Until tomorrow. Then there would be two additional doctors in Stoney Ridge.Anda nurse.
Annie smiled.
Then her smile faded.
How would it work to add two new doctors and a nurse? The office was already cramped. There was only one exam room. Dok had one office. The waiting room was tiny and always full. How could they possibly accommodate more doctors and more patients?
Even though Annie felt a bit anxious, she couldn’t ignore the flicker of excitement at the thought of Dok getting some much-needed help. With Annie’s final EMT exam to occur in August, she had felt increasingly unsettled to leave Dok’s practice. She loved working here. She loved being around Dok. Leaving the practice weighed on her like an overstuffed suitcase she’d been lugging around for weeks. She kept trying—and failing—to find theperfectmoment to tell Dok. In her mind, she’d have enough time to find the right replacement, help train them, and then start looking for an EMT job. But so far, that perfect moment was playing hard to get. Or maybe she just didn’t have the nerve to seize it.
Her very special friend Gus Troyer was eager for her to hand in her resignation and start interviewing—at his fire station. “Tell Dok!” he said often. “She’ll understand. She’s had plenty of assistants come and go.”
That was exactly why it was so hard for Annie to tell her. Dok invested so much in people, and some assistants took an enormous amount of effort to properly train—the bishop’sdaughter Lydie Stoltzfus, for example. Annie had replaced Lydie and spent months reorganizing her confusing work system. Sometimes, she thought that Dok did more for Lydie during her tenure than Lydie did for Dok.
But she did appreciate Gus’s consistent enthusiasm for her becoming an EMT, especially as her mother kept trying to change Annie’s mind.
Annie knew that Gus had more on his mind than the finishing of the EMT course. He was eager to start courting Annie. And she was just as eager. But they had an agreement to remain “just friends” until she finished her EMT course, to avoid becoming distracted. Gus had not only respected her request to remain “just friends” but even offered to tutor her in the EMT classes. It was no wonder she thought of him as Mr. Wonderful.
Becoming an EMT was extremely important to Annie. She had felt a calling from the Lord to the work, but that didn’t mean it was easy. Dok had to step in—not only to get the bishop on board but also to convince her parents.
Dok’s voice on the telephone grew so loud that Annie didn’t need to feel guilty about overhearing the private phone conversation. Everyone in the waiting room could hear her. Dok asked Matt how he’d like it if she came down to the police station and gave everyone advice about how to do their job?
Poor Matt. He might have meant well, but he was in the doghouse. Husband-wise.
Quietly, Annie returned to her desk in the waiting room. When she’d prayed for a way to resign without leaving Dok in a bind, she never imagined Heaven’s answer would be sending not one but two doctors and a nurse.
A big smile spread across her face.Ask and ye shallreceive, right?
