Redstone Construction CEO Learns About Blue Envelope in Hospital Recovery Room
The crane operator was idling his engine down on the street when the load of spruce joists arrived at ten past ten. The smell of fresh pine framing drifted through the open concrete bays of the RiNo site.
Brandon Walsh, my business partner, was squinting at the structural layout of the third-floor landing. He tapped his heavy brass pen against the portable desk we had set up on the subfloor. He was fifty-five, a former Army CID investigator, and he rarely missed a detail. Next to his elbow sat a six-dollar cup of black coffee from the bakery down the block, already cold.
I reached down to clear a pile of heavy steel brackets off the elevator shaft header.
A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my lower abdomen, hot enough to make me drop the heavy metal with a loud clang.
I leaned my forehead against a cold concrete column, trying to draw a breath through my teeth.
Brandon looked up, his face immediately dropping its usual business hardness.
“You need a doctor, Robert,” he said.
“It is just a strain,” I said, rubbing my left wrist where my watch usually sat.
“A strain does not turn your face white,” Brandon said, tapping his pen once more. “Get it checked before the concrete pour on Friday.”
By six o’clock that evening, I was standing in our kitchen in Cherry Creek, leaning against the dark granite of the island.
Nicole, my wife, was slicing lemons for dinner, her emerald ring spinning slowly around her finger as she worked.
“You cannot lift structural steel at fifty-four,” she said, her voice dropping into that quiet, practiced softness.
“It was a fifteen-pound bracket,” I said.
She laid the knife down on the cutting board and looked up at me.
“I spent the afternoon researching,” she said. “There is a surgeon at Presbyterian St. Luke’s who specializes in this exact type of repair.”
“I can call our family doctor in the morning,” I said.
“Our family doctor is a generalist,” she said, her fingers twisting her emerald ring. “I want the best for you, Robert. I already cleared his schedule. Dr. Julian Mercer is the best in Denver.”
