Then Evan dropped the largest bomb. “I knew your mother,” he stated quietly. Jay stared at the doctor incredulously, trying to decide which of a million questions to ask first. “Before you ask,” Evan began, holding up his hand, “I don’t remember much. I don’t know her name, and I couldn’t even tell you much about her appearance. But oh, Jay,” he sighed, “she is the most incredible person I have ever met.”
Evan told Jay everything he could remember about the special lady who captivated his tiny heart for what he still considered the best months he spent at the orphanage. Jay listened intently, enjoying the details about her laugh and the silly jokes she told. “I don’t know how tall she was or what color her hair was,” Evan continued, “but she had the deepest blue eyes. Even as a child I’d get lost in those eyes. Over the years I’d see that same tone of blue on billboards or in the ocean waters, and I’d think about your mother. I would know those eyes anywhere.”
Jay envied the man before him for having known his mother. He soaked in every description and tried to make them his own. “She was the only woman I ever wanted to adopt me,” Evan chuckled. “I even asked once!” Jay half-smiled as he tried to picture Evan as a child. “When you were born I could tell that she didn’t want to leave the orphanage. She was doing what she felt had to be done, but I’ll never know why.” A nurse rushed by, and Dr. Rodriguez glanced up to watch her bustle past.
“I made her the first promise I ever wanted to keep,” Evan said, penetrating Jay’s eyes with his own. “I told her that I would watch over you and never let anything bad happen. Though I can’t say that I kept that promise.” Jay found himself speechless as he waited for the doctor to expand on his statement. “I let your adoptive parents take you from the orphanage despite the bad feeling I got about the man who was to become your father. Then I resorted to prayer as my only option for protecting you. I can’t even say that I kept up with that either. It had been so long that I finally gave up on the prayers a couple of years ago.”
Evan hung his head as Jay thought about his stint in rehab. The timing was about right, but the coincidence was too great. Jay was beginning to think there was no such thing as a coincidence as he watched the doctor run a fingernail up and down the pocket of his white coat. The man had to be nearly forty…and he’d just given up on the prayers two years ago? Jay was baffled by the thought that someone cared for him his whole life without his even knowing.
Jay leaned across the uncomfortable chair and placed a hand on Evan’s shoulder. There was so much he wanted to say…so many things to discuss…so many questions to ask. Dr. Rodriguez’s pager beeped on his belt, and Jay stood to watch him apologetically bound out of the lounge. He hoped that his mother truly was the woman Evan had described.
* * * *
Yet another crisis averted, Evan rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. He couldn’t shake his amazement. Jay was the baby he had held so many years ago. Evan wished he could have been a part of Jay’s life as he grew, protecting him as he had promised his mother. Maybe there’s something I can do now, he thought, approaching the front desk near the entrance of the hospital.
“Hey, Marge,” Dr. Rodriguez greeted the elderly receptionist behind the counter.
“Hello there yourself, Doctor!” Marge replied, “To what do I owe this visit?”
“Just doing a little fishing,” Evan hinted, hoping he could convince Marge to help him. Marge had to be the hospital’s most loyal employee. She had taken a job straight out of high school fifty years earlier, and she had worked at Memorial ever since. Marge had moved to every department imaginable, but she had settled at the front desk over the last decade and seemed happy to have every tidbit of hospital information at her fingertips. Her snow white hair contrasted with the brightly colored shirts she always wore. No one could tell that her hair fell to her waist because she always kept it tied in a tight bun on the back of her head. “I need you to look up a woman who was brought in recently. Her name is Madison Bartlett.”
“Bartlett…Bartlett…” Marge muttered as she slowly clacked letters on the keyboard in front of her. “Ah yes, here she is! Oh my, she took quite a fall, I see.”
“Yes, but she’s fine now, and so is the baby,” Evan reassured as Marge nodded in relief.
“So, Doctor, you seem to know all about the case. What do you need from me?” Marge asked as she swiveled in her chair and rolled it to the other side of the desk, quickly answering two calls and transferring the lines to the proper departments.
“I want to know how much she owes the hospital,” Evan stated hastily as he crossed his fingers.
“Doctor Rodriguez!” Marge proclaimed. “You know our policies as well as I do!”
“I don’t know about that,” he muttered.
“Well, let me remind you then. That information is confidential!” she scolded, wagging her finger at him as she pushed her chair back to the computer.
“Okay, okay,” Evan gave in. “Just tell me one thing then…does her insurance cover the costs of her stay here?”
Marge eyed the doctor over her large plastic glasses and turned her attention back to the computer. “I’m afraid not,” she sighed. “It looks like she’s only thirty percent covered.”
Dr. Rodriguez nodded. He assumed he would discover something to that effect. “One last favor, Marge,” he began, “and this one has to stay between you and me. You got it?”
Marge drew her lanky index finger and thumb across her lips, zipping them in agreement.
“I want you to transfer all of Madison Bartlett’s outstanding bills to my account. And,” he continued, holding up a hand to stop her from expressing her shock vocally, “I want you to flag her account so that any future costs are also directed to me.”
Marge didn’t know quite what to say. She had never had a doctor request to pay for a patient before. It was especially shocking since this Madison Bartlett didn’t even appear to be Dr. Rodriguez’s patient. Marge searched the doctor’s stern gaze. He was obviously serious. She turned to the computer, and with a few pertinent key strokes, the bill had been transferred. Shaking her head, Marge said, “There you go, Doctor, your wish is my command!”
“Thank you, Marge,” Evan effused gratefully. “Remember, this is just between us.”
Marge nodded in agreement and pushed her chair back across the desk area to catch the blinking phone she had been ignoring.
* * * *
Madison stretched lazily, feeling a bit guilty for having been immobile most of the day. She felt strange about all of the time on her hands, but she never failed to find something to do whether it was napping or straightening their few belongings in the apartment. Catching the mail pile from the corner of her eye, she sighed heavily and hefted herself from the couch. The bills, unfortunately, were not going to pay themselves, and, she realized, she wasn’t going to be able to pay them either. Jay hadn’t received a paycheck since he started his new job. After all, he had only worked one day. Her meager teaching salary certainly couldn’t cover it all.
Shuffling through the stack, she moved the hand-delivered letter to the back of the pile as her stomach churned beneath her. With their address scrawled in slanted writing, the next piece of mail looked like a personal letter. Madison quickly opened the envelope addressed to “The Bartletts.” She poured a single rectangular sheet out of the envelope and turned it over. It was a traveler’s check made out to Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett. The amount box read $10,000. Madison squinted at the check, searching for a sender. Turning it over, she noticed the hand-written message. Good luck, it said. Nothing more. No name, no address, just good luck.
Madison stared at the mail, thinking about the message written on their paperwork for the donated honeymoon to Hawaii. Moving toward the kitchen, Madison was sure the handwriting was the same. Suddenly, she bent over with a knife-like pain in her abdomen. Holding her breath made the intense throb worse, so she breathed out slowly and steadily. A minute went by, and the cramp subsided. She pul
led out a container of crackers and had just started nibbling when a sharper, more enduring cramp attacked, forcing the crackers from her hand. She cradled her extended belly and called out in pain as she heard the door open. Jay rushed to her side, panicked by the sound of her voice.
“Are you okay?” he exclaimed. Madison shook her head violently. She was not okay, and she would not be okay until they got that baby out of her!
“Jay,” she breathed heavily, the mail clenched in one hand, her belly in the other, “he’s coming. The baby’s coming!”
Jay’s eyes grew wide. It was a month too soon. Would he be okay if he arrived this early? Madison did not appreciate his hesitation, and she shoved her elbow into his ribs to denote her displeasure. Snapping into action, Jay placed his hand on her elbow and led her to the door, stopping only to grab her packed bag. Madison hadn’t enjoyed being confined to their apartment all day, and she had prepared for the inevitable hospital trip well in advance, despite how often Jay chided her for being an overachiever.
As he helped her into the car for the short drive, he was glad she had over-prepared by packing so early. Throwing the bag over his shoulder, he helped her into the back seat. She grimaced as he pried the mail from her hands and jumped behind the wheel. Stuffing the letters and bills into the bag before throwing it onto the passenger seat, Jay coaxed the old car into submission on the first try. Jay encouraged Madison to breathe deeply while he navigated through a few blocks of nasty traffic and pulled under the familiar hospital awning. He remembered how scared he had been the last time he’d parked next to this building, but Jay pushed his memories aside to focus on his wife.
Jay threw his keys to a hovering EMT who offered to park the car as he recognized the couple. Jay helped Madison out of the car and through the double doors. “We’ve got a baby here!” he proclaimed upon entering, and everyone within earshot turned to check out the disturbance. A split second of silence was followed by a flurry of activity as Madison was seated in a wheelchair and whisked off to delivery. This time, Jay didn’t allow the nurses to push him aside. He kept a firm hand clamped to the side of her chair as he told her what a good job she was going to do and how strong she was.
Upon examination, the doctor actually decided she was further along then they expected and was about to deliver. She didn’t have time to recognize the transition phase that went along with the labor process. The things she had been taught in her birthing classes went right out the window as reality set in. The delivery room was readied as the sleuth of nurses transferred her to a more comfortable position. Jay found it odd that everything was in place. It was as if everyone but him knew that the baby would be born that day.
As they cautioned her against pushing, Madison uncharacteristically railed at Jay for having put her in this position. He smiled and brushed her short hair from above her eyebrows. He knew that later she probably wouldn’t even remember what she was saying, and he knew that she didn’t actually mean these cruelties. He tried to place every word in his memory bank so he could tease her after it was all behind them. As the doctor finally agreed to let her start pushing, Jay took Madison’s hand and squeezed as if his effort would help her push harder.
The doctor asked Jay if he would like to watch the process, and Jay agreed without hesitation. He had been fascinated by all things medical since the day he started his emergency training, and he was pretty sure he had seen it all when he rode along in the ambulance. One look at the crowning head of their child as Madison pushed, however, and Jay passed out flat on the floor. Madison deposited that vision into her memory bank for use at a later time and concentrated on getting the baby out of her body as quickly as possible.
The nurse waved smelling salts below Jay’s nose while gently smacking his face, waking him just in time to hear the cry. He leapt to his feet, realizing it was his baby boy making the fuss, just as the doctor exclaimed “It’s a girl!”
A girl!? Jay caught Madison’s eye as she smiled proudly and cried with relief and joy as the baby was taken across the room to be weighed and measured.
“A girl?” Jay exclaimed in confusion. “But she was supposed to be a he,” the new father whispered as a nurse returned to the bed with a bundle in her arms.
“Ah, the ultrasound played a trick yet again,” she said, guessing that Jay’s comment meant they had been expecting a boy. “These things happen more often than you would think,” she reassured as she nudged him toward Madison so together they could see the baby for the first time.
“A girl!” Madison gasped as they tucked the blanket back from her face and marveled at her beauty. It was hard to tell what she would look like later in life, but they knew she would be adorable. Her dark hair curled around her face. “Uh-oh,” Madison said, tugging on a lock of Jay’s hair with her free hand, “I think she has her daddy’s hair.”
Jay chuckled. “And her mommy’s feet,” he stated as Madison elbowed him in the ribs. “Look, Mad,” he continued, “she’s got your eyes!” The couple stared at their child in wonder as they caught the first flash of her blue-green eyes when she briefly opened and quickly squeezed them shut against the intruding light.
“She’s perfect,” Madison mused, as any new mother would. “Just one problem.” She looked at Jay with concern on her face.
“What’s that?” he asked. He couldn’t imagine there being a problem in the whole world at that moment. He had even forgotten about Jordan and Cory and the plight he had caused in their life.
“We can’t exactly name her Kyle,” she giggled.
They hadn’t even considered any female names after Madison discovered they were having a boy.
“Sure we can,” Jay joked just before he received another light elbow jab to the ribs. Gasping he said, “She’s great just the way she is; she doesn’t need a name.”
CHAPTER 22
Cory glanced up at the television he had turned on a few hours ago. The news blinked on the screen in silence. He saw a reporter standing in front of the courthouse and reached for the control to turn up the volume. Despite everything he had been through, the law was still of huge interest to him. “The judge just returned with shocking results in what everyone is calling the corporate trial of the decade….”
Cory stood abruptly as the camera cut to a shot of Earl Levin, the labor-hardened man who had entered Cory’s office with the most interesting case he had ever seen. Earl looked uncomfortable in his ragged suit, but his wind blown hair looked clean and somewhat in order as the media waved microphones in his face and shouted questions. “Was the verdict what you expected, Mr. Levin?” one of them asked. He shook his head in disbelief.
“It was well deserved,” he stated. “But I ain’t saying that anyone could have seen it comin’.”
Cory was about to pull his curly gray hair from his head in anticipation when Ester bustled into the room. “Phone call at the desk for you, Mr. James,” she said. Cory waved a hand in her face to try to keep her lips from forming any more words. “He said he’s a lawyer…from your office,” Ester continued, moving her face around his hand to make sure he heard the message. That got his attention, and Cory kissed Jordan on the cheek before he rushed from the room.
The nurse at the desk down the hall recognized Cory and held the yellowed phone out to him as he stretched his arm to grab the receiver. “This is James,” he stated briskly.
“Cory!” the voice exclaimed, and Cory immediately recognized the voice as the lawyer who had taken over the case for him when he had his heart attack. “You’re never going to believe this, man!”
“Tell me already, Woodall!” Cory replied impatiently.
“You really found a gem in that Earl guy. He was a STAR on the witness stand!” the lawyer proclaimed. “Most of the clients attended the last few days, and boy, did that affect the judge. They were all coughing and wheezing. Every single one of them was visibly ill.”
“The verdict, Woodall…get to the point!” Cory demanded in true lawyer fashion.
> “Oh man,” Woodall drew his words out, “the judge found them guilty, James.”
“I figured,” Cory muttered. “How much?”
“They were ordered to split twenty seven point five between the clients,” Woodall finally answered.
“Twenty seven million?” Cory spat in disbelief.
“You got it! Man, you should have seen the look on the corporate boys’ faces. They were white as sheets! And their lawyer, man…I thought he was going to keel over right there in front of the judge!”
Cory chuckled at the uncharacteristic mannerism of the lawyer on the other end. He sounded like an excited teenager who had just taken his first joy ride. “Job well done, Woodall. Those people are getting what they deserve.”
“And then some!” Woodall answered. “I gotta go. The media pack is waiting for me outside. I think I probably better go give our star, Earl, a break before they devour him whole.”
Cory heard a sound click before he could say anymore, and he handed the phone back to the desk nurse in awe. Twenty seven point five million dollars! That should teach corporate America not to mess with citizens’ health, he thought triumphantly as he pranced back to Jordan’s room.
“Hey, Darlin’!” he drawled as he entered the room. “You’re never going to believe what I just heard!” Cory plopped into the chair by Jordan’s side and picked up her hand, sobering at the sight of his wife, unable to celebrate the victory with him.
Tomorrow is our anniversary, he thought, changing subjects as he turned his attention to his wife. Thirty whole years. He couldn’t believe how fast the time had flown. He remembered their wedding day as if it had been yesterday. He wanted to do something special for Jordan, something she’d always remember. But who was he kidding? She probably couldn’t even hear him. Think positive, Cory, he commanded silently. Pushing negative thoughts as far from his mind as possible, he scooted his chair closer to the bed and laid his head in her lap. Placing her limp hand on his face, he spoke softly.
Someone Always Loved You Page 21