“Hey, I bet we can walk to the river in ten minutes and back, before the next rain shower,” Deanna challenged Maddie.
Maddie laughed. “That’s only because the river is so far over its banks we don’t dare get any closer.”
“That’s why I said ten minutes,” she repeated dryly. They shared a smile.
“Sure, I’ll go. I’m starting to get cabin fever.” They started walking through the camp as they bantered.
“Why cabin fever?”
“Well, I go from our tent, to the food tent, to the clinic, and if I’m lucky I get a shower in there at some point.”
“Yeah, I feel wet all the time and slightly muddy,” she agreed. Then she grinned as she realized something and then proceeded to share, “You do get time in the latrine too? You can’t discount that.”
“Of course I get time in the latrine,” she sputtered in laughter at the incongruity of that. “You’re silly.”
“Of course I am, that’s why they adore me,” she spread out her hands indicating the children that would have followed them if their parents hadn’t been calling them in for the evening. The rain clouds were already boiling up over the plains.
“They adore you because you tease them and give them balloons. That was really clever of you to bring in such a supply.”
“Yeah, I realized our technology and advances meant nothing if you couldn’t relate to them on simple things.”
“Why do you always gather up the popped ones so carefully?”
“I don’t want that rubber getting into the environment. It doesn’t break down and recycle,” she explained.
Maddie nodded. “That makes sense.”
They chatted as they made their way to the roiling and dangerous river’s edge. Seeing it in person was impressive. It carried away massive amounts of water. “This is gonna piss off Harlan,” Deanna commented wryly.
“Yeah, but it should bring a lot of mud down from those,” she indicated the hills that the water drained off from.
“Won’t that make a mess?” she commented.
“And bring nutrients to the soil.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. She hadn’t been thinking of that. “That’s probably why the jungles get so rich with all that mulch and greenery.”
“So this desert isn’t to your liking?” she asked, curious about her friend.
“Oh, each has its pluses and minuses. I love where I am at the moment. I’m sure they are getting antsy to have me go soon,” she confided.
“I’ll miss you when you go.”
Deanna looked at Maddie and smiled. Glancing at the clouds rolling in, she unconsciously turned them to walk back to the village. “I’ll miss you too, but we can be lifelong friends can’t we?”
“Absolutely!” she assured her.
“What are you going to do when your tour here is over?”
“Probably go back to the States and settle down in a hospital. I like the hustle and bustle here at the clinic. I can imagine some of it will translate and yet some of it will be so different.”
“You don’t have someone waiting for you back home?”
Maddie looked up at the taller woman and shook her head. “No, I wanted to see something of the world, so I didn’t allow anyone to get that close. Besides, I wasn’t ready. How about you?”
“Well, there was someone once. They didn’t understand why I wanted to see these places.” She gestured once again towards the village and smiled at a child shyly peeking out of her hut at them. “I can do more here than I could in the States, and I learn so much.”
“You already know so much,” Maddie said in awe. She really enjoyed working with her.
“Yes, but it can be lonely when you don’t have someone.”
“I hear you.”
“So, what happened?” she asked, curious.
“With what?” Deanna asked, confused. Her mind had moved on to something else already as she looked up at the clinic, thinking about patients.
“Your someone,” she smiled at how absentminded the blonde could be. She knew she was probably already working out some problem that had come up recently.
Deanna glanced over at the smaller but sturdier redhead and invited her to sit on the clinic steps. Not many people were out and about as they took shelter in anticipation of the expected showers rolling in. It was a fine spot to watch the clouds as they brought the rain. As they sat down she asked, “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know. Hell, we all talk about everything here,” Maddie gestured to their tent and the campfire circle where the women spent time swapping stories, sometimes personal stuff that they would take to their graves. It was a nice bonding moment for them all.
Deanna considered for a moment, wondering if she should share or not. Shrugging internally, she figured, why the hell not? “It was when I was an intern. I fell for someone unexpectedly. She wasn’t my first, but I did fall hard. She taught me a lot,” she smiled nostalgically.
“She?” Maddie caught on quick. Her eyebrows rose in surprise.
Deanna nodded, staring intently into the redhead’s eyes. “Yes, she,” she said quietly.
“Oh, so you’re...?” she wasn’t sure quite how to finish that question.
“Gay?” Deanna supplied her with the word.
Maddie nodded and then quickly asked, “Or were you experimenting?” She figured that made a whole lot more sense for the intelligent, young woman.
“Yeah, I think I am,” she answered philosophically. “I mean, I enjoy men. I like them. They look good, like a sculpture or a work of art, but, they don’t do anything for me. I haven’t been attracted to them sexually since I started practicing kissing one in college.”
“Did you go all the way with him?”
“Oh no, that wouldn’t have been allowed,” she laughed as she watched the lightning streak across the darkening sky. It was going to be a pretty dramatic storm from what they were seeing. “I was in my early teens and he was seventeen, a freshman at college.”
Maddie had forgotten that this woman, this accomplished woman who was of a similar age to her own, had graduated college at fourteen. She shook her head. “So you’ve never actually been with a man sexually?”
Deanna shook her head. “I may have kissed a couple, heavy petting even, but no sex. None. Heck, I wasn’t even brave enough to sleep with a woman until I was nineteen,” she confided with a grin. “She was special. She was a good first.” The grin turned to a nostalgic smile.
“But are you sure that’s what you want?” she asked, curious, wondering if it was a phase.
Deanna nodded. “Yeah, I’m just not attracted to a guy or his anatomy.” She grinned at how clinical that sounded. “I think if I was, it would have changed how I went about pursuing my career.”
“How so?”
“Well, that whole male superiority crap. My father would have wanted me to stay around, maybe marry someone who was like him and could go work for him. Who knows? My sister, fortunately, wants to be just like him, so he has someone to leave it all to.”
“Leave it all?”
Deanna snorted slightly at what she had almost revealed. It came out almost as derision and Maddie took it to be an inside joke. “Yeah, since I was this Brainiac, my sister Doreen had to excel at something. She can have it.”
Maddie nodded. Sibling rivalry was something she had seen and understood. “But how do you know you won’t change your mind?” She shifted from sitting on the hard wood of the steps, glancing around to see if they were being listened to. The conversation was interesting, but she didn’t want anything being misunderstood.
“I know,” she said with conviction.
Maddie was surprised that someone so young, that someone who knew so much, could have such absolute certainty about something like that. She wasn’t so sure that Deanna wasn’t delusional.
“How about you?” Deanna turned it on her red-haired friend.
“How about me, what?”
�
��Are you so sure you are straight?”
“Absolutely,” she answered automatically, but something about her voice lacked conviction.
“How can you be sure?” she challenged.
“Because I want children,” she answered as though that explained everything.
“Just because I don’t want children and I’m gay, doesn’t mean I couldn’t have them if I wanted them,” she pointed out gently, smiling at her friend to get her point across.
Sighing slightly, she nodded to concede the point to her. “Yes, I understand that. But all my life I’ve had this picture in my head of the white picket fence, children running around the yard, and a dog maybe. My husband would come home after a hard day’s work and we would work together to make dinner....”
“Are you sure he wouldn’t put his feet up and expect you to make the dinner?” Deanna interrupted with a grin.
Maddie grinned at the teasing tone of her friend. “Yeah, knowing my luck he would. That’s just what I need, someone like that. I’d work all day long and he’d expect to come home and relax.” She shook her head at the stereotypes she had just spouted.
“Is that what you really want? Or is that just the dream you always had?”
Maddie wasn’t used to someone always challenging her or what she said, but Deanna did have a point. She’d think about that a lot in the coming days.
The rain that had been rolling in decided to come down with a bolt of lightning that lit up the plains and their little community. The answering crash of thunder had them both running for their tent and shelter. They made it with a few moments to spare before the rain began to come down in earnest. “Whoa, that’s a gully washer,” Leida said in greeting as they ran in.
“It’s beautiful,” Deanna agreed as they turned to watch it from the doorway.
“Is there nothing you see that you don’t find beauty in?” the Aussie asked her with a smile. This young doctor was so pleasant to work with, always positive.
Deanna considered for about ten seconds. “No, I always try to find something positive in any situation.”
“Even if you have a sarcastic comeback,” Maddie said as she contributed to their conversation with a grin.
The three of them laughed together as they lit a couple of lanterns to ward off the darkness that accompanied the storm. It was starting to blow too, as the winds caught up with the storm.
“Whew, that’s something,” Magda said as she came into the tent. She was drenched from the downpour.
“Here,” Deanna threw her a towel to dry off.
Maddie was thrilled that her student French was improving. She had understood everything the two of them had said. The four of them had a pleasant time once Magda dried off, playing cards to pass the time. Lenny joined them an hour or so later, looking guilty. No one asked her where she had been.
CHAPTER TEN
“You know, for a fairly new used vehicle, this Rover sucks,” Deanna said succinctly as she bent over fixing a flat.
Both Leida and Deanna had to agree with her. It was the second flat she had fixed that day. They had dropped Harlan off at one of the many fields he was propagating. They had dropped Hamishish off at the neighboring village after she directed them to the sick woman they had come to see. They also vaccinated those children that she directed them to. While there, a woman had gone into labor and Deanna had delivered a fine, healthy baby boy. It had meant they had a late start heading back to their own village and the clinic. This flat tire was another inconvenience.
“Why did you buy your own?” Leida asked conversationally as she held the spare tire. There were extra tires on the roof of the Rover since a flat could happen at any time.
“Well, they dropped me off in Lamish to catch up with you all when you came in…they didn’t want to fly out here for just little ole me. I had enough supplies that I knew it would get crowded if they didn’t bring a bus or two,” she teased at the mode of transportation they had taken to come out to Mamadu. “But I wanted it for myself. When I leave, they can keep it,” she said as she kicked the flat tire she had just fixed on the vehicle.
“Are you serious? Wouldn’t that be an expensive gift?” Maddie asked as she took the flat tire and began to lift it onto the Rover. Leida rushed to help lift it. They weren’t overly heavy, but they were awkward and dirty. They were both filthy with dust and the grime unique to tires made of rubber.
“Yeah, but the camp could use it, much more so than where I might go next. Besides, with the supplies I’m able to get in Lamish, they can continue doing that after I’m gone.”
“Not if Lakesh does the transporting,” Leida said succinctly. They all knew he was into the black market and things had a habit of disappearing all the time on the rides to and from the port city, not to mention around camp.
“Yeah, something is going to have to be done about him eventually,” Deanna replied as she attached the lug nuts, first by spinning them on, and then by tightening them with the lug wrench. In no time at all the tire was changed and Maddie brought down the jack. “There we go. Let’s get out of here,” Deanna said as she glanced at the near dark they would have to drive in on their way home.
“Afraid of the boogie monster?” Leida asked as she got in the back and Maddie got in the front.
As they drove off, Deanna denied it, “No, more likely lions or something else.”
“Come on, that was an isolated incident,” Leida referred to a villager in the next village over who had been brought to their clinic after being attacked in the field by a lion.
“They still travel,” Deanna pointed out.
Conversations such as these helped pass the time as they headed back to their own clinic. They didn’t go far afield since there was the real threat of being attacked…not by animals, but by humans. By traveling in numbers, and especially with Hamishish along for the ride, they had thought themselves safe, but they hadn’t anticipated being out after dark. They arrived safely and parked the Rover, returning the extra supplies they had packed to the supply hut. Carefully they put them away and put them back into inventory.
“Doctor Cooper,” a frosty voice greeted them at the door as they finished up.
Deanna looked up at Doctor Burton and her smile of greeting faded. “Yes, Doctor Burton. What can I do for you?” she asked in reply, sounding professional.
“Would you be so kind as to join me in the office?” he requested. There was a gleam of satisfaction in his eye that the others saw there.
“Of course,” she said as she looked at the other two in the light of the bare bulb in the hut. They nodded, showing they would finish up the work and lock up. She followed him as he abruptly turned away, marching towards the administrative office that Thomas now worked in alone since Alex had finally taught him the system and moved on.
“What can I do for you, Doctor Burton?” she asked, trying to sound cheerful. She hated these meetings. He frequently requested them and she dodged them whenever possible. She wondered where Doctor Wilson was this evening.
“Thomas,” he barked, making sure he pronounced it Tomas, as the man had frequently requested. Everyone, at one time or another, had gotten it wrong. “Would you give us a moment?” he asked, but there was really no question in the sound of his wording. It was a command.
“Yesss,” replied the man as he finished scratching in a ledger and looked up at the same time. Seeing the look in the doctor’s eye, he hastily gathered up his books, put them in the desk, locked it, and got out of his way. He looked curiously at the blonde-haired woman doctor, wondering what she had done, before he left the room and closed the door behind him.
Doctor Burton went to sit in the vacated chair and indicated one of the two that were across the desk from him for Doctor Cooper. As she sat down, she realized with some trepidation this reminded her of the many meetings she had had over the years with her superiors, instructors, supervisors, and counselors. People still had a hard time understanding her mind and constantly questioned her. She s
till hated the feeling it gave her in the pit of her stomach.
“Doctor Cooper,” he started, there was almost a hesitation over the name ‘Cooper.’ “Do you think of yourself as an honest person?” he asked.
Deanna was a bit surprised by the line of questioning and a puzzled look appeared on her face. “I am,” she confirmed, wondering what this was about.
“So you believe that you always tell the truth?” he asked, almost as though anticipating an untruthful reply.
“I do,” she confirmed again. This didn’t bode well. The man was practically gleaming.
“Then can you tell me why Doctors Without Borders has no record of a Doctor Cooper on its rolls?” he asked with relish.
So, that was it? She nearly smiled. “Oh, there is a Doctor Cooper, and it is me,” she assured him. She knew that any humor or happiness at this moment would be a bad idea, further irritating the man. “It is, however, on a need-to-know basis.”
“I assure you, I have it on the utmost authority that there is NO Doctor Cooper in Doctors Without Borders. I want you to know I intend to get to the bottom of this and have you arrested for practicing without a license,” he told her, clearly incensed at her audacity and lies.
“I don’t know who you got your information from–” she began, but he cut her off.
“I’m not without resources,” he assured her with relish.
She continued as though he had never interrupted, “but if you check with Doctor Wilson, he has and knows my credentials.”
“I don’t know who you bribed or what you are holding over them, but I assure you, you won’t get away with this!” his voice was rising along with his temper.
“I’m not bribing anyone or holding anything over anyone,” she tried reasoning with him, keeping her voice level and trying not to let her temper get the best of her.
“Then explain why you don’t exist?” He had her and he was going to make sure she paid. He was going to love seeing her in handcuffs. How dare she impersonate being a doctor, a most noble profession! What they did here was important. He didn’t care how smart she thought she was…she wasn’t getting away with this! He’d make sure of it!
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