The Doctor's Tale (9 page)

I stared at Maypo. “So, you’re saying that Tyrell Easter spent all those years thinking about killing Maypo?”

“’X-actly.”

“Because Maypo liked his car and his girlfriend too much.”

“You could say it like that. Now it’s my turn. Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”

“Growing up, my Uncle Tony taught me how to shoot. He was a city cop.”

“Was?”

“Yeah. He died about ten years ago. He taught me how to shoot paper targets. Tonight is the first time I shot an actual person. I feel terrible, and I’m not proud of myself, Mary. I hope I never have to do it again.”

Mary grinned. “Well, I surely don’t know why not. You’re the best shot I ever did see.” She shook her head and chuckled. “Just three shots—two to the chest and one to the head.” “Personally, I never shot that good myself, and that’s the God’s truth. Got to hand it to you, Dr. Spezia. I got a question for you, though. If you ain’t proud of yourself, then why’d you do it?”

“He tried to kill us, Mary. I had to protect everyone in that room, including myself. But, I’m not happy about it the way it ended. I know some other people who aren’t going to be happy about it, either. I took a man’s life tonight. My problems are just beginning.”

“Well, from where I stand, there’s no problem at all. ‘Cept Maypo isn’t looking so good.”

“No, he sure isn’t. I’ve tried my best to save him. If he dies, I’ll feel even worse.”

“Well, don’t. All a man can do is try. You did that.” The stout nurse paused. She straightened her shoulders just a bit. “Doctor, you got my respect.”

Mary Potts respected me? I couldn’t believe my ears.

“You know,” I said, “the police confiscated your gun.”

“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll get another one. Get you one too if you like. What kind you want? I can get any kind you say—and my prices are very reasonable. Believe it.”

“I don’t doubt that for a minute, but I don’t want another gun. If I want one, I know where I can get one.”

“You stole that one, did you?”

“No. Of course not. I thought I mentioned it.”

“No, you didn’t say anything about a gun. I would have remembered something like that.”

“The night that cop knocked on my door, I had a gun in my apartment. It was already there when I moved in, stashed in the floor of the closet. I noticed one of the boards was loose, and when I lifted it, I found the gun.”

“Cop? What cop you talking ‘bout?”

“Her name is Gabrielle. Gabrielle Burns.” For a moment, I hesitated. I decided this wasn’t the time to discuss my personal life. “Pretty lady, kind of on the tall side. She was looking for a guy who used to live in my apartment. There was a shooting in the neighborhood, and she thought the guy that used to live in my apartment have had something to do with it.”

“You learn to live with this stuff. I did. You will, too. If I was you, I would carry that gun. In this city, a man needs one. It’s just the way it is.”

Maypo let out a loud wail, followed by a whimper. The alarm on the monitor sounded. The green line on the screen ran straight and flat. His blood pressure flashed on the monitor—dropping, dropping—faster and faster.

“Call a code!” I said.

Mary simply stood there, frozen in place. “He’s already gone. He’s
flat lining. Just look at that monitor. Let the man have his peace.”

“We can’t just let him die!”

“Yes, we can. Maypo wouldn’t want to live with a brain, all shot full of holes. If we save him now, he’ll hate us forever. Mays wouldn’t have no way to talk, or get around, and lemme tell you, for a man like him, that’s worser than dying. What’s the point of bringing him back to a life where he can’t have a few drinks or shoot a few rounds of pool or even drive Tyrell’s Caddy? I know Mays. I know what he wants me to do. If you love someone, you let ‘em go. That’s what I believe, and that’s what I think Mays would want. Now, I’m gonna turn this machine off.”

I watched the nurse work in silence. Until now, I had always believed that doing anything less than the most I could do was the wrong thing to do. Now, I just proved that I didn’t know myself as well as I thought. The fact was, I didn’t know what I would do until crunch time—until the rubber hit the road. So far, two men died tonight—one, because I decided to intercede, and another because I did not.

“This the first time you ever see anybody die?” Mary said.

I nodded and struggled to find the words to express what I didn’t understand.

“Mary, I just met Maypo a little while ago. Now, he’s gone. Just like that. I feel like I failed him.”

“You want to hear about failure?” Mary grinned and her gold tooth gleamed beneath the florescent lights. “Lemme tell you ‘bout what happened at D’Yan’s place today.”

The two women stood at either end of the cramped dinette, amidst boxes of Pampers and baby formula. Cans of stale beer, remnants of stained napkins, and an empty pizza box littered the kitchen table. Though few words had been said, much had already been heard.

“You got no right, Mama.” D’Yan glared at her mother. She’d been drinking, sure, but she wasn’t drunk—not yet. Like bullets from a machine gun, her words sprayed into the space between stone cold
and dead mean. “He can’t live here with me. Not like this.” She shook her head. “Not like this.” Her fist pounded the table like a hammer on a nail. “I want a life, too!”

“You want a life? You?” Mary’s strong arms cradled the slumbering baby while she spoke. “What about your son? Even if you don’t want him, I do. He’s my blood too, girl, don’t forget. ‘An he belongs with his own people. Got no business with strangers.”

“He be fine. He was all set up to go home with those rich people. They told me…”

“Ha! Rich folks gonna raise your boy, are they? You didn’t hear what I heard, girl. You didn’t see what I saw with my own eyes. Those rich folks don’t want your baby.”

“You’re making all this up, to make me feel bad—but, it won’t work. I know better.”

“I know one thing. No family of mine gettin’ tossed from one foster house to the next, and the next, and the next, girl. You know’s well as I do what goes on in those places.”

“But, they told me—”

“Who told you what? That skinny white woman sitting out in front? You trust what she says? She lied to you, D’Yan. Those ‘doption people done took your baby and sold him to the first people wrote them a big fat check.”

“I don’t believe you.” D’Yan’s chin quivered.

“Five thousand dollars, God’s truth. Like your boy was a diamond ring or a car. Didn’t even do a credit check.”

“If they sold him, why’s he here? Here with you? How’d you get him, huh? You lyin’ to me Mama?”

“Those rich people didn’t want a black baby. The ‘doption folks lied to them too. An they done kept their money anyways. They thieves in there, I’m telling you. If it wasn’t for Maypo, I…”

“Maypo? Now, I know you lyin’. You lyin’ or this is all a big joke.”

“I’m not kidding. He works there. Or he did work there, anyway.”

“When did he get out?”

“Out? Outta what?”

“Outta jail, Mama. He was in for armed robbery.”

“Lots of folks in for that, sooner or later.”

“Bet the adoption folks don’t know about that or he wouldn’t a been working there. I thought they did background checks.”

“Well, like I said, they didn’t do any such thing for these white folks come to buy your baby. They ask you any questions?”

D’Yan hung her head. The greasy battery clock on the plaster wall measured their lives in ticks and tocks. “Naw.” Her face contorted into a mask of misery. “I’m sorry, Mama,” she said. Rivulets of tears spilled down her thin cheeks. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. She kept telling me I was doing the right thing. That white lady, she kept saying it, just over an’ over.” Her slumped shoulders trembled with grief. “I didn’t mean to hurt nobody.”

“You can’t trust white folks, D’Yan. Ever. An’ something else, too. You got to show your boy how to deal with the world. It’s different for us, D’Yan. Always been that way. Always will be.”

“Whut you mean?”

“I mean they treat our people different, and you know it.”

“Who?”

“White folks. Police. Lies they done tell us. Even some black folks forget who they are and where they come from. If we don’t stick together, if we don’t raise our own and teach ‘em how to survive, then Lord help us, maybe we’re making our own sorry life. We’ll live the way other people think we deserve to live. God’s truth, girl.”

That’s when the beeper beeped; the new one that Mary bought that very day, so that D’Yan could always get her when she needed her. That would be all the time, Mary figured. “Yeah,” she said. “What?” Her face crinkled with pain. “Oh, Gawd! I’ll be right there.”

“What Mama? What happen?”

“Here, girl, take your baby. Somebody done shot Maypo, an’ he’s hurt bad. He called for me—I’m the only family he’s got.

A faint smile crossed D’Yan’s lips. The young woman reached for
her son, and stared into his dark eyes. “Bye, Mama.” She hugged her baby tighter. “You be careful now.”

“I am, baby. Lock the door behind me.”

Mary shook her head.

“Can’t be too careful these days, Dr. Spezia. I waited out in the hall until I heard the double bolt lock, click and slide. Then, I came into the Emergency Room to help you with Maypo.”

Mary brushed a tear from her cheek. “D’Yan was so angry that I went and got her baby. I never thought she would say those things to me.”

“It sounds like you had quite an afternoon, Mary. But, I wouldn’t call it a failure. Sounds more like a breakthrough to me. I’d say you were a real heroine today.

“You probably saved my life, Dr. Spezia. Me and everyone in the room with Mays. That makes you a hero.”

Was I a murderer—or, as Mary suggested, was I a hero? Or did the truth depend on who I asked? I just didn’t know anymore. Of one thing I was certain: the Dean of Medicine would have some very definite thoughts on the subject. It was only a matter of time before I heard them. As if on cue, my beeper bleeped and blinked. I punched the numbers into the phone on the wall and waited.

“Dr. Spezia here,” I said. I inhaled a deep breath of air. “I’ll be right there.”
The sky is falling, the sky is falling…
I concluded that whoever said that must have worked at City Hospital. I glanced at the rickety elevator, and decided to take the familiar steps down to the Emergency Room. At least, steps always went up or down, no matter how one viewed them. If only life could behave in the same manner.

After this evening’s recent events, one thought dominated all others. I knew that my life would never feel predictable, ever again.

“Hey, Eddie Bear!” Starr collapsed on a mound of pillows and sucked a drag from a fresh cigarette. What time is it?” She stared at the twirling blades of the ceiling fan and hummed.

Eddie jolted upright in bed. He glanced at the clock on the night-stand and sighed. “The blessed alarm didn’t go off again. It’s almost nine o’clock.” He rubbed the stubble on his face. “Better check on Lori.” He coughed and reached for his cigarettes. “Now she’ll be good and late getting a dose of her medicine.”

“Take a break, Eddie Bear. You got nowhere to be, except right here with me.” Starr patted the mattress with the palm of her hand. The cheap mix of rings on her fingers clicked and clacked. “What’s wrong?” She puffed a cloud of smoke into the stale air. “Something new bothering you?”

“Where’s Lori? You think she’s okay?”

“Can you tell me why you’re worrying so much about a half-dead woman, when you got a live one laying up next to you?” She flicked an ash into an empty beer can and tossed it on the tattered rug beside the bed.

“That woman you’re talking about is my wife, Starr.” He pulled on his pants and stared into the mirror over Lori’s dresser. “And I’m her husband, as long as it lasts. I owe Lori that much.”

“What did you just say?” Starr said. “What the hell are you talkin’ about? Life is short, baby. Watching Lori ought to tell you that much. Dr. Pizza been working on you again?”

Eddie stood in the shadows and fought the urge to stay right where
he was—again. He really needed to check on Lori. “Spezia. It’s Dr. Spezia. He’s right about my obligations.”

Starr patted the mattress. “Just a few more minutes with me, baby. You know you want to.”

“Eddie!”

Eddie heard Lori’s voice loud and clear, calling out to him. How could he just stand there?

“Go on, baby,” Starr said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Starr laughed, a deep belly laugh that lasted several moments. “Fine. Just fine. I’ll wait it out. You want to pretend to be Saint Eddie, I guess I can understand that. Just don’t kid yourself. You know, about being a real saint.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and dropped the sheet. “’Cause we both know better. Don’t we?”

There in the morning sunlight, Eddie’s fingers caressed her lush curves.

“Go on, baby,” Starr said. She pulled away from his touch. “Do what you gotta do.”

For a moment, Eddie felt paralyzed by the tempting allure of Starr’s body. A few minutes later, he finally spoke.

“You won’t be mad at me?”

“Why should I be? I got all the time in the world.” She perched her toned body on the edge of the sagging bed, and reached for the latest issue of the
National Enquirer.
“Go on, take care of Lori. I’ll catch up on the news.”