The Christmas Blessing

by VanLiere, Donna

  “I thought you were older,” I said.

  “I’m nineteen. I missed the cutoff day for kindergarten by one day.” Still, I thought she was in her twenties.

  “What are you studying?” I asked.

  “Just the basics now because I’m not sure, but I think I’d like to teach.”

  “You want to be a gym teacher?” She bent over, laughing. “What? Is that not politically correct? Is it a recess facilitator?”

  “People haven’t called them gym teachers in years. I should have known it’d be some guy trapped inside a hospital drinking weak coffee.”

  “Now you see what all my loans are paying for.”

  “I want to teach high school and coach. Maybe teach social studies and health—” I stopped her there.

  “I had health in eighth grade. Our textbook was called Healthy Living and You.” She looked at me and stared. I held up my hands. “I’m telling you the truth . . . as best I can remember it. Mrs. Pringle taught the class and she stood about five-foot-five and weighed 180 on a thin day.” Meghan put her face in her hands and shook her head back and forth. “We were taught healthy living by a woman named after a potato chip and shaped like a cookie.”

  “That was not her name!”

  I held up a hand and crossed my heart with the other.

  “I swear it was. And her husband’s name was Lemmy. Lemmy Pringle. Do you think he got beat up as a kid?”

  “Maybe Pringles’ chips weren’t around when he was a kid.”

  “It wouldn’t matter. With a name like that you were just begging bullies for a beating.” We both laughed, and I found myself not wanting the conversation to end. William bounded back down the hill toward me. I shook my head at the sight. I couldn’t understand how someone dressed like that could attract not just one, but two women so early in the morning.

  “I’ve got to get to the hospital,” he said, breathing hard as if he’d been exercising all morning.

  “Headed back into the world of glamour?” Meghan asked. I nodded and walked toward William.

  “Yep. I hope we run into each other again, Miss Pringle.” I walked up the hill and could hear her laughing. I couldn’t remember having a better day at the park.

  That afternoon Meghan stretched alongside her teammates on the track. Every day, she looked forward to practice, first because she loved it, but also because she loved her coach, Michele Norris. Michele had a way of coaching that brought the best out in her. Michele was thirtysomething and single, and the team loved teasing her about dating. It seemed they were always trying to set her up with an eligible uncle, cousin, brother, or even handyman. Michele knelt beside Meghan on the track. “Has Charlie told you to shave off another second?” she asked.

  Meghan pulled her foot toward her, stretching her upper thigh. “No.”

  “What?” Michele said, feigning disbelief. “We’ve got a big meet here. He should have been demanding things days ago!” She gave Meghan’s arm a playful squeeze and rallied her runners, instructing them to run warm-up laps for the day’s meet.

  When Meghan stood up, it felt as though her legs would buckle. She had been dragging ever since her morning run in the park, which was odd, because the run usually left her energized. She shook out her legs and rolled her neck from side to side. Once Meghan started running, the laps came easier. Running always made her feel better.

  Meghan paced back and forth on the field, waiting for her race to be called. She looked up into the stands and waved at her family. Luke and Olivia were already on their feet waving with both hands.

  Coach Norris put her hand on Meghan’s back. “Ready?” Meghan nodded, keeping her head down. “Run it like you did on Friday and you’ll pin another ribbon on Charlie.” When her race was called, Meghan blended in with all of the other runners standing thirty-to-forty deep at the line, but when the gun fired she bolted to the front position. Jim Sullivan jumped to his feet, cheering her on. Luke and Olivia screamed, “Go, go, go, go,” in rapid-fire succession. They watched her wend her way through the woods and disappear.

  “Ten minutes in,” Jim said, staring at his watch. “Ten-and-a-half minutes in,” he said, thirty seconds later. “Eleven-oh-two now. Eleven-ten.”

  “Would you stop that babbling, Jim?” Allison said. “You’re making me a nervous wreck over here.” Jim tried to be more discreet but couldn’t keep his eyes off the second hand.

  “Eleven-forty-five,” he said, whispering into Luke’s ear. Allison shook her head. This was why she never watched sports with him at home; her nerves were always frazzled by the time the event was over. Jim spotted a head or two at the end of the meadow. He stood to his feet and scanned the figures looking for Meghan—here she comes—and then he looked down at his watch. “Thirteen minutes,” he said, excited.

  “She’s running faster than Friday, Allison.” He realized what he was doing and sat down in silence. Allison stood and watched Meghan run toward the finish line, now glancing at Jim for an update, but he remained quiet.

  “Well, come on, Jim! What’s her time?” Allison shouted. Jim jumped to his feet and held his arm up so that Allison could see his watch.

  “Thirteen-forty,” he said, his excitement building. “She’s never run this fast!” The stands began to shake as people realized what was happening. Cheers erupted for Meghan as she stretched across the finish line in first place.

  “Fifteen-twenty!” Jim yelled, loud enough for everyone around him to hear. Allison shushed him, embarrassed that she was the only member of her family with any civility. Meghan walked to the side of the track and bent over, trying to catch her breath. Allison stood taller to get a better look. Stand up, baby, she thought. Straighten up. Meghan shook it off, straightened up, and walked toward Coach Norris. “That’s the way to run a race!” Michele said, hugging her tight.

  “Charlie better be happy with my time,” Meghan said, gasping. She was walking with Coach Norris toward the rest of the team when she collapsed.

  • • •

  “I’m fine,” Meghan said for the hundredth time. Dr. Goetz stuck a thermometer in her mouth and listened to her heart.

  “Any chest pain or breathing problems?” She shook her head. “At your checkup six months ago you were nauseous and achy. Any of that now?”

  “Just a little tired and my muscles hurt,” she said, balancing the thermometer in her mouth. “I’ve had a headache, but it’s no big deal.”

  Dr. Goetz took the thermometer out of her mouth, looking at it. “No fever,” he said. He washed his hands and leaned against the sink, drying them. “If you had a fever, it would have made sense as to why you collapsed. Since there is no fever, I’m concerned you might have an arrhythmia.” Meghan sighed. She was familiar with the term; it was an abnormal heartbeat pattern. “That would decrease how well your heart performs, causing you to faint.”

  “If I had an arrhythmia, I wouldn’t have been able to race today,” Meghan said.

  “I’d like to put you on telemetry overnight so I can monitor the heart for any irregularities.”

  “Overnight,” Meghan said, frustrated. “Why?”

  “Well, given your history and the fact that you’re my favorite girl, I’d feel a whole lot better if you were here so we could enjoy your company.”

  “What’s telemetry?” Allison asked.

  “We’ll put several patches on her chest with wires—kind of like an EKG—and we’ll be able to monitor the heartbeat day and night at a workstation where computers will warn us of any problems. I also want to do some blood work to rule out anything else,” Dr. Goetz said.

  Meghan groaned and flopped back on the examining table. “Not more blood! Every time I come here you people squeeze me for more blood.”

  When the X rays came back Dr. Goetz walked to Meghan’s room and sat down. “No physical change in the heart,” he said, holding the X rays to the light. “But we’ll still keep you overnight to make sure there’s no change in the heart pattern.” Meghan shook her head; sh
e was not happy.

  “If I have to stay here, can I at least be in Charlie’s room?”

  “In pediatrics?” Dr. Goetz asked.

  “If it’s just one night, who cares,” Meghan said. Dr. Goetz threw his arms up in the air, surrendering.

  “All right! I’ll do anything to get on your good side again.” He walked into the hall, and Jim and Allison followed. “I honestly suspect she’ll go home tomorrow,” he said.

  “I was so afraid it was going to be something serious,” Jim said.

  Dr. Goetz smiled. That’s exactly what he’d been afraid of, too.

  • • •

  When I got to the hospital that afternoon I went to the lounge to hang my coat in my locker. It was jammed. I was used to this. While I jiggled the handle I banged on the bottom left side. It opened every time. A nurse stopped me on my way out. “Claudia in pediatrics has been buzzing for you.” I walked back into the lounge and picked up the phone.

  “You’ve got a little girlfriend up here in 1216 who’s been asking about you,” Claudia said. Besides Charlie, I didn’t know any of the other patients in that unit.

  “Who is it?”

  “Obviously an admirer of yours. She’s been asking about you since she got here an hour ago. If you have the time, you might want to swing by and say hello.” I hung up the phone, grabbed a soda, and drank it on my way to pediatrics. I walked toward 1216 and recognized it as Charlie’s room, but I knew he didn’t have a sister. I stood outside the door and listened to the chatter of little voices.

  “What’s your favorite word,” a small voice asked.

  “Love,” a woman said.

  “What’s your least favorite word?”

  “Yuck.” The little voice laughed.

  “I always say yuck, Mommy.”

  “I know.”

  I peeked my head inside the room and saw Charlie and his mother and another woman I didn’t know. “You came,” the owner of the voice I’d been listening to shrieked, making me turn on my heels. It was Olivia.

  “Well, of course I would come see Olivia.” She was surprised I had remembered her name, and her mouth dropped open; she covered it with both hands. She pointed a small finger in my face.

  “What’s your favorite word?”

  “Rhinoceros. I like how it rolls off the tongue.” She giggled and shook her head.

  “What’s your least favorite word?”

  “Egg,” I said with a straight face. “Listen how ugly that sounds . . . egg. Blah. What an awful word, and when some people mispronounce it and say ‘aygg,’ it sounds even worse.” Everyone laughed at my odd choice of words. “Is it your birthday, Charlie?”

  “No. They’re all with Meghan.” I spun to look, and saw Meghan sitting on the bed, wearing a hospital gown. I was shocked.

  “What’s going on? What happened?” I attempted to read Meghan’s chart, but Olivia was separating the fingers on my hand, swinging it from side to side.

  “I’m actually in here because I don’t have a fever, if you can believe that. Dr. Goetz is blowing it out of proportion and making me stay overnight in the hospital!” Olivia let go of my hand, and I was able to scan Meghan’s chart. Dr. Goetz was observing her for a possible heart arrhythmia. “I’m being held against my will,” Meghan said, watching my face.

  “You collapsed?” I asked. She shrugged it off.

  “I’ve been tired, that’s all. I’ll guarantee you I don’t have what Dr. Goetz is checking me for.”

  “It’s good that he’s keeping you,” I said. She rolled her eyes.

  “You medical people are always so serious.”

  My beeper sounded, and I pressed the button to turn it off. There is a brief time in a med student’s life when he feels important to have a beeper; but months into wearing it, he begins to dread the sound. I wanted to stay longer and talk with Meghan about what happened, but I couldn’t. I walked toward the door.

  “Will you come back later?” Charlie asked.

  “Please,” Olivia begged, holding my hand.

  “Please,” Meghan said, smiling. I walked out the door, realizing that smile was going to occupy my mind for the rest of the day.

  Early in the evening I remembered I had promised Olivia I’d come back to see her, which meant I’d also see Meghan again. I stuck my head inside the door but could see that Charlie was sleeping. Meghan saw me and propped herself up, smiling. I pulled the divider curtain to keep the noise down for Charlie.

  “So where is everybody?”

  “They’ll be back soon, but Olivia said she was going to die if she didn’t eat. She’s the drama queen of the family.” She motioned for me to sit. “Could you stay till everybody gets back?” I looked at my watch to see what time it was and discovered it had stopped again. I shook my wrist and tapped the face till the second hand moved. I knew my pager would beep soon enough, but in the meantime I was more than happy to stay with Meghan.

  “How are you feeling now?”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I’ve been fine since I got here. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong.”

  “Maybe so, but it’s still good that Dr. Goetz . . .” She held up her hand, stopping me.

  “I’m going to scream if one more of you people in white tells me that it’s good that Dr. Goetz kept me overnight.” I smiled and kept quiet.

  “Meghan Sullivan sounds like a nice Irish name,” I said, changing the subject.

  “It used to be O’Sullivan, but a hundred years ago it wasn’t good to be different, so they dropped the O. Of course there was barely any Irish left by the time my dad was born. We’re mostly a Heinz 57 bunch now.”

  “None of the pure Irish left?”

  “My great-grandfather was the last of the full breeds. He died before my father was born—cirrhosis of the liver. Same with my grandpa—he died before I was born of alcohol poisoning. My dad dried out before he married my mom. He always says that alcohol took him down, but a little five-foot-four-inch woman picked him up. He’s helped out at AA for years.”

  Meghan and I talked about music—she loved Ella Fitzgerald. “What about all the hip acts that college kids love? Do you like any of them?”

  “Like who?”

  “I don’t know all their names. Snoop Diggity Do and all those hip cats.” Meghan shook her head and laughed. We talked about movies—she loved anything made before 1964. No wonder I thought she was older; she was an old soul in a young body.

  “So what’s your favorite movie?” I asked.

  “To Kill a Mockingbird.” My mother would have liked Meghan. She made my father and me watch To Kill a Mockingbird with her when I was in first grade. It must have been the twentieth time she’d seen it, but she still cried at the parts that made her weepy-eyed the first nineteen times.

  “Does your family live here?” she asked.

  “They’re about an hour away. Well, my dad and grandmother are. My sister’s in college.”

  “And your mom?” Meghan said, sitting up in the bed.

  “She died when I was eight.”

  “Of what?”

  “Cancer.”

  “So that’s why you want to be a doctor.”

  “I think that’s how it started.”

  “So I bet you’re studying oncology.” I smiled and she looked me over. “You don’t look like an oncologist to me.” I looked down at myself.

  “What do I look like?”

  “You remind me of Dr. Goetz.” A gust of air rushed through my mouth, and I grabbed my head. “You do!” In my mind it wasn’t a compliment to be compared with Dr. Goetz. “You must be studying pediatrics or something with kids, right?” I groaned inside, but knew I should just tell her the truth and be done with it.

  “I’m actually finishing up this rotation and getting out of medical school.”

  “Why would you do that when you’re so good at it?” I shook my head and smiled.

  “I just don’t think it’s right for me.”

  “Well, I do,” she said,
surprising me. “Trust me, I know how doctors are around kids, and you’re amazing. You’ve got my little sister right here.” She held her pinky in my face. “Maybe it’s not right for you now, but what about all those patients who are going to need a doctor like you? You need to finish up for them.” She smiled and folded her hands. “I’m going to get off my soapbox now.”

  “Phew,” I said, pretending to wipe sweat from my forehead.

  “So what about you?” I asked. “What about all these scholarships people are buzzing about?” She smirked as if what she did wasn’t all that remarkable. “So, what makes you so good?”

  “I found someone to pace myself with,” she said, sharing her secret. “You always have to run with someone better than you.” For a brief moment I felt ashamed. I had been pacing myself with Dr. Goetz, someone better than me, someone who could have made me better at what I do, but instead of choosing to run alongside him, I chose to take the easy way out and run away. In annoyance I tapped my watch again. “What’s wrong with your watch?”

  “It stops every now and then. All I have to do is tap it or snap the back where the battery is and it starts working again.”

  “Why don’t you get a new one?”

  “My mother wanted me to have this one. It works okay, I just need to coax it along every once in a while.” Meghan watched me flip the watch over and thump the back of it.

  “The watch isn’t your mother, you know. It’s just a reminder.” Dr. Goetz entered the room, and I stood to leave.

  “Are you moving in on another one of my best girls?” I backed away toward the door.

  “Hey, I don’t want no trouble. I didn’t know she was your girl.”

  “Oh please,” Meghan said. I smiled at her, anxious to leave the room now that Dr. Goetz had arrived. “Will you come by again?”

  “There was a day when she used to ask me the same thing,” Dr. Goetz said, lowering his head. I left the room, smiling. It was going to be a good day at the hospital, after all.

  • • •

  I couldn’t make it to Charlie and Meghan’s room until later in the evening. I wasn’t sure if either one of them would be awake, but wanted to say good night if they were. I stuck my head inside, but both of them looked asleep. I started to close the door when I heard crying inside the room. I followed the sound to Meghan’s bedside and sat down. “Are you in pain?” I said, whispering. She wiped her eyes and shook her head back and forth on the pillow. “What’s wrong?”