Doctored (28 page)

“Got it,” the little girl answered as she ran to the front door and opened it without asking who it was.  She looked at the woman on the doorstep.  Her mother had told her that an important doctor was coming to dinner.  Instead she saw a woman with blonde, spikey hair, earrings, and a stud in her nose.  She was wearing a nice jacket and had on cool high-tops with rainbow colored laces, and she was carrying a bouquet of flowers.  “Can I help you?” she asked respectfully.

“Hello, you must be Chloe.  I’m Doctor Kearney.  Your mother invited me to dinner,” she explained to the little girl.  She looked to be about eight or nine, maybe a little younger Deanna thought, doing the math in her head.

“You’re Doctor Kearney?” the girl asked incredulously.  “You’re a girl!” she stated unnecessarily.

Deanna laughed at that.  She was used to stereotypes in the workplace, but to find one in a little girl was hilarious.  “Yes, I am,” she agreed with a smile.  “Can’t girls be doctors?”

“Girls are nurses,” the girl stated without hesitation.

“Chloe?  Who’s at the door?” Madison called from the kitchen as she came around the corner to see what was taking so long.  She had concluded it couldn’t be Deanna since she wasn’t in the house yet.  She hadn’t expected her daughter to confront her friend.  “Deanna?  What’s going on?” she asked curious, the frown lines on her brow creasing.

“Your daughter informs me that girls can’t be doctors, only nurses.  I guess I shouldn’t mention that there are male nurses then?”  She suddenly remembered Shawn from Mamadu and looking at Madison’s face, she wondered if she thought the same for some reason.

Madison was embarrassed at her daughter’s assumption that Deanna couldn’t be a doctor because she was a girl.  She too, in that instant, remembered Shawn and Mamadu and looked up into Deanna’s twinkling blue eyes.  She was relieved that her friend was amused rather than insulted.  “Come in, come in out of the cold,” she encouraged as she reached the door and pulled Chloe to the side.  “Doctors can be men or women,” she told the little girl.

“Nuh uh, just like dogs are boys and cats are girls, doctors are boys and nurses are girls,” she insisted before running off.

Deanna started laughing and Madison rolled her eyes.  “Come on in and take off your coat,” she encouraged, reaching out her hand for it, but Deanna handed her the flowers instead.  “Why, thank you, these are beautiful,” she said.

“How old is she?” Deanna asked as she took off her jacket.

“Chloe is eight,” she told her as she hung up the jacket on the wall peg.

“Is this Conor?” she asked as a little boy peeked around his mother.

“Yes, this is Conor.  He is seven,” Madison confirmed proudly and tried to pull him around to greet their guest.  “I guess they aren’t used to strangers,” she said exasperatedly as he finally escaped back into the living room and out of sight.

“It’s okay, naturally they are shy,” Deanna tried to cover.

“Come on into the kitchen, dinner is almost ready,” Madison told her as she turned and, unable to help herself, buried her nose in the flowers.

“Can I help?”

“No, no, I got this,” she told her as she reached above the stove for a vase to put the flowers in.  She soon had them arranged and carried the vase to the table to set off her best silverware and place settings.  She was very aware of Deanna watching her.

“So, what are we having?” Deanna asked to make conversation.

“I put on a roast and I have potatoes and carrots and…” she left off as Deanna began to giggle.  “What’s so funny?”

“Have I ever told you my favorite dinner?”

“No, why?  Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian…” she began and then, remembering all their meals, she knew that couldn’t be true.

“No, I’m no vegetarian.  My favorite is roast with carrots and potatoes,” she grinned.

“Come on, you’re just saying that to be polite.”

“No, really, you can ask my housekeeper, she’ll tell you.”

“You have a housekeeper?”

Blushing, Deanna nodded as she answered.  “Yeah, she kinda came with the house,” she confessed.

“Of course she did,” she answered as she easily lifted the roast from the pan and onto the serving platter.  She expertly arranged the vegetables around the meat and poured the juices into a pan to make gravy.

Chloe came running in, forgetting for a moment that they had a guest and asked, “Is dinner ready, Mommy?”

“In a few minutes, darling.  You and your brother go wash up for dinner, okay?”

Chloe took a good look at the female doctor and her eyes widened when she saw the shoes with rainbows in them.  She quickly headed back out of the kitchen. 

“Chloe?” Deanna asked, and the little girl stopped for a moment.  “Could you show me where I could wash my hands?”

Fearful for a moment, the little girl nodded and then turned.  Deanna grinned at Madison and followed the little girl out of the kitchen into a little powder room.

Madison grinned.  If her children were too shy to accept Deanna, she’d find a way to communicate.  She always did.  She’d seen it happen at the hospital, she’d even seen it in Mamadu with the language barrier.  Why hadn’t she ever wanted children of her own?  She was so good with them!

The dinner was delicious and while it was hard to carry on an adult conversation with two children at the table, Madison had been right.  The children were charmed by Deanna.  It was also difficult to see around the flower arrangement and finally Deanna got up, picked up the vase, and placed it on a side board so she could see into Madison’s lovely eyes and carry on some of the conversation directly with her instead of around foliage.

“So you go on a boat?” Conor was saying, fascinated at something Deanna had explained to him.

“No, it’s called a Waverunner by Sea-Doo.  You sit down on it and it’s like your own little boat.  You and your mom should come and try it out some weekend,” she offered.

Conor looked at Madison and with pleading eyes asked, “Could we do that sometime, Mommy?”

“We’ll see, Conor.  You finish your dinner for now,” she answered and he took that to be a ‘yes’ because he wanted it to be one.  She looked up at Deanna’s amused eyes and shook her head laughingly.

“Can I ride too?” Chloe asked, looking earnestly up at the doctor she was now in awe of.

“You have to ride with an adult, but the Waverunners are big enough for two, even three passengers.”

“Wow, cool,” Chloe responded, no longer shy.  “Do you wear those shoes at the hospital?”

Deanna looked down at her shoes, surprised at the question and not remembering which ones she was wearing.  She smiled as she answered, “Yes, yes I do.”

“They let you?” she confirmed.

“Yes, they do,” she nodded, wondering what other stereotypes this kid was hatching and sort of surprised that Madison’s children would have them.  She had glanced at the pictures around the dining room and saw none of them were of a man and she wondered at Madison’s ex-husband.  Who he was, what he was like, who the children looked like?

“Finished?” Madison asked as she scooped up the last of her potatoes that were filled with gravy.

“Let me help you get that,” Deanna offered.

“No, no, you are our guest.  I’ll get that,” Madison insisted, and copying her mother, Chloe began to help clear away the dishes from the table.

“How come you don’t have to help?” Deanna asked Conor who sat there waiting.

“Mommy didn’t say I had to help.”

“Oh,” Deanna answered, wondering if this bit of sexism came from the ex-husband or from Deanna herself.  “Maybe you could help, show what a man you are,” she mumbled, almost to herself, hoping the little boy would take the hint…he didn’t.  He just sat there watching as his mother and sister cleared the table.  Deanna felt awkward not helping and finally began pulling the dishes to her side of the table to make it easier for Madison and Chloe to clear it. 

“Here we go,” Madison called bringing out slices of cake for them all.

“Does mine have extra frosting?” Conor asked greedily.

“Mine does,” Chloe assured him.  “I got a corner!”

“Mommy!” he started to whine at her teasing.

“I helped, I should get more,” Chloe defended herself.

“Children, we have a guest!” Madison hissed, turning red.

Deanna pretended she hadn’t heard, but she waited until Madison was seated before she started on her own piece.  She didn’t say anything other than, “This is delicious,” before subsiding in silence and observing the family together.

After Chloe’s hissed admonishment, it was amazingly quiet at the table as the children dug into their own slices of cake.  Finally, Deanna couldn’t stand it anymore.  “So your mom tells me you have a dog.  What kind is it?”

“Daddy got us a dog,” Conor said proudly.

“Yeah?” Deanna turned her full attention on the boy.  “What kind is it?”

He shrugged and continued demolishing his cake.  She wondered how much got in his mouth since a considerable amount was around the edges.  She looked up at Madison and smiled.

“It’s a flea-bitten varmint,” Chloe announced proudly.

“It is?” Deanna pretended amazement and she was amused.  Obviously the child was repeating something she had heard an adult say at some point.

The little girl, a duplicate of her mother, nodded solemnly.  “His name is Fluffy.”

“That’s amazing.  Did your mother ever tell you about the time that we got a dog to raise a litter of kittens?” she asked the little girl.

Chloe’s eyes went round as she looked to see if Deanna was teasing her.  At her earnest look and nod, she turned to her mother.  “Nuh uh, a dog can’t raise kittens!” she insisted.

Madison looked at Deanna in surprise.  She’d forgotten about that incident.  She turned to her daughter.  “It’s true.  The kitten’s mother died and Doctor Coo…Kearney,” she said, correcting herself, “delivered the babies and they had to nurse.  So we put them with a dog that had babies and she raised them.”  She thought the children too young to hear about nursing and such.

“Did they bark?” Conor wanted to know.

“No, but they grew as big as the dog,” Deanna told him.

“Cats aren’t as big as a dog,” he insisted.

“Some are.  What about a lion or a tiger?” she asked him.

He thought for a moment and then nodded, warming to her.

They chatted about cats and dogs through the rest of dessert, and much to Madison’s amazement, Conor took his and Deanna’s plates into the kitchen for her.  Deanna grinned and followed into the kitchen.

“Okay, you two.  Get ready for bed,” Madison told them as she loaded the dishwasher and Deanna looked on.

“Aww, Mom,” they both protested.

“Nuh uh, march!” she insisted.  She’d had a late dinner for Deanna’s sake, but the children did have school in the morning.  “I’ll be in to check on you in a minute.”

Both kids scampered off to change for bed and Deanna looked on as Madison easily filled the appliance.

“You were a big hit,” Madison said as she filled the door compartment with soap.

“Yeah, you think so?”

“Oh yeah, they answered you and asked questions.  Believe me, that’s a hit,” she smiled as she closed up the dishwasher and set it.

“Well, it’s all a matter of finding their interests.”

“Well that flea-bitten varmint is theirs.”  She lowered her voice, “God, I can’t stand that dog.  If he would just get it trained,” she lamented.

“Let me guess, he bought it and now doesn’t want to take care of it?”

“Got it in one.  He was trying to outdo me and now he wants me to take it.  Like I have the time.”

“I hear you.  I’d have a zoo if I had the time, but I only have a cat.”

“You have a cat?” she asked surprised.

“Yes, his name is Spot.”

Laughter bubbled up in Madison’s throat at the name.  “Let me get this straight, you have a cat and you named him Spot?”

Deanna nodded as though it made perfect sense.  “Yes, I have a cat and named him Spot,” she repeated back to her laughing friend.  “If you met him, you would understand.”

“When do you have time for a cat?”

“Oh, I’ve had time for him for a while, although he’s still pretty much a kitten.  He makes time for me.  He adores me.”

“I’d love to see this cat of yours,” she laughed at the image of Deanna sitting with a docile cat on her lap.  She remembered her with the wild cats in the village.  The combination had her eyes warming and she found herself remembering her feelings for Deanna from so long ago.  She still wondered at their returned friendship.  Was there more there that she wasn’t picking up on?

“Well, I guess I should be going,” Deanna said as the laughter wound down.  She didn’t want to overstay her welcome.

“Oh, do you have to?  I was hoping you could stay a little while, but if you have to work tomorrow….”

“Actually, I have a three-day weekend,” she said.  “I can stay a little while.”

“Mommy, we’re ready,” a little voice said from down the hall.

“The living room is through there,” Madison said nodding towards the room.  “I can bring coffee….”