A nurse pokes her head into the room.
“The doctor will be in in a just a moment,” she says. She smiles at Ava. “How nice that your granddaughter came to support you.”
“I’m his child bride,” Ava deadpans.
The nurse’s expression turns from sweet to bewildered.
“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” she says, closing the door quickly behind her.
We giggle in silence until the door pops open a moment later.
“Hello, Mr. Copeland,” the doctor says. “It’sverygood to see you.”
Doogie Howser shakes my hand. He turns to Ava.
“I’m Dr. Ferguson,” he continues, extending his hand to her. “You must be the child bride I’ve heard so much about?”
Ava’s eyes grow large, and she turns to me in slow-motion horror.
Now he’s funny?
“You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy,” I say.
Dr. Ferguson laughs.
I feel the tension in my body momentarily deflate.
Perhaps I have a team working for me and not against me.
“This is my grandniece, Ava,” I continue. “She’s visiting me for winter break.”
“How nice,” Dr. Ferguson says. “Where are you visiting from?”
“Ohio,” she says with a dramatic sigh. “My father teaches at Ohio State.”
“You meanTheOhio State!” the doctor exclaims. “I went there for undergrad. Go, Buckeyes!”
“You do know how you get accepted into Ohio State?” Ava asks.
The doctor shoots her a confused look.
“You either have to spellOSUorThecorrectly,” she continues. “That eliminates roughly half the applicants.”
The doctor chuckles.
“Joke I always tell my dad to make him mad.”
“Tough, funny girl,” I say with a wink. “That’s why she’s with me today.”
“Well,” Dr. Ferguson says, “I have to thank you, then, Ava. I’m thrilled Teddy is here today. I wasn’t sure I’d see him again.” The doctor looks at me. “So? Have we come to any decisions?”
I open my mouth, but Ava interjects.
“He’s having a nerve-sparking robotic prostatectomy,” Ava says as if she is guest-starring onGrey’s Anatomy. “There seems to be less reaction to anesthesia, less bleeding from surgery, fewer blood clots, and less damage to surrounding organs or infections at the surgery site.”
The doctor’s eyes grow bigger with each word. “I’m impressed,” he says. “Are you planning to be a doctor?”
“I play one on TV,” Ava says.
