Lost in the Shadows

Monday, July 12th found John back at the hospital in room twelve. No, his leg was fine. He was here for his first day of work. He reported to the housekeeping department and was introduced to his new boss, Mrs. Hain. His job would be to join the “dust patrol”. This meant that when a patient’s room was empty, he would do all the cleaning necessary to make it ready for the next patient. He was cleaning the very room where he had spent so much time! John had come a long way since his release from the hospital on Christmas Eve. As he stood there, mop handle in hand, he remembered what had happened to him since he left. Christmas Eve had been a time of discovery. When he climbed the back stairs and entered the kitchen at the Wheeler’s, it was as though he had entered a new world. He had gone from a white sterile hospital room to a warm, friendly home. The Wheeler’s house was not new. It was probably built in the late twenties. It was a two-story frame house with white painted clapboard siding on the outside. It had a sizable front porch. Inside, on the first floor were the kitchen, pantry, bathroom, dining room, living room, master bedroom and front hall. The stairway to the second floor was in the front hall. The stairway to the basement was near the back door in the kitchen. Located on the second floor were three bedrooms a bathroom, a sitting area in the hall at the top of the stairs, and a storage room. John would be living in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The first thing John did in his new home was to climb the stairs and, with George’s help, move into his new room. The room had a full-sized bed, a clothes dresser, a study desk with its own lamp, and a clothes closet. The walls were painted a light shade of yellow. There was a window looking over the street on the wall near the desk. There were pictures of Pittsburgh Pirate baseball players on two of the walls and a mirror on the third. The colorful patchwork quilt on the bed had been hand made by Mrs. Wheeler. All in all, the room exuded a very homey atmosphere. John’s life with the Wheelers was going to be very comfortable. For the first time since the accident, John spent an evening without feeling lonely. It was Christmas Eve and he was out of the cold, white, sterile hospital room. He was with people who were trying to make him feel at home. The six-foot-tall Balsam Christmas Tree was laden with aluminum tinsel and many colored, blow glass ornaments. The red, blue, and green Christmas lights were strung around the tree and shown through the tinsel in such a way as to make the tinsel glimmer. Christmas Eve with the Wheelers had been very enjoyable, as they did everything they could to make him feel at home. The Christmas Eve meal was simply fried hamburger with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans, but tasted so much better than the hospital food John had become used to. On Christmas Day, he met the Wheeler boys and their families. John watched with George and Beth as the grandchildren opened the presents laid out for them under the tree. While the children played with their new toys and the women retreated to the kitchen to prepare the Christmas Feast, the men gathered around the TV to watch whatever spots shows were on. During the afternoon, John spent some time talking with each of the three brothers. He found out that he was now living in the room Duane lived in before he got married and left home. Welcoming in the New Year was another time of celebration at the Wheeler Home. Whereas Christmas had been a time of joy and reflection, New Year’s was a time of celebration and promise. For John it was a definitive time of hope and promise. He still had this great hole in his past that he kept trying to fill. The more reading he did, the more bits and pieces of things he knew from the past came floating up out of that empty hole. He was making progress crutching around the house and soon would be crutching around out doors. George and Beth had been so much help. He felt they were treating him just like a son. New Year’s Eve was spent in front of the TV watching as the commentators remembered the highlights of 1964. During the evening, John helped Beth make preparations for the grand New Year’s Day evening meal. Again she would enjoy the company of her sons, daughters in law, and her grandchildren. The big event was watching as the ball was dropped at Times Square in New York City, welcoming in the New Year. George had to work that night, but Beth and John toasted in the New Year with a healthy class of water. New Year’s Day brought moderately cold temperatures with gray skies. There was a hint of snow in the air, but nothing of consequence happened. George came home from work early in the morning and went right to bed. He wanted to be rested for when the grandchildren arrived. John was looking forward to being with his newfound “brothers”. The big event of the day, of course, was the Rose Bowl football game on TV. Everybody in the Wheeler family followed the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Mountaineers were in the big East Conference and all their play had been decided. The Rose Bowl was between the winner of the Big Ten Conference and the winner of the West Coast Conference.