Stephen didn’t go anywhere the next day, and on Monday he went in early to work. He was digging through charts and files in the ER when Carlos Caballeros came in for his shift.
“What’s up, Doc?” he asked glibly.
“Oh, ha, ha, very funny, Carlos. Where’s your carrot?”
The doctor’s irritation seemed to surprise Carlos. “Is something the matter?”
Stephen looked up and felt his cheeks burning. “No. I just can’t find the chart I’m looking for.”
“What chart is that? Can I help you?”
“No, no, Carlos, that’s okay.” Stephen turned to leave the room. “I’m sure it will turn up.”
“What are you doing for lunch today?” Carlos asked him.
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it. But why don’t you come over to the clinic whenever you get a break? There’s a drug rep bringing us lunch over there and I’m sure there will be a spread.”
“Catch you then,” Carlos called as Stephen headed out the door.
Stephen jogged across the parking lot that separated Regional Family Care, the clinic where he worked, and Conejos County Hospital, which served the clinic and also housed the ER where Stephen was often on call. Entering through the back door, he stopped by his office to check his schedule and saw that it was packed, as usual. Stephen pushed the button on his phone for the front desk.
“Yes?”
“Irene, this is Steve.”
“Oh, good morning, Dr. Reyes.” The usually persnickety receptionist sounded syrupy sweet.
“How are you today?”
“I’m just fine, Dr. Reyes; how about yourself?”
“Well, I’m just getting started back here, but I looked at my schedule and saw that I am double-booked almost all day long.”
“Hmm, let me take a look.” He could hear her long, curled fingernails clicking on the keyboard as she pulled up his schedule. “Well,” she said as though it was a revelation, “yes, you are.”
“Irene, I know this is not totally your fault, but as the office manager, you are going to have to remind the rest of the girls that it’s against my policy.”
She snorted, and her voice rose in pitch. “But, Dr. Reyes, what can we do about it? Everyone requests you. You don’t expect us to turn people away, do you?”
“I expect you to schedule my appointments with enough time in between for me to actually treat people. I did not come here to slight patients so I could generate extra money for a clinic.”
“Well! I’ve never heard such—”
“Irene, it is in my contract. No double-booking unless it is an emergency.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Dr. Reyes.”
“Thank you.”
Stephen and his regular clinic nurse, Desirae, worked the double-booked morning in what felt like double time. He tried to give every patient his undivided attention, to listen to all of their stories, and to treat them each as people with individual needs. Stephen wanted to give patients a personal touch—to truly know the people he was serving, which was one of the reasons he had moved to a small town. It was one of the places it could still be done. But even here, if you weren’t careful, you could become a cog in a machine that kept people sick. Sometimes he felt like traditional medicine was so messed up—and this was one of those days.
After working nonstop through lunch, Stephen spotted Carlos coming through the door and noticed by his watch that it was two o’clock. He decided to take a fifteen-minute break with Carlos in the lounge, and over the leftover takeout the drug rep had provided, Carlos eyed Stephen warily while Stephen rubbed his forehead.
“Are you feeling okay?” Carlos finally asked.
“I’m fine. A little exhausted, I guess.”
“Steve, what’s up? I mean, I’ve worked with you for years now. I know when you’re not on your game.”
There was a pause before Stephen looked up at him, shaking the cobwebs free from his mind. He blinked and seemed to see his friend for the first time that day.
“I’m okay—just double-booked.”
“Oh. Are you sure that’s all? I mean, no offense, but you were acting a little weird in the ER this morning.”
Stephen laughed. He was busted. “Carlos, you’re a good friend, and you’re right. I can’t believe I’m this distracted by a woman.”
“Oh, a woman!” Carlos’s eyes suddenly lit up and his face broke into a smile.
Stephen suppressed a grin.
“Who? Tell me! The hearts of all of the other nurses will be broken at this news. El Rey of Hearts finally falls!”
“Shh! You can’t breathe a word. I don’t even know her. I mean, we’ve hardly met. I don’t know anything about her.”
“A mystery woman. Oh, this is muy bueno. I love mysteries.” Carlos rubbed his palms together, waiting. When Stephen didn’t say anything, Carlos reached across the table with his bear paws, motioning to choke him. “Are you going to sit there all day, or will you tell me who she is?”
“She’s apparently very intelligent.”
“Hmm.”
“Seems like a good person.”
“That’s important.”
They pondered this a minute and then Carlos quipped, “Is she ugly?”
“No. Definitely not.”
“Bonita? Pretty?”
“More than pretty.” Stephen’s face warmed at the thought of her, and he felt like a fifth-grader.
“Ahh. I see.”
“You know her.”
“I do?” Carlos raised his eyebrows.
“Yes.”
“Well, that narrows it down. I know everyone around here.” He set down his plastic fork.
“She’s not from around here. Well, I mean, she’s not been around here in a long time…but now she is.”
Carlos’s face registered bewilderment before it suddenly seemed to dawn on him. “Claire? The Caspian C?”
Stephen backed up from the table, crossed his legs, and put his hand up, waving it slightly. “Not a word to anyone, Carlos, really. I can’t believe I’m talking about this.”
“Claire Caspian! You’re in love with Claire Caspian!”
“Shh!” Stephen got up and shut the door to the break room. “Not in love! Don’t be ridiculous. Just interested. And that’s probably as far as it will go because I probably don’t even have a chance with her.”
“Well, amigo, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve got that right.” Carlos nodded his head and sighed.
“What?”
“She’s married.”
On his way home that evening, Stephen resorted to country music. He turned it up loud. With the windows down in his truck and his hair blowing in all different directions, he tried to pull together the pieces of the story Carlos had told him. It wasn’t complicated, really. She was married to a lawyer. They met at Adams. Carlos remembered the picture and announcement in the paper. After the wedding they moved to Arkansas, of all places, where he went to law school and she got her PhD. Carlos said she taught there and her husband worked for an international law firm. The boy was born in Arkansas. He didn’t know why they’d moved back, unless it was just to be near her grandmother. Her abuelita. “Now there’s a character,” Carlos had said. “The richest woman in the county.”
Carlos didn’t know why Claire was alone at the hospital or the ballgame, but “You know lawyers,” Carlos had said. “He could be a jerk, or he could just be out of town.”
Chapter Five
It was pouring rain as Claire turned into the parking lot at the Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida. She pulled into the empty space nearest the door, which was not near enough, and turned around in her seat to wake up Graeme. Though he was technically big enough to be out of a booster seat, Claire thought it best to keep him in one for now. You could never be too careful. She also had him ride behind her, on the driver’s side, in the backseat. The rationale for that arrangement was this: If she were ever in an accident, her impulse probably woul
d be to swerve to protect herself. If Graeme were on the passenger side, he’d be more likely to get hurt. By keeping him on her side, Claire reasoned, he was definitely safer.
Graeme was buckled tightly—so tightly that even though he’d fallen asleep, he was sitting completely upright. His head had fallen over at an uncomfortable angle, resting on his right shoulder, and his mouth was slightly open. Claire didn’t like to look at him this way. It was a bit unnerving. She touched his cheek and felt a warming sense of relief as his green eyes fluttered open and he looked at her, his eyes adjusting to wakefulness with several long blinks.
“Are we there?”
“We’re here. Get unbuckled. See how it’s raining? We have to make a run for it.”
Claire got out of the car, opened Graeme’s door, and grabbed his hand as he slid out. She closed the door behind him. Then they ran, side-by-side, the thirty yards or so that it was until they were under the breezeway and in the door. Claire’s heels clicked on the sidewalk like fingers typing on a keyboard.
“That was fun!” Graeme exclaimed, shaking the water from his hair as it began to curl around his face.
The receptionist sitting at a nearby desk grinned at Claire.
Claire smiled back, smoothing her own curling hair and damp suit. The navy crepe was splotched all over with raindrops, and Claire wished she’s brought an umbrella. “Can you tell me where Dr. Maria Marquez, the pediatric pulmonologist, is located?”
“Sure. Her office is on the third floor. You can take the elevator to your left.”
The sign on the door read MARIA MERCEDES MARQUEZ, MD. When they opened it, however, they stepped into a rain forest.
“Wow, cool!” Graeme said.
There was an aquarium the size of Claire’s car on the wall to their right. It contained fish of many sizes, shapes, and colors, obviously tropical. In fact, it seemed to contain a complete, if miniature, coral reef.
“Nemo!” Graeme cried as he pointed to a clown fish. “And look! There’s a sea horse, and some angelfish, and even a shrimp here on the bottom!”
The ceiling was painted dark green. The blades on the fans circling overhead looked like dried banana leaves. The furniture was brown leather, the tables bamboo. Silk palm trees decorated every corner. Murals on the three other walls depicted monkeys swinging on vines, parrots perched on branches, and tiny poison dart frogs. Other sets of eyes, belonging to gorillas and other jungle creatures, peeked out from behind giant fern leaves. And mounted to one of the walls was a wide-screen television playing Disney’s Tarzan.
Claire gave Graeme’s name at the desk and filled out paperwork while Graeme explored the wonders of the waiting room. In just a few minutes, his name was called by a nurse in khaki scrubs who was wearing a safari hat. After she weighed and measured Graeme and recorded his information, she took necessary instruments out of a belt that had several zippered pouches. The last one was full of candy, which she offered to Graeme. He pulled out a red sucker and thanked her.
“I like this place!” he told his mother, skipping ahead of her into the examination room.
Shortly after they were settled, the doctor came into the room smelling like lavender. She had fair skin, brilliant blue eyes, and lush red hair that formed soft layers around her face and flipped up slightly at her shoulders. Underneath her white coat, which had Bugs Bunny embroidered on the pocket, was a bright salmon blouse that coordinated with her floral-print Capri pants. She wore white sandals, and her toenails matched her blouse. She offered Claire a white, immaculately manicured hand.
“I’m Dr. Marquez.” She smiled, revealing a set of perfect teeth.
Claire found the doctor’s hand to be soft and warm. “Claire Caspian.”
“And you must be Graeme!” Dr. Marquez turned all of her attention toward the seat next to Claire, bending her knees and squatting to reach Graeme’s eye-level. “How are you today, buddy?”
Graeme looked at Claire and then back at the doctor. His eyes were wide.
“Is that a good sucker?”
Graeme nodded, keeping it in his mouth.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened the other day on the playground? Did you have a little trouble breathing?”
“Yeah, I had an asthma attack.” He took the sucker out just long enough to say it. Maria Marquez laughed. “I see. Those are pretty big words you’re using. Were you afraid?”
“No. Well, maybe a little.”
“Did you use an inhaler?”
“Yeah, but it didn’t work. That’s when I got to ride in the ambulance.” Graeme made a spinning motion with his sucker. “We went fast! That was so cool! We got to the hospital in no time!”
“That is cool. I like to ride in ambulances, myself. Did you get to hear the siren?” The doctor’s excitement made her sound like she was close in age to Graeme.
Claire took Graeme’s sucker when it circled by her head. He started to protest but then thought better of it. He re-engaged with Maria.
“No, they didn’t turn it on.”
“Bummer!” Maria said.
“I know; it was a bummer.”
“Well, what happened when they got you to the hospital?” Maria was still on Graeme’s eye-level.
“They got me better. I had to get a breathing treatment. Mommy came.”
“Did you like Dr. Steve?”
“Who’s that?”
“You didn’t meet Dr. Steve?” Maria glanced at Claire, who supplied the answer.
“Graeme was pretty out of it by then. I think he sort of slept though Dr. Reyes’s exam, so he may not remember.”
“Oh,” Maria said thoughtfully. Then she turned back to Graeme. “Well, Dr. Steve sure remembers you! He said you were a brave little boy and that I need to take really good care of you!”
Graeme smiled at her sweetly.
“Want to see a picture of him?” Maria asked Graeme, handing him a small framed picture, which Claire had not yet noticed, from off the counter.
“Oh, yeah, I remember him,” Graeme said, handing it back to her.
“How about hopping up here on the table?”
After half an hour’s worth of listening to Graeme’s lungs, tapping on his chest, and peak flow testing, Maria ordered X-rays. Then she set Graeme up in an observation room across the hall, where he watched Finding Nemo while Claire answered the doctor’s questions.
“Is there a family history of breathing problems?”
“No,” Claire answered.
“Eczema? Allergies?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“How old was Graeme when this started happening?”
Claire relayed the incident that occurred in Arkansas when Graeme was three, as she’d told Dr. Reyes in the ER.
“Hmm. So, the Singulair was effective back then?” Maria’s pen was smoking.
“Yes. He just took the one month of it, and we never got the prescription filled again, because there was a hard freeze. He didn’t seem to need it after that. The few other flare-ups he’s had since then have been easily controlled with the inhaler.” Claire stretched her neck from side to side.
“How often is there a problem?”
“Not often—once or twice a year.”
“Is it worse with exercise or at night?”
“Maybe…I don’t know. I guess. It’s happened with activity, like in the leaves that time or on the playground. And it’s happened at night a time or two, but only when he’s already been sick with a cold.”
Maria pressed. “Cough? Fever? Any recurrent pneumonia? Other recurrent infections?”
“He had fever one of the times. Never any pneumonia. No other infections. He’s been a very healthy child.”
“What about diarrhea?”
“No.”
“Was he premature? Has he ever had RSV? Any hospitalizations?”
“No, no, no.”
Maria looked up from the chart at Claire and smiled reassuringly.
“I think we’ll try some Singulair aga
in. Let’s do that for a month, and then I’d like to see you back. I’ll give you a sample of a new inhaler, too. Try three puffs if he has a flare-up. Tell the school nurse three. I don’t think he will have any problem on the Singulair, but if he does, call me and we’ll need to see you sooner.”
Claire gazed across the hall at Graeme, who was lying on a leopard-print beanbag, engrossed in Finding Nemo. “So, do you think he has a serious asthma problem?” Her eyes were tearing up.
Maria touched her arm. “I think he’s got asthma, and we’ve got to control it so that it doesn’t interfere with a wonderful, active life!”
Claire nodded.
Maria stood to leave. “Did you know the Arkansas River flows through Salida?”
“No,” Claire said, waking up from a dream. She gathered hers and Graeme’s things. “I mean, I guess I hadn’t thought about it. But I know it begins in Leadville, and well, yes. Now that makes sense.”
“There’s a wonderful restaurant right on the river called Rumors. It’s Steve’s favorite place to eat when he comes here. If it’s not raining anymore, you and Graeme should check it out.” Maria flashed her white teeth again in another big smile.
“Thanks,” Claire told her. She’d suddenly had her fill of the doctor and her office and was ready to get out of there.
Chapter Six
Five o’clock is brutal, thought Stephen as he got out of his truck. His eyelids, like the rest of his body, felt heavy.
Joe, on the other hand, was bounding down the front steps of his house, smiling like he had just swallowed a piano.
“You’ve got some big teeth,” Stephen told him. “They glow in the dark.”
“The better to bite with!” Joe slapped him on the back, making chomping sounds with his teeth.
“I’ll tell you what bites, Little Red Riding Hood. It’s running at five a.m. How did I let you talk me into this?”
They stretched their calves on the tailgate of Stephen’s truck.
“As I remember, it was your idea. I tried to get your lazy butt out on Sunday, but you put it off until today. I can’t help it I’ve got a game this evening. Some of us poor folks have to work.”
Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado Page 5