Dead Beat Dates & Deities - Goddess of Tornado Alley Series Book One

Chapter Four

"Well, you look like something the cat threw up," Frank's mother, Rosalie, told her. The older woman stood at her daughter's bedside and squinted down at her. At only five feet one inches, the only way Rosalie towered over anyone was when the other person was lying flat on her back. She was diminutive in height and weighed just over a hundred pounds, but the personality that was packed into her small body was nothing less than monumental.

"Hi, Mom," Frank said. She blinked at the light Rosalie had allowed into the room when she'd stormed inside and pushed back the heavy drapes. "Could you close those, please?"

"It's like a tomb in here," Rosalie told her.

"I have a headache."

"Judging by the line of stitches above your eye and the pair of shiners you're sporting I have no doubt you're telling the truth." Rosalie's lined eyebrow rose as she studied her daughter's face.

"I might be a little hung over, too, so how about closing the drapes?"

"Nah," Rosalie said running her fingers through the platinum colored pixie cut she wore. "Your eyes will adjust in a minute or two." She tilted her head to the side. "What is that?" She reached out and plucked something off Frank's lower lashes.

"Ow!" Frank swatted her mom's hand away. "What are you doing?"

"This probably works better when it's sitting on your eye," Rosalie said, a bedraggled contact lens perched on the tip of her finger.

"Yes, well that's where some people like to keep them ..." Frank's voice trailed off. "Where's Ella?"

Rosalie flung the contact into the trash. "Rubbing up against some good-looking guy in a uniform downstairs. At least that what she was doing when I came up. Must be a doctor or something."

"Paramedic," Frank said.

"Yours?"

"Yep."

"Ella said he fished you out of a pond?"

Frank shook her head. "Not a pond. A fountain."

"Oh, that's much better."

"Just making sure you keep your facts straight. Hand me my purse, will you? Ouch." Frank's arm hurt where they'd given her a tetanus shot the night before. It felt like she'd been lifting heavy weights, but only with her left arm.

"If you're after a mirror, I advise against it."

"Good to know. Thanks. Actually, I was looking for my glasses. It was really nice of you to come by and cheer me up by the way. I thought you were in Grand Island."

Rosalie pulled a chair closer to Frank's bed and settled herself on it. She wore faded blue jeans that fit her like a second skin. Her tiny feet were tucked inside a pair of soft brown riding boots that went up to her knees. She'd dressed conservatively for her visit to the hospital in a loose-fitting sweater the color of oatmeal with only a minimal amount of cleavage peeking out of the neckline. Her nearsightedness she'd been kind enough to share with Frank. Her bust size she'd been a lot less generous with.

"Came back early this morning," Rosalie said. "Barney had a doctor's appointment at nine and his daughter is picking him up afterward. She's gonna be mad, too. Turns out Barney has very little experience when it comes to betting on horses. He didn't know whether to win, to place, or to show and got them all mixed up."

Rosalie spent a lot of her time entertaining a group of seniors at the Cedar Point nursing home. She played Gin Rummy, snuck in restricted treats and smoked forbidden cigarettes on a bench behind the garden wall with the residents. She took some of them to their doctors' appointments, and others she took on field trips. Some of these trips were planned by family members, others were of a more spontaneous nature.