Read The Shadow Project for Free Online Page B

where the doc was heading, so he added, “I’m her only living.” When the doc looked blank, he finished: “Relative. In the country, so to speak.”
    â€œAh.” A pause, a deep breath, then, “I’m Dr. Miller, Danny. Your grandmother’s had a stroke. You know what a stroke is?”
    â€œYes,” Danny said irritably.
    â€œThere was substantial bleeding into the cranial aper—inside her skull, and some swelling of the brain. We’ve operated to relieve the pressure and also to repairthe blood vessel—”
    â€œYou’ve operated already?”
    â€œYes. We had no choice. Your grandmother was in a very bad way when she arrived here.” He sounded a tad defensive. It occurred to Danny that nobody had been around to sign a consent form.
    Danny said, “She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
    That deep breath again. Dr. Miller said, “She’s still in recovery, Danny, but I think she’ll be okay. Her age is against her, of course, but she looks like a fighter. I think she’ll pull through.”
    Which told Danny they hadn’t expected Nan to survive the operation. But now she was lying in a recovery room, tubes stuck up her nose. Danny knew the doc wasn’t telling him everything: he could smell it. As an encouragement he said, “You think she’s going to live?”
    â€œI think so. I hope so.”
    Danny looked him in the eye. “But…?”
    The doctor shifted uneasily, and Danny could read his mind. There was good news and bad news, and the operation hadn’t been the bad news. The bad news was still to come. “Look, Danny,” the doctor said, “it isn’t just a question of whether she lives or dies. She’s not quite out of danger, but her vital signs are good, and there were no problems during the operation, no technical problems. But it was some time before she got here, some time afterthe actual stroke. There was a lot of bleeding. Frankly, we’re worried about the possibility of brain damage.”
    Danny stared at him. The words brain damage had turned him cold. After a long moment he asked, “How bad?”
    â€œWe don’t know.”
    Brain damage could mean you lost a bit of feeling in your hands, or a small part of your face got frozen. But it could mean something else, something he didn’t want to think about. He thought about it, swallowed, then asked hoarsely, “Could my Nan turn into a vegetable? Could it leave her so she can’t speak, can’t move at all?”
    The doctor looked away. “We don’t know.”
    â€œHow was she before the operation?” Danny asked.
    Dr. Miller looked at him. After a long moment he said, “She couldn’t move and she couldn’t speak. But that doesn’t mean she will stay that way. Not necessarily. We’ve done everything we can to minimize the damage, and we’ll continue to monitor her very carefully while she’s here, but she’s going to need constant nursing for a time after she’s discharged. Quite how long that will be I can’t tell you yet.”
    â€œCan I see her?” Danny said.
    For a second it looked as if the doc was going to refuse, but then he said, “She’ll be moved into ward seventeen when she comes out of recovery. That’s on the secondfloor. Why don’t you go up and wait by the nurses’ station? I’ll look in and see how she is, and if everything’s okay, you can see her for a short time: it might do her good to have someone from her family around when she wakes up.” He fixed Danny with a serious look. “But you mustn’t expect too much at this stage, Danny. She’ll be groggy from the anesthetic on top of all her other problems. So just a few minutes, eh?”
    â€œOkay,” Danny said.
    The nurses on the second floor were nice. They told him his Nan was going to be all right, found him a