PROMISES BROKEN, PROMISES KEPT

Dan’s grandmother was the most important person in his life. After his father left and his mother turned to drugs, she took him in, loved him, and provided a stable, happy upbringing. She was a strong, positive role model. When he got older, he promised her he would never let anything bad happen to her.
        A week before Halloween, she stood on a chair on her front porch cleaning cobwebs from the eaves when, as she described it, a large bird, maybe a bat, swooped toward her and knocked her off balance, causing her to fall and break an ankle. The doctors repaired the break and planned to keep her in the hospital for three or four days until the swelling went down. For two days, the recovery went as planned. But when Dan visited on the third day, she was ashen, in restraints, and comatose. He shook her arm and called her name but she was unresponsive. And there was something else odd: on her neck were two puncture wounds, red and swollen.
        He went to the nurses’ station. A short, stout nurse with a red, puffy face was studying a monitor.
        “Excuse me. My grandmother, Mrs. Hobbs, in room 318 is in restraints and appears sedated. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
        Reluctantly she turned from the monitor. “Mrs. Hobbs? Last night she became very agitated and combative. She was hitting the nurse and insisted she had to leave the hospital. We had no choice but to restrain her.”
        Dan was shocked. “But she was fine yesterday.”
        The nurse spoke nonchalantly. “She may be having an adverse reaction to the pain medication.”
        “Can we take her off that medication?”
        She nodded. “We’ve made a request to Dr. Sharma. We’re waiting for a different prescription.”
        “And she has two puncture wounds on her neck. Have you seen those?”
        The nurse looked up. “Puncture wounds?”
        She followed Dan to his grandmother’s room and assessed the affected area.
        “Hmm. I’m not sure what those are. She may have injured herself during her rampage last night. I’ll let her doctor know.”
        Dan stayed for a while, then returned at ten o’clock that night. This time his grandmother was wide awake but quite agitated, wrestling with her restraints. Upon seeing him, she calmed down and stared at him with dead eyes. It unnerved him. This was not his usually upbeat grandmother. This was a different person.
        “Hi Danny,” she said, her