Chapter 7: Small town talk

Getting on the plane was one of the hardest things I had done. I look down at my patient again, she's starting to tire, and you can see it when you look at her now. But there was something about the way that she was looking at me that drew me to keep going telling the story until she gave up. That was the least that I could do for her right now.

I got off the plane when it landed at Spokane International Airport. Really after all this time she couldn't understand why they called it an international airport, there were no international flights that left from Spokane. She chuckled to herself as she walked to the rental car counter. Here she was back in small town USA.

It didn't take me long to get a car and be headed out of the airport and down Sunset hill headed for I-90 to catch the only freeway in the area. I navigated onto the freeway and drove along the three lane freeway headed for Idaho. It took me about 20 minutes to get from where I got on the freeway to where I needed to get off, I crossed town and was on a small two lane highway flying past farm houses and fields.

I remembered traveling down this road like it was yesterday, snow covered everything at least the road had been plowed and it wasn't overly icy. I pulled up a long driveway to a set of small apartments pulling my keys from my purse as I walked up the door. I stood there for a minute unsure of whether I really wanted to do this or not.

"Ketura?" I heard a voice calling from behind me.

I turned to see a familiar face standing behind me, "oh Mrs. Johnson, you startled me."

"Oh I'm sorry honey." She said reaching out to touch my shoulder, "I'm so sorry about your mama. She was such a good woman."

I nodded as I unlocked the door and started to move inside, "come in out of the cold please." I motioned for the older woman to follow. "It's freezing out here. Has anyone else been by?"

"Mrs. Kramer came by a day ago, said she had talked to you about packing up some of your mama's things for you. She also took her good Sunday dress down to the funeral home so that you wouldn't have to worry about it." Mrs. Johnson put her arm around me hugging me tight. "We just thought we'd make things as easy as we could for you darling, we know that you just started that new job in Chicago, your mama was so proud of you for that. She talked for hours about her baby being a really good doctor. You were always a bright child."

"Thank you Mrs. Johnson, I really do appreciate all of this, I really do." I pulled back from her. I looked around the house. Has Daniel or Darla been by?"

"No honey I haven't seen them, I don't think anyone has. Daniel took your mama's passing really hard." There were tears in my eyes now as I looked up at Mrs. Johnson.

"I had a feeling he would; he only dated mama for what 10 years." I said, "I wish he was here though," I paused as I sat down on my mama's couch, "some of this he should have. They might not have lived together, but I know he spent a lot of time over here. I don't know what's his and what's hers, or even what of this he might want to remember her with."

"You don't need to be fretting about that right now." Mrs. Johnson said as she moved into the kitchen and put on the kettle. "We'll have some tea, the ladies from the quilting circle made sure that there was some food here for you while you stayed. There's enough in their of course for a small army but you know them they needed to stay busy."

I just nodded as I moved from the little living room over to the island where I sat watching Mrs. Johnson in the kitchen. There was a photo album sitting on the island and I couldn't help but flip it open to see which one of mother's many albums it was.

I found my voice wavering as I flipped the pages, "she loved to take pictures of all my events, no matter how big or small they were. Who takes pictures of their daughter coming out of her first big trauma?" My mother wanted to surprise me with lunch at the hospital that day and just happen to catch me as I came out of a trauma room covered in blood. I looked at the picture, remembering what I had been doing, in the picture I had a big adrenaline rush smile on her face.

Mrs. Johnson looked at the picture that I was looking at as she pointed to the next one, "a mother, who can hug her daughter looking like that, is a mother who can take pictures of that kind of thing. But your mother was a good nurse and it doesn't surprise me at all that you are such a good doctor, really when you set your mind to something you had her stubborn will and had to see it thru, usually out doing everyone to get there." I heard her laugh, "I remember when you started high school, Coach Browery told you that you couldn't play on his football team, your mama told you that you could do whatever you wanted, and that included playing football. So old Coach bowed down to your mom, let you try out. But you had to try out against the varsity team. He thought it might get you to back down and not want to play. He didn't realize just how stubborn you really were; you fought those big guys taking Bobby McDonald, the starting quarterback down in the first 10 minutes of practice."

"Yeah and then they still wouldn't let me play on the team cause after that all the guys were scared of me." I laughed. "Look at me now; I'm still out there trying to play with the boys."

"We're all proud of you honey, every last person in this town has nothing bad to say about you or you mama. You've worked hard to get to where you are, and she's gonna be smiling down on you for the rest of your life, god rest her soul."

"I know she is Mrs. Johnson." I said softly wiping the tears from under my eyes.

Mrs. Johnson fixed me a cup of tea before heading for the door, "you know where I am if you need anything honey. You get some sleep, I'm sure you will have lots of visitors over the next day or two."

I looked up, "thank you." I said to the figure retreating from the door. I might have been strong and motivated but with everything between here and Chicago, I had never felt so alone in my life.

Chicago the next day...........

Carter hadn't heard from me in several days now and was starting to get worried about me. Okay so it had only been three days but he was still worried. He was now standing at the admit desk looking over the schedule, I wasn't on it for two more days. He glanced up as Susan came walking into the ER.

"Susan, what's up have you heard from Ketura." He said not hiding the concern in his voice.

"Good morning to you too Carter," Susan said as she headed for the lounge to put her stuff in her locker, 'come with me and we can talk."

Carter left the admit desk and followed Susan into the lounge. He watched her as she started to put away her things and pull out her lab coat and stethoscope. "So what's up?"

"She had something that she needed to take care of Carter; it has nothing to do with you or what's been going on here." Susan said not sure just how far into this she should go with him.

"What kind of stuff could pull her away from Chicago with out saying a word to me?" He asked Susan rather bluntly.

"She had a family emergency and had to leave rather suddenly Carter, she didn't plan on taking off with out telling you but she needed to go and rather fast." Susan said looking at him, "hey don't take it personally okay."

"Yeah don't take it personally." Carter hung his head a little, "I find out that this woman is my little sister and before I get a chance to say anything to her, she disappears again with out a trace."

Susan sighed, "No Carter, she didn't disappear with out a trace, I know where she is and what she's doing. I would have said something to you yesterday but I didn't see you. Her mother died. Well the woman she thought all this time was her mother died. Even if she was your little sister and that woman wasn't her mother, you just can't cut ties like that and not have this hurt."

Carter was almost speechless. "Why didn't she say anything to me? I would have gone with her, she's out there all alone."

"And how would she explain you to everyone back home?" Susan said looking at him, "dragging you back home would have complicated everything in a time when things are already difficult for her enough."

Jerry poked his head into the lounge, "Dr. Lewis you have a phone call on line 2."

"Thanks Jerry." Susan walked over to the phone, "just give her time to work thru this she'll be back in a couple of days." Susan picked up the phone from the wall hitting the button for line 2. "Dr. Lewis."

"Susan," I was fighting back the tears, my mother's service had wrapped up earlier in the morning and I had just finished packing up the car.

Susan lowered her voice, "you okay?"

"Uh yeah, I'm holding up okay." I said into the phone, "I wanted to let you know I'm going to be a day or two longer than what I thought I would be."

"Something happen?" Susan asked.

"Uh no, I have mama's car now and I need to drive it back to Chicago, I figured it was easier to just drive it back myself with everything that I am bringing back anyway." I said into the phone.

"Drive safe and we will see you in a few days. Call me when you get back so that I know you made it safe okay?"

"Yeah I will," I said into the phone. "I need to get going I want to make good time before it gets dark."

"See you soon." Susan said hanging up the phone. Before turning to John, "she's on her way back now. She should be here in a couple of days."

Carter sighed a little bit thinking of how he was going to tell her when she got back. "Is she okay?"

"As okay as she can be right now Carter. Don't worry she'll be back in Chicago before you know it. Now go and save the world take your mind of her."

Carter walked out of the lounge and headed to work, maybe it would make the time fly faster if he had other things that he needed to concentrate on rather than her.