Attending Physician

by Vivienne Hartt Quinn

  Raven explained, “Enter said cheerleader.”

  “No!” I said.

  “Really.”

  “Darling, according to Leah and Julia, Kimmy’s been hot for Mel for years. Since high school.”

  “Cool,” answered Raven.

  “I’m going to introduce myself, darling,” I reached to kiss Raven’s cheek.

  “I’ll do it, baby. Come on,” she pulled me by the hand.

  Chapter 73

  “Kimmy, how are you!” Raven greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. “It’s great to see you. You look lovely as usual.”

  The bosomy blonde flushed prettily. “Raven, hey,” she said with a soft, little girl voice. “Who’s your friend?”

  “Kimmy, may I present Dr. Verity Spencer, my ... lady?”

  Lucy came barreling into our threesome to say, “No, Papa, my Lady! Hi, Kimmy!”

  “Hi, Lucy! How do you do, Dr. Spencer?”

  “Kimmy, please, call me Verity,” I shook her hand. “Mel, sweetie, would you come here a second?”

  Dutiful butch. Mel arrived on request.

  “Mel, you remember Kimmy, don’t you?”

  Mel gulped.

  “Would you do me a personal favor, Mel, and see to it that Kimmy gets some lunch and a comfortable place to sit with some nice, civilized conversation?”

  Raven gave Mel a Look. I think it said, Okay, Buster, now’s yer chance.

  “Of course, Verity,” said Mel, “it would be my pleasure.” He offered Kimmy his arm to escort her to the buffet tables. “Kimmy, shall we?”

  “Oh, Mel,” she sighed, “let’s.”

  I definitely ticked that item off, off, off the list because if I wasn’t mistaken, unless Mel totally screwed it up, I could see a sweet coupling in the formation stage. I sent a subtle thumbs-up to Leah and Julia who beamed ear to ear.

  “That was fast, milady,” murmured Raven against my hairline.

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, handsome.”

  Raven leaned down to kiss me. “Can’t wait,” she said against my mouth.

  “Where do you suppose Terry’s date has gotten to, my love?” I spoke.

  “No idea, baby. Shall I ask?”

  “Not yet, but soon,” I said.

  I gazed around the yard. Lucy squealed on the swing set. Cord pushed her. Gabby was obviously jealous of the child. Ridiculous.

  Kimmy and Mel sat at the end of a picnic table intent on one another in conversation, which brought me real pleasure. She was perfect for him.

  Leah and Ollie had stepped aside to share a cigarette.

  Mickey and Sara held hands. I had a feeling that they were rediscovering one another from entirely different points of view than their usual ones.

  Sam had wrapped himself around Julia, and she basked in his over-sized warmth.

  Dex and his lady argued over a small hand-held electronic device, which I gathered was par for the course.

  Jamie and the stunning Jane sat together, thighs touching, on a swinging bench under an exquisite old tree and appeared to be getting on swimmingly.

  We were down to Terry who was unaccompanied. I guess it’s so that when one is in love, one wants the whole world to be in love as well.

  Gretchen stood on her porch and called, “Has everyone had their fill? Time for dessert?”

  Up went a general cheer.

  “Raven,” I prompted, “will you get a couple of the guys to help clear the tables please, darling?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She signaled to her guys and three of them stepped right up. The tables were empty in nanoseconds, and Gretchen began a parade of sweets immediately.

  In the midst of this delectable vision, Geoff arrived with a pretty girl. A really, really pretty girl.

  “Verity, I got them!” Geoff said excitedly. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small bag.

  “Oooh, let’s see then,” I said as he pulled the pendulums out of the bag. He’d chosen three gorgeous natural stone ones: malachite, lapis lazuli, and tiger eye. “Which one’s yours, Geoff?”

  “Oh, I’m definitely the tiger eye. Definitely.”

  The girl with him grinned. “You’re a tiger, bro, no question.”

  “Verity, this is my twin sister, Gillian. Gillian, this is Dr. Verity Spencer.”

  Her eyes got big. “The brave doctor,” she said.

  “Yup,” said her brother. “Gill, this is my boss, Detective Terry Bradford.”

  Gillian reached out to shake Terry’s hand. “Detective Bradford,” she said respectfully.

  Terry’s eyes scanned the beautiful young woman. Terry was adorably obvious—at least to me. “Ms. Gordon, it’s a pleasure.”

  “Oh, please, call me Gillian.”

  “Gillian, Geoff, have you had lunch?” Terry asked.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” moaned Geoff. “I’m starved.”

  “C’mon into the kitchen and we’ll see what we can rustle up,” said Terry, offering her very buff arm to Gillian.

  Geoff winked at me. “Well,” he whispered, “I guess it worked.”

  “Terry’s elusive date?” I asked, guessing correctly.

  “Mm-hmm,” he said, hanging with me. “I showed Gilly Terry’s picture and she moaned—I swear.”

  “Where’s a date for you?” I asked Geoff.

  “Oh, my boyfriend, Greg, had to work in the lab today. He might be by later on.”

  Raven spoke. “Greg works in the lab at Mt. Auburn? Is he a tech?”

  “Yeah.”

  Raven put an arm around Geoff’s shoulders. “Let me walk you to the kitchen, Geoff. Excuse us, baby.”

  “Geoff, give Raven her pendulum.” The malachite was hers, and the lapis was Terry’s.

  Julia approached me. “What was Geoff handing out?” she asked.

  “Oh, pendulums. I sent him to Seven Stars in Cambridge to get them.”

  “For dowsing?” Julia asked.

  “Yes,” I replied, surprised. “How do you know dowsing?”

  “My grandfather was an old water dowser in Vermont years ago. He used what he called water sticks.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Yes, I dowsed for some evidence that was left in my house when Terry was there. She totally blew me off until I zeroed in on what they wanted immediately. So, I very sweetly told her that she was going to learn to dowse.”

  Julia laughed. “We should all learn.”

  “No reason why not,” I agreed.

  “You gonna teach us, Verity?”

  “I am. Let’s get Terry out here and put her in the middle of it. She has to learn not to dis me or my skills.”

  “Got that right, girlfriend,” said Julia in femme solidarity. “Alright. Sam, go get Terry. We need her. Boys! Girls! Gather round. Verity’s got somethin’ to teach us.”

  I couldn’t have set this up better if I’d tried. Julia did the whole thing. When Terry resurfaced in our midst, Julia whirled on her and pounced, “Terry, the word on the street is that you dissed Verity in her very own house last week. Is that true?”

  Terry was appropriately abashed. “It is, ma’am.” She was brave, taking her medicine without complaint—no spoonful of sugar in sight.

  “So Geoff has arrived with the instrument of your torment. Is that correct?”

  Terry asked him, “Did you bring them?”

  “Uh, yeah, boss. You can’t keep your eyes off my sister long enough to notice!”

  We laughed. Terry didn’t blush.

  “Right you are, Geoff.” Terry held out her hand in full resignation mode. “Lemme have mine.”

  Geoff dangled the lapis lazuli pendulum over Terry’s palm.

  “Thanks, Verity and Raven.”

  “You’re welcome,” we said together.

  “Are we going to use these?” asked Raven.

  “How badly do you want that box, Raven?” I said.

  “Bad,” she sent to me.

  “Can I tell everyone?”

  “I will, bab
y, and you can teach us.”

  Raven called for everyone’s attention.

  “So, we’re going to go for high stakes with the pendulums right off the bat,” started Raven.

  “When Angie died, she had a codicil to her will that said I needed to find her cigar box. Our dads used to smoke cigars—Gretchen made a disgusted sound—and we always asked if we could have the boxes. Well, one time they gave us their cigar boxes—we were fourteen I guess, and we always kept our special treasures in them.

  “Since that day, I have known where mine was. I still keep my special treasures in it. Angie hid hers and I’ve been seeking it for more than a year. Terry’s looked. Jamie’s looked. We can’t find it anywhere—not in her office, not in her car, not in her side of the house.”

  “Why didn’t you ask any of the rest of us?” asked a slightly ticked off Cord.

  “Because we kept thinking the box would be around the corner, and that we’d happen upon it in working through the other parts of life that changed when Angie died. I kept losing sight of the need to find it between the baby, the legal aspects, and the deets. My bad.”

  Cord backed off, and accepted Raven’s apology. “So what happened with Raven’s Beauty, Terr?”

  “I totally dissed her,” she said, abashedly.

  “You apologized,” I piped in.

  “I did,” she acknowledged, “but still it never should have occurred to me. Stranger things have worked for us, as Geoff so willingly reminded me.” She grinned at her lieutenant.

  “So he bought me a pendulum so I can learn to do what Verity did.” She bowed to me. “And here we are.”

  Chapter 74

  Raven was amused. “So you think we should use our pendulums to find Angie’s box, baby?”

  “What’s the worst thing that happens? We don’t find it? Well, then nothing will be different, right? But, my darling, what if we do?”

  “Lead on, milady,” responded a smiling Raven.

  I addressed the assembled group, “A pendulum answers questions three ways: yes, no, and I don’t know. Watch mine first before you try it yourself.”

  I demonstrated my yes which is a back and forth swing, my no which is a counterclockwise spin, and my I don’t know which is a side-to-side swing.

  “Everyone’s pendulum will behave differently but they’ll still have three principle responses. Don’t second guess. Don’t let your opinion or desire get in the way. Just let the pendulum do what the pendulum does. Ask yes or no questions.

  “So with this cigar box, we’re going to be using pendulums as if they’re telling us if we’re getting warmer or colder. Closer or farther away.”

  “Raven’s Beauty, can I ask a question?” Cord spoke.

  “Sure, hon,” I said.

  Gabby tsked.

  “Do you have to have a special pendulum to use for this?”

  “No. Use the necklace you have on, Cord.”

  “Cool,” she said, “I’m in,” reaching to unclasp her necklace.

  We had a flurry of necklace removals so many more of us had pendulums.

  “Here’s what I suggest,” I said. “once you figure out your yes and your no. I think we ought to consider the house and the house alone.

  “Let’s stand in a circle each facing outward. I’ll ask the questions, and everyone will let their pendulum do its thing. Then we’ll all turn around and share. If the box is in the house, we ought to get the same answers.”

  “This is totally cool,” said Geoff. “Totally, radically cool.”

  “Team, circle up,” said Raven and we turned our backs to one another.

  “Is the box in the house on this property?”

  Silence reigned.

  “Ready to talk?” I asked. “If so, turn around.”

  I already faced in. Raven’s eyes trained on me. She mouthed, “Yes.” I nodded.

  Geoff spoke, “I got a yes.”

  Terry added, “Me, too.”

  “Yes,” said Julia.

  Leah said, “Me, too.”

  Kimmy spoke, “Yes, I got a yes, too.”

  Mel said, “So did I.” She only had eyes for Kimmy.

  I asked, “Did anyone get a no?”

  Silence.

  “Who wants to figure out what the next question is?” I asked.

  “Not you?” asked Terry.

  “I could, but learning to frame and ask questions in the right way is part of how this works.”

  “Cool, I’ll give it a go,” said Cord. “Shall we ask which side of the house?”

  “How would you ask that as a yes or no?” I countered.

  Cord adjusted: “Is it on Gretchen’s side of the house? Let’s start with that.”

  “Good, Cord,” I smiled at her. Gabby sent me annoyed again. She didn’t like Cord paying attention to anyone other than her. Wow, what a burden for her, not to mention her butch.

  We rounded again, and once again, we all got yes.

  Cord spoke, “Let’s ask: Is it on Raven’s side of the house?”

  “But why?” a hailstorm of objection. “We already know it’s in Gretchen’s side.”

  “I don’t know,” said Cord defensively. “I just think we should.”

  “We have nothing to lose, darlings.” I added. “Let’s ask.” I showed my back, and spoke, “Is it on Raven’s side of the house?”

  My pendulum signaled yes instantly. I felt the shift amongst our circle. Everyone else was as stymied as I was.

  “I got a yes,” I said.

  A chorus of “Me, toos” came.

  “What could that mean, baby?” asked Raven. “Are the pendulums wrong?”

  Gillian made a sound low in her throat, “Um, can I ask something please?”

  “Go ahead, Gillian,” said Raven.

  “Are there any pass-throughs in the house? Do they share closets? Crawl spaces? Attics? Stairwells?” We looked at her blindly. Just about every one of us had been in both sides of the house. “I’m an architecture fan,” she explained.

  Terry was glassy-eyed and completely frozen. “Stairwells, did you say, Gillian?”

  “Um, yeah,” she hungered at Terry.

  “Verity,” Terry addressed me, “can we take this project inside? I have an idea.”

  “What Terry said. Let’s go,” I said.

  Lucy had been completely still through this process. More still than a three year old can usually muster.

  “Luce?” I checked in with her. “You good?”

  “Yes, Lady. Mama says, box, it’s time.”

  “Come on, baby girl. Come with Lady and Papa.”

  Soon everyone crowded into the downstairs front foyer on Raven’s side of the house.

  “How many people have pendulums?” shouted Terry over the chatter. “Line up against the stairs.”

  Thirteen of us did.

  “How many steps are there?” asked Terry.

  “Thirteen,” I supplied.

  “How do you know that, baby?” asked Raven.

  “I always count steps. Have since I was a kid.”

  She shook her head.

  My intuition pinged about this box.

  Not on this side of the house per se.

  Or, not accessible from this side of the house.

  Terry got each one of us with a pendulum to stand on a step.

  “Ask: Is Angie’s box accessible through this step?”

  The staircase held a sacred silence as we used our pendulums.

  Terry spoke, “Starting at the top, let’s hear your answers.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “Whoa,” Terry’s breath whooshed out.

  Chapter 75

  I was looking at Raven on the step abo
ve me when the comprehension lit her eyes.

  “Oh, my God,” she said under her breath. “Terr, can we do the same—?”

  “I know,” Terry cut her off. “Come on, everyone. We have to do the same on Gretchen’s side.”

  Dutifully, we trooped down the stairs, onto the porch and through Gretchen’s front door up her stairs in the same order we’d been on Raven’s side.

  Terry was on the seventh step, the one Raven always purposefully missed when she went up or down. She said it creaked enough to wake the dead. She was right.

  We repeated the question for Gretchen’s side, and got exactly the same answers.

  Raven stood on the seventh step. “Everyone down the stairs. Gretchen, I’ll pull this up, and I promise it’ll be fixed before you go to bed tonight.”

  “No worries, Raven,” Gretchen gave her permission.

  Raven and I already knew the box was there.

  She began to shift the tread when it slid right out of place into her hands. Nothing needed fixing. Angie had jimmied it years ago—maybe when the girls’ dads had given them the cigar boxes.

  There, on the exact center of the line dividing the house, sat Angie’s cigar box. Technically, it was accessible from both sides of the stairs.

  Raven lifted it in her hands as she might a reliquary.

  Lucy, standing at the bottom of the stairs with her Nana and me yelled, “Yay, Papa! Mama’s lost box is found!!!”

  We laughed.

  Gretchen, bless her, brought us back to earth. “Dessert, boys and girls!”

  Lucy hollered, “Yay, Nana!”

  Gretchen ushered the majority of the assembly out into the yard, and commenced serving their well-deserved sweets as everyone talked over the pendulum work. They were jazzed, which sounded like a lot of fun, and I overheard a couple of pairs planning on a trip to Seven Stars.

  “Baby? Terry, Jamie, Cord and I are going to open the box in my house. Will you come with us please?”

  “Of course, darling,” I said. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, slightly freaked out.”

  “Milord, if you want to keep me around, you’d better get used to it. That’s how I live.”

  “Milady, thanks for the warning.” She leaned down to kiss me.

  “Enough of that,” admonished Cord.

  “Never enough!” Raven denied. “Never! Never! Never!”