Friday, December 18, 1987

Thanks to the pain pill Sam took before going to bed, he ended up sleeping through the night.  There were no more recurrences of the nausea and vomiting.  When he woke, he felt more human, if not one hundred percent.  Looking over to the clock and seeing that it was already after 7:00, he rolled out of bed.  His primary thought was to turn on the coffee maker and get some caffeine into his system to dispel the last of the drug-induced sleepiness.  In most cases, he’d choose tea over coffee but on a morning when he didn’t feel quite awake, coffee was his choice of caffeinated beverage.

He might not have been functioning on all cylinders yesterday but he still remembered complaining to Al about the state the house was in and his mother’s upcoming visit.  He’d have a little time to start in on that before he had to go to his appointment with Dr. Stone later.

As he entered the living room, he stopped short, surprised at the site that greeted him.  Sprawled on one of the couches sound asleep and snoring was Al.  Neat piles of folders, magazines and other assorted papers were stacked on the floor in front of the couch Al slept on.  Each pile was labeled with what it was ranging from items that Sam had to sort out to outdated newspapers and magazines to be recycled.

“Al,” Sam called shaking Al’s shoulder.  “Wake up.”

“Huh?  Sam, something wrong?  You ok?” Al said as he immediately woke up.

“Nothing’s wrong.  I was just wondering why you were sleeping on my couch and what all this is about,” Sam said pointing to the stacked piles.

“Oh, well I’m sleeping on your couch because I didn’t want to leave you alone last night. You weren’t exactly on the same planet as the rest of us most of the day and then you got sick as dog for a while last night.  I started cleaning some stuff up for you and must have conked out here.  This,” he continued gesturing to the piles, “would be the accumulated paper crap you had in this room, the foyer, the kitchen and on your desk.  .  Haven’t you read a newspaper or your mail for the last month?”

“Of course I read my mail,” Sam quickly responded.  “I pull out anything that’s important and the rest…”

“…gets thrown on the table near the door,” Al finished for him.  He reached for a small stack of envelopes that was on the coffee table.  “Here, I think you missed a few of those important ones.”

Sam quickly rifled through the stack before pulling one out and throwing the rest back down on the coffee table.  “Damn, this is my mortgage.  What’s today?  The 18^th?”  He didn’t give Al a chance to answer the question.  “It’s postmarked the 5^th so it can’t be late yet.” 

He quickly headed for his office without another word.  Al grabbed the discarded envelopes off the coffee table and followed Sam into the office.

Sam started to move stuff around on the desk but when he didn’t find what he was looking for, he opened the top drawer taking it’s contents out and dropping them down on the desk.

“What are you doing?” Al asked horrified from his place just inside the doorway.  “I just cleaned that all off.  Don’t be piling stuff up again.”

Sam answered distractedly as he pawed through the now accumulating pile of drawer contents.  “I’m not.  I’m just looking for a letter opener.”  Securing the sought after tool, Sam swept the items he’d put on the desk back in the drawer and plucked the envelope from the computer monitor where he’d rested it and slit it open.  He quickly scanned the documents contained in the envelope before announcing, “I’m not late.”  He started moving around the objects still on top of the desk looking for something else.  “I don’t suppose you saw my checkbook around when you cleaned off my desk.  I always leave it right here,” he said pointing to the back corner of the desk.

“Why don’t you try that drawer you just stuck everything into,” Al suggested dryly.

Throwing a lopsided grin in Al’s direction, Sam pulled open the drawer and pushed the contents around in it until he located the sought after checkbook.  He’d inadvertently swept it in with the rest of the stuff.  Checking the payment information again, he wrote out the check and stuffed it, along with the payment stub, into the envelope.  Once the envelope was sealed, he began to hunt around the desk again.  “Where did you put the...forget it, here they are,” he said pulling a roll of stamps from the same drawer and ripping one off.  He made a face when he licked the back of the stamp and put it on the envelope.  “They should just make these things self-adhesive.”

“Maybe you should suggest it to someone,” Al joked.  “I can just see it now.  Maybe they’ll give you another Nobel for inventing the self-adhesive stamp.”

“Ha ha.  You’re a real riot.  Remind to drop this in the mail when I go to Dr. Stone’s later, will ya?” Sam said putting the sealed envelope down on the edge of the desk and heading for the kitchen.  “You want some coffee?” he asked over his shoulder.

“What about the rest of these?” Al asked holding up the other envelopes that Sam had discarded.

“They’re for credit card insurance.  I don’t need it.”  Sensing Al’s disbelief, Sam stopped at the office doorway and turned around.  “If you don’t believe me, open them up.  I get them all the time and I recognize the envelopes.”

Al tossed the remaining envelopes into the recycling bin by the desk.  “I believe you.  How could you know those were junk without opening them but you missed your mortgage?”

“I’m not used to paying it yet.  I didn’t close on the house until after we got back from Colorado.”  Sam made a detour into the laundry room on his way to the kitchen opening and closing the dryer.

“Hey, I thought you said something about coffee,” Al said when Sam went into the laundry room.

“Yeah, I was just checking to see if I’d emptied this out,” Sam explained. 

With breakfast out of the way, the two men turned their attention to the accumulated piles of paper that Al had sorted in the living room.  Sam gave them another cursory scan and pulled out several magazines that Al had earmarked for recycling and set them aside to read later.  While he set about re-filing the items that belonged in his office, Al took care of disposing of those going to recycling.

With the stacks from the various rooms taken care of, the two turned their attention to completing the job in the office.  It took nearly an hour for them to sort through everything that was piled up on and around the couch and return it all to its rightful places.

“We’ve got to get going in about an hour,” Al said as he put the last book back on the bookcase.  “I’m gonna go take a shower and get changed.  You should get ready too.”

Sam surveyed the work they’d done that morning.  Although the room still needed a thorough vacuuming and dusting, at least the collected clutter had been taken care of.  “I could use a shower, too,” he said.

Al was just entering the bathroom at the end of the house where the guest bedroom was when he realized what Sam had said and followed him to his bedroom.  “You can’t,” he reminded him stopping in the doorway.

“What do you mean, I can’t?” Sam queried.  After a morning spent cleaning up around the house and being ill the night before, going out without showering wasn’t very appealing.

“You can’t take one until after you get the dressing checked today, remember?”  Sam’s face showed little recollection of the post-op instructions he’d received the previous day.  “Of course you don’t remember.  They had you too drugged out yesterday,” Al muttered.  Louder, he said to Sam, “Dr. Stone said you weren’t to get the surgical site wet until after he checks to see how it is today so no shower since that would definitely get it wet.”

“I did forget.  Ok, no shower then.”  Sam started to pull clothes out to change into throwing them down on the bed.  When Al saw him add a pullover sweater to the pile, he spoke up again.

“You better not try the sweater.  You’re not supposed to move that shoulder around at all yet and you know how hard it was up on the mountain trying get a sweater on.  Stick with a button down shirt.”

Sam grabbed the sweater from where he’d put it and stuffed it back into the drawer.  “I suppose the doctor told me that yesterday, too.  Is there anything else he said that I should do – or not do - that I don’t remember?”

“Just that when you take the sling off you should move around your elbow and wrist but not your shoulder.”

When they arrived at Dr. Stone’s office, a nurse explained that he was delayed by an emergency with another patient but that he should be there within a half hour to forty-five minutes.  Since that meant Sam was going to be a while, Al took the opportunity to drive over to his apartment and put together a bag of things he’d need for the next couple of days.  Helping Sam to get the house cleaned and decorated for his mother’s arrival was going to end up being a time-intensive project and he felt it would be just as easy to sleep at Sam’s house instead of running back and forth to his apartment every night.  Considering the time he spent at Sam’s working on project business, he was starting to think it would probably be just as easy to give up the lease on the apartment he had and move into Sam’s guest room.  It was an idea he decided to shelve for a later time.

Sam had started renting the house outside of Socorro while working on StarBright.  With the prospect of an impending marriage, Sam had made and offer on the house and the owner had accepted it.  Al had been surprised that Sam had gone through with the sale after the wedding fell apart.  When he’d asked Sam why, Sam had explained that at 34 it wasn’t such a bad idea for him to finally own a home – something he could really call his.  Several delays with the bank had pushed the actual closing date off until early November.

After securing everything he’d need from his apartment, Al made a quick stop at the grocery store picking up some essentials and was back at the medical building in time to pick Sam up at the end of his appointment.

“How’d things go,” Al asked once Sam had buckled his seatbelt.

“It was okay.  I’m not going to be able to move my arm around much for a couple of weeks so that’s going to make things hard,” he started to rub the top of his shoulder and neck grimacing in discomfort.

“Hurting?” Al asked catching the movement out of the corner of his yes.

“It’s a little sore.  Probably from all the prodding Dr. Stone did.  I’ll ice it down again when we get home and it should be fine.”

“So when do you have to go back?” Al asked.

Sam pulled an appointment card out of his pocket to double-check the information on it.  “I have a follow up on the 28^th,”

Al was surprised at the length of time before Sam would have any other follow up on his shoulder.  “That long?  Don’t you have any therapy or something before then?”

“No, the next appointment I have is the one with Dr. Stone on the 28th.  He’s holding off on physical therapy until at least 4 weeks after the surgery to make sure it’s healing” Sam confirmed.  “I need to keep my arm in the sling constantly for the next two weeks and not move my shoulder at all and I have to keep using the immobilizer at night.”  Sam was not at all happy with this turn of events.  “That means I can’t drive for at least two weeks since my jeep’s a manual.”

“So, I’ll drive you wherever you need to go.  That’s not a problem.  You’re better off following Dr. Stone’s instructions so you don’t undo that before it gets a chance to heal up right.  I don’t think you want to go through surgery again.”

“I guess,” Sam said though his heart wasn’t in it.

“Guess nothing,” Al said switching his gaze briefly over to Sam before returning it back to the road in front of him.  “If you don’t do what you’re supposed to I’ll just tie you down and make you.”  Al said it with a smile but deep down he knew he’d do it if he had to.  Sam knew he would as well.

“I’d like to see you try,” Sam said returning the smile.

The two drove in silence for a while.  The buildings around them eventually gave way to desert.  Sam had purchased a home on the outskirts of Socorro and, quite literally, didn’t have any neighbors around.  Though the day was sunny and bright, a cold wind was blowing and temperatures were hovering just a little over 40 – slightly lower than normal for the time of year.  Often it was mistaken that just because it was the desert it would be warm all the time when, in truth, temperatures would often fall below freezing and snow would cover the land, though it didn’t last long.

Al finally broke the silence in the car.  “Ok, so you don’t have another appointment for over a week and you need to keep your shoulder still.  What else did Dr. Stone tell you?”  Al knew that sometimes, unless prompted, Sam was reluctant to reveal instructions the doctor gave him.  He’d been down this road before after Sam’s first follow-up visit with Dr. Elliot regarding the kidney he’d injured.

“Nothing much really.  Just to keep icing it down over the next few days and to take the painkillers when I need to.  It’s pretty much what he said I’d have to do when we met before the surgery.  Oh, he did clear me to take a shower, though.  I just need to make sure the area where the incision is wrapped in plastic wrap so it doesn’t get wet.”

Again the two lapsed into a companionable silence that Sam eventually broke.  “Thanks for helping me out the next couple of days and offering to drive me around until I can do it on my own.  You don’t have to and all and I really do appreciate it.”  Sam kept his gaze directed straight out the window in front of him unsure how his gratitude would be accepted.  Sometimes Al had a funny way of turning Sam’s most sincere thanks into a joke of some kind.

“Don’t mention it, Kid.  Just give me a little more warning next time, ok?”

Sam could hear the sincerity in Al’s voice and was grateful for it.  Raising his head up, he looked over in Al’s direction offering his own idea.  “How about if there just isn’t a next time?”

“That works, too.”

When they got back to the house, there was a small argument over whether Sam was fit to carry in any of the grocery bags.  He finally won the argument although Al made sure he gave him the lightest bag to carry.

“What’s in there,” Sam asked when he saw Al pull a duffel bag out of the backseat.

“I stopped by my place and picked up a few things.  It’ll just be easier for me to stay here for the next couple of days instead of going back and forth,” Al explained.

“As often as you end up staying here you should just move in,” Sam said before walking through the garage to the door.  When he got there, he stopped suddenly realizing that with one arm in a sling and the other arm holding the bag of groceries he wasn’t able to reach in his pocket for his keys.

“Gimme that,” Al said taking the bag from him when he saw Sam’s dilemma.

Sam gratefully handed the bag over to Al until he'd unlocked and opened the door but then took it back.  He led the way through the laundry room and into the kitchen, depositing the bag of groceries on the island counter.  “I was hoping they’d just disappear,” he said looking at the dishes in and around the sink.

“I was hoping your dishwasher was going to be fixed,” Al added setting his grocery bags down on the counter next to the one Sam had put there.

Sam started pulling groceries out of the bag and putting them in place in the various cupboards.  “I called at the beginning of week but I can’t get a repairman out here until after the first of the year.”

Al grabbed the box of cereal out of Sam’s hand giving him a push in the direction of the refrigerator.  “Go ice that shoulder down and I’ll take care of this.  I can take a look at the dishwasher too, you know.  That’ll save you a bundle on a repairman.

“Oh no,” Sam protested.  “I’m not letting you anywhere near it.  Look what happened when I let you ‘fix’ the washing machine.  I could have floated a boat in the laundry room with all the water that was on the floor.  I don’t need a flood like that in the kitchen.”

“Hey, it was an honest mistake.  I thought the hose was latched on tight.”

“Uh huh,” Sam responded unconvinced before leaving the room.  He came back a few moments later with an elastic bandage.  Opening the freezer door, he pulled out the gel ice pack he’d been using the evening before and held both out to Al.  “Can you do me a favor and wrap this for me.  That way I can move around and still ice it down.”

Reluctantly, Al took the items from Sam.  “Why don’t you just go sit down for a while?  You don’t need to be running around constantly.”

“Because, I don’t want to just sit down.  It’s not like it’s really hurting anyway, just sore.  Now c’mon so I can start getting things done.”

Sam sat down in one of the kitchen chairs and looked expectantly up at Al waiting for him to wrap the ice pack in place.

“You’re stubborn,” Al needlessly stated but he wrapped the icepack in place anyway.  “That feel ok?” he asked once he was done.

“Feels fine.”  Sam looked around the kitchen trying to decide what to do first.  “I don’t think I can manage washing dishes one-handed.”

“I’ll get those as soon as I finish putting this stuff away.  Why don’t you grab your laundry and start that.  You can probably manage that with one hand and maybe you’ll find out what color the tile is in the bathroom.”

“Good idea.”  He grabbed the empty laundry basket from the laundry room and went back to the master bath.  Dropping the empty basket down on the closed lid of the toilet he started to separate his laundry into three piles – whites, lights, and darks.  The light and dark colored clothes he left on the floor.  The whites he put in the basket.  Once he’d finished sorting all of the clothes that were in the hamper and had landed on the bathroom floor, he checked his bedroom adding several more items to the pile.  Satisfied that he’d tracked down all the laundry, he took the basket of whites to laundry room.

“Hey, Sam,” Al called when he caught sight of Sam walking by.

“What?” Sam asked poking his head in the kitchen door seeing Al up to his elbows in soapy water washing the dishes.

“When you’re done putting in that load, can you check the fridge and see if you have anything in there that needs to be washed.  Might as well get it all at once.”

“Sure, just give me a second.”  Sam dumped the load of laundry in the machine but came up short when it came time to put in the detergent.  The bottle was new and heavy and there was no way he’d be able to get it in the measuring cup with one hand without making a mess.  Shrugging off the problem, he poured the detergent directly into the machine and skipped measuring it all together.  The fabric softener proved somewhat easier.

Once he'd started the wash, Sam cleaned out the fridge as Al had requested.  It wasn’t as bad as either of them feared it might be.  Two containers he put aside for Al to wash and a third one he was too afraid to open.  It had been pushed to the very back of the shelf and he honestly couldn’t remember how long it might have been in there.  He suspected it might have been from before the trip to Colorado.  Chalking the container up as an acceptable loss, he tossed it into the trash along with several Chinese take out boxes.

“What do you want to do about dinner?” Sam asked closing the door of the fridge.

“I don’t care what it is as long as it doesn’t require using any dishes,” Al offered.

The two thought silently for a moment before both called out, “Pizza.”

“At least that way I won’t need you to cut up my food for me,” Sam added.  “I’ll put in the order now and it should be here in about a ½ hour.  He picked up the phone but paused before dialing.  “What do you want on it?”  Al was often quite eclectic in his choice of pizza toppings and it seemed he never suggested the same thing twice.

“Uh, I don’t know.  Get whatever you want.” Al answered.

Sam made the phone call ordering a simple cheese pizza.  Since Al had left it up to him to make the choice he decided that, for a change, they’d just play it safe.  Some of the combinations the older man came up with to put on pizza were quite interesting and only the truly adventurous could really enjoy them.  Today Sam wasn’t feeling very adventurous.

“It’s gonna take about 45 minutes for them to get here,” Sam said after he’d hung up the phone.

“That’s what you get for living so far out.”  Al wiped his hands off after draining the water and tossed the towel on the counter.

While they waited for the pizza’s arrival, they sat down and wrote out a game plan for how they were going to tackle the rest of the house.  It had been Al’s idea as he’d insisted that if they had a definite idea of what they were going to do and how they’d be able to get it done that much faster.

They planned to finish with the house cleaning on Sunday.  They’d finish with the office after they ate; do the kitchen, bathrooms and Sam’s bedroom tomorrow, and the guest room and living room on Sunday.

“I can’t buy a tree on Monday morning,” Sam said when he saw Al writing it in.

“Why not,” Al asked with his pen poised above the paper.  “It’s the only time to do it if there’s going to be enough time.  You can’t decorate it right away – you need to let the branches fall so if we get it Monday morning, it’ll be ready for Monday night.

“I know all that, Al, but I’ve got a follow-up appointment with Dr. Elliot Monday morning.  I have to go in from some blood work and an ultra-sound.”

“Damn, I forgot about that.”  Al thought for a moment tapping the pen against the paper.  “Ok, change in plans.  I’ll drop you off at hospital Monday morning and while you’re at your appointment, I’ll get the tree, bring it back here and set it up and then pick you up at the hospital.”

“That sounds good,” Sam agreed just as the doorbell rang.  “Do me a big favor, though,” he said as he rose to answer the door.

“Sure, what?”

“Don’t get the forest.  A nice, small tree will be perfect.”

Sam heard Al’s laughter follow him out of the kitchen and to the front door.  He paid the deliveryman for the pizza and took the box from him bringing it back to the kitchen and dropping it off on the kitchen table.

“I’m going to toss that load of wash into the dryer and start the next one.  You mind getting down some plates for us to eat off of?  There should be some disposable ones in the cupboard over the sink.”

“Tell me they’re not Styrofoam,” Al complained opening up the cupboard Sam had indicated.

“I think they’re paper,” Sam answered from the laundry room.  “If they’re not we’ll just make do with them anyway.”

“What do you want to drink?” Al called out from the kitchen.

“Whatever’s in there,” Sam answered as he walked by to grab another load of laundry from the bathroom.  When he got back into the kitchen, Al had put the plates and cans of soda on the table and had pulled back the cover on the box of pizza.

“What?  No cups to drink out of,” Sam asked reaching into a cupboard to get them.

“We don’t need them,” Al quickly answered.  “I’ve had my fill of washing dishes today.  The cans are fine.”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh at Al’s vehemence about not using any other dishes.  “Ok, you win.  No more dishes today.  You planning on eating out until Mom gets here?”

“No, but from now until the time she does get here, you use a dish – you wash a dish.  None of this letting them pile up crap.”

Sam grabbed a slice of pizza out of the box still laughing.  “Works for me,” he said around a bite.  “Of course you realize that you’re going to have to do them for the most part.”

“Yeah,” Al answered wryly.  “I figured that out.  I’m beginning to wonder about the timing of this shoulder surgery now.”

Sam’s only response was to laugh harder.

Once finished with dinner, Al cleaned off the table throwing the empty pizza box and plates into the trash and putting the rinsed out soda cans in the recycling bin.  Sam headed to his office to get started on the clean up in there.

When Al got in the room, he caught Sam trying to pull the top box off a stack in a back corner of the closet one-handed.  “What are you trying to do, break your other arm?” he asked grabbing the box from Sam before it could tumble down from the top of the pile.

“These boxes have some Christmas decorations in them,” Sam said pointing to the box Al now held as well as the others in the stack.  “I thought when we were done in here I could go through them and see what I had and what I needed to buy.  I was going to move them into the living room.

Sure enough, the box that Al was holding was labeled “Christmas” in neat block letters.  “That’s a good idea but you’re not in any shape right now to be moving these boxes by yourself.  Like it or not, Sam, right now you need help.”

“I don’t like it but I guess you’re right,” Sam conceded.

“Good.  Now how many others are there?”

“It’s that one and the other three.”

Sam followed Al into the living room supervising where the boxes were placed.

“Where’d you get this stuff?” Al asked after he’d moved the fourth box from the office closet to the living room.  “I didn’t think you’d have anything to decorate with.”

“Mom gave them to me when she moved out to Hawaii with Katie.  It’s some of the Christmas decorations we had when I was a kid.  She divided it all between the two of us.  I’ve never used it before this year – never really had a reason to.  I never wanted to get rid of it, though, so I used to just keep it in storage.”

Curiously Al flipped open the lid of one of the boxes.  The contents were individually wrapped in tissue paper.  Picking up one of the wrapped pieces, he pulled the tissue paper off of it to reveal an angel.  It was obviously old with the paint fading and chipped in places.

“That was my grandmother’s nativity,” Sam explained taking the piece from Al and looking down at it.  He caressed the face of the angel with his thumb.  “She used to have it set up on a small table in the parlor and every Christmas Eve I’d want to play with it and move the pieces around.  Mom would always manage to grab my hand before I could touch anything.  Grandma would tell Mom it was ok if I touched, I wouldn’t harm it.  She passed away when I was still young and she left it to me.”

“That your grandmother you said lived with you?”  Al asked.

“Yeah, she lived with us for a while,” Sam explained as he re-wrapped the angel and placed it back in the box.  “After Mom and Dad got married she lived with my Aunt Sarah for a while – I guess so Mom wouldn’t feel out of place or like the house wasn’t hers.  She came to live with us when I was three and she brought this with her.  It’s kind of ugly and I could get probably get something newer but…”  He shrugged not finishing the thought.

“But anything newer wouldn’t have the same memories this one has,” Al supplied.

“Yeah.”  Sam visibly shook himself from his thoughts.  “I’m going to go check that laundry and I’ll meet you back in the office.”

Al watched Sam leave the living room before closing the box up again and following him.  After another hour and a half’s diligent work, they finally had the office as neat and clean as it could possible be.

“Geez, I never would have believed there was a floor in here if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes,” Al joked.

Sam kept right up with Al’s joking sarcasm.  “I’d forgotten what color it was.  Ok, it’s still early, what do you want to tackle next?”

“Nothing,” Al quickly answered.  “You might think it’s still early but it’s getting late and you’ve done quite enough for today.  You did have surgery yesterday in case you’ve forgotten.”

“It’s a little hard to forget,” Sam said rubbing his shoulder.  Al noticed that he’d been doing that on and off for the last half hour.

“It’s time for you to ice that shoulder down again and this time you’re sitting on your butt to do it.”  Sam looked like he was going to argue Al’s decision but Al quickly cut him off.  “I’m gonna do the same thing so it’s not like you’re going to be missing out on anything.  You get that ice pack and get yourself comfortable on the couch.  I’m going to throw some popcorn in the microwave.  You can go through those boxes while we watch a movie or something.”

“Ok, that actually sounds like a good idea.  I just need to finish up with that laundry.”  When Al looked like he was going to argue, Sam hastened to add, “I can do that while I’m sitting down.”

Al gave a quick nod.  “I guess that’s okay otherwise you’re just going to end up with everything wrinkled.  I’ll be in in a little bit with the popcorn and help you with it.”

Once the popcorn had finished popping, Al brought it into the living room.  Sam was sitting cross-legged with his back leaning against the couch opposite the TV trying to fold the items of clean laundry in the overflowing basket.  He wasn’t having much success using just one hand.

“You’re making more of a mess of that,” Al stated when he saw the results of Sam’s folding.

“Yeah, I guess I am” Sam agreed looking at the lumpy pile of clothes.  “I though this was something I could handle.”

“I’ll move those boxes over here.  You go through them and I’ll fold the laundry.  It’ll all get done in half the time that way.”

Al brought the boxes over to Sam putting them down on the floor next to where he was sitting.  He pulled the basket of laundry over to him as well as the clothes that Sam had attempted to fold and began to refold everything.  “What’s this?” he asked catching sight of the TV.  There was an old movie playing and he couldn’t immediately place what it was although it did have the ring of familiarity to it.

“It’s a Wonderful Life,” Sam answered reaching into the bowl of popcorn without taking his eyes off the TV.

As movies went, it wasn’t Al’s first choice of what to watch.  Looking over to Sam, he saw how intent he was watching it and decided not to say anything.  Instead, he settled back to watch as Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey realized that no matter what was wrong in his life, it was still a lot better than things would have been if he’d never been born.

Al finished folding the laundry and Sam inventoried the boxes in about 15 minutes.  There were a number of things that he’d need to buy new in order to decorate properly but he was set for the most part.  One of the boxes had contained the nativity and another had contained carefully wrapped tree ornaments.  The rest was an eclectic mix of various decorations.

Once they were both done with their respective tasks, Al moved the boxes back over to a corner of the room and put the folded laundry in Sam’s bedroom.  When he got back into the living room, he saw that Sam had moved and settled himself comfortable in a corner of the couch across from the TV.  His feet were propped up on the coffee table.  The discarded icepack was lying on the couch next to him.  He cradled the bowl of popcorn in lap as he intently watched the movie.  Al grabbed the icepack to return it to the freezer.  By the time he got back into the living room, Sam’s head was back and he'd fallen asleep with his hand still in the popcorn bowl.  Al grabbed the bowl from him and nudged him awake.

“You’d be more comfortable sleeping in bed, you know.”

“I’m not sleeping,” Sam mumbled pushing himself up straight on the couch.  I was just resting my eyes during the commercial.”

“Uh huh,” Al said unconvinced.  “You just happened to miss when that commercial ended because of resting your eyes.”

Sam made a valiant effort to stay awake to watch the end of the movie but ended up nodding off again during the next commercial.  When Al suggested he head for bed this time, he agreed.

Once he’d changed into his sleeping clothes, Sam grabbed the immobilizer he had to wear at night and brought it out to Al.  “Can you give me a hand getting this on?”

“Sure,” Al said taking the immobilizer from Sam’s hand.  It was a wide swath that wrapped around Sam’s upper arm and torso preventing him from moving his shoulder unconsciously in his sleep.  It stayed in place with the use of wide Velcro strips.  Al wrapped it in place pulling the Velcro tight enough so that it wouldn’t come off while Sam slept.  “Is that too tight?” he asked once it was in place.

“No, it feels ok,” Sam assured him.  “I’ll be glad when I don’t need it anymore.  I hate having my arm immobilized like this.”

Al just offered Sam a sympathetic look.  He knew the kid was just blowing off some steam.  He couldn’t blame him, though.  He wouldn’t like it very much if he had to sleep with his arm secured to his body – especially if he knew he had two weeks of it to look forward to.

“Where’d you put the bottle of Percocet?” Sam asked getting up from where he’d sat on the coffee table while Al secured the immobilizer.

“It’s on the island in the kitchen.  It must be starting to bother you pretty bad if you’re going to take them.”

“Yeah, it’s starting to throb again.”  Sam headed in the direction of kitchen.  “I’m gonna go drug myself to oblivion,” he said jokingly, “and head to bed.  I’ll see you in the morning.  Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Al said in response.  He picked up the popcorn bowl and brought it out to the kitchen along with the cans of soda they’d been drinking.  He considered leaving the bowl by the sink but remembered his own edict on cleaning each dish as it was used.  Once it was rinsed and put away, he checked all the doors in the house to be sure they were locked securely before going back and settling on the couch.  Finding the remote, he switched through the stations until he found a basketball game and settled back to watch it.

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