“He just needs training,” Deanna commented in return. “Let’s grab that table,” she pointed to a set of tables the city had laid out on the sand. The children should be able to find them on their return, but Deanna made sure to sit herself facing away from the ocean to keep an eye out for them.
“What’s the clinic like?”
Deanna smiled as she began to describe how homey it was. She had six examination rooms and she had an option on the other side of the building, which was exactly like her own. “The way they set up the medical facilities, it’s like a duplex. I’ll have a lab finally,” she breathed, remembering how they had flipped at some of her more outlandish ideas in L.A. She told some of the plans she had in place, how much equipment had already been delivered, and how much was set up. “The surgery is top notch and I’ve had some of the most advanced equipment brought in.”
“Who’s setting it up?” Madison asked casually.
“My staff and some of the companies I contracted with who manufacture…” she continued on, oblivious of Madison as she gushed about the new clinic.
The children returned and their conversations turned back to the house, Roman’s school, and the ocean behind them. “Can we go swimming?” Conor asked again.
“You didn’t bring your swimsuit,” Deanna pointed out. In fact, it was too chilly with the ocean breeze, but she didn’t want to point that out, not yet.
“Maybe next time, Squirt,” Deanna smiled as she answered him and took a big bite of the ham sandwich she had been offered. “Mmmm, Doritos,” she turned her smile to Madison, showing orange teeth from the chips.
“Gross,” Madison teased, indicating her teeth with a gesture.
“What? You don’t want a kiss?” Deanna murmured playfully as she took another bite of a chip.
“Oooh, gross,” Conor overheard her. “Women don’t kiss,” he stated.
“Sure they do,” Roman countered.
“Nuh uh, men kiss women,” Chloe argued.
“Not my mom,” he argued back.
“That’s enough,” Deanna cut it off before it escalated. “I’ll say this…some men kiss men, some men kiss women, and some women,” she indicated herself, “kiss women.”
“You do?” Chloe asked wide-eyed.
Deanna glanced at Madison who had frozen mid-bite, not sure how to contribute to this uncomfortable conversation. “Yes, Chloe, I do,” she said quietly, not elaborating. Children didn’t always need details.
“I saw a man kiss a man at school,” Conor suddenly spoke up.
“You did?” Madison gulped.
“Yeah, Sam Ryan’s got two dads,” he answered as though it was no big deal.
Deanna decided to challenge him. “But it isn’t okay for two women to kiss? It’s okay for two men?”
He thought about it as he chewed on a corn chip and then sipped his soda. “I guess it’s okay if they love each other.”
Deanna smiled and nodded encouragingly, but didn’t say anymore. She caught a glance of Madison and was pleased at the surprise she saw on her face. She grinned to herself at how eye-opening the day had been.
They spent the afternoon playing on the beach, tiring out both the kids and the dog.
“I’m sorry we didn’t get to see the clinic,” Madison stated sincerely.
“There will be another time, and Roman does have to get back to school,” she said as she drove him back up into the hills on different roads.
“Is this a good school?”
“Yes, they have students from all over the world, diplomats even. He can learn up to five languages and go to a prep school nearby.”
“Wow, you have it all figured out.”
Deanna nodded. “I had to,” she said quietly. The kids didn’t hear them, they were discussing their afternoon and the school and still bringing up the relative merits of playground equipment they had decided the house needed.
“Hey, I’ll see you next weekend,” Deanna said affectionately as she hugged Roman goodbye.
“Yep, I’ll call you before bed,” he promised with a smile. Turning to take a step to the SUV he held out his hand to Madison. “It was a pleasure to spend the day with you, Ms. MacGregor,” he said formally.
“Thank you, Roman. I had a very nice time with you this weekend,” she answered, including the previous day as she had gotten to know him.
“See you, Roman!” Conor called to him excitedly.
“Bye, Roman!” Chloe called with a smile and waved.
“See ya,” he said with a big smile and grabbed his bag to put on his shoulder. “Bye, Mom,” he said and headed into the large building. It was a three story edifice of white stone that stretched out on both sides of the main entrance. One side was for younger students: living quarters in the upper stories and classrooms below. The other side was all classrooms for older students with another building in the rear for living quarters. A large field behind the school was used for the various sports taught to their students—from European football, or soccer as it was called here, to lacrosse and other activities. It was truly a multi-cultural school.
“You pick him up every weekend and take him back?” Madison asked as Deanna got back in and buckled up.
“No, I don’t always have the time. We have a car service that picks him up on Friday nights and usually takes him back on Sunday night. That way he can spend the weekend at home with me.”
“That’s why you insisted on weekends off,” she verified.
“Yep, I insisted.” She drove away from the school expertly and down out of the hills to Highway 101, heading south towards Ventura.
“I can see why you want to locate your clinic up here, it’s beautiful.”
“Yes, I am negotiating with a hospice type service where people can be taken care of long term, but not terminal patients. That way I can attend to them on site. That’s why I kept the option open on the other half of the clinic as I grow.”
They talked about it a bit with interruptions from the now sleepy children becoming rarer and rarer as they drove.
“I think we tired them out,” Deanna commented as she pointed with her thumb to the back seat where two little children and a dog were snoring happily.
“All that sun and air, it was magical,” Madison enthused. She too was feeling the effects and was sleepy, but she’d very much enjoyed the day talking with Deanna and seeing how well their children got along. She was disappointed that they didn’t talk about anything personal, about their future, and she hoped to rectify that, perhaps when the children weren’t around.
“Are you hungry? Do you want dinner? I kinda feel like a steak,” she mentioned as they passed a Sizzler restaurant.
“We’ll have to wake them,” she indicated the children in the back seat.
“What if we left them and the dog inside?” Deanna joked.
“Could you imagine,” Madison giggled.
They shared a laugh.
“Why don’t you take us home? I’ll put that tired doggie in the kitchen and I could make…” she began, but Deanna interrupted.
“You don’t have to cook, and I said I wanted a steak. How about we take that Fluffy Fluffer…” she joked at the dog’s name, “…home and we all go out to eat?”
“You don’t have to….”
“But I want to….”
They went back and forth for a while until Madison agreed to Deanna’s plan. Madison felt leaving the dog for a few hours would be okay, it wasn’t really any different from when she had to go to work. The dog woke up the crabby, tired children as Madison tried to get him out of the back seat, but when she explained that Deanna was taking them out to eat they perked up happily. Eating out didn’t happen very often and it was usually a drive-thru at one of the fast food restaurants. Hearing they were going to the Sizzler thrilled them; they had never been.
“Never?” Deanna teased as they set off to find one nearby.
“Nope,” Chloe confirmed and then turned to Deanna, “We haven’t, have we?”
“Nope,” she parroted her daughter’s tone.
They had a lovely dinner at the Sizzler, where they specialized in steaks and seafood. The adults had delicious meals. There was also a large buffet of fruits, vegetables, and desserts to choose from. Madison would only let the children put as much on their plates as they could eat. Anything they put on it, they had to eat, she told them. As a result, they tried many things and got a delicious treat of ice cream for dessert. They were stuffed and very sleepy after that full meal. Deanna had to help Madison carry them from her SUV.
“I think they will sleep well,” she teased as Madison struggled to unlock her front door.
“I think I will too,” she mumbled as she got the door open.
“Oh, you don’t want to go out dancing tonight?”
“I have to work in the morning. I rarely get the whole weekend off,” she explained.
“I was wondering about that,” she admitted.
Madison led her to the children’s rooms and by the time she had Chloe dressed and ready for bed, Deanna had Conor stripped. He was in his underwear and she was struggling to put pajamas on the poor, tired, little boy.
“Leave him as he is,” Madison whispered.
“Are you sure? I almost got this,” she answered back in the same whisper. She was struggling to get the relaxed child’s arms through his nightshirt.
“Yeah, leave him for this one night.”
Deanna tucked him in tight and leaned down to give him a peck on the cheek. He was a sweet boy and she’d seen the bit of hero worship he had for her own son. She gazed at him for a moment before she followed Madison out of the room. She glanced back at the second twin bed where the little girl lay sleeping. “Chloe okay?” she whispered, hearing the dog trying to get out of the children’s gate in the kitchen.
“She’s flat out. Today was awesome.”
“I enjoyed it too,” she sighed mightily, stretching her back. “I’m going to be busy furnishing the house and the rest of the clinic in the coming weeks,” she confided.
“It sounds daunting and yet exciting,” Madison admitted. “Can I interest you in some hot chocolate?”
“Sounds wonderful,” she answered, not willing to call it a night and knowing there was more they could talk about…there was always more. They never seemed to run out of things to talk about.
Madison soon had two steaming mugs of hot chocolate before them as they discussed the various stores that Deanna would shop in for furniture. “Can’t you just see a cherry wood desk in that library?”
“I think maple would look better in there. You have all that cherry in the kitchen,” she gave her opinion. It went on and on and when the clock struck midnight they both jumped, not realizing the time.
“I better get going, I don’t have to work tomorrow, but you do,” Deanna said regretfully. She didn’t want to go home. She wanted to be invited to stay over, but they had yet to resolve many things.
Sighing deeply, Madison had to agree. She had to be up in six hours and it wasn’t enough, she was a firm eight-hour sleeper. She slowly walked Deanna to the front door. Deanna turned and they shared a peck, but nothing like the passion of the past. Madison worried about that the whole night through as she tossed and turned. Deanna wondered if perhaps they were just not meant to be; it was always such a struggle.
Over the coming weeks they never saw each other. They tried to talk on the phone, but with their schedules, it was nearly impossible. Deanna showed time and again that she was technologically inept as she hung up on Madison repeatedly with her cell phone. Sometimes it was impossible to get through, and then to have their conversations cut off mid-sentence was frustrating. Texting was rare with Deanna’s technologically-challenged world, although she did try.
Madison wondered why Deanna hadn’t asked her to join her in Santa Barbara, or at least invited them up again. Deanna wondered why Madison hadn’t asked to work with her up in Santa Barbara; she hadn’t indicated she would ever leave Los Angeles.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The sign was professionally made, with a hand reaching out to pet a cat inside a big circle with a slash through it. Below it read:
Notice regarding the cat: We are aware that the cat is frequently in the clinic and we do all we can to remove it, but it comes back at every opportunity. Please do not touch the cat. If you touch it, you do so at your OWN RISK.
Madison looked at it and read it twice to be sure what it said. She glanced around the lobby and saw a big gray cat washing itself on one of the chairs. Under the professionally made sign someone had written in handwritten letters, “If you are allergic, stay out.” She laughed at the incongruity of it and made her way up to the counter.
“I’d like to see Doctor Cooper?”
“Who?” asked the receptionist behind the glass. She looked curiously at the redhead.
Madison realized her mistake immediately and wondered at the slip of the lip. “I’m sorry. Doctor Kearney, please?”
“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, almost by rote. It was obvious she asked the question all the time.
“No, I don’t. If she has a minute, could you tell her Madison MacGregor is here?
“MacGregor?” she asked to confirm and at Madison’s nod, she indicated a chair in the waiting room. “I’ll ask.”
Madison looked around, wondering if she should sit anywhere near the cat who was now looking at her suspiciously, probably wondering if she was here to remove it. She decided to sit on the other side of the waiting room. She looked at the décor before she sat down.
One of the posters read:
Deadliest animals:
Shark 10 people killed per year
Lion 100 people killed per year
Elephant 100 people killed per year
Hippopotamus 500 people killed per year
Crocodile 1,000 people killed per year
Tapeworm 2,000 people killed per year
Dog 40,000 people killed per year *Rabies
Snake 50,000 people killed per year
Roundworm (intestinal parasites) 60,000 people killed per year
Human 474,000 people killed per year
Mosquito 725,000 people killed per year
What can we do for you today?
Madison laughed at that. Those facts were rather alarming. With Deanna being an infectious disease specialist and allowing for alternative forms of healing, she wondered at the patients the clinic was fielding. She knew from the phone calls they had exchanged that she was already quite busy. She’d hired a professional marketing company and they’d made up brochures and even had cute little commercials airing, advertising the clinic and alternative medicine. Deanna was well on her way and she’d already hired two more doctors who agreed with her style of doctoring. They already had plans to have the other side of the duplex turned into an extension of the clinic.
“Madison?” a familiar voice was calling to her from the doorway.
“Hello, Deanna. I figured I should get up here on my first available day while the kids were still in school.” She spread her hands to show she was holding nothing, gesturing wide. “And here I am!”
“Yes, you are. Come on,” she gestured her inside to the inner sanctum of the clinic. “I wish you had told me you were coming so I could have made more time….”
“Well, I’ll observe if nothing else,” Madison told her.
Deanna was really pleased to see Madison. The weeks had stretched out and she couldn’t believe how busy they were. It was exactly as she had envisioned. She explained what each room was for. It was a far cry from the casual conversation they’d had about the clinic before she opened. She now used many of the techniques she had wanted to try in L.A., but had been hung up by bureaucracy. Things like maggot debridement therapy were not sneered at here. She also had bee sting therapy, which helped arthritis sufferers immensely.
“People actually come in here to get stung by bees?” Madison asked, surprised.
“Yo
u’d be amazed how healthy it is to receive bee venom. It’s especially helpful with rheumatoid arthritis, swollen joints, and a host of other ailments. There is a theory it can prevent adjuvant arthritis, but that needs more research before a paper can be written on it,” she enthused. “It helps enormously when your body produces those chemicals in response to the venom. Of course, we have to watch out for patients who could go into anaphylactic shock from the stings. A good background check and careful observation is a must.”
“Ah, Doctor Lee,” she introduced the doctor to her friend, Madison. “I’m still learning so much from him,” she explained when they were out of earshot. “He has an amazing set of books on alternative healing and medicine from China that his father translated from Putonghua or Mandarin into French,” she explained. “He is now translating that into English. It’s amazing!”
“So, anyone losing weight with larvae here?” she teased and saw Deanna look a bit angry.
“No, we won’t be practicing irresponsible medicine here,” she assured her.
Madison was very impressed with the clinic. Alternative medicine, often thought of as weird or extreme in the face of modern medicines, really did have merits and she was sold on it herself. Too often patients relied on modern technology and medicine, to the point that it defeated its original purpose. She’d like to work in this environment and wondered how to broach the subject to Deanna.
Deanna had a patient and gave Madison a doctor’s coat to make her look ‘official’ to the patient. Deanna introduced her as a visiting colleague and the patient was satisfied with that explanation for her presence.
Madison observed how professional, caring, and knowledgeable Deanna was and she thought about how often she had observed that in her friend. From Mamadu, Africa to Los Angeles, California, she’d always been the same thorough doctor that Madison had admired. In addition to that, she was a good friend and lover. Madison had thought about that night so many times since it happened, she wondered if she was going over it again and again to memorize it.
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