Blanket Immunity

by Adam Van Susteren

  Jami paused her first cut of her chicken breast and looked at Mom. “Didn’t bother me at all.” She turned her body to smile at her big sister and asked, “How was work today? Anything exciting?”

  “Had two client meetings,” Jo said flatly trying to discourage follow-up questions.

  Jami probed, “What were they like?”

  Jo gripped her fork and knife tightly. “I’m sorry, I can’t really talk much about it because of the attorney-client privilege. How was your work today?”

  Before Jami could answer, Mom said, “We all talk about ourselves all the time. Let’s hear from Dzuy. Are you a doctor?”

  “I’m a software engineer. I work for a defense contractor.”

  “Hmmpf,” Mom said softly to voice her displeasure that he wasn’t a doctor. “What does that mean you do?”

  “Kind of like Jo here, I’m not allowed to go into too much detail about work unless you have security clearance. But generally, we do all sorts of software for guidance, monitoring, and movement.” Dzuy set his knife and fork down. “Indirectly, that’s how we met.”

  Jami leaned over her plate. “Tell us.”

  “My team needs to use specially encrypted cell phones. We use our own software, so I have to make sure that the firmware can accept it. I was at a cell phone branch and saw Jo come in. She looked flustered. But even when she seemed flustered and in a hurry, I noticed she didn’t cut in front of a little old lady. I knew I wanted to meet her and I got lucky when she had to wait to see the sales guy. I got to talk with her. Now, here we are.”

  “When was this?” Jami asked.

  “It was earlier this month, right, Jo?” Dzuy asked in a manner that made it seem like he was thinking if it was this month or last month.

  Jo patted her lips with her napkin. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was this month.”

  “We didn’t meet each other’s families until after a year,” Anthony said.

  Jami smiled. “Maybe this way is better. Less pressure. It’s not like they’re saying they plan on getting married.”

  Mom asked, “Are you, Jo?”

  Jo coughed. “Are we planning on getting married?”

  Mom nodded.

  Dad set his glass of water down and waited intently for an answer.

  Dzuy calmly said, “It’s a bit soon for those discussions. All I can say is that you have raised an amazing young woman who I’m happy to have met.”

  Before allowing a smile to come across her face at the perfect answer, Mom asked, “Your last name is Gong. What are you?”

  “Moooom,” Jo moaned then looked at Dzuy, curious as to what he would say.

  “Virgo.”

  Mom looked confused.

  Dzuy joked, “My zodiac sign. It’s Virgo.” He looked around the room and noticed the blank expressions as the joke fell flat. “My mom likes to say that I’m a future American.”

  “How so?” Mom asked.

  “My father is half Chinese and half Vietnamese. My mother is German, Russian, Irish, Italian, and Dutch. Not all equal parts.”

  Jami asked, “Do you speak any of those languages?”

  Dzuy shook his head. “Nothing besides English. Well, I can understand the tiniest bit of Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Italian. Some of the Mandarin helps when I go to China.”

  Anthony asked, “Do you go there often? Seeing the Great Wall is on my bucket list.”

  “About once a year. I travel a lot for work,” Dzuy said, then turned to Anthony, “Where else is on your bucket list?” Dzuy took a bite of his chicken.

  “Italy. That’s getting crossed off on our honeymoon.” He reached over and squeezed Jami’s hand.

  The rest of dinner conversations revolved around travel and food. The Channing parents were remarkably silent on places they visited.

  A little after nine pm, Jami and Anthony said their goodbyes and left. Dzuy said his goodbyes at the entrance to the house. Jo put on a pair of flip flops and walked Dzuy to his car.

  When they got to his car Jo whispered. “Thank you. You were so amazing tonight. I was dreading this dinner and you made it—amazing.”

  “Thanks. You have a great family. A kid sister who looks up to you. A cool and calm dad. A mom that is fiercely loyal to you.”

  “That’s how you describe her?”

  “Yeah. She’s scared and overprotective. So plain and simple that she acts from a place of love.”

  Jo squeezed her eyes shut hard then blinked rapidly.

  Dzuy chuckled, “What are you doing?”

  “Checking to see if you were real. I don’t believe you exist.” She held up her fingers a half inch apart and continued, “And I was this close to ignoring you today.”

  He gently took her hand and put his other hand firmly around the back of her neck. He leaned in, she mirrored, and they shared a kiss. He released his grip on her neck. Jo pulled away and said, “About time.”

  “Want to go back to your place?” Dzuy asked.

  Jo looked back at her parents’ house. “You want to go back inside? I still haven’t told you my long story.” She took a deep breath. “Left a good job as a prosecutor and am now a private practice as a criminal defense lawyer. Money is a bit tight while I transition, so I’m renting out my place so I can save up for a while.”

  “It’s better that we take it slow anyway, Joanna.”

  “Not too slow. Per our agreement, I owe you lunch. When are you free?”

  “How about Sunday?”

  Jo was a little disheartened that Dzuy didn’t try to upgrade from Sunday lunch to a more prime date slot, but she remained positive. “Sounds good,” she responded more sullenly than she wished. “Have a good night.” She leaned towards his face, he leaned in and kissed her again.

  “Night. Text you soon,” Dzuy said and turned to his car.

  “Wait,” Jo said with her hands on her hips. “It’s too late to go tonight and I wouldn’t have gone anyway—but why didn’t you invite me back to your place?”

  Dzuy shrugged. “You’re not the only one with a few life changes and complications right now.” He smiled at her. “You can come see my place next week, if you’d like.”

  Jo eyed him warily. “Okay then. Good night.

  Chapter 5

  Jo was startled to see a figure sitting in the dark on a couch in the formal family room. After a second she realized it was her father. “Feels like twenty years ago, I’d be coming back from seeing a boy to find you sitting there waiting for me.” Jo pointed at the twice re-upholstered Queen Ann couch he was sitting on. Jo chuckled softly, “It’s even the same couch.”

  “Some things don’t change. Some do. Have a minute?”

  “Of course. Where’s Mom?”

  “Scouring the internet for information on the mysterious Dzuy Gong before doing the dishes,” he said and pointed at the wingback chair across from the glass coffee table. “Sit down. I want to tell you a few things.”

  The light from the hallway spilled in so Jo could see him, but not well. “Kind of somber in here. Should I turn on some lights?”

  Chip shook his head. “It’s late. We can keep them off.” He paused for Jo to sit down across from him. “This isn’t going to be easy for me to say. Mom doesn’t want to let you and Jami know. I don’t think I’ll tell Jami because her wedding is coming up. But I know you can handle what I’m going to tell you.”

  Jo expected drama from her mother, never her father. She tried to sound nonchalant as she rubbed her bare feet against the well-worn but immaculately clean carpet. “What’s up?”

  “Now don’t freak out. This is actually the easy part. I have prostate cancer and will need a surgery this year to remove the cancer cells. It was caught very early. The prognosis is incredibly good. It’ll just mean a quick surgery and then some minor radiation treatments. I might have to take two months off of work. Maybe only two weeks.”

  Jo stood and walked to sit next to her dad. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.” She hugged him a
nd asked quietly into his chest, “Can you retire?”

  “No.” He put his arm around her. “That’s the hard part. I don’t know how we can get by if I have to take two months off from work.”

  Still snuggled against him. “Really? The hard part is only money? You aren’t scared of the cancer?”

  “I’ve been a doctor for thirty-some years. The survival rate for what I have, caught this early, is ninety-nine percent. I can forward you some research on it. Really, that’s not what has me scared.” He squeezed his daughter tight.

  She enjoyed the embrace then pulled back. “I didn’t know you were in any financial trouble. I’m sorry I’m not in a better position to help. If I would have known, I wouldn’t have taken any of your money to run for judge. I wouldn’t have run for judge. I wouldn’t have quit my job,” Jo rapidly said as her guilt compounded.

  “Hey. Hey,” Chip said quietly. “Nothing here is your fault. It’s just a little bad luck and bad timing.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure that you ever knew just how bad Alexandra’s parents’ lawsuit hit our medical practice. But it was really bad.”

  “How? That was settled like twenty years ago, right?”

  “Yes. But we just finished paying off the settlement four years ago.”

  “Sixteen years of payments?”

  Chip nodded. “Five thousand a month for two hundred months. A million dollars.”

  Jo shook her head in disbelief. “And you didn’t even do anything wrong. You referred her to a psychiatrist.” Jo turned from her father and muttered, “If your insurance wanted to fight, why didn’t you?”

  Chip took a deep breath. “Jo, I agreed to the terms of the settlement for two reasons. They lost their daughter and no one else was going to help them. My insurance wouldn’t pay because they said I didn’t commit malpractice. But I wanted to help them. If someone was just the least bit at fault for causing me to lose you or Jami, I’d want them to pay. And looking back, while it wasn’t malpractice, I wouldn’t have written the script and I would have placed her under supervision. So I don’t regret paying it. And we’re paid off. That’s closed. That’s not what this is about.”

  Jo turned back at him. “What is it then?”

  “Mom and I were going to tell you and Jami about it last year but you were going to run for judge so we didn’t want you to worry about our legal problem.”

  “What legal problem?”

  “Bobby Pressman, the kid that did scanning of files at the office. He sued the practice.”

  “What? What for? What happened?”

  “Bobby came in with a lot of swelling from a bug bite. He had an allergic reaction and an infection. So I prescribed Benadryl for the allergic reaction to the bite and antibiotics for the infection. The poor kid started feeling much worse. I determined it was an allergy to the antibiotic, so I switched him up. Long story short, he came in every day for a week and found he couldn’t handle three different antibiotics or Methylprednisolone. His father’s insurance plan had a five thousand dollar deductible and he couldn’t afford to pay for all the visits. I had him on an installment plan but he asked if his son could do some work for me.”

  “Scanning confidential medical files?” Jo asked with fear that the kid abused confidential information.

  “Yeah. The kid was part-time. He came on weekends or after school and was given credit against the bill for two hundred dollars a week as long as he worked ten hours a week. We were all caught up with scanning after a few months, there was still a little owed but I agreed to just call it even. Next thing you know I get served with a lawsuit for failing to pay proper wages.”

  “Wait. He stopped working a long time ago, right?”

  “Yeah. The case dragged on and on because I felt I’d done nothing wrong. My lawyers charged eighty thousand dollars to defend me. Then we went to trial and the kid got a judgment for seven hundred dollars.”

  “Okay, so eighty thousand in your attorneys’ fees. That’s rough but we can manage,” Jo said reassuringly.

  Jo watched his body tighten. With hurt in his voice he said, “And the judge said we owe the kid’s lawyers one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars.”

  Jo covered her mouth in disbelief. “For a seven hundred dollar dispute? Where you went out of your way to help the kid?”

  Chip shook his head. “Yeah. Sometimes the system just sucks.”

  “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I wish you would have told me. I might have been able to look over the papers.”

  Jo watched Chip steady himself. It almost looked like he was fighting back nausea from re-living the loss. Once steadied, he said, “These past five years or so the practice hasn’t been as profitable as I’d like. I’m working longer hours but a lot of that time is wrangling with insurance companies and Medicare for payments. That’s less time with patients. Less money coming in. Plus all our major expenses.”

  “Jami’s wedding,” Jo said with a sudden realization that the fifty thousand dollars her parents were spending was money they didn’t have.

  “That’s part of it. The house is a big one.”

  “You guys got this twenty-five years ago, isn’t it close to being paid off?”

  Chip sighed. “Don’t tell Jami or Mom that you know. But to come up with money for you two while you were in school, for your down payments on your houses, we refinanced the house several times and pulled out a lot of equity. The monthly payments were hard for us before the Pressman loss. Now….”

  Jo deflated. “I. I. I didn’t know. I…”

  “You are a smart and capable woman. Strong and resilient. That’s why I’m telling you. Also, I could see how you were looking at me and Mom when Dzuy was talking about travel. Mom and I would like to travel. And while she does a good job of pretending that she only likes her own cooking, she would like the option to go out and eat. We made decisions to put some of those things on hold because we didn’t want to stress you or your sister.”

  “This is making it so much worse. It’s my fault. Jami and I should have known but didn’t even think about it.”

  “No. Now look, Jo, I don’t expect you to understand right now. But if you and that Dzuy fella have kids someday, you’ll understand exactly how this could happen. Parents do whatever they think is best for their kids. We’re often wrong. But we always try.”

  Jo looked thoughtfully at him. “I’m in a hole too, so can’t help much. I made a little money today so I can repay you guys for the rent at the business and can start helping out when I make more. Or I can try to get my job back at the DA’s office. That’s a good and steady paycheck.”

  Chip smiled at his daughter and used the back of his hand to wipe away the start of a tear. “Jo, you are the best daughter I could have ever hoped for. You know how strong and tough Mom is. We won’t take your money and won’t let you go back to the DA’s office because you weren’t happy there.”

  Jo steadied herself. “That’s because I was being a baby. I was just feeling sorry for myself. If I knew there was financial trouble I never would have run for judge. I never would have quit.”

  “And that is why Mom insisted we never tell you. We want you to have every opportunity.”

  “I know you’re trying to explain why. But it’s just making me feel worse.” Jo took a small throw pillow and wrapped it up in her arms. She saw her father wipe tears from his eyes. She now had to do the same. “Dad?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know how you said as parents you want to sacrifice for your children?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were a son before a father. How you took care of Grandma is how Jami and I want to help you and Mom. Just remember that.”

  He opened his arms to hug her. “I’m so proud of you.”

  Jo leaned forward and rested her body against Chip. The two sat like that in silence for a minute as Chip wiped the occasional tear from his eyes.

  Jo broke the silence. “The money thing doesn’t so
und so bad. We can get the renters out of my place and the three of us can move there and rent this place out. Or even sell it. Are you sure there’s nothing to worry about with,” Jo couldn’t bring herself to say cancer, “your health issue?”

  The oak tree solid Chip Channing choked up. He nodded and did his best to say, “I’m sure.” He started to get up, barely managing to choke out, “Need to pee.”

  Jo sat in the formal living room, clutching a throw pillow, in the dark and let her mind wander. She wanted to call her sister Jami, but promised she wouldn’t. “Why do I want to call him?” she asked herself out loud. Why did she want to call Dzuy? She barely knew him. She thought about her friends from work, friends from college, and friends from high school. Even with fifty friends who would take her call and support her right now, she felt alone.

  Jo walked to the dining room, looking for her phones. A scroll through her contacts might help her figure out who she should call. Jo was startled by her mom sitting in front of a laptop computer at the dining room table.

  Mom asked, “Why is there a rolled up garbage bag inside your expensive purse?”

  Taken aback by the tone and abrupt change in atmosphere, Jo snapped, “I was protecting something valuable.” Jo took a moment to center herself. “Mom. Dad just told me he has prostate cancer. I want you to know that if you need any help, anything, I’m here for you.”

  Mom looked at Jo blankly.

  “Mom. I know you’re tough on me because you love me and want the best for me. Sometimes I feel like you find ways to make the sweetest sentiments sound mean. But I know you love me. I want to make sure that you and Dad know how much I love you guys.” Jo thought if her father was made of oak then her mother was made of steel. She had no idea what response to expect.

  “Thank you, Joanna.” Mom closed the laptop screen halfway and continued, “I’m sorry that sometimes the way I say things hurts you. But whatever I did must have been right because look at you.”

  Jo’s eyes widened. “Is that a compliment?”

  “Of course. You know I think the world of you. You fight for what’s right. Save good people from going to jail, put bad people in jail. You looked out for your little sister. I never have to worry about you.” Mom looked at Jo’s hair. “So sometimes I tell you things like you could use a highlight or two. We Channing women are tough enough to hear suggestions. Look at how tough you are. Looking murderers in the eyes.”