CHAPTER 1
NATHAN
Doctor Nathan Hale gently cleaned his patient’s arm with an antiseptic wipe, never dropping his friendly smile. His patient, a seven-year-old boy named Charlie, looked up at Nathan with big, watery blue eyes. His lower lip trembled, and his small hands were fisted on his lap.
“Hey.” Nathan smiled at him encouragingly. “Don’t worry. Like we talked about, this will only take a moment, and it’ll just pinch a little.”
Charlie blinked, looking closer to crying than ever. Nathan’s heart ached. He felt terrible for inflicting any pain on this sweet child, even though blood draws like this were a normal part of his work.
“Tell me something,” Nathan said, sitting back and purposefully not looking at the table where he’d laid out the needle and vial for drawing blood. “What do you like to do?”
“I like to play soccer,” Charlie said in a soft, worried voice. He glanced at his mother, Susan, who was sitting in the chair besidehim, and she nodded. Then the little boy’s eyes drifted back to the needle.
“Ilike to play soccer,” Nathan said. “Although I’m pretty bad at it.” He winked and adjusted his glasses with his free hand. “I bet you’re great, though.”
“I’m okay,” Charlie said. He looked at the needle again and his small face went pale. Nathan knew it was time to change tactics — just chatting wouldn’t be enough to calm this particular patient. He wheeled his chair back and grabbed the finger puppets he kept on his counter for exactly this kind of situation. They usually worked with younger kids, but Nathan had plenty of experience using them with kids this age, too. Sometimes, even older kids and adults just needed a little fun and whimsy to take their mind off scary medical procedures.
“Which one do you like best?” he asked Charlie.
“The cow,” Charlie said.
“Good choice.” Nathan smiled at him and slipped the cow puppet onto his finger. “Hey, Charlie,” he said in a cartoon imitation of a cow voice. “I’m over the mooooon to see you today.”
Charlie laughed. It was a little watery, but it was still a laugh, so Nathan continued, his spirits lifting.
“Do you know why I crossed the road?” he asked in the cow voice. Charlie shook his head. “To get to the moooooovies.”
Charlie laughed again. “That’s silly.”
“I know, right?” Nathan said in his normal voice. “I told the cow not to bother my patients, but he just had to see you.”
“Really?” Charlie glanced at the cow with the skepticism of a seven-year-old. “That’s funny.”
“I know.” Nathan slipped the cow off his finger, placing it on the armrest next to Nathan’s left hand. The little boy’s gaze followed the cow puppet as he looked away from the needle and vials on the other table. “Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?” Charlie asked. Nathan sanitized his hands again and picked up the needle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the boy’s mom taking something out of her bag, but his attention was focused on his patient, so he didn’t give her a second glance.
“Interrupting cow,” he replied, using another antiseptic wipe to sterilize the little boy’s arm once more, just to be safe.
“Interrupting cow wh?—”
“Mooooooooo,” Nathan said. Charlie burst into laughter, as though this was the funniest joke he’d ever heard. The corner of Nathan’s mouth lifted in a smile at the boy’s happiness and at the way he’d relaxed in the chair. Times like this, he thought his most important qualification wasn’t his years of medical training or his sharp diagnostic eye, but the pun and joke books he’d read when he was Charlie’s age.
“This is going to pinch just a little,” Nathan said, gently slipping the needle into the boy’s arm. He got the vein exactly on the first try, which was often difficult on young patients, but there was no room for error here. “Hey, what’s a cow’s favorite animal?”
Charlie was biting his lip, his eyes closed.
“Hey, Charlie,” Nathan said in the cow voice. “What’s my favorite animal?”
Charlie opened his eyes a crack and looked at the cow puppet. “Is it a cow?”
“No. It’s a mooooooooose,” Nathan said. Charlie giggled as Nathan finished filling the vial and took the needle out of the boy’s arm. He pressed gauze to the site to keep a drop of blood from falling.
“And that’s it,” he said. “All done.”
“Really?” Charlie opened his eyes the rest of the way, his face relaxing in relief.
“Really.” Nathan smiled at him. “You did great.” In the cow voice, he added, “You’re a real MooooooVP.”
