All Dolled Up!

Charlie’s POV

After Halloween, I now had to deal with the headache that was Thanksgiving and Christmas, both of which were fast approaching.

I mean, in the warehouse, the holiday rush had already started and we were now so busy that we were nearly working every minute we were there with little break time.

Speaking of headaches, I had a terrible one that day, though not from thinking how I was going to introduce Charlotte to my family in the upcoming holidays, and not one from stress, but an entirely different kind of one. It felt almost as bad as when I had that summer flu earlier, and the very next day I was hacking and coughing, and unable to move even a small box without feeling winded.

I didn’t need to be told twice that I needed to go to the ER. Thankfully I didn’t run into those people I had seen last time, otherwise the question as to why I wasn’t following up with my therapist would’ve probably come up. I was desaturating and they had me on a small amount of oxygen, and I was told four hours later that I had pneumonia. I did feel much better after whatever they gave me, likely the intravenous antibiotic, but I messaged Charlotte that I might not be able to come back during the day.

“Uh, are you Mr. Paddington?” someone asked as he walked up to me. I thought he was the ER doctor, but I couldn’t be sure. Doctors hadn’t worn white coats exclusively for decades by now, and unfortunately a lot of people did not introduce themselves.

“Yes,” I said.

“Right, my name is Dr. Harvey, I’m one of the ER physicians on call tonight,” he said. “We went over your chest x-ray, and it looks like you have a pneumonia on the right side of your lung.”

I nodded - I’d been told that already.

“But, we also found something while going over your blood work,” he said. “Your white cell count, which refers to cells in your body that help fight infections-”

“Yeah, I know what white cells are,” I said. “I used to be a nurse a while back- ah, sorry for interrupting.”

“Oh, no problem, that might make things easier then but let me know if there’s something you didn’t understand,” he said. “Your white cell count is high, which can happen with pneumonia, but you usually only expect it to be around maybe fifteen or twenty thousand. Your white cell count is forty-five thousand.”

A chill crept down my spine as I considered what that could mean. “Wait- are you saying I could be having a leukemia?”

“Well, I can’t say that for sure yet,” he said. “I mean, given your age, that would be highly unlikely. Some people do have exaggerated responses to infections, and this could simply be that.”

“But you can’t be sure.”

“No, I wanted to ask you a few more questions,” he said. Some of the symptoms he was describing did match up to what I had experienced. I had lost weight. I was feeling more tired than usual. And I had lost appetite. I had that cut a while back which took much longer than I’d have thought to heal. All things I’d attributed to the stress of moving and all that had happened thereafter including Charlotte’s sudden appearance in my life.

He still didn’t seem to be very convinced that it was cancer, which did reassure me somewhat. “So, we’ll run some more tests with your blood work in the morning. Do you have a primary care doctor that you see regularly?”

“I did but I haven’t seen him in two years, and he’s in another state,” I said.

“Alright, I’ll have someone give you the number to our own clinic where you can follow up, any other questions you might have?”

“No, but I’d like a letter for work,” I said.

“Sure, someone will get one ready for you,” he said.

“Thanks doc,” I said and tried to get some sleep. It wasn’t my normal bedtime, but I felt so tired, especially right now.

In the morning I did feel better, and I hadn’t been on oxygen for the past few hours. They felt confident enough to give me oral antibiotics and send me home, which greatly relieved me. I did not want to be in the hospital any longer than I had to. My earlier job had not endeared me to such places, and though this hospital of course looked different from the ones I had worked out, it brought out bad memories nonetheless.

I would have the other test results back within two days, and I kept trying to reassure myself that I was probably fine.

When I got home, it was still daytime, so I walked up the stairs, much slower than I usually would have but I went up them nonetheless. I walked up to Charlotte, who I knew could still hear me even if she was as motionless as a Medusa victim, because I knew she’d appreciate the update.

“Hey, Charlotte, I’m back, I feel much better now, turns out that I have pneumonia but it wasn’t too serious so I’m back,” I said. I didn’t tell her about the other results, given that I didn’t want to worry her too much about something that was probably nothing. “I’m going to take a nap, but I wanted to let you know that it was all okay.”

I collapsed onto my bed, waking up later on in the afternoon to take my evening medications. Yeah, my sleep schedule was going to be completely ruined by the end of this.

Once night fell, the drowsiness had ebbed away, and as expected, the moment the sun was beneath the horizon, Charlotte came to check up on me.

“Are you alright?”

“Much better now,” I said. I really felt like it. “I could even probably go back to work tomorrow night.”

That had been a joke, but Charlotte had such a look of murderous fury on her face that I think even Annabelle and Chucky would’ve been cowed if they saw her. “Hey- relax, that was a joke.”

“Well, it was a very poor one, and if you make another joke like that I’m going to tie you up to the bed when you’re sleeping,” she said. She walked over to me. “Why didn’t they keep you in the hospital longer if you were sick?”

“Well, times have changed,” I told her. “We realize that it isn’t beneficial to keep someone in the hospital for too long. There are so many bugs you could catch while in the hospital. Plus, I don’t want to be there any longer than I have to.”

She squeezed my arm. “If it was back in the day, I’d have called a doctor to see you right now.”

I smirked. “The days of doctors making house calls are also long over.” I got up.

“Lie back down!” she exclaimed.

“Charlotte, I have a mild pneumonia, that’s it, I’m going to be fine,” I told her. “And sitting in bed isn’t going to do me any wonders. Might even give me a blood clot.” I got up. “See? I’m not going to collapse on you. Plus, I need something to occupy my time, don’t I?”

“Alright,” she said. “But nothing major, alright?”

“Sure,” I said, sitting at the dining room table while she made breakfast for me. She had gotten pretty good at it considering this was something she’d be expected to always have someone to do for her. I picked up my phone and dialed my father’s number. “Hey- how’re you doing?”

“Great,” he said. “Anything wrong?”

“Well, a little bit, turns out I was having some problems breathing for a few days, I visited the ER, they said I have pneumonia, and I’m on oral antibiotics for now,” I told him.

“My gosh, why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“It literally happened in two days, Dad, and I thought I’d get better,” I told him.

“Are you sure you should be out of the hospital?”

“Yes, the doctors say that it’s fine,” I told him.

“Well, do you need any help? You want me to call Suzy and have her come by, or wait - give me a few hours, I’ll swing over-”

“-no, Dad, I’m fine,” I told him. “Suzy has her job, and she’s busy with whatever wherever she is. And it’s not like I’m bedridden or anything, I feel much better now after taking my meds. You don’t have to do anything.”

“Still, how about I just drop by for a day? What’s the harm? I’ll help you set up anything missing or that needs fixing around the house,” he said.

“No, no, you don’t have to,” I said. “I don’t want anyone making a big fuss of this- the reason I called was because I didn’t think I was going to feel well enough to visit during Thanksgiving - I’m sorry.” It was a week away, and truth be told, I was probably going to be well enough to go there by that time, but being able to call in sick would take away so much of the stress right now that I felt that I couldn’t handle. I couldn’t give them any answers on Charlotte, not to mention that I felt like traveling was the last thing that I’d want to do.

“Oh,” he said. “I mean, yeah, your mother was looking forward to it, but if you feel that bad, sure, get your rest. But let me know if anything’s wrong, okay? Remember, you’ve still got family pretty close by, it’s only a few hours away, and I can come if anything happens.”

“Sure,” I said. “Thank you for that, but I’m being honest, you’re worrying way too much about me.”

“I’m never going to stop worrying about you, Charlie,” my father said. “That’s what it’s like being a parent - and someday you’ll realize that too. Speaking of, how’s your girl doing?”

“She’s doing absolutely fine,” I said.

“Yeah, I saw your Halloween photo,” he said. “Tell me, is she really working as a security guard?”

I groaned. Did Suzy have to open her mouth and blab out everything that I told her? “Did Suzy tell you?”

“She told your mother, who mentioned it to me,” he said.

“Well…” I had no idea how to respond given the huge web of lies that we were weaving. “Yes.”

“Huh - bit strange for a woman,” he said. “I guess time’s really have changed though. Does she - I mean - she’s not in any place there might be real danger, is she?”

“Ah, no,” I reassured him. “Most of the nights she’s on ‘patrol’ absolutely nothing happens at all. It’s definitely a low-risk gig.”

“Ah, that’s good,” he said. “So yeah, just rest up as much as you can, okay? And don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything- money, time, whatever, okay? And also give your mother a call, she’ll want to know all of this.”

“Aren’t you going to tell her?”

“You know her, she’ll want to hear it from your mouth too,” he said. “And give your sister a heads up whenever you have the time.”

“Sure,” I said. “And hey - I’ll be there for Christmas, alright?”

“Yeah, don’t you miss that,” he said with mocking anger in his voice. “Your mother wouldn’t forgive you missing that.”

“I know,” I said and smiled as he disconnected the phone.