by Barbara Ebel
She gasped for a breath of air; Jeff had such an effect on her. “Yes, why resist,” she said softly.
Jeff held the spoon steady. “Come back to my place tonight.”
“I would love to. Believe me, I would.”
He silenced and gazed down.
“I’m sorry. Perhaps I’ll change my mind before I leave. You have a deep understanding of what women, or I, want. Yes, the thought of sex with you is totally inviting, but the attention you bestow on me is worth more frolics in the sack than you can imagine. Many women my age would tell you the same thing. And because of my current marital situation, your attention has made my anesthesia coverage here that much more rewarding and satisfying.”
Jeff smiled. “You are so direct. I love that about you. Miss Viktoria, if you change your mind or not, I hope we can stay close friends. I’ve never met an Icelander quite like you.”
“That’s because you’ve known no other Icelanders,” she said and laughed.
He laughed along with her and added, “and if I were to see you regularly, I would shower you with the attention that you deserve.”
After they finished their dessert, they walked the dogs around the lighthouse, and drove back to Masonville. At the hotel, it took all of Viktoria’s will power to spring out of his vehicle and not go home with him.
CHAPTER 33
Jeff’s office phone rang, and he hesitated to answer. Most of his Wednesday morning calls so far came from reporters. Not only had the Masonville newspapers and television news stations contacted him about the scandalous drug bust related to the hospital, but news-gathering sources were contacting him from all over the state. He shuddered to think about how many calls may be flooding into administration upstairs. And surely, they would be none too happy.
Since he expected a call from Cathy Banker any minute, he answered.
“Come up to my office right now,” she said, without so much as a hello.
Jeff huddled in the back of the elevator and thought ahead, anticipating his defensive answers if she suggested the board’s decision to terminate him. All told, they needed him now more than ever for damage control and for his people skills when it came to employee disruption.
He knocked on the CEOs door and walked with confidence into her office.
“Sit down,” Cathy said.
Jeff obliged. On the side of the desk in front of him was a box of cinnamon-apple donuts, the smell wafting by his nose. The distraction was welcome and calmed his nerves.
She perched herself against the front of the desk and crossed her legs at the knee. “Last night I thought the board members were going to roast me in a fire. Luckily, they made decisions which everyone could live with. We will obviously be conducting an investigation of how the present system failed us, and how both grave misconducts occurred right under our noses. Not just one illegal act, but two.
“We are firing the entire anesthesia department. We’re going to call that locum tenens agency to help us out in the interim. More permanently, you and I will contact full-time physician service companies that are known to put entire hospital professional departments together, such as anesthesia, pathology, or radiology. We’ll let them put together our department, and they will be paid handsomely for their services. Let’s make sure that woman visiting anesthesiologist, Dr. Thorsdottir, stays on board through her contracted tenure and, if possible, longer than that.”
“She’s leaving in two weeks and has her next assignment thoughtfully lined up. But she’s a great asset in the interim.”
“Yes, and we owe her a lot professionally and personally. Do you think she’d mind being in charge until she leaves? Do you have a good relationship with her?”
“I believe so, and she’s a born leader. She will take charge if I ask her.”
“Talk to her, and tell her to visit me about all of this at her convenience. When and if she pops in, I will drop whatever I’m doing to make her acquaintance and assure her we are thrilled to have her here.”
Cathy turned to the side and held out the donut box. Jeff shook his head. “No, really,” she said and took one herself.
Jeff selected one and took a bite.
“We’re fine,” she said. “The board believes you are a valid asset and will steer the OR and this anesthesia department problem back on track. We all believe it won’t be easy, but we trust you. Let’s stress to the agencies that we insist on a new group with individuals who hold the Hippocratic Oath and integrity as important as the anesthesia skills that they provide.”
Unaware of the tension he’d brought into the room, Jeff felt a pent-up strain dissipate from his muscles. The rich flavor of the donut did him good, and he smiled. “I will be happy and ever so dedicated to be putting our OR back on track.”
“Go talk to that Dr. Thorsdottir and get on the phone with the locums agency. After lining up at least half the coverage, fire the department. They don’t have a leg to stand on. If we are short of anesthesia providers for a short time, we will run fewer rooms. The board supports that decision.”
They both finished their donuts, comparable to sealing their discussion and the decisions made.
Jeff hopped into the elevator, the doors snapped shut, and he headed downstairs to inform Viktoria.
-----
In the preop holding room, Viktoria squatted in front of a little girl who twirled with one ponytail dangling from the side of her head. The youngster’s parents watched with relief as Viktoria eased the little girl’s nervousness about having her tonsils removed.
“You are the prettiest patient I’ve had all day,” Viktoria said.
“I am?” The preschooler asked.
“Yes, and I bet you love stories in books, which makes you smart too.”
The little girl grinned. “I do. My favorite is Chester the Chesapeake. I love all the dogs.”
“Dogs are wonderful. I have a dog named Buddy.”
The curtain parted and Viktoria turned. Jeff nodded. “When you have a moment …”
“I’ll be back,” Viktoria said to the girl and her parents. “We’ll talk more about anesthesia.”
Viktoria stepped out, and Jeff waved her behind the empty desk. They stood huddled next to the wall where he spoke softly. “The board and CEO made their final decision to fire the department. I’ll be talking to your agency, getting interim help, and using a physician full-time recruitment company to hire a whole department. We would like for you to take charge of running the department with additional compensation. I’m firing Jay Huff by the end of the day. Any chance you could stay beyond your two remaining weeks here?” His eyes sunk into hers, a personal as well as a professional request.
Viktoria let the words sink in. She glanced past him and frowned. “I will step up in the interim.” Her eyes moistened. “I’m sorry. I better not stay on. After much soul-searching in the past, I made the decision to work in different locations and practices. I’m not ready to renege on that promise.”
Jeff waited a second while a nurse picked up a chart on the way past the desk. He leaned his shoulder against the wall. “I understand. I wish I could change your mind, but if that were the case, then you wouldn’t be the most interesting and unique person I had the opportunity to meet and spend time with.”
“Thank you for understanding, Jeff.”
The curtain parted and the little girl fixed her eyes on her anesthesiologist, waiting for her return. Viktoria sauntered back over, and by the end of the day, she was overseeing the next day’s printed surgery schedule with ideas about how to use the anesthesia personnel available to her most effectively.
-----
Viktoria anticipated Buddy’s greeting at the end of the day, especially after the stressful day at Masonville General Hospital. In eight hours, she went from being the outlander, temporary anesthesiologist, to running the schedule and being sought after to stay on permanently. It warmed her heart to be wanted and appreciated, but now she wanted to show her affection for Buddy and spring him
from the confines of the hotel room.
Inching open the door, she spotted him at the end of the couch. She went in, only to step over a small mound of brownish-red soft material on the floor. Her guess was that he had vomited again, so she went straight to him, curled up in the corner by the armrest.
“Buddy, what’s wrong? Is your stomach still upset?”
The dog raised his head and responded to her touch. She rubbed his head and his belly, and looking him over, she didn’t see any areas of concern on his body. “Let’s get you out for a walk and then I’m going to call the vet.”
Viktoria leashed him and they proceeded outside. It was a sullen, cloudy day, and she didn’t miss the bright sunshine for their walk. By the time they reached the first trees out front, however, she wondered if his hind limbs were walking with difficulty, as if they were trying to seize up and quit working.
“We’re going to skip playing ball,” Viktoria said after she kept the walk to a minimum and brought Buddy back inside. He settled on an area rug and with his head flat on the floor, peered up at her with his big, dark, eyes. She frowned as they lacked their usual gaiety and alertness.
At the counter, Viktoria scrolled through the numbers in her phone and called Masonville Animal Clinic. “Hello,” she said, “this is Viktoria Thorsdottir and I’m calling about Buddy. Do you have any openings before you close today or late tomorrow? He’s had one or two bouts of vomiting and I could swear his hind legs seem impaired.”
A young woman, not Linda, responded. “Dr. Price is booked today. We can fit you in at five tomorrow.”
“Yes, please, put us down.”
When Viktoria hung up, she placed Buddy’s kibbles on the floor, but he showed no interest in eating. She had contemplated going to the nearby restaurant for breakfast food, but decided against it. After making a sandwich with the little turkey and cheese cold cuts left in the refrigerator, she sat next to her four-legged friend and stroked him with one hand while she ate with the other.
Buddy showed no improvement with his lethargy on a simple last walk before bedtime. When coming back inside, the dog sipped some water, and for that, she was grateful. She changed into pajamas and slithered under the bed sheets by 9 p.m. Lying on one side, she watched the dog on the floor. He was stretched on one side, his eyes closed, his shiny black and white coat draped over his belly.
Viktoria dozed off to sleep. The day had been so packed with mental stimulation, that she slept deeply, exhausted with the weight of the outcome of the anesthesia department’s corruption and her poor dog not feeling well.
At midnight, little did she know that Buddy’s muscles first showed muscle tremors, but soon he twitched and jerked in a full generalized seizure. The seizure tormented his agile body like a twisted pretzel, and as the dark hours of the night passed, his central nervous system became more and more depressed.
Buddy’s breathing slowed. The grateful, renewed life that Viktoria had given him, ebbed away slowly, and the beautiful border collie took his last silent breath.
-----
The alarm sounded, startling Viktoria straight out of a bizarre OR dream. She propped herself up on one elbow and opened her eyes. Buddy was on the floor near the bed, pretty much the same spot where he went to sleep, which was not his norm. Customarily, he would change location, even so much as to bed down on the couch.
She swung her legs over the side of the mattress, and leaned forward. “Buddy?”
Remembering the stiff movement of his hind legs, she gazed directly at them. Now they even appeared to be stiff. “Buddy?”
The dog didn’t stir. Viktoria jumped up and fell next to him on the floor. Fearing the worst, she stroked him. She moved him by his upper body onto her lap, but his head dangled along with the movement, without any purpose.
“Oh my God. No!”
-----
Viktoria showered. Showered to let the tears wash away down her face and down the drain. She could barely stand it, that her dog was dead in the other room, taken too early, and after escaping one close call with death before. It wasn’t happening. It was unfair. The dog didn’t deserve death. The two of them were to go on and enjoy at least twelve more years together.
She stepped out, dried, and got dressed. Before she left the room, she gently wrapped Buddy in a spare, light blanket she found in the closet, and left a message with the vet.
-----
Stepping out of the elevator, Viktoria’s thoughts exploded with the task at hand to run an anesthesia schedule and thwart the pessimism of the anesthesia providers who were on the schedule for the day. Above everything that was occurring with personnel and politics, the safety of the patients was her primary concern.
And she needed to stifle her sadness over a dog that had stolen her heart. She guessed correctly that Jeff would be coming to work in the near future earlier than normal, so she headed to his office before the locker room.
His door was slightly ajar. “Jeff,” she said, poking her head in.
He finished taking a swig of coffee and waved her in. “Good morning. Or is it?” The cheerfulness in his voice left as she approached, and he sensed her despair. “What’s the matter? Not one more thing?”
Her emotions grabbed the best of her, and she couldn’t talk for a moment. “It’s … Buddy. I don’t know what happened. He passed away. He’s dead in the hotel room.”
“Oh my God.” In a flash, Jeff was next to her, holding her in an embrace. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
For an eternal minute, she let herself be held. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly and deeply. Tears welled in her eyes, and she brushed them away as her head rested on his shoulder. “Thank you.”
Viktoria straightened herself. “I’m going to bring him into the vet’s office at the end of the day. Maybe the vet will have some answers for me. Maybe I’ll have him cremated.”
“May I come with you?”
She nodded.
“It’s going to be another tough day in the OR, but I’ll do my best.”
“I’ll be back and forth and help out in any way that I can.”
-----
“You were amazing today,” Jeff said as he drove Viktoria and Buddy to the vet’s office before they closed. “With the manpower we had, and the slightly curtailed OR schedule, you ran the schedule efficiently and I heard not one complaint.”
“It’s easier than you think. Everyone is simply too busy gossiping about Jennie and Casey Johnston being drug crooks and the President of the group being an embezzler.” She tried to smile. “Any doctor filling in after that mess is going to be a hero.”
“You qualified as a hero even before filling the shoes of Jay Huff. And a hero to that wonderful dog.” He put the car in park at the vet’s office, and opened Viktoria’s door for her. Then he went to the back of his Jeep and scooped Buddy up in his blanket and carried him inside.
After Linda escorted them back to an examining room, Dr. Price ran his hand through his gray hair, and stepped back away from the examining table where Buddy had been lain.
“I have my suspicions, especially based on the history you told me. I see it several times a year, especially from dogs brought in from around the low-rent housing district.” He arched his eyebrow and Viktoria waited with bated breath.
“Rat poisoning. Bromethalin ingestion. It’s not uncommonly sprinkled around by workers in housing units or landlords to keep their units rodent free. Strays or household pets don’t know the difference in eating that poison, and its toxicity makes them severely ill or kills them. Where did you say you’ve been living?”
“At the Stay Long Hotel. Construction men worked over there fixing rooms; they ended up in their own trouble. But come to think about it, Buddy was busy a few days ago eating something outside and behind the units they were servicing.”
Dr. Price frowned. “I’m sorry. I think you have your answer as to how Buddy died.”
Viktoria rested her hand on Buddy’s torso. “Can you cremate him for me?
”
“Yes, we have a service here. We’ll call you in a few days when he’s ready.”
-----
Jeff started the engine. “May I take you for a bite to eat? This is a sad day, but you still need to eat.”
“I don’t know if I can eat a bite, but that’s sweet of you. I feel devastated. I’ve lost my best friend.”
He didn’t put the car in drive, but waited for her to agree. “How about something light? Like scrambled eggs?”
“How did you know? Standard breakfast fare is what I fall back on in a pinch. Okay, we can stop at the diner restaurant down the block from the hotel.”
“I would be honored to bring you.”
Viktoria chose the booth when they arrived and as they waited for their order to arrive, she dug into her purse and dragged out a small bag.
“We do a lot with licorice in Iceland. I never shared my favorite treat from there with you.” She picked out a candy and placed it in his hand. “It’s a Sukkulaoihjupaour lakkris.”
“Ha, what did you call it?”
She repeated herself, he smiled, and popped it in his mouth.
“Suck on it. Let the outside candy part melt in your mouth.”
“Awesome,” he said. As he swallowed the last of it, their scrambled eggs and bacon were set down.
Outside, they slid into the Jeep, and he turned to her. “I’m going to miss you when you leave. In the meantime, I’ll savor your friendship until you go. Remember, you are welcome to my home any time. Mattie would love to see you too.”
This time, Viktoria didn’t hash through the do’s or don’ts of the situation. She glanced sideways. “Jeff, let’s go back to your place.”
He squeezed her hand which rested on the console and smiled.
EPILOGUE
It was far from pitch dark when Viktoria climbed into her Honda at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning after her month’s assignment at Masonville General Hospital was finished. The half moon and stars were crisply clear to her naked eye, and she hated that would not be the case back home on the populous island she called home, full of man-made light that blared into the sky regardless of day or night.
