Chapter 10
Reagan was seeing his last patient of the day when he realized that he was supposed to have dinner with his parents tonight.Sometimes they would call one of them up and have them over for dinner.Tonight was his turn, and he thought that he was looking forward to it, but now he wasn’t.It had been a long day, and he wasn’t up to making small talk tonight.He would have called to cancel, but he knew that they would be disappointed that he couldn’t make it, and that would hurt his heart.He loved his parents very much and never wanted them to be disappointed in him.
“Mrs.Runion, how are you feeling today?”She told him of her aches and pains, and he, laughing, told her that for her age, she should expect a few of those.She would be ninety-three on her next birthday.She made him wish that all his patients were like her in getting around.But she drank bourbon once a day and swore that was what was keeping her young.“Let me get with your chart here and see what this visit is about.”
“I have a cold.I’ve had one before, but I can’t seem to shake this one.Do you suppose it’s pneumonia?It wouldn’t surprise me to no end that I’d get this late in my life.That sort of stuff kills you if you’re not careful.”He listened to her lungs and found them to be fairly clear.“That’s good to know.I’ve been worrying over some details of my going home stuff and didn’t want to do that until I have all my ducks in a row.You’d better have yours all set up, too.You just never know when you’re going to go and see your maker.”
“I know, and I do.I have everything going to my parents in the event that I die before they do.”He thought this was a morbid conversation and decided to change the subject.“How are you resting?Sleeping any better since the last time I saw you?I know you said you weren’t getting enough rest and had to nap during the day.I need a nap sometimes too and highly recommend them to everyone.”She laughed, and he smiled with her.She would laugh like a braying jackass when something tickled her, and he enjoyed that about her, too.When she laughed like she did, you knew that she was enjoying a good story or a joke.
“I got me a place all planned out where I nap.It’s right there on my sunporch with the sun coming in on me.There’s a nice fan too that I have blowing on me.Might be where I got this cold, but I’m not too worried about it.You’ll fix me right up.”He said he’d do his best, and she patted him on the cheek.“You’re a good boy, Reagan.I ain’t never had me a doctor like you before.You take good care of me, and you never make me feel like I’m wasting your time either.As I said, you’re a good boy.Your parents did right by you, and you should tell them that all the time.”
“I tell them I love them at least twice a day when I see them.I’m having dinner with them tonight, as a matter of fact.”She asked him why he was wasting time on her when he could be with his mom and pop.“They know that I have to work.And I think following in my dad’s footsteps has made him proud of me more.”
“Well, of course you did.There ain’t nothing better than a doctor in the family either.I’m betting right now he’s as proud of you as he is of that new granddaughter of his.She’s a mighty cute little thing.Knows her manners too.”He said that he loved her too.“I’m betting you all do.She’ll bring more love into that family than you ever thought possible.Children do that.Not mine, but I don’t want to talk about them today.Pissed me off something terrible.They want to put me in a nursing home, so I’m not all by myself all the time.That’s another reason that I’ve lived so long, I’m not having to deal with them anymore.Kids can be a wonderful thing, but they can also be a pain in the backside.”He laughed with her again.
After giving her a prescription for some cold medicine, he saw her out.His dad would be happy to know that she was still getting around so good.He thought that she had been one of his first patientswhen he started out his practice.He’d been taking more and more of his dad’s patients over the last few months.Dad and Mom wanted to travel now that they were all out of the house, and he couldn’t wait for them to get going.
Closing up the clinic, he drove himself home.After a quick change, he was on his way to his parents’ house, feeling better about the visit all the time.He knew, too, that Mac and Aaron would be around and thought that he’d enjoy seeing them as well.He loved his family and loved to be around them as much as he could.
Dinner was good, as usual.They had pork chops on the grill, his favorite thing to have with mashed potatoes and gravy.For dessert, there were pies.Since he knew that he’d be taking some home with him, he only ate one slice of pie from each of the three offered and had a good laugh with his mom.She didn’t bake well, so she left that up to the cook, but today she had supervised, she told him.
After telling his dad about Mrs.Runion, they sat around the living room and talked about how old she was when she first came to him as a patient.It was hard to believe that she’d been anything but old to him, but Dad told him that at one time she had been the belle of the ball to some people.
“Her family isn’t much to talk about.They’ve never given her much of her due when it came to her health.But now that they want to put her into a nursing home, she might have to knock a few heads around.Like her husband before her, she wants to die at home and not have to have the fuss of the hospital.I believe she’s going to do what she wants and damn her kids.”Mom said that she used to come in with her kids and keep them in line with just a look.Dad agreed with a laugh.“She would only have to give them a look, and they knew that they were going to get it when they got home.I’m betting that she never once hesitated to give them a swat to the bottom when they needed it, no matter if they were in public or not.”
“She puts me on notice sometimes, too, when I’m seeing her.If she doesn’t agree with whatever I’ve told her, I know she’s going to do as she wants when she gets home.”Dad told him that was more than likely right.“I’m going to miss her when she goes.I don’t think it’s going to be for a while yet, but I will miss her.”
“I will too.Even now, when I see her around town, I wonder what her secret to living so long is.She gets around better than most fifty-year-olds I know.”Reagan agreed with his dad, bringing up a couple of patients who were just like he said.“They get old before their time, and it shows on them.I think people realize that they’re in their sixties and just give up.I’m just getting to the good part of my life right now and wouldn’t have it any other way.Your mom and I are going to go see the world once I’ve given you the last of my people, and there will be no turning back the clock for us.We’re going to live each day like it’s our last.”
“Like grandma and grandpa.”They were good examples of people not giving up because they hit a mark in their lives that had them giving up.“Sometimes I find myself a little sore because I moved something that I should have had help with, and I think of grandda.He’s still out there working on things like he’s got all the time in the world.Sometimes, like me, he should ask for help, but Aaron is around to get him out of fixes.”
“He does at that.Aaron spends more time out there refixing things that dad had gotten into his head would work better than he does just visiting them.”Dad laughed.“I swear to you, he didn’t tinker with things like he does now.I think he does it to get Aaron out there to help him out.Aaron thinks so, too.But they get along in their little plays, and that’s all that matters.”
They spoke about how Harri had spent the night with them and how much fun they had.Grandda had made little Harri a rocking chair so that she’d have one, and he said he was making more of them before his time was up.None of them wanted to talk about that, but they all appreciated that he was thinking ahead.
“She sure did like that gift.She told me that she didn’t have any grandparents who wanted to have anything to do with her.I hadn’t realized until I spoke to Anna that her husband had killed himself before she was born.And that his parents blamed it on her.I don’t know why, but I assumed that he’d been there for the two of them after the little one had been born.”Reagan said that accordingto Zeno, she’d not even known she was pregnant when he died.“I didn’t know that either.Poor little family.I’m so glad that they’re a part of ours now.Do you suppose they’ll ever want to have anything to do with that little girl?I can’t imagine doing that if one of you boys died.I’d want to be a part of her life even more so.”
He didn’t want to talk about dying anymore and said as much.His mom said he was right; there had to be better topics than death to talk about.Dad said that he wanted them to know that they’d had everything taken care of in the event something happened to them, then he changed the subject to the fall season.
“I’m going to get me some of those blow-up things for the yard.I’m betting that little Harri will enjoy then.”Mom said she’d been looking at all kinds of things they could do for Harri, and their plans were endless.“She sure can tell you what she’s about when she has something to say.I love that about her.She talks really well for a four-year-old, too, if you ask me.”
“That has to do with the way that Anna speaks to her.She talks to her like she’s just another adult that she has to deal with, and that’s what made her vocabulary so strong.I can’t wait to see her out on the soccer field this fall.She’ll be bossing the kids around to do a good job that I think they’ll do well.”They all three laughed about the little girl.She was what grandda called a pistol, and he really was looking forward to the other brothers having wives and then babies.He said as much to his parents.
“What about you, son?You looking forward to having a mate?I’m betting there is one out there for all of you.”He said that he didn’t have time to look.“Maybe she’ll fall in your lap like Mac did to your brother.That was the best story that I’d ever heard.”
Mac had been power walking when she’d come around the stationhouse.Her ankle had been hurt before coming to town, and it was bothering her that day.Aaron had just come out of the office, and she literally fell into his lap, breaking her ankle again.She’d been told it was just a sprain from before, but they all knew that it was something more.
After nine o’clock, he was ready to go home.Dad didn’t want him to leave and asked him if he wanted to stay.He said that he couldn’t as he had to work in the morning for half a day and didn’t want to be late.And he would be if he stayed at his parents’ house.It was too tempting to sleep late in his old room, and he’d never hear the end of it from his patients.
Getting home so late, he almost didn’t see the box until it was too late.As it was, he tripped over it as he was going into the condo.Putting it on the table, he was glad that it finally came as it was for the office.He had things delivered to his home on the off chance the office was closed when something came around.He would take it into work in the morning and have it put away before his first patient arrived.He’d just have to make sure that he got up in time to leave early.Just as he was going to bed, Zeno reached out to him.
“It’s going to be fine.I keep telling myself that.”He grinned and asked him what had happened.“Harri fell down the stairs and is complaining about a headache.I don’t want to take her to the hospital until I have to, but you tell me what to do.”
“Take her in, and I’ll be in soon.”He got up and dressed in clean clothes so he’d be able to see the little girl.“If her head hurts, it might be nothing, but there is no point in taking any chances.I’ll order some tests to be run, and then we’ll see from there.I wouldn’t worry too much if she’s not throwing up.She’s not, is she?”
“No, but she does have quite a knot on the back of her head.”He told him to put ice on it, and he’d see her soon.“Thank you, Reagan.I didn’t want to freak out, but Anna said to give you a call.That’s the reason that I went a little overboard and reached out to you.If she’s worried, I am as well.”
Even as he was driving into the hospital, he was calling in orders for her.He’d been told that the department wasn’t all that busy and would take her right back.As he’d told his brother, it was more than likely nothing at all, but there was no point in guessing when there was a perfectly good hospital right in town.Just as he arrived, they were taking her for an MRI of her head to be sure.
