright,” he said, but she had already hung up.


From her seat only a few feet away, Rose heard every word of the executive’s side of the conversation. It was not hard to piece together what happened. “Ronnie?” All she got was a view of the back of the brown leather chair and the furious clacking of the keyboard. “Ronnie?”


“Do you need something, Rose?” Her tone sounded much harsher than she intended. The typing stopped. “You know, there are times when I wish I wasn’t the oldest,” she sighed, turning her chair around to face the young woman.


“Do you want to talk about it?”


Ronnie’s first reaction was to say no, that family problems are always settled privately, but then she looked up into soft green eyes and realized she did want to talk about it, she did want to share her frustrations and feelings with Rose. “Tommy took out a personal loan and forged my name on it as cosigner.”


“Oh, that’s terrible,” the young woman gasped. “But, why did you pay it?”


“Because that’s what I’m expected to do,” she sighed. “If I didn’t, Susan or Mother would have.”


“But you’re only making it easier for him to do it again.”


“I know, but I don’t have a choice.” She pushed her chair closer to the bed. “Even though I’m considered the head of the family now, there are still some things I have to do whether I like them or not.”


“It’s a lot of pressure sometimes, isn’t it?” Rose reached out and placed a gentle hand on the older woman’s forearm. “It must be very stressful to have to keep everything inside.”


Ronnie looked up in surprise. “Yeah.” It was the first time anyone had ever expressed any understanding of her feelings when it came to being the family caretaker. “Tommy just soaked me for almost eighteen grand.”


“Oh my God! Eighteen thousand dollars?”


“It’s not even the money that bothers me,” Ronnie continued, deliberately not focusing on the fact that the amount meant completely different things to each of them. To her, it was a fraction of her savings and would not really be missed. To Rose, well…she did not even want to think about what it meant to the young woman who spent less than twenty bucks a week on groceries.