"Mommy, I need a tissue for my sneeze," Sophie said pitifully, sitting on the examination table. Sam looked over at her and reached for the tissue box on the counter in the room.
"You need a tissue for your snot, honey, not your sneeze," Sam corrected her, helping her with her nose. On the chair in the corner of the room sat Emma, watching a video on Sam's cell phone. Sam came over and touched her forehead. "You ok, Em?"
"Yuhum" Emma replied. "When is Dr. Neill going to check us?"
"I'm sure he'll be in here as soon as he can, Sweetheart," and as she said it Emma coughed violently and dropped Sam's phone. The cover flew off and landed under the examination table, while the phone skidded to a stop against the wall.
"Sorry Mommy." Emma looked horrified, sure she was going to get in trouble. Sam took a deep breath and let it back out. She was exhausted. One sick child was enough to tire out any parent, two was entirely overwhelming. It was in times like these that Sam mourned being a single parent. A partner would help with the coughing in the middle of the night, would clean throw up with her, give warm baths to bring down fevers, maybe let her sleep for a few hours in between the constant ups and downs.
"It's OK Emma, I'm not mad at you."
Across the room Sophie pointed out, "Mommy, it was an accident."
"It's alright Girls, don't worry. It can be put back together," Sam said kneeling down on the floor. "If I can just find it." She crawled halfway under the examination table and leaned her right arm forward. The tips of her fingers touched the lost cover. "I got it." But as she said it, she heard the light tap on the door and heard it opening. Oh perfect, she thought.
sSsSsSsSsSs
Jack came into the room to a clear shot of Mrs. Hanson's rear. He stopped abruptly. What was she doing? "Hum, hello ladies."
At his voice, Sam jerked up and bumped her head on the bottom of the examination table, making a loud clanging sound. He heard a quiet "Ow," and then she quickly righted herself, coming to her feet with what looked like a cell phone in her hands.
"Doctor, hi," Sam said trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Everything ok?" He smiled, "with your, um," he pointed to the phone in her hand.
Sam looked awkwardly to the phone cover in her hands. Emma spoke up pointing to the phone on the floor near the wall, "I dropped Mommy's phone and it broke."
Jack looked at the spot Emma pointed to and went to retrieve the phone. "Nah, it looks ok to me!"
Emma hopped down from the chair and explained to him, "But the back fell off, see." She took the red phone cover from Sam's hand. Feeling like the room had gotten smaller, Sam went to sit on the chair Emma had just vacated.
"Well, it really just needs a doctor," Jack played with them. "Here, let me see it." From the table, Sophie giggled while Jack quickly put the cover back on the phone with a loud click. "See, good as new!"
Emma and Sophie smiled and Jack turned to hand the phone back to Sam. She smiled too, and when she took the phone, her fingers touched his. "Thank you."
Clapping his hands together, Jack turned towards the girls. "Now, what's going on with my new patients?"
"Fevers, runny nose, cough… the works," Sam listed off. "Oh, and let's not forget my personal favorite: vomiting and diarrhea."
Jack gave her a half smile and typed on his laptop while sitting on the doctor's stool. "They both have all the symptoms? Or is one worse than the other?"
Sam thought for a minute. "Emma was first, starting with the runny nose and cough, but Sophie became symptomatic 24 hours later and has caught up with Emma on just about everything. Emma's fevers have been a bit higher though."
"How high was the highest fever?" Jack asked.
"103.4," Sam answered. "I give them Tylenol and sometimes a warm bath if the fever doesn't go down with just the meds."
"That's very good." Jack nodded, still typing. "Ok, do you remember when that high fever was?"
"Hum. Yes, around 3:30 in the morning today. All other fevers have been between 101 and 102," Sam answered.
"Is the mucus clear or colored?" Jack asked scrunching up his face towards the girls. They both laughed.
Sam couldn't help but smile too. "Mostly clear. It's been yellow a couple of times."
Jack typed some more then got up. "Let's start with Emma since she got sick first," Jack said, patting the examination table. He had no idea which child was which; they looked very alike. One of the girls made their way to the table, while the other hopped off, so he had his answer.
Jack examined Emma. Her throat was very red and raw and her skin was clammy. "How has her appetite been, Mrs. Hanson?"
Caught off guard again by her married honorific, Sam stuttered through the answer. "She, um," Sam cleared her throat, "not good. Um, she'll drink apple juice, but hasn't been interested in any foods."
Jack nodded, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Let me put in an order for a throat swab real quick and then I'll examine Sophie." Sam expected him to leave the room but he just clicked a few buttons on his laptop and then called Sophie over to the table.
"What will the swab test for?" Sam asked
"Strep," Jack said and Sam groaned. "It's been going around... highly contagious. Do they go to preschool anywhere?"
"Yes, Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours," Sam informed him.
"That's good. There's nothing you can do about the germ-spreading at schools. Just always encourage the girls to wash their hands really well," he said, and a knock on the door announced a nurse coming in.
"Doctor," she said, "you needed a strep test?" The nurse noticed both girls and then added, "Oh, do you need two? I only brought one swab."
"No, Nancy. Just one." Then he turned to Emma. "Ok, Emma. Sit up here and Nurse Nancy will take a little peek inside your mouth, ok?"
Emma complied and Sam asked, "So, Sophie's throat looks ok?"
The nurse finished and left saying she'd have the result in a minute.
Jack spoke up while listening to Sophie's lungs, "No, her throat looks just as bad as her sister's, but there is no need to run two tests. I can see that their symptoms are identical. If Emma's results come back positive, I'll treat them both."
Sam nodded, satisfied and Jack continued, "Sophie's ears are slightly infected. Not enough to worry about yet, but I'm afraid they could get worse, especially with all her other drainage issues, so…"
There was another knock and the nurse popped her head through the crack. "The test was positive for streptococcus, Dr. O'Neill."
"Thanks Nancy," he said, and she left. "Ok, so we'll treat them both with some antibiotics. I want you to give them lots of fluids. Don't worry about food just yet, just try to keep them hydrated. They'll tell you when they're ready to eat." He typed in his laptop, "Oh, and make sure to get them new toothbrushes in a few days or they can re-infect themselves after getting better. They can go back to school 48 hours after they start their meds."
He got up and looked over at the girl's mother. She was jotting things down in that tiny notebook she had from the previous visit, hunched over on the examination table. She looked tired; probably had been dealing with this illness for a few days already and he knew it was nowhere near over. She looked up as if just noticing he had stopped talking. "Any other questions?" He asked.
Sam hesitated, "Um, I can't think of anything else. Thank you so much Dr. O'Neill. I had no idea they could have something like this."
"It's normal. Kids just get sick." He turned to the girls, who were now both sitting together on the exam table.
"Girls, I need you to drink lots of juice and water and try to get better, Ok?" They both nodded and then he added without thinking, "and remember that you guys are sick with something that can get other people sick too, so no kissing on Mommy or Daddy for a few days, Ok?"
And then something happened Jack couldn't explain. It's like the air in the room shifted. Realizing the chill, and thinking about what he had said, Jack looked from the girls, who sat frozen in their seats, to their mother. She had closed her eyes and her mouth was pressed into a thin line. And then he heard the little voice of a three year old saying, "My Daddy is dead."
sSsSsSsSsSsS
Sam couldn't get out of there fast enough. She was getting used to situations like this, where Jonas' death was mentioned, but it was still hard hearing it from her tiny daughter's lips and watching the expressions on their little faces. It wasn't Emma's fault, Sam knew. Children this age just blurted out whatever it was they were thinking, and Emma and Sophie knew their father was dead. Sam had never pretended with them, saying that Daddy had "gone on a trip", or "moved far away," or "gone to live with the angels." Sam couldn't even stomach the last thought. Sam didn't wish evil upon the dead, but she couldn't imagine Jonas up in heaven. That's where her mother was, and Jonas didn't belong with her mother.
Sam walked through to the lobby of the Doctor's office determined, one child clutched in each hand. She was almost to the exit. She kept picturing Dr. O'Neill's face at Emma's revelation. He had felt awful for saying what he did, imagining how the girls couldn't kiss their father like he had suggested they might. He had immediately apologized, red with embarrassment, his hands clutching the small laptop. With all her stammering about afterwards he probably thought she was some bereaved widow ready to fall apart at the mention of her dead husband. Oh, whatever Sam, she thought. She was sure he would forget all about the awkward moment by the time the girls had to come in again. He's probably already forgotten it.
She was almost clear of the lobby when she heard behind her, "Miss Hanson!" Sam turned and saw Nurse Nancy jogging toward her, the door that led to all the examination rooms wide open. "Dr. O'Neill said you forgot your prescription," she said, her arm extended, a small white paper folded in half in her hands.
Sam took the prescription and thanked her, leaving with the girls. She strapped the girls into their car seats and threw herself into the driver's seat. Sighing loudly, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to breathe deeply. Of course this had to happen today. She took another deep breath. Of course it had to happen when I'm this sleep deprived and the girls sick. Another loud exhale. Anytime people asked about their father in public it sparked a conversation later at home. With Jonas dead for over 2 years, the girls had no recollection of him at all and this sort of thing just sparked their interest and led to more and more questions. Deep breath.
She looked down at the folded paper still clutched in her hand. She knew the prescriptions would be automatically sent to the pharmacy; that's how it was done these days. Slowly unfolding the prescription card, Sam read the note written in a doctor's scrawl:
I'm so sorry. Please forgive my insensitive remark.
Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do.
Jack O'Neill
755.6559
Sam read the note twice. Looking up at the printed information on the prescription card, she noticed the number he wrote down didn't match the clinic's office number. His personal number.
Putting the note in her purse, she turned on the ignition and drove home.
