Chapter 1Storm Watch flitted across the screen on the television situated across from the hospital bed in Room 112.
“No kidding,” Noel Bright muttered under his breath, his gaze flitting briefly to the one window in the room where he could make out the pouring rain through the slats of the blinds.
He returned his gaze to his patient, who was fretfully watching the news.
“It’s all right, Mrs. Newton. It’s not as bad as all that.”
Two days earlier, Clara Newton had spent her eightieth birthday in Haydon Cliff Medical Center’s ICU. She’d had what turned out to be a minor stroke. She was lucky it wasn’t worse, as she herself kept declaring, but while she was better, her doctor wasn’t quite ready to move her to a regular room.
“It’s nearly seven AM, Noel. Aren’t you about to be off shift?”
