Part 15

Sergei was in Dr. Monica Quartermaine's office with his two sons.

"I don't see anything wrong on anyone's EKGs," she said. "I could say pretty much for sure Sergei does not have the syndrome. As for you two, you're young, and it could lurk, but it doesn't show up on these EKGs, which is at least a good sign. I would say, from here on out, have an EKG done every year. The older you get without any abnormal waves on it and without any problems, the less and less likely it is you have this syndrome."

"What about playing sports?" Zander asked. "We're both doing it. No problems, though."

"Some people who have this collapse playing a sport and that's when it's discovered, so it is something to watch out for. I would recommend only playing for fun. No stress, or overdoing it. I've read of college and professional athletes collapsing, you may have read about it in the papers. No one can say for sure that they would not have collapsed, though, had they not played at that level. If you ever feel faint, you should get medical attention right away and stop playing whatever you are playing. No sports heroics. What do you play?"

"Baseball," said Pete, "and soccer. San-Zander plays tennis."

"Really?" Monica looked at Zander as if seeing something for the first time. "Baseball sounds OK. You may want to take it up, Zander. Tennis isn't as good, because you run around, but you have the court to yourself. The pressure is greater with things like basketball and soccer. I'm just guessing here, really, but my gut is that if there's any danger it would come from high pressure contact sports. Then again, one of the cases was a figure skater, and they have the arena to themselves when competing."

"He was a pair skater," Sergei said. "There's a lotta pressure to that."

"I can imagine," Monica smiled.

"When the winter comes around, I coach you two skating," Sergei offered.

"What do you think of that, Sand-man?" said Pete, giving his brother a friendly shove.

"Good coach," Zander said, considering.

"That would amaze me," Monica said, smiling. "I think I'd make an effort to come out and see that."

Zander wanted to tell Quinn about the meeting with Monica, so he called her, and she asked him to meet her in the park. They walked along, hand in hand.

"Sounds like good news," she said, when he had explained what Monica had said. "Did you tell your Mom?"

"No. Probably Pete will, though." He looked thoughtful. "I'll talk to her."

They walked along awhile, looking around. "Want to go to Kelly's?" he asked her.

"Not really. Last time I was there I ran into Sean and he told me he lived upstairs."

"Did he grill you about Little Emily's case?"

"No, he was more interested in you, actually, Zander. He thinks you're strange for not telling her about your family."

They had come down to the bridge. He pulled her to him, as they looked over the water.

"I think he came to try to win you back, Quinn," Zander said.

"He's not going about it very well, if that's what he wants," she smiled up at him, and put her arms around his neck. "I don't see how he can get past how much I love you."

"He grilled me at the speedway, about how she was coming to see me when she had the accident and whether or not I knew she was coming."

"He did? What about?"

"If I knew Emily was coming to talk to me. He wanted to know if she called ahead. Then he complained Emily was not too interested in him, and he thinks she still loves me, and if you don't find all that fascinating enough, he called you a playgirl."

"A playgirl? I wonder why he would say that!"

Zander smiled at her a little, "well, he knows you; he was really close to you once."

"But I dated him for four years, almost! That's hardly the idea I get from the word 'playgirl!'"

"I know," said Zander. "He's adopting Little Emily's opinion. She thinks she knows all about you, Quinn, and that you're never serious."

"When she's dated Sean for four years, then she can claim I'm never serious!"

Zander laughed.

"I told Sean, when I ran into him at Kelly's," Quinn said, "that she might change her mind all of a sudden and that he better look out for himself, and that if any of her family members don't like him they may get her to drop him and that she may do it even if she told him two minutes before that she loved him."

"I told him that she might be more interested in him if her family members disliked her going out with him."

"That too! Our matchmaking is challenged here. Well, Sander, enough of those two. How do you say 'idiots' in Russian? But did you and Oksana have a good time with Dr. Baldwin today?"

"Dr. Baldwin said I have a deficit and that a lot of people who have it take medication and it helps them. Oksana came close to having a fit."

"I've always thought Oksana was unflappable so I wish I had been there."

"She doesn't like medication at all, for some reason I don't understand. She never gets sick, so if she really were, I don't know what she'd do. But she's always been against them giving me medication for this deficit, and I've heard about it before. Teachers at school in Florida wanted to send me to a shrink for it."

"What do you think of it?"

"I don't like the idea of taking drugs, either. I know that's strange for a drug dealer."

"Well, you weren't exactly a pharmacist. You might have seen unpleasant effects on your - er, customer's lives. But I remember how hard it was to get you to take a pain-killer."

"Oh, yeah," he smiled. "That was hard for you, nurse."

"Maybe it would help to get the exact name of Dr. Baldwin's diagnosis and the name of the medication she wants you to take. We can do a little research so you can find out more about it. Find out about you."

"At least my heart is probably OK. It's my brain that doesn't work."

Quinn gave him a kiss. "I knew that! Your brain doesn't work good, but your heart does!"