Chapter 3: We could talk all night
Chicago:
Doug read the letter and then told those whom I had asked him to say hello to hello for me. He was sitting in the lounge now with a cup of coffee waiting for Carol to get off work.
"Hey you," Carol said as she crossed into the lounge.
"Are you finally off now?" Doug asked as he looked up from the letter.
"Yeah I am the never ending shift has come to an end." Carol glanced to see what he was doing now as she got ready for them to leave for the night. "Are you ever going to write her back?"
"Probably not," he said as he stood up, "I mean I said that we should keep in touch I just never expected her too. It's one of those things that friends say but you know you never do."
"Well you know she made the effort you should at least try to make the same back. It's not like some horrible person whose stalking you; Anna's a colleague and friend." Carol pulled her coat on now, "you don't do it I might have to and find some really horrible things to say about you." she grinned at him as if she already had this letter planned in her head.
"Okay, okay you have made your point, I will, I'll do it tonight." He smiled as they walked out of the ER together, "you my dear, can mail it tomorrow."
They headed home and when they got there Doug sat down with a pen and paper wondering just what he was going to say back to her, it's not like a whole lot was happening there at County.
December 29, 1998
Anna,
I didn't think that you would honestly take the time to sit down and write, but really it's great to hear from you. I said hello to Carter and Carol for you and everyone else, they all say to say hello back when I write you. So there I guess you know that they all say hello. What can I say there's really not that much going on here, other than Carter is miserable with out you, but then you already know that much. Really he's doing pretty horrible but he took on this job as a RA at the med school and you know college kids he isn't getting any sleep with as much as they lock themselves out or flood the floor.
It would be great to see you when and if you get to come back to Chicago. We'll definitely have to get together for drinks when you get here. Carol and I would both love to catch up and talk to you again. The peds ER isn't the same with out you but I do have some more help Jeanie is my PA and having her helps out a lot other than that there's just me working in it.. Carter has a new med student; his luck hasn't gotten any better since you were here. She's a handful and then some. She's got this little handheld palm pilot and its got medical software on it and showed Carter up the first day I was here needless to say Carter isn't impressed by Lucy at all.
Well I hope that you can read my chicken scratch here, what they say about doctors and handwriting goes for me too. Yours is a lot easier to read but hey I'm writing this so I know what it says. Carol picks on my handwriting all the time at least I didn't write to you in all capital letters which I HAVE THIS HABIT OF DOING AT TIMES WHEN IT'S REALLY CONVIENT AND I WANNA MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN READ IT. HAHA.
Okay yeah I still have my sense of humor Weaver hasn't suck that out of me yet. I might just yet though. Hopefully you don't end up with a boss like that in Philadelphia. Take care of yourself and maybe one of these days I will get email and then you will be able to read what I write.
Doug
Carter had gotten his letter from Anna as well, they might have talked on the phone but it was still nice that she had actually taken the time to send him one too. He wasn't much for writing and would send her an email later, if not he'd definitely take the time to call her that evening once he was off work, besides she was more fun to talk to rather than to write. On the phone he could hear her voice and her laughter, more so that he could in the letters.
He got home from work that night after his shift making himself comfortable in his favorite chair as he picked up the phone and dialed her number waiting to hear her familiar voice on the end of the line.
Philadelphia
I had just gotten home from work, trying to get the door to the apartment open while trying desperately not to drop the bags of groceries that I was balancing precariously now while fighting with the keys to unlock my door. If I didn't drop anything and was able to get there in time it would be a miracle. I did manage to get the door open and kicked shut by the time the phone had rang twice and I dropped everything onto the counter in the kitchen as I reached grabbing the phone on the third ring. "Del Amico."
"Hey there Anna."
I heard Carter's voice on the other end of the line and in a way I was more than happy to hear it. "Hey Carter." A smile instantly formed on my face when I said that, "what up in the wonderful world of Chicago?"
"Oh about that much." I hear him say with a soft laugh in his voice, seemed to me that he was as happy to hear me as I was to hear him.
"That's reassuring to know, I would hate to think that I was missing all the good stuff now that I'm back home." I move so that I can start to put groceries away as I conversed with an old friend. "Any reason for calling or did you just need to run your phone bill up?"
"Ah I don't need a reason to call other than to talk to you, and don't you worry about my phone bill I think I can handle anything that you throw at me time wise." He said to me with a laugh.
"It's not your phone bill that I worry about." I start putting food into the fridge kicking it shut with my foot.
"Things going well with you and Max."
I knew that had to be a bitter topic for Carter to bring up, "yeah well as well as they can be, he's not here right now, I think that they sent him to Utah or someplace out west like that. I'm not sure I'd have to check the calendar to see just where he was at."
"And work that's going well?"
"Yeah it's going okay, better today than it's been in awhile but then you have your good days and your bad days, I think that I am due for a few good days." I say as I finish up what I am doing and head into the other room to sit down and get off my feet, "what can I say long hours but the pay is good and it's nice to be back with friends and close to my family again."
"All those Sunday dinners after going to mass." He said back, "you must have missed that."
"Well the dinners yes, mass not so much and yes that's what I have been doing." I laugh, "it's not as bad as you make it sound. Besides what else am I going to do, it's family and work that's all you have sometimes."
"Oh I don't know friends, maybe a social life, those kinds of things are important too ya know."
"Yeah I know and don't worry I do plenty of both, well not plenty but I do get out, I'm sorry if I implied that I was friendless or that I didn't have a life outside of work." I put my feet up now, "you know it's just hard sometimes those 12 hour shifts don't leave much time for socializing outside the office."
"That's a clear sign that you are working to many hours." He said to me. "You need to relax kick back and have a beer."
"There will be plenty of time for that in a couple of years when I finish up my residency." I told him, "you know the life of a resident all work and no play and when they do play we really play."
"You should come up to Chicago for a visit you know that."
"Okay yeah right, nice try Carter but I really right now don't have the time to get away like that." I find myself saying, "I know it would be nice to see everyone again but me coming back to Chicago has about as much of a chance of happening as me being a Chief at any point in my career."
"Well that give me some hope." I could hear him say, there was now a sense of sincerity in his tone of voice, "you're a good doctor Anna, anything that you want is possible just remember that."
"What would I do with out a friend like you John?" I ask back.
"Not be on the phone for hours." He said with a small laugh.
"Uh no see I'm a woman and long drawn out gossipy phone calls are a trait that we are born with, we know how to talk and we aren't afraid to use the gift of gab."
"Okay well technical loophole there that doesn't really count."
"Yeah right," I say with a soft laugh, "so how are things going with you?"
"I have yet another annoying med student."
"You just have bad luck with the draw when it comes to students don't you." The ones that Carter had gotten while I was there left something to be desired for the most part, "guess you can never get a break."
"She's not that bad, really she's pretty good at what she does, when she does it." Carter said, "she's like this little energizer bunny that keeps going and going and going."
"Well that doesn't sound that bad, she must give you time to take the good cases rather than be stuck in suture Siberia where you were most of the time while I was there."
"Yeah well that's the upside to it, but about the only one right now."
"One upside is better than no upside." I say back to him, "patience Carter all will work out in the end you just wait and see it can't be all roses all the time, but then it can't be all bad all the time either. She'll get it; after all she's got a good teacher to teach her."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
Carter and I talked for a few hours as the hour grew later; finally I had to stop him I had a shift in the morning and I needed to get some sleep it might have been great to hear from him and we could have talked for a long time, but with the hours I knew that we both kept all good things had to come to an end.