15
Hi, Gabe, how’re you feeling?” Jess walked into the examination room and smiled as she looked up from the file folder she was reading.
“Fine, I guess.” Gabe sat on the examination table in jeans and a letterman’s jacket, his feet dangling off the edge.
“You guess?” She put down the file and scrubbed her hands. “Any problems?”
“Yeah. A few. When can I go back to practice?”
“Well, let’s see.” Jess carefully removed the immaculate bandage and examined the sutures on his forehead. “These look great. Someone’s been taking real good care of this. You?”
“My mom.”
“I thought as much. Tell her she did a great job. This wound is as clean as any I’ve ever seen after a week. I’ll take these sutures out now, and if you keep taking good care of it, you should be good as new in a few weeks, except for the dashing scar you’ll have.”
“So when can I go back to practice?”
“I can’t say right now, Gabe. Not tomorrow, that’s for sure.” She picked up the scissors and snipped the first of the sutures in Gabe’s forehead. “Have you had any headaches?”
“Not since the first day.”
“Blurred vision?”
“Dizziness?”
“Nope.”
“All really good signs.” She finished snipping the sutures and began gently pulling them from Gabe’s skin. He winced. “But you’ve got to keep taking good care of this cut on your head. You don’t want it to open up again. Then we’d be back to square one.”
“Man. I gotta get back.” He shifted as if he were about to hop down and bolt.
“Gabe, you will. But it’s going to take a little time.” Jess folded her arms and looked closely at the restless young man on the table in front of her. He seemed to worry way too much for a seventeen-year-old kid. “What’s the rush?”
Gabe hesitated and seemed to grow even more anxious as he did. Finally, he looked up at her. “I heard this kid on the team, Zach Ellis, and he said Coach was going to get this scout he knows from the University of Arizona to come look at him. I know he’s coming to see Ellis, but maybe he’ll like what he sees in me too. I know I could never get the same scholarship Ellis could get, but any little bit would help.”
“Well, Coach Ryan told me you were good, and fast, and had a lot of heart, so who knows?” She smiled at him. “When’s the scout coming?”
“That’s just it. We don’t know. So every game I miss is a game where he might have been there. I have to get back now. If I don’t get a scholarship, I’m not going to college. It’s as simple as that.”
“Can your parents help at all?”
Gabe’s laugh was bitter, and he looked away. “Are you kidding? It’s all my mom can do to keep us all fed. She can’t send anyone to college. That’s why I need to go, so I can help the kids when it’s their turn.”
“And your dad?” Jess had to ask.
Gabe met her eyes, and the expression she saw there was far beyond his years. “My dad can’t help us.”
“Okay. It looks like you’re on your own. But you’re not the first kid to face that. So, seriously now, how realistic is it that you get a football scholarship to the University of Arizona?”
His head jerked up and Jess held up a hand. “Keep in mind that until yesterday afternoon I didn’t know a first down from a referee, and I still don’t know much more than that. All I know about your ability is what Coach Ryan told me, and I told you what he said. So, with all that said, how realistic is it?”
He slumped. “Not very, I guess. Pac-12 schools can recruit pretty much anywhere they want.”
“There are other types of scholarships, you know. I heard you mention chemistry and calculus the other night. Those aren’t easy classes. How’re you doing in them?”
“Okay, I guess. B’s, sometimes an A-. Not all that great.”
“And do you have a job?”
Gabe shrugged. “Just on the weekends. I work for Mr. Sheppard on his farm. I don’t get a lot of hours in, but I can at least buy my own clothes and stuff.”
“Okay, look.” Jess sat on the little stool and ticked off the list on her fingers. “Your mom depends on you to help with the kids, right?”
He nodded.
“And you have a job, and you have football practice as well as games, and you’re taking some really tough classes at school.”
He nodded again.
“Gabe, something’s got to give, and I’m afraid it’s going to be you. You’ve got to make some choices. How’s this for a scenario? You choose a state university, and with a combination of scholarships, loans, and part-time jobs, you put yourself through. You won’t be the first one to do it, and if anyone has the drive and discipline to pull it off, it’s you. You’ll need to get those grades up, though. There’s nothing at all wrong with a B, but for top scholarships, you’ll need top grades. And the more you get in scholarships, the less you’ll need in loans.” It pleased Jess that Gabe looked interested, even animated as she talked. He needed some dreams that didn’t depend on a miraculous football scholarship. “What do you want to do when you get out of school?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged yet again. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a doctor, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
He just looked at her. “I don’t know. It’s just one of those things kids want to be, like an astronaut. You don’t really do those things when you grow up.”
“Is that so? I just wish you’d told me that about eight years ago. You could have saved me a lot of really hard work.”
Gabe ducked his head and grinned up at her.
“Tell you what.” Jess stood up and Gabe hopped down from the examination table. “Let’s find a time when we’re both free, and I have a feeling that will be harder for you than for me, and let’s get together and come up with a plan. There’s no reason why you can’t be a doctor, or anything else you want to be.”
The animated look she had seen in his eyes when she talked about his future began to fade almost as soon as she stopped talking, and he just nodded.
“Gabe, listen to me. I’m serious. You can do this. I know you can. You call me and we’ll get started, you hear?”
He started to shake her hand but stuffed his own in his front pocket instead. “Okay. I’ll call.”
“You do that. Keep taking good care of that forehead, and remember, no football until I say so.” She walked him to the door. “Oh, by the way, Gabe, when’s your mother’s day off?”
“I don’t know. It varies.”
“Have her give me a call too, would you? There’s something I’d like to talk to her about.” She laughed at the worried look he gave her. “No, it’s not about you. Not everything’s about you, you know.”
Jess stood in the window and watched Gabe get in his battered truck and drive off. No wonder Andy wanted to keep him on the team. He did have more heart and determination than any five people Jess could think of, but even that could only stretch so far. She wasn’t kidding when she said something had to give. And she could only hope that he followed his head as well as his heart.
“Hey, Coach, you got a minute?”
Andy looked up to see Gabe Quintana standing in the doorway. “Hey, Gabe. Come on in. Shouldn’t you be in class?”
Gabe shrugged and edged into the room. “Nah. It’s just homeroom. I got a pass.”
“So, how’re you doing?”
“I’m doing all right, I guess. Stitches are all out, anyway.”
“Come here. Let me take a look at that.” Andy tipped his head to get a better angle under the overhead light. “Man, that’s some angry-looking scar you’ve got there. It looks like you tangled with a machete.”
“It’s okay. The doctor says it will fade in time, but I’m always going to have a scar.”
Andy grinned. “It’ll make you look dangerous.”
“That’s what she said, only she said dashing.”
“Well, if the men find you dangerous and the ladies find you dashing, what more could you ask for? I know you saw the doctor on Monday. Did she say when you could come back?”
“Not for a while yet. Not this week, and maybe not next week either. She’s afraid it might open up again.”
“Well, she’s the doctor. I guess we have to go by what she says. We don’t want you coming back before you’re ready.” Andy started to go back to his work, but Gabe didn’t move, except to shift his weight and pick at a fingernail. “What’s up, Quintana? Is there something I can help you with?”
“Well, Coach, it’s, um . . . I’m thinking of quitting the team.”
Andy didn’t say anything, but he gestured to the chair in front of his desk, and Gabe sat on the edge. Five minutes ago, if he had been asked who on his team would be most likely to quit before the season was over, Gabe Quintana would have been the last, the very last name he would have come up with. He waited for Gabe to explain himself.
“It’s like this, Coach. I love the game, you know I do, and like everybody else in town, I always dreamed of being the next Andy Ryan. But look at me.” He spread his hands and looked down. “I’m five seven and weigh 145 sopping wet. I’m not going any further than running back at Last Chance High. I mean, look what happened last Friday. I couldn’t even play and you won 45–21. You don’t need me.”
“So why quit halfway through the season during your senior year? There are a half dozen games left and that’s it.”
“Yeah, I know, and it’s killing me thinking I’m not going to play. But in another seven months or so, I’ll graduate, and then what? If I don’t get a scholarship of some kind, college is out for me, and I’ll get a job at the chile cannery or working for the county. I want more than that.”
“I still don’t see what quitting football has to do with getting a scholarship. You weren’t pinning all your hopes on a full-ride football scholarship, were you?”
Gabe sounded embarrassed when he laughed. “No, not since about tenth grade. I have to admit that I daydreamed about the scout that you’re bringing over to watch Ellis seeing me play and being bowled over, but reality set in. We both know that’s not going to happen.”
Andy sat back in his chair and threw up his hands. “I just don’t get what you’re talking about, Gabe. Just tell me, and make it as clear as you can.”
“Okay, it’s like this.” Gabe leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands between them. “We both know I’m not going to college on a football scholarship, so my only chance is an academic scholarship. But I need to get my grades up, and the way things are right now, I just don’t have the time to do that. Something’s got to give, and I guess that something is football. Dr. MacLeod is going to help me in the afternoons when I’d ordinarily be at practice.”
“Dr. MacLeod?”
“Yeah, she says I’m taking all the right courses, but I need to try for A’s instead of B’s. On the days when she’s in Last Chance, she’s going to let me study in her office and help me out if I need it.”
“Does she know that you’re quitting football?”
“Oh, yeah. She didn’t exactly suggest it, but when I said that’s what I was going to do, she sort of nodded like she thought it was a good thing to do.”
“Well, Gabe, you know what you need to do. I can’t say this makes me happy. Quitting the team midseason is just not something I understand. But here’s what I’m going to do. Since your doctor said you might not be back for another couple games, I’m going to leave your name on the roster until then. You can come back anytime during the next two weeks, no questions asked, but after that, well, your resignation is accepted. Fair enough?”
Gabe swallowed hard and nodded.
Andy got to his feet and extended his hand. “All the best to you, Gabe, and I mean that. You’re a good man. Wish I had more like you.”
Gabe shook his hand, and for a moment, Andy thought he was going to say something, but he just swallowed again and left. Andy heard his boots going down the hall until the sound was replaced by that of the big front door opening and closing.
Dropping back in his chair, Andy leaned back and rubbed his eyes. What did Jess think she was doing? Forget Gabe for the moment, although Andy didn’t think for one minute that he wouldn’t wind up regretting his decision. When someone just disappeared from the team in the middle of the season because he changed his mind, team morale suffered big-time. Each man had to know he could count on everyone else and that everyone else counted on him. That’s what being a team meant. You didn’t just quit.
He yanked his desk phone over to him and started jabbing in her number, but before the connection was made, he hung up. If he remembered right, she’d still be making rounds in San Ramon. Besides, he needed to cool off before he said anything. If he talked to her now, he was bound to say something that would probably end all hope for any kind of a relationship, present or future. And even though at the moment, he was so mad he could spit nails, he didn’t think he wanted to risk messing things up for good.
Jess smiled in satisfaction when she checked her schedule of appointments when she finally got back to Last Chance after doing rounds at San Ramon General with Dr. Benavides. Whatever his intentions were in making her do rounds with him, patients were not flocking from San Ramon to Last Chance to see her, but people from Last Chance were making appointments, a few more every week. Today an older man she hadn’t met yet was coming in with something that sounded very much like gout; Kaitlyn Reed, who owned the salon, was coming in for a checkup; and Sue Anderson, of all people, was coming for a consultation—although she refused to give even a hint as to what she wanted to consult about. Then, after office hours, Marta Quintana was stopping by. Hopefully, the trend would continue, and she’d wind up running from patient to patient like she was beginning to do in San Ramon, but for now this was nice—busy enough, but not so busy that she couldn’t spend as much time as she wanted with each patient.
The first patient did, indeed, suffer from gout, and Jess gave him an information sheet about what he should and shouldn’t be eating and drinking. He handed it right back to her.
“But this is all the stuff I like to eat. Can’t you just give me a pill or something?”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, Mr. Crawford. This is a diet-related condition, and changing your diet is what’s going to help.” She held out the sheet, and he snatched it out of her hands and glared at it.
“Well, If I’da known this was all you were going to give me, I’da gone up to Dr. Benavides in San Ramon. I thought you were new and modern and would have all kinds of miracle drugs.”
“Sorry, and just so you know, Dr. Benavides would have said the same thing I did.” Jess smiled at him. “But if you follow those instructions, you ought to be feeling better in a few days, and if you’re not, just come on back.”
He was still grumbling when Jess left his room and walked across the hall to find Kaitlyn Reed perched on the examination table in a paper gown. She had only been around Kaitlyn a few times but had really liked her. In fact, the more time she spent with that convoluted Cooley clan, headed by the doughty Elizabeth Cooley, the more she liked all of them. Of course, Kaitlyn wasn’t a Cooley, but her brother, Chris, was married to a Cooley, and that more or less put her in the family. All quite complicated, unless you were from Last Chance. Then you were born knowing how it all fit together.
“Hi, Kaitlyn.” Jess checked the file she had pulled out of the rack on the door. “Just a checkup today?”
“Yes, time for my annual.”
“Good for you.” Jess checked the form Kaitlyn had filled out in the waiting room. “No problems? No concerns?”
“Well, there is something I need to talk to you about.” Kaitlyn, who always possessed a quiet confidence that Jess admired, today seemed almost embarrassed. Jess waited. “Um, from my teens until I came to Last Chance last year, my life, um, the way I lived it, wasn’t really anything to be proud of.”
She looked at Jess as if she hoped to find understanding there, and Jess nodded to encourage her to continue. She did.
“Well, I’m a new person now, and I’ll probably be married within the year to a really wonderful man, and I just want to make sure that everything is the way it should be, you know?”
“I think I do. So in addition to the regular tests, you want a thorough blood work-up?”
“Yeah. I guess that’s what I’m asking.”
“Sure, I can order that for you, and there are some other tests I can do too. Do you have any symptoms you’re worried about?”
“No, nothing at all. But I want to know for sure.”
“That’s a smart thing to do, Kaitlyn.” Jess began her examination. “So, you’re getting married? Tell me all about your groom. Is he from Last Chance?”
“Yes, he was born here. His brother is Ray Braden, Lainie’s husband, and his cousin is married to my brother.”
“Oh my, another Cooley. I was just thinking what a terrific family they are. So when are you getting married?”
“Probably sometime in the spring. He’s just finishing at the Law Enforcement Academy and got his first choice of assignments. He’ll be a state policeman right here in this part of the state. So we’ll wait until he gets all settled in his new job. I don’t want a big wedding.”
Jess reached for Kaitlyn’s hand and helped her sit up. “It seems to me that from what I’ve seen, even an intimate family wedding is going to be a big wedding. Where do you draw the line?”
“That’s my problem. Unless you run off, any wedding around here is a big wedding.” Kaitlyn sighed. “But Steven should get back soon, and we can start figuring all this out. It’s too hard to do on the phone.”
“I can see how it would be.” Jess smiled and looked at her notes again. “Well, we won’t know for sure until all the tests get back, but everything looks just fine. I’ll write out an order for a blood work-up, and you can take it to the lab at San Ramon General. I’ll call you either way, just to set your mind at ease.”
“Thanks so much, Doctor.” Kaitlyn took her hand and kissed her cheek. “I was so worried to have to talk about all this, and you made it so easy. I’m really glad you’re going to be my doctor.”
“Me too, and please, my friends call me Jess.” Jess had never had a patient kiss her in gratitude before, and to tell the truth, it was kind of nice.
“Oh, and one more thing.” Kaitlyn stopped Jess as she picked up Kaitlyn’s file and headed for the door. “I guess everyone probably assumes Steven and I will be making some kind of announcement, but we haven’t yet, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything. Okay?”
“Couldn’t if I wanted to.” Jess gave her a wink. “It’s all confidential in here.”
Leaving Kaitlyn to get dressed, Jess went to find the last scheduled patient of the day, Sue Anderson. All Sue would tell Eva when she made the appointment was that she wanted a private consultation with Dr. MacLeod. This, coupled with the fact that both Mrs. Anderson and Dr. Benavides had alluded to a lifelong professional relationship, made Jess more than a little curious.
Sue was fully dressed and waiting in the other examination room when Jess walked in.
“Hello, Mrs. Anderson.” Jess sat on the stool as Mrs. Anderson was seated on the only chair in the room. “This is all rather mysterious. How can we help you?”
“I don’t mean to be mysterious.” Sue Anderson sat with ankles together, clutching her purse on her lap. “But I do need you to assure me that this conversation will be entirely confidential.”
“Of course, that goes without saying.”
“Even from Dr. Benavides.”
“If you wish.” Jess made a note. “Now, what’s up?”
Mrs. Anderson took a deep breath. “It’s Emma. You know what a sweet child she is.”
“I have met Emma.” Jess smiled.
“And so well behaved. People have remarked on what a good little girl she is since she was two. Since she was two! I hear people talk about the terrible twos and I have no idea what they’re talking about.”
“Yes, she is remarkably well behaved. I noticed that right off when I met her.” Jess felt a surprising pang of compassion for Mrs. Anderson. Clinging to the illusion of perfection can be so exhausting. “But I think you’re worried about her for some reason. Am I right?”
After a moment, Sue nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am, a little. She doesn’t have many friends, for one thing. She is so much more mature than other children her age, and I think they’re intimidated by that. Children can be so cruel, and I think it upsets her more than she tells me. She’s started pulling at her eyebrows, and it’s really beginning to show. She’s got these bald spots. So far I’ve been able to keep them filled in with eyebrow pencil, but I’m afraid her father will notice the next time he’s home. I don’t know which he’ll think is worse, putting eyebrow pencil on an eight-year-old, or letting Emma go around with bald spots in her eyebrows.”
“Is Emma’s dad away often?”
“Yes, he’s home mostly on weekends. The house we live in has been in his family for generations, and he wants us to live in it. It is a very nice house, and it’s on some land, but since he’s a lawyer and his office is in Tucson, he’s away a lot. So you can imagine that when he is home, he likes everything to be peaceful and happy.”
“Yes, I can imagine that.”
“Of course, Emma just adores her daddy. He calls her his perfect little princess.”
Jess nodded. “So, is there anything besides the eyebrow plucking that concerns you about Emma?”
Mrs. Anderson twisted her hands and frowned. Jess waited. There was something else.
Finally, she swallowed, and tears filled her eyes. “She beats her dolls! She takes a ruler and just beats them. She yells at them and slams them into a corner, and then she yanks them out and beats them again. It just terrifies me.”
Well, yeah, I can see how you’d find that upsetting. Jess made an effort to keep her expression and her voice calm and neutral. “Mrs. Anderson, I need to ask you this. Do either you or Mr. Anderson ever spank Emma?”
“No! She’s never had a hand raised to her in her life! I don’t know where this comes from.”
“Okay.” If Jess hadn’t examined Emma herself and found no evidence of physical abuse, she might have been a little more skeptical. “But it’s pretty clear to me that Emma has a lot of anger going on. I’m sure it’s clear to you too. But knowing it’s there and knowing how to help her with it are two different things. I think it would benefit Emma to talk to a child psychologist, and I strongly recommend you make an appointment sooner rather than later. I could do some research and get some recommendations for you, if you like.”
“No. Absolutely not. Emma does not need a psychologist. Besides, there’s no way her father wouldn’t find out if she was going to a psychologist.”
“And why would that be a problem?”
Sue Anderson gathered her purse and stood up. “You know, I came here really hoping you could help me. It looks like I was wrong. Thank you for your time.”
As she reached for the door, Jess put a hand on her arm. “Mrs. Anderson, I really hope you reconsider. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to research those psychologists anyway. I’ll put my recommendations in an envelope and keep it in my desk drawer. If you change your mind, just stop by the office and tell Eva that I have an envelope for you. That’s all you need to do.”
Mrs. Anderson just looked at Jess’s hand on her arm, and when Jess removed it, she opened the door and swept down the hall to the waiting room. Jess could hear her talking to Eva.
“I’ll be paying cash for this appointment. How much do I owe?”