Chapter 15

Sarah hesitated before knocking on Helen and Scott’s door. Helen had been all smiles when she issued the dinner invitation, yet Sarah wondered if something was wrong. Helen was on the medicine wards. Usually the wards were so exhausting that even on a day off like this Saturday was for her, having someone over to dinner was too much. Plus, Helen had morning sickness, so she had extra reason to want to take it easy.

She was still her same perky self, and Sarah marveled at her energy. Brushing her teeth in the residents’ room after vomiting, Helen looked immaculate as always, if a little green. “It’s a good thing I didn’t have this all along, or I’d be pretty peeved by now,” she had said, smiling all the while.

Sarah had eaten many dinners with Helen and Scott. Scott was a wonderful cook, and Sarah loved each new dish he concocted. He started cooking the year before, when Helen began her internship year. Helen said it was darned embarrassing remembering what she’d cooked for him all that time she was in medical school, given the talent he turned out to have.

His meals seemed simple. Sarah once tried to copy a tomato pasta dish because Scott promised it was impossible to go wrong with just five ingredients. But hers tasted nothing like his, her pasta all gummy and the sauce too thin and with none of the flavor of Scott’s. So she gave up and looked forward to returning to his kitchen.

Standing outside the door, Sarah remembered what Scott said the last time she visited.

“I’m going to be the one taking care of the thing, so I hope it naps so I can get my thesis done.”

Even Helen couldn’t hide her hurt feelings. “Not ‘thing,’ Scott. Baby.” She’d said it so sadly.

Sarah took a deep breath. All was quiet inside the apartment. As she knocked, she heard a sharp, indecipherable bark from Scott. Then silence, then Helen opened the door with her usual smile.

They sat down to eat almost immediately. Scott served chicken salad with almonds, perfect for the summery day, and a cold raspberry soup. He told Sarah the soup had only three ingredients, but she passed on his offer to write out the recipe.

They talked about the changes to come. Scott’s PhD was not going well, and he was rushing to finish research before Helen’s due date.

“I feel like I’m going to be the sole caretaker, what with your guys’ hours,” he said.

Sarah thought about Ben, with his grandmother to watch him. Both Helen’s and Scott’s parents were dead. Helen’s were killed in a boating accident when she was a sophomore in college. She met Scott at a group for students who had lost a parent and was amazed to find they had both lost two parents and were also only children. It was a strong bond. Helen said without Scott she would have fallen apart when her parents died.

Sarah understood completely. Her own mother died when she was in high school and her father when she was in college. Her brother, Tim, who lived in Washington, DC, was her lifeblood. Losing her mother to ovarian cancer had changed her life. It was part of the reason she was a doctor. It was also why she clung to the Fog Ladies like she did. And why she was such good friends with Helen. Being without family was hard.

“What about day care?” Sarah asked. “Would you two have objections to something like that?”

Helen stared at her hands. “Scott looked into it. It would cost almost my entire salary.”

“What? For day care?” Sarah asked.

“Not your entire salary,” Scott said. “But two thirds of it. Two kids in day care is too expensive for us.”

“Two kids?” Sarah said.

Neither Helen nor Scott responded right away. Then Helen nodded slowly. “Yes. Twins. Two kids.”

“Oh.” Sarah let out a huge sigh.

“I missed my first ultrasound, I had a patient crashing and had to cancel it. Then I had to cancel it again. I never got around to rescheduling it until my OB said I absolutely had to have it at twenty weeks. We’ve known for a while but haven’t told anyone. It was quite a surprise.”

“It’s still a surprise,” said Scott. “It’s all a surprise.”

Helen was worried enough when she told the program director she was pregnant. Now twins! No wonder she hadn’t said anything. Helen and Sarah were the only female interns in their class of nine. Of the three women in the third-year class and four in the new intern class, none had children. If Helen got sick or needed bed rest, one of the other residents would have to cover her duties. Her news would not be greeted with enthusiasm.

Scott certainly did not look enthusiastic. He sat glumly across from Sarah, his body hunched away from Helen. For once, Helen wasn’t eating. Her raspberry soup was untouched, her chicken salad just pushed around on her plate.

“I may have met a murderer,” Sarah said, desperate for something to talk about other than the babies, to add life to this dead conversation.