After crossing the street, Jack carried his bike up his front stoop and deposited it in its usual location. Then he started up the main stairs. The closer he got to the apartment door, the more he wondered what he was going to find. Could Laurie have invited someone over who might get Dorothy to leave? Jack didn’t know, but he thought it couldn’t hurt to be optimistic.
Once inside the apartment, Jack paused to listen. He was pleased when he heard no TV sounds emanating from the guest room. He even noted that the guest room door was slightly ajar and the light was switched off. But then, as he started up the next flight of stairs, he began to hear theevening news coming from the family room TV. That was not a good sign, as he knew Laurie was not a network news fan, nor was Caitlin.
As Jack’s line of vision crested the family room floor while he mounted the fifth flight of stairs, he caught sight of the people sitting on the gingham upholstered couch, and he slowed. To his horror, it was not only Dorothy but also her husband, Dr. Sheldon Montgomery, a retired Park Avenue cardiac surgeon. Both were glued to the television. It was apparent they had yet to see or hear him. As Jack reached the top of the stairs he could see that Dorothy was again in her bathrobe, meaning she was not going anyplace, and, equally distressing, Sheldon was similarly attired, but with the addition of a silk cravat.
Jack glanced over to the kitchen area and stared at Caitlin. In contrast to the Montgomerys, she was looking directly at him and rolled her eyes for his benefit. Turning his head, Jack looked into the playpen. Again, Emma was silently sitting in it with her beanbag toys lined up. Like she had the previous evening, she was constantly rolling her head and staring into space, seemingly locked in her own world.
Jack walked over to the playpen. As he did so, Dorothy caught sight of him and with a smile raised and briefly flapped the fingers of her right hand in a kind of constricted royal wave that Jack associated with Queen Elizabeth. Sheldon also nodded in Jack’s direction. Then both Montgomerys redirected their attention back to the news, despite it currently running a commercial. Jack looked back at Caitlin, and out of the Montgomerys’ line of sight, he hooked his thumb in their direction and flashed a questioning expression with arched eyebrows. Caitlin responded by closing her eyes and shrugging, suggesting she didn’t quite know what was happening.
Jack spent a few minutes talking with Emma and stroking her. He got no response but didn’t expect any. Then he continued down the hall toward the study that he shared with Laurie. He found Laurie and JJ at Laurie’s desk. They were busy doing an art homework assignment.
“Hey, Tiger,” Jack said as he tapped JJ’s shoulder with his fist. Intenton his maneuvering with a pair of scissors, JJ didn’t respond. Jack then bent over and gave Laurie a peck on the cheek.
“At least you got home safely,” Laurie said. She reached up and gave Jack’s arm an affectionate squeeze. “That’s one thing less on my mind.”
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Jack asked.
“Talk away,” Laurie said. She then put glue on the back of the star that JJ had just laboriously cut out.
“I mean out of earshot of this budding artist,” Jack said. He tousled JJ’s hair. JJ moved away from Jack’s hand as he positioned the star to his liking in the diorama being fashioned from a cardboard box.
“I’ll be right back,” Laurie said to JJ. “Go ahead and cut a few more stars. It’s coming along fantastic.”
Jack walked over to the windows looking out onto 106th Street. He could see that a few more people had appeared on the playground in anticipation of playing basketball. When he sensed Laurie was behind him, he turned around.
“So you now have a name but still no diagnosis,” Laurie said, assuming Jack wanted to talk about the case.
“No specific diagnosis,” Jack said. “But we now have evidence with reasonable certainty that an unknown pathogenic virus is involved. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about at the moment. What’s with your parents? Why is your father here and in his bathrobe?”
“It’s simple,” Laurie said. “I called him today and explained about Mother. We both thought it would be best for her if he came over here. She’s an entirely different person when he is around. She is not nearly so critical.”
Jack stared at Laurie in disbelief. For a moment he was tongue-tied. Having both her parents camping out hardly seemed like a solution to their current struggles.
“He’s going to talk to her about going home, but just not right away. I know you think her presence is disruptive but try to see the situation from her point of view. With both you and me away all day, she feels it isher duty to be here until Emma’s status is determined and a plan of action is decided. She respects Caitlin but feels strongly that she is not family, and this is a quintessential family emergency. And on the plus side, she is very patient with Emma. Even Caitlin says so.”
Jack could feel his blood boil, yet Laurie was making a certain amount of sense. Still, an overwhelming sense of frustration, helplessness, and guilt settled over him like a blasting mat. He found himself thanking his lucky stars he had the subway death case, with all its surprises and twists and turns, to fall back on to keep his sanity.
“Do me a favor!” Laurie said. “Go out there and try to be pleasant. My father likes and respects you. I know that for a fact. I’ll be out as soon as I finish with JJ. You and I are a team, Jack. We’ll get through this.”
Jack was speechless. All he could do was nod in agreement, and he felt worse for it. He should have ranted and raged, but he didn’t. He felt like such a milquetoast because two minutes later he was back out in the family room, pulling over a chair from the dining table so he could make nice with both Dorothy and Sheldon.
The timing was impeccable. The moment Jack settled into his chair the network news was over. As Dorothy switched the channel to PBS Thirteen, Sheldon turned to Jack.
“Evening, Doctor!” Sheldon said. He leaned forward, extended his hand, and gave Jack’s a shake. “Was it a busy day?”
“It was busy, all right,” Dorothy interjected. “But all his patients died.” She laughed mirthlessly at her own joke, one she had used many times in the past.
“It was busy,” Jack agreed. He wondered what they would have said if he’d described his visit to the tattoo parlor. Being a medical examiner was far different and more varied than most people imagined, even other doctors. As far as Dorothy’s cutting remark was concerned, he ignored it, as he usually did. “And how was your day, sir?” Jack asked. He knew that Sheldon was essentially retired but still went into his group-practice Park Avenue office every day. What he did, Jack had no idea, since hehad stopped doing surgery two years earlier. But as one of the founding members, he was able to call the shots.
“Dorothy mentioned you had unkind words to say about Hermann Cross,” Sheldon said, ignoring the question. His tone was matter-of-fact and not accusatory.
“I was told he still adhered to the discredited role MMR vaccines played in causing autism,” Jack explained. “For a doctor, I find that particularly unenlightened.”
“He’s trained in psychiatry,” Sheldon said as an explanation. “And he is more of a businessman than a physician.”
“I guessed as much,” Jack said. He racked his brains for additional conversational subject matter untilPBS NewsHourgot under way. At that point, Sheldon’s attention drifted back to the TV, and Jack was relieved momentarily of his hosting duties. For ten minutes he merely observed Laurie’s parents and their slack faces as the news droned on. Emma was also in his visual field, and Jack found himself wondering how the brain function of the three people differed. The Montgomerys weren’t rolling their heads, but their blank expressions matched Emma’s.
With a sudden flurry of welcome laughter and activity, Laurie and JJ appeared. Laurie was chasing JJ, who was squealing as if terrified. For protection he ran into Sheldon’s arms. It was a wonderful little normal interlude shattering the otherwise mausoleum-like atmosphere.
