What They Left Behind

Ben opened his eyes and though he thought it was only a few moments after he sat down in his office chair, it obviously was not. He wasn’t even in the restaurant. He was in a bed surrounded on all sides by stark white curtains. There was a constant beeping sound, which didn’t help his head any. He was groggy and felt like someone with a hammer had beaten him up. He looked to the left side of the bed and found all sorts of machines, tubes and wires. He lifted up his left hand. An IV was taped to his wrist, along with some sort of sensor.

  I guess I should have gone to the doctor sooner, he thought. What he believed was major heartburn and some muscle stiffness was obviously something more serious. It occurred to him that one of his employees found him in bad enough condition to call for an ambulance. He hoped they weren’t too devastated and that they had enough sense about them to let the paramedics in through the back entrance. He didn’t want the customers to be alarmed. Suddenly he realized the restaurant was being run without him. Goddammit, he thought, now it’s probably total chaos at Michele’s because I don’t have someone qualified enough to run the place without me. I knew I should have looked for a sous chef sooner. These things always come back and bite me in the ass it seems.

  The room was deathly quiet except for the intermittent sounds of machines beeping, but then Ben heard the scuffling of shoes on the tile floor. When the curtain was pulled back, it was a young lady not much older than Lauren in a white lab coat. Her eyes widened when she saw Ben.

  “I guess you’re the nurse around here,” Ben said to her.

  “Yes,” she replied hesitantly. “I work in the ICU. How are you feeling…” she looked at the chart at the end of his bed. “Mr. Perrin?”

  “Just call me Ben,” he said. “Well…I’m feeling okay, except for a very bad headache. I’m kind of tired, a little sore and lightheaded too.”

  “That’s the nitroglycerin,” the nurse replied, “and the IV is a morphine drip. That’s probably what’s causing the fatigue.”

  “Wow, good stuff,” Ben said. “Anyway, I’m just curious. Why am I here? Last thing I remember I was in my office trying to relax.”

  “You went into cardiac arrest,” the nurse replied. “When the ambulance arrived, you had no heartbeat and no pulse. Luckily, they were able to revive you with the defibrillator and rushed you here to the hospital. Your family is going to be very happy that you finally regained consciousness. They’re in the waiting room right now. Would you like to visit them?”

  “Sure,” Ben replied. “By the way, how long have I been out of it?”

  “It’s been almost three days,” she said. “And we’re happy to have you back. For a while, it was very touch and go. But for the last day or so, you’ve stabilized. I’ll go tell your family right now that you want to see them.”

  Holy crap, Ben thought, the restaurant’s been open for three days without me! Everything’s probably going straight into the gutter. I’ll have to serve six days of free meals to make up for it, too. I better not stay here too long. I’ve got a business to run. I don’t need to go into bankruptcy just because of this.

  When Annie and Kristopher walked in, they both looked as pale as the hospital sheets. Annie ran up to Ben and hugged him.

  “Oh god Ben,” she said, her voice breaking. “I thought we were going to lose you!”

  He put his arms around her. “I’m so sorry, Annie. I had no idea this was going to happen.”

  “I should have made you go to the doctor. I was so worried when you had all those weird symptoms, but I was hoping that they would clear up eventually.”

  “So was I,” Ben said. “I can’t believe I had a heart attack at the restaurant. I hope the crew is all right.”

  “They’re very upset. I think Lauren is the worst. One of the wait staff had to drive her home because she was in total hysterics.”

  Ben groaned. “Oh no. I didn’t want that to happen. She has enough problems with her mother, never mind this.”

  “I think she was the one who found you in your office.”

  “Oh great. Now she’ll probably come down with that post-traumatic stress disorder and be on medication her whole life. It’ll take me forever to find another sous chef!”

  “There’s more important things in life than work, you know. I think she’ll be okay once she knows you’re all right.”

  He looked at his son who was standing stiffly next to his bed, looking down at him as if he were a corpse. “Are you okay, Kris? I hope you weren’t too worried about the old man.”

  He nodded. “I guess I’m all right.”

  “Hey, why don’t you come over here and give me a hug?”

  Kristopher walked over and leaned on the bed. Ben tried to give him a hug but the kid was as stiff as a board and wouldn’t reciprocate. What is wrong with him, he thought. I work my ass off to give him everything in the world and lately he’s been treating me like chopped liver. I almost die of a friggin’ heart attack and I still can’t get a hug from him. He’s probably wishing I did die for all I know.

  “How’s everything going?”

  “Okay,” Kristopher said, sounding like he was at the principal’s office.

  “I hope this didn’t distract you too much from your school work.”

  “Oh actually,” Annie piped in nervously, “Kristopher hasn’t returned to school since your heart attack. I thought it would be better if he stayed out this week.”

  “What?” Ben replied. “You better bring him back to school tomorrow. He’s going to have a load of work to make up and I don’t want him to fall behind.”

  Kristopher rolled his eyes and sighed in disgust. It was something he knew perfectly well Ben couldn’t stand. That little bastard, Ben thought, he did it anyway.

  “You ungrateful son of a bitch!” Ben yelled. “You’ve got a lot of balls to treat me like this. I should kick you out on the street by your ass!”

  “Why don’t you then?” Kristopher muttered, giving him a dirty look. “Then you can work all day and night at your stupid restaurant.”

  “Get out you little turd! I don’t want to see your snot-nosed face again. You call my restaurant stupid? You’re the one that’s stupid!”

  Annie took Kristopher by the shoulders and led him out of the ICU. He heard Annie speak to someone outside the room. Then he heard quick steps approaching his bed.

  When the curtain parted, it was that same nurse he saw earlier, only this time her eyes were narrowed with anger.

  “Mr. Perrin,” she said sternly, “maybe you should leave your family problems at home. There are some extremely ill people in this room. The last thing they want to hear is you screaming at your child. You don’t run the show around here, so I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.”

  Ben sank back down in his bed. He felt like such a jerk. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  The nurse shut his curtain and stomped away.

  Maybe I should have died, he thought, feeling ashamed of himself. As much as I try, I always fuck everything up in the end. He tried not to cry but the tears fell anyway. He could almost hear Bryan making fun of him, and this time he felt he deserved it.

  Chapter 83: October 12