by Lucy Clark
She raised her eyes at the early starting time, especially as it was supposed to be her day off.
‘We need to get an early start.’ He shrugged apologetically. ‘Lots of ground to cover. I’ll provide breakfast. There’s a terrific bakery in town.’ He kissed his fingers. ‘The best croissants I’ve ever tasted—except for those actually made in France. Nothing in the world can beat those but these come pretty close.’
‘Wow. Sounds like something I should experience.’
‘It is.’ He shifted his files, knowing he should simply smile and walk away, but there was something about this woman, something that kept drawing him in every time he told himself to walk away. He didn’t have a clue what it was but he knew it was there and he knew he was having a difficult time fighting it. ‘Do you really like experiencing new things?’
The words came out in a softer, deeper tone and Jason swallowed, hoping she didn’t think he was trying it on as a pick-up line—which he belatedly realised was exactly the way it had sounded.
‘I never used to. Same old, same old was the way I lived my life for the past decade.’
‘And now?’
‘I’m here, aren’t I? New challenges. New experiences. That’s what I’m trying to do.’
‘True. So, I guess you do like new experiences.’
She nodded. ‘Especially culinary ones. Tommy likes croissants as well,’ she pointed out, hoping the mention of her son would help them to stop having the underlying conversation with their eyes and focus on the words they were saying.
‘It’s all good, then.’ He smiled. ‘Now, I’d better get going before I’m late.’
‘Oh, Jason. Before you go. I keep forgetting to ask someone. When do the Christmas decorations usually go up? Some of the children have been asking and given that it’s now November…’ She spread her arms wide.
‘Good question. We start making them right about now.’
‘Making?’
‘Yes.’
‘You make the decorations?’
‘Most of them, yeah. The children help.’ At the astonished look on her face Jason realised she’d never been involved in such a simple task before. ‘We usually do it in the playroom and we have lots of coloured paper and scissors and pasting and glitter. Oh, the glitter. The cleaning staff hate it because they can never get it all vacuumed up.’
‘Glitter?’ She said the word slowly, as though trying to figure out just what it was.
Jason couldn’t help but smile. ‘Sparkly stuff you use to decorate things with.’
‘I know what glitter is but doesn’t it then drop all around the ward?’
His tone had dropped a level and a teasing gleam had entered his eyes. ‘Which is why the cleaning staff hate it but, believe me, we use it with the utmost care and only for the best of the best of the best decorations—which is usually all of them. They’ll be doing stuff after school, too, so bring Tommy along. He’ll love it.’
‘Another new experience for me?’
He leaned towards her as he spoke and she instantly felt a heat wash over her at his nearness. ‘It looks as though you’re going to be having quite a few new experiences, Summer, and I’m more than happy to help you through each and every one.’
CHAPTER FIVE
ON SATURDAY morning, Summer and Tommy were up, dressed and ready bright and early, waiting for the knock on their door which would herald Jason’s arrival.
‘Why can’t I go to Bradley’s?’ Tommy asked his mother.
‘We’ve been over this.’ Summer checked her appearance in the mirror. She’d decided to take a chance today and change her hairstyle from her usual clipped-back style. Jason had reacted with such abandonment when he’d seen it loose last week, when he’d come over to play her knight in shining armour, that it was with that thought alone she’d decided to try something different.
It wasn’t all down, it would totally get in her way, but instead she’d used a pearl-encrusted clip to pull her hair half up, half down. Was it too much? Would it distract Jason? Was that what she wanted? Every single night this week she’d gone to bed thinking about him, wondering what he was doing, wondering what would happen tomorrow.
At the hospital they were still behaving in a friendly manner and Summer was pleased that they seemed to think alike on a lot of structural and procedural matters as far as the department went. Their patient care was also very similar and to that end they were able to back each other up when needed and offer support if it was required.
Never before had she felt so comfortable at work, not only because of Jason but because of all of the staff. Alyssa and Rhonda had invited her to join them for coffee after their shift had finished the other day and the three of them had had a wonderful time. Prior to her move to Ballarat, Summer’s friends had been the wives of Cameron’s friends. She’d liked them but a lot of the time she hadn’t necessarily understood them and now, reflecting back on her life of the past decade, it was starting to feel as though that life had been someone else’s.
‘I think I hear him,’ Tommy whispered, his ear pressed to the front door.
‘Come away from there,’ Summer said with a laugh. ‘Or he’ll knock so loudly it’ll damage your eardrum.’
‘Really?’ Tommy was astounded.
Summer laughed again. ‘No. Not really. I was exaggerating.’
Tommy straightened up but didn’t move away from the door. Instead, he gave his mother a quizzical look. ‘You laugh a lot now.’
‘What?’ Her smile increased at his words.
‘Since we came here. You laugh. You never used to laugh like this back in Sydney.’
Summer swooped forward and gathered her son up, spinning him around the room while she hugged him close.
‘You’re insane.’ Tommy giggled and the sound was like music to her ears. She stopped spinning, both of them collapsing onto the lounge.
‘You’re right, darling. I do laugh more.’
‘It’s nice.’ His words were said easily, with the sweet and innocent acceptance of a child. Tommy didn’t snuggle into her but he also didn’t try to get away as he usually did when she let loose with outward displays of affection.
‘It is,’ she agreed.
When the knock at the door came, Tommy was up and had the door open before she could straighten herself.
‘Caught you at a bad moment?’ Jason asked as he took in Summer sprawled out on the lounge.
‘Mummy was spinning me around,’ Tommy said, his eyes still wide at his mother’s uncharacteristic behaviour.
‘Oh, well. No wonder she’s still loafing about.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ Summer said as she stood and gathered her things together. ‘I do not loaf about.’
‘Looked that way to me,’ Jason teased with a wink. ‘Shall we?’ He stepped back into the hallway, needing a few seconds to simply get over the sight of how incredible Summer looked. Today she was dressed in a pair of black trousers and a pale pink top which was cut in an oriental style and buttoned down the front. Her hypnotic scent had sent his senses into hyper-drive the instant Tommy had opened the door and he’d seen her lying back amongst the cushions, a smile on her luscious lips and her eyes alive with merriment.
She came out after her son, locking the door behind her before they went outside. Jason led them over to a red Jaguar and received a gulp of astonished approval from Tommy.
‘This is your car?’
‘Yep.’
‘I told Brad that there was a cool car at our building but I didn’t know it was yours!’
‘And that’s all you need to do to win a seven-year-old boy’s heart,’ Summer said softly as Jason held the passenger door open for her.
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her what he needed to do to win over a thirty-five-year-old, sexy paediatrician’s heart, but he caught himself just in time. They were friends and he was discovering that he had to keep reminding himself of that every moment they spent together.
They were soon o
n their way, with Jason explaining, more for Tommy’s sake, what they’d be doing that day. They stopped at a bakery in town where the croissants not only lived up to Jason’s promise but the bakery also had the most delicious hot chocolate to accompany the pastries.
‘We’re going to be visiting some great people,’ Jason told Tommy as they finished off their breakfast. ‘Just relax, OK? Be yourself and have a bit of fun.’
‘I’m used to visiting sick people.’ Tommy’s tone was now as bland as it had been earlier when he’d kept asking Summer why he needed to go.
‘You are?’
‘Tommy’s been involved with the Hoyts family’s charity work since he was small,’ Summer pointed out.
‘Ah. Of course. I’d temporarily forgotten.’ Forgotten that Summer had previously come from another world—the world of the rich, and no doubt, famous, too. ‘Well…I still hope you enjoy yourself.’
Summer looked over the list Jason had handed her and was surprised they’d be seeing at least twenty different people today. Thank goodness Ballarat wasn’t all that big and it shouldn’t take them too long to get from one place to the next.
‘What are the ones marked in blue?’
‘They’re the new ones for this week.’
‘There’s only five of them. Do you mean everyone else on this list gets a visit once a week from a member of the medical staff?’
Jason wasn’t sure whether she was disgusted or delighted. ‘I mean exactly that. Sometimes it’s more. Some people only need fortnightly visits and, of course, there’s the district nurses, who usually go and see most of these housebound people once, even twice during the week, sometimes every day if necessary.’
‘That’s amazing. It’s wonderful that the hospital has such a fantastic programme.’
It wasn’t far to their first house call and they all bundled out of the car. Jason noticed Tommy almost slip on a game face—his best manners, no doubt—as they walked up the front steps of the old weatherboard house. ‘Mr and Mrs Calvin’s house. She and her husband are housebound because of their failing respiratory health. We’re trying to keep them at their home together for as long as we possibly can.’ He knocked on the door, then opened it and walked right in, calling out a greeting as he went. Tommy’s eyes went big at the action and Summer couldn’t help but smile. ‘They used to be entertainers,’ Jason said quietly as Mrs Calvin answered them.
‘In here, dear. You’re nice and early. Just the way I like you. Ooh, and, look, Josiah, he’s brought us visitors.’ Mrs Calvin beckoned them in and laughed when Tommy just stood there, staring around the room. She coughed a few times but it didn’t deter her jovial spirits. ‘Come in, come in, young man. Have a look at anything you want.’
The room was covered—almost wall to wall—with photographs. Some in colour, a lot in black and white and in all of them there were smiling, happy faces. None of the photographs had been framed and Summer realised, as she leaned a little closer to take a look at a young woman who she suspected was Mrs Calvin over fifty years ago, that they were actually stuck to the wall. The room was done in découpage style.
‘Who’s that?’ Tommy asked, his tone filled with awe and wonderment. He was pointing to a black-and-white photograph of a man wearing clown make-up and a top hat. There was a large feather coming out of the hat and on top of the picture a real large, red feather had been stuck onto the wall over the photograph, making it three-dimensional.
‘That’s me,’ Josiah wheezed, an oxygen cylinder close at hand. ‘I’d just come off stage after seven curtain calls.’
Mrs Calvin clutched her hands together. ‘It was a wonderful night. That was at Christmas time.’ Mrs Calvin was more than happy to tell Tommy stories attached to the different photographs while Summer and Jason started with Josiah’s check-up. Suffering from emphysema, he was now paying the price for a lifetime of smoking but he wasn’t at all bitter.
‘We’ve had a good life,’ he wheezed. ‘And we can sit here and look at the pictures on the wall and remember.’
‘And if we don’t remember,’ Mrs Calvin interjected, ‘we just make it up, don’t we, Jos?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer but instead took Tommy over to the other side of the wall and showed him another picture.
Jason was happy with Josiah’s status and so the two patients switched roles and while Summer listened to Mrs Calvin’s heart and lungs, ensuring her asthma was being correctly treated, Josiah told Tommy a few more tales, her son listening intently even though it took Josiah quite a while to get his rasping words out. He would place the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose every now and then, breathe deeply and then go on. It didn’t seem to faze Tommy at all, he was far too interested in the story.
‘They were awesome,’ the seven-year-old announced as they left the Calvins’ house. ‘That room. Mum, did you see that room?’
‘I saw it.’
‘Can I do my room like that?’
Summer turned around to look at him. ‘Um…how about you start by collecting photographs first? You have to remember that the Calvins have over fifty years of pictures on their walls.’
‘So when I’m like thirty, can I do it then?’
Jason smiled as he drove the car, waiting for Summer’s reply.
‘I think there’s a definite possibility,’ she replied with all seriousness.
‘Totally buzzin’,’ he replied, and sat back, no doubt picturing his room in their apartment covered in photographs.
The next two house calls weren’t nearly as exciting as Summer and Jason changed the dressing on old Mr Peterson’s ulcerated leg and then saw Mr Fu who had not long returned from Melbourne, having received a new artificial leg.
‘I lost a leg when I was mining for gold. I was only twenty-two,’ he told Tommy. Mr Fu was standing perfectly on his new prosthesis in the kitchen, cooking sweet dumplings. ‘You stay. You eat. My family make dumplings for many generations.’
While they ate, Jason asked Mr Fu questions about the new leg, impressed with the leaps and bounds in orthotic prostheses. ‘And you have almost full range of motion?’
Mr Fu demonstrated exactly what he could do with his new leg, running up and down the corridor. It made Tommy giggle and Mr Fu joined in.
‘What a range of characters you have in this town,’ Summer remarked as they headed north-west. ‘And how generous of him to give us some dumplings to take home.’
‘Just you wait. Sometimes you get quite a haul of food when you do house calls. People are so grateful for the time and effort and that’s one small way they can say thank you. Personally, though, Mr Fu’s sweet dumplings are a favourite of mine.’
‘Where are we going now?’ Summer looked at their surroundings, which had quickly changed to a definite rural feel as Jason took the freeway out of Ballarat. As they drove along, she and Tommy gasped in delight as they saw emus running around, one coming up to have a race with them along the fence line.
‘We have several calls out here. People mainly need the house calls because of their isolation or being unable to make it to clinics due to farming pressures.’ He pointed to the list. ‘And I hope you both enjoy Monica’s.’
‘Why? What’s Monica’s? Is that a person or a place?’ Tommy asked, now completely intrigued with his day. ‘Hey, Mum, when it’s your real turn to do house calls, can I come with you? I want to see the Calvins again and Mr Fu’s dumplings are the best.’
Her eyebrows hit her hairline at the request. ‘Uh…I don’t see why not.’
‘Totally buzzin’. Wait till I tell Brad about today. He’s gonna choke.’
Summer smiled at the way her son was talking. Even his speech was more relaxed than usual and that small thing made her happy. They continued with their list, Tommy always asking when they’d finally get to Monica’s house so he could find out why Jason thought it would be good. Finally, when Jason drove the car up a long, dirt driveway of a farm that had been heavily stricken by the drought, he told them Monica’s story.
&nb
sp; ‘Monica was born with many birth defects. She had a hole in her heart, had surgery the day after she was born and lost oxygen, causing more mental problems. Yet she has also defied medical science and survived through several illnesses and numerous operations.’ He levelled Tommy with a serious look. ‘Monica can’t talk. She can’t walk. She can’t eat. She has to be fed through a special tube called a PEG tube.’
‘With special food?’ he asked.
‘Exactly.’
‘I’ve seen one of them before, I think.’ He looked at Summer for confirmation and she nodded.
‘Monica doesn’t have a lot of normal things in her life but the one thing she loves best of all, the one thing that is guaranteed to make her happy, are clowns.’
‘Clowns?’ Summer and Tommy asked in unison.
‘So every week the doctor on house-call duty comes out, not only to check how Monica is doing but to bring a bit of happiness into her life.’
‘Laughter is the best medicine?’
‘Yes. Monica is now in her twenties and since we’ve been performing what we like to call clown therapy,’ he smiled as he spoke, ‘she’s continued to thrive as best as she can.’
‘So where are the clowns? Are they inside the house?’ Tommy asked.
‘No.’ Jason shook his head, his eyes alive with delight, and Summer felt a sinking in her stomach. ‘They’re inside this car.’
‘You have clowns in your car?’ Tommy was stunned.
‘Ooh—too many answers to that question,’ he murmured to Summer.
‘We are the clowns, darling,’ she pointed out. ‘That’s what Jason’s trying to tell us.’
‘We go inside. Get into the clown suits that are there, put on a bit of clown make-up and go and be clowns for Monica.’
‘Ooh. I know a good joke,’ Tommy said as they headed inside.
‘Hit me.’ Jason listened intently to the little boy but all the while was intent on watching how Summer accepted this task. She was such an elegant woman, with poise and grace. Would she dress up in a clown costume? He knew Amanda would have thought the whole idea ludicrous but, then, Amanda hadn’t been a doctor so he never would have expected her to understand anyway.
