by S. L. Baum
Sam laughed. “That’s pretty dire.”
“It seems I fell asleep. I’m so sorry,” Krista apologized. “Your nephew was kind enough to come over and wake me up.” She made eye contact with Sam. “He didn’t need to do that. He could have called.”
“Didn’t have your number,” Sam quipped.
“Your uncle does.”
“Your ringer could have been off.”
“It wasn’t,” Krista answered, flatly.
Abe ignored the tension and stood up. “Didn’t think of calling, so I sent him,” Abe said with a nod of his head.
The smell of savory beef stew was released into the room as he opened the slow cooker. Krista’s stomach acknowledged the delicious aroma with a prominent grumble. Both men turned their heads to stare at her stomach, and Krista quickly took her place at the table.
“Moving can be tiring. And it can give you an appetite,” Abe added.
She smiled at him. “I’m grateful for the invitation. Dinner smells wonderful.”
“Tastes good too,” Abe stated. “My specialty. The biscuits are from Martha, she cooks for me sometimes.”
Sam lifted his bowl up, so his uncle could pour in a ladle full of stew. “Did I ever tell you this is my favorite meal of yours?”
“Hearty stew and biscuits. Best combination in the world,” Abe stated with confidence, as he motioned toward the bowl on the table in front of Krista.
Krista handed the heavy white pottery to Abe. “I can’t wait to try it.”
“I’m trying to eat less red meat, so this is a real treat for me.” Abe poured a ladle into his own bowl and then sat down. “Don’t forget to grab a biscuit.”
Krista separated the flaky buttery biscuit into two pieces and then spooned some of the stew onto the top of one half. She took a huge bite and smiled.
“Good?” Abe asked.
She nodded her head in approval.
Sam crumbled his biscuit over the top of his bowl and then picked up his spoon, while Krista took another huge bite of the savory stew spooned over her biscuit, and Abe attacked his meal with gusto. They all ate in silence, but even without any of his accusing words, Krista could feel Sam’s eyes on her and it made her feel uncomfortable.
“So, I hear Marlene’s seeing a cardiologist. It must have been something serious for Doc to send her over to Greenville so quickly,” Abe said, after he’d emptied nearly half of his bowl.
Krista set her spoon down. “I’m sure you are aware I can’t discuss the personal and medical information of patients without their consent. Did Doctor Baker actually divulge her condition to you?”
“So, she has a condition, does she?” Abe raised his eyebrows as he sipped at his lemonade. “Actually, Ben told me that he and Marlene saw my cardiologist over at Greenville General. We were talking about it, and he feels better now, knowing that proper tests were being done and that Marlene’s finally getting the right kind of care.”
“I see. Well, Doctor Baker obviously referred her to someone he knew could help her.” Krista decided there was nothing wrong with confirming something that Ben had already told Abe about.
“Ben knows how much I’ve raved about that doctor, so he wanted to ask me a few questions about him,” Abe explained. “I mentioned it to Doc, what Ben said, then I told him that you were moving in here. Doctor Baker told me something about you.”
“What did he say?”
“That you have an intuitive medical nature. He said you know your stuff.”
“Wasn’t that nice of him?” Sam mumbled.
Krista ignored the comment, which was dripping in sarcasm. “I didn’t know you see a cardiologist?” She was puzzled; she hadn’t sensed anything medically unsound about him. When she was around Abe, all she could smell was the regular slow decay all humans experienced toward the later years of their life; nothing accelerated, or nearing the end.
Abe gave a single nod of his head. “I had a slight issue several years ago. Doc sent me to Greenville, and it got worked out. Everything’s functioning like it’s supposed to be, now. I go in for a check-up every year, just to make sure.”
Sam ran both his hands through his hair and rested them at the back of his head. “You never told Mom and me about that.”
“Didn’t want to worry anyone. It was no big deal,” Abe shrugged.
“Did your intuitive medical nature zero in on my uncle’s condition?” Sam glared at Krista.
“Actually, I had no idea. How would I? I’ve barely met him, so how would I know about a medical history that his own family didn’t?” she asked, glaring back at him.
“Maybe you somehow got the records in Greenville. Maybe you figured he’s on borrowed time. Maybe that’s why you showed up in Cedar Creek!”
Krista placed both hands flat on the tabletop and looked directly into Sam’s eyes. “I’ve never even been to Greenville. I’d appreciate it if you would stop making assumptions about me.”
Abe pointed his spoon at his nephew. “Samuel, what is going on with you? Stop badgering my dinner guest.” His voice had taken on an authoritative tone. “I am not on borrowed time!”
Sam stood up. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m not feeling all that well. I think I need to lie down. You’ll have to excuse me.” He pushed his chair back from the table and rushed out of the room.
“Is he always this way?” Krista asked, when she heard footsteps ascending some nearby staircase.
Abe dipped his spoon back into his bowl of stew. “The boy’s not having the best day. I’m not making excuses, mind you; I’m just giving an explanation. But let’s not let him ruin all my hard work on this dinner. Eat up.”
Since their first and only day of interaction had been a downhill experience from the moment she met him, Krista did her best to avoid Samuel Webber. He continued to clear out the garage over the next few days, and she made sure she stayed away from the building whenever she could hear him clattering around inside. Krista caught glimpses of him as she came and went from the Webber Estate, and each time she did his eyes seemed to bore a hole into her. His distrust was obvious and it angered her. Krista had always considered herself to be a very trustworthy person. She may not have always told the absolute truth about certain aspects of her life, but that was to protect herself, not to deceive anyone with malicious intent. She couldn’t even imagine doing something cruel to another living creature.
Leaving for work one morning, she noticed Sam on the porch of the main house as she passed by. He looked right at her through her passenger window. She smiled and gave him a small wave but his hands didn’t move from where they rested on the railing, and he didn’t acknowledge her gesture. She glanced in her rearview mirror as she headed toward the main road and Sam was still there, monitoring her departure. Krista accelerated, wanting to get his image out of her mirror as quickly as possible. When she turned on the main road she let out a loud sigh.
A few minutes later she pulled up in front of the medical center, as Pete was walking toward the building. He waited for her to catch up to him before he unlocked the door. “You ready for all the kids today?”
“I totally forgot that was today!”
“I’m glad to have the extra help, it’ll go quicker this year with you here. Do you want vision or hearing? Since it’s your first time, I’ll let you choose.”
The kids from the elementary school were having their annual screenings and as the school didn’t employ a nurse, Doctor Baker volunteered his time, and his staff, to administer the tests.
“Not sure. I’ll decide when we get there and set up. I swear, I’ve never known a school that didn’t have a nurse,” Krista said.
“There is a nurse over at the secondary school. But, since the elementary school is only a block away, Doc volunteers his time to save the school some money. If any medicines need distributing, Doc or I will go over at lunchtime. If someone feels hot, the teachers take a temp and send home anyone running a fever. The school will call Doc if one of
the kiddos seems bad off, but that rarely happens. The parents around here know better than to send their kids to school when the little guy or girl isn’t feeling quite right,” Pete explained. “And once a year we go over to see if there’s a valid reason why Jack keeps squinting at the board and Sally has to be told twice before she does anything.”
Krista smiled at his choice of names. “Jack and Sally, huh?”
“It’s my favorite Tim Burton movie. Do you think my future wife will let me name our kids Jack and Sally?”
“Those characters are boyfriend and girlfriend, not brother and sister. You’re on the wrong track.”
“You’re probably right. Maybe the nursery could have a mural painted on the wall or something…”
Krista laughed as she went to the storeroom to get the auditory machine. “You do realize you are probably one of a very small selection of men who will actually talk about kids’ names and nursery themes… as a single dude?”
“What can I say? I’ve always known I’d be a spectacular father. I’m going to teach my girl to love football and my boy to bake the best chocolate chip cookies, and vice versa.”
“Your ex really was an idiot to leave you.”
Pete grabbed the eye chart and the health check-up note pads that were sitting next to it. “I like you more every day, Kristanta Jessmina Vita.”
“Ugh. Why did I tell you my full name?”
“Would you like me to even the score, because mine is just as bad?”
Krista picked up the case that held the machine and the headphones, and almost dropped it. “Pete Jones. How is that bad?” She adjusted her balance. “And you need to carry this, it’s heavy.”
“You have no idea. And we use that. ” Pete pointed to the wheeled case in the corner.
“Let’s hear this name of yours.”
“Peter Venkman Jones.”
“No!”
“Yes,” Pete answered with a slow bob of his head. “My mother’s favorite movie.”
Krista cupped her hands over her mouth. “That’s… unique.” She rushed over to him and grabbed his shoulders. “And you want to saddle your kids with movie names of their own?”
“I wouldn’t make their middle names Skellington and… Sally actually doesn’t have another name. But you know what I mean.”
“Wait!” Krista interrupted him. “You should have been a doctor. Then you could have been Dr. Peter Venkman!”
“That’s what my mom said when I applied to nursing school.”
“You could have become a paranormal researcher. Even better.”
Pete laughed. “Ghosts are not my thing.”
“My day started off kinda crappy. You just made it so much better! Thanks, Peter Venkman.”
“You are very welcome, Kristanta Jessmina. I’m glad I could brighten your morning. What was so crappy?”
“Nothing worth talking about. When are we supposed to wheel this stuff over to the school, Dr. Venkman?”
“That’s Nurse Jones to you. Doc is going to meet us over there shortly.”
“Nurse Pete suits you better,” Krista told him as they loaded their supplies in the case.
“It also immediately kills the all nurses are female assumption. When I first started out, before I moved here, if the doctor said, ‘I’ll send in Nurse Jones,’ or even just, ‘I’ll send in the nurse,’ patients and family members were shocked when I walked in. So I started to go by Nurse Pete, or better yet, just Pete, to give their brains a moment to process. Pete is a boy’s name, so Nurse Pete is probably a man.”
“I agree. You are probably a man,” Krista teased.
“Or we can just stick to calling me plain old Pete,” he suggested with a smile.
“Okay, plain old Pete it is.”
Cedar Creek Elementary was a small school, with only one classroom per grade level. Pete told Krista that Cedar Creek Secondary School was larger, serving the town’s entire seventh through twelfth grade students, plus the neighboring town’s kids as well. Pete had been one of those students taking the forty-minute daily bus ride over from Woodside every school year. He moved to Greenville for nursing school, and to Cedar Creek a few years after he graduated, when he’d heard that Doctor Baker’s other nurse was moving to Texas to be near her grandkids and he’d contacted Doc about being her replacement. Pete talked quickly during the short walk over, giving Krista the run down.
At the school, Krista decided to be in charge of vision screening, while Pete did the hearing test. She had each child read through the lines on the eye chart, and then sent them on to Pete. Doctor Baker gave every boy and girl a quick lookover before they were sent back to class. Every student was given a blue slip of paper with Health Check-up printed across the top to take home to their parents with any irregularities detailed on it.
Krista was relieved when she didn’t discover any truly ailing children at the school. Being at the children’s hospital had been hard for her; it had been her first time taking a position at a hospital that didn’t service adults. The amount of suffering she saw every single day was heartbreaking. But there was so much bravery and immense joy at every small step toward healing as well. Almost every parent at the hospital radiated determination and hope that their child would recover.
It had been hard for her to choose which family would benefit the most from her help. Leaving that hospital had been a gut wrenching decision, but staying would have torn her soul apart because there was no possible way for her to help every single child there. It had been her shortest stay in a new place and a job she’d never repeat. Krista knew she could help those kids but she had to convince the parents first. Sometimes, the kids who needed her the most had the parents who’d already begun to accept their child’s fate. There was little hope of her intervening at that point.
Krista tried to push it all from her mind. She’d left for many reasons, but the main reason was that she felt herself going a little bit mad toward the end. In Cedar Creek, she felt calm.
At the end of the day, Pete suggested they get dinner together. Their little town was definitely limited in options, with their only choices being The Steakhouse, Downtown Diner, Frank’s Drive-In, The Pizza Stop, and The Soda Shoppe. With the addition of either the bowling alley or Bill’s Bar, but only appetizers could be ordered at those establishments.
Pete decided to leave his motorcycle at the medical center and ride with Krista. Once they got into her truck, he got a sudden craving for one of Opal’s pies so Downtown Diner became their destination. As soon as they walked through the door, and those bells began to jingle, Krista regretted their choice.
Behind the counter, wearing a black apron, standing right next to Opal, in her usual pink one, stood Samuel Webber. Krista’s steps faltered for a second and Pete turned back to look at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked, when he saw the look on her face.
“My day just got crappy again.”
“Why?”
“Him.”
Chapter Six
“Hey, you two,” Opal greeted Krista and Pete. “How’d it go with the kiddos today?”
“Just fine. But we’re starving! Those suckers always wear me out,” Pete answered.
Krista’s forehead scrunched up and her mouth dropped open. “You people know everything.”
“Why, yes. Yes, we do.” Opal smiled sweetly at her.
Pete sat down on a stool. “You’ll get used to it,” he told Krista. As soon as she sat down beside him, Pete rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. “I really am worn out.”
“Watch this,” Opal mouthed to Krista, while pointing to Pete. “Did you make any of the little ones cry this year?” Opal asked aloud.
Pete’s eyes popped back open, he lifted his head, and then he threw his hands up in the air. “One time! One time, I tell you, and it was two years ago. That little girl stretched her legs toward me under the table. I didn’t mean to kick her!”
“You know you have feet the size of skateboards,” Jim called o
ut from the kitchen. “You gotta watch where you swing those things.”
“Poor little legs,” Opal whispered.
Pete stood up. “I think we should’ve just gone to the drive-in. I’m suddenly craving a chili dog and fries. Come on, Krista.”
Krista shook her head. “Oh, I don’t know. I want to hear more about this. Did you leave a bruise?”
His body stiffened and he brought his hands up to cover his face. “It was so small,” he mumbled through his fingers. “And she showed it to me every time she saw me, until it finally faded away.”
Krista erupted in laughter. “First, do no harm, Pete.”
He dropped his hands and Krista laughed even harder at the exaggerated pout his face had contorted into. “I hate you all,” he firmly stated.
“Sit down, Nurse Pete. You know you love us. I made fresh mini Perfect Pecan Pies today. Just took them out of the oven ten minutes ago. I might even give you one to sample,” Opal told him. “And, you can’t go, because Sam needs the practice. He’s taking over a few shifts a week for me, so I can bake more minis for the grocery.”
Pete lowered himself back down onto the stool. “Only because Sam needs the practice.”
“Thanks, man,” Sam nodded toward Pete. “But just between you and me, I’m doing great. Opal is just having a hard time relinquishing the apron,” he added, while covering one side of his mouth with his hand conspiratorially.
Opal hit him with the cloth napkin she was holding. “Hush, now. I like things done in a very particular way. I just want to make sure you have it down right.”
“I will follow your instructions perfectly, I promise.” Sam took his right hand and made a crossing motion on his chest, over his heart.
“You’d better,” Jim told him. “I don’t want to deal with the aftermath if you don’t.”
“Daddy, please!”
“Can I get you something to drink?” Sam asked. He kept his eyes on Pete, not wanting to address Krista until he had to. His uncle kept telling him that she had no ulterior motives for settling in Cedar Creek, but Sam wasn’t quite ready to accept his word for it. He’d been trying to do some background checks on the girl, but there didn’t seem to be too much information, at least that he could find.