CHAPTER 58 – DOCTOR DOCTOR
Elizabeth, her hair flying about messily, raced towards the elevator as she tried not to bounce her son who was gleefully gurgling from the carrier strapped to her chest.
"Thanks!" she panted as she squeezed past the half-opened door and came to a halt.
The man standing next to her removed his hand from the door, allowing it to close. "No problem. What floor?"
"Four. Thanks."
Elizabeth realized she was sweating but there was nothing she could do about that. She just hoped her deodorant was holding up. She gently pushed past an old lady and a teenager girl to get to the back of the crowded elevator so she could lean against the wall.
She had been running errands all day in anticipation of the family's flight to Coal Valley. The list on her virtual pad had nine things crossed off, but there were still several more places she had to be and time was limited. She had met with the school principal and superintendent and resigned, left a message for her friend Abigail, called her family – which had been a dramatic ordeal as her mom had suggested that Elizabeth simply get a divorce and stay on Earth, made a file for Julie with important information about the house, and bargained with a less than scrupulous used mini-transporter dealer about selling their vehicle.
Elizabeth wanted a minute to relax. Even if it was just in an elevator.
"Gross!" the girl with the headphones in her ears exclaimed as baby Aaron, having been jostled for the past few minutes, spit up his breakfast with a formidable amount of energy. The fifteen-year old pulled the musical wires from her ears and looked at the creamy white liquid now running down her shirt.
"I'm so sorry!" an embarrassed Elizabeth exclaimed. "It's just my breast milk."
"Gross!" the girl repeated as she gave Elizabeth a look of disgust. "That's nasty. I just bought this shirt."
"A little bit of soap and water should get it out!" Elizabeth hurriedly said as she eagerly dashed out the doors when they opened on the fourth floor.
The reception room was painted in beige, furnished with beige couches, and decorated with beige lamps. Posters reminding visitors to frequently wash their hands and to maintain their vaccinations competed with a few boring photographs hanging on the walls.
Elizabeth quickly moved to the desk occupied by a moustached man, handed him her scanner, and took the opportunity to breathe while he looked up her information and checked her in for the appointment she had miraculously managed to get scheduled.
"Your son needs one too."
"He just had his six-month check-up yesterday," Elizabeth pleasantly explained when the receptionist told her that Aaron would need a physical before he was cleared for the flight to Coal Valley.
"That was his six-month check-up. He needs a deep space travel physical." The man typed into his computer and then looked expectantly at Elizabeth.
"How is that any different?"
"One is for six-month-olds and the other is for people going to deep space," the man answered in a bored voice while he wondered how stupid Elizabeth was.
"I know they have different names but why can't you just use the six-month physical? His health hasn't changed in the last twenty-four hours."
"They have different forms."
"So you can just copy the information from one onto the other," Elizabeth noted in an overly pleasant voice but gave the man a stern "teacher" look which she usually reserved for dealing with contrary students. It always worked on them, and she reasoned this man behind the counter would likewise succumb to her wants. He'll probably even thank me for pointing out the obvious.
"Nope. Doesn't work that way."
"Then I can copy the information from one onto the other."
"You a doctor?"
"No, I'm not a doctor!" she replied hotly.
"Then your baby needs another physical."
"Because of different forms?" That's it?! You're going to make him have another physical twenty-four hours after his last one just because the form is different?!" Elizabeth erupted.
The bored man remained unfazed. "They've also have some lab work, and a GAT, GFRT, and MEV."
"I don't have time for this! And I don't even have a clue what all those letters mean!"
"You want your son to go with you into space?" the man asked with a shrug. "It's up to you."
"Of course I want my son to go with us!"
"Then he needs a deep space travel physical."
"Fine," Elizabeth said in defeat as she moved a few inches to the side to allow a woman to scan the in-take roster while she continued to talk to the receptionist. "Can you do it today?"
"Normally we book them out at least about seven months. You really should have made the appointments sooner."
"He wasn't even BORN SEVEN MONTHS AGO!"
The man let out a sigh. "Let me see what I can do."
Elizabeth watched intently as the man pecked the keys on his computer.
"You're lucky," he said as he looked up from the screen. "We had a cancellation. We can fit him in at 1600 hours. Your appointment should be done by then, just go down two levels to the pediatrician's office."
"Two levels to the pediatrician's office for four o'clock appointment. Got it."
"Excuse me, ma'am", a female voice spoke next to Elizabeth. "Your baby won't let go of my hair. And it hurts. Can you control him?"
Elizabeth looked at the clock on the wall. Four o'clock.
Time for Aaron's totally unnecessary appointment, she thought. She imagined that it would go even easier than hers had considering that he had been in perfect health yesterday. What a waste of time.
She just hoped her little boy wouldn't cry too much if they took a blood sample.
"The pediatrician is going on the next transporter flight to coal valley. So if your son passes the physical, he'll have the same doctor with him for the next two years," a curly red-haired receptionist pleasantly informed her.
Elizabeth loved her son's normal pediatrician, a woman in her sixties who had five grandchildren – one of whom was a student in Elizabeth's class. Nevertheless, if they had to leave Liskow, at least it would be nice for Aaron to have the same medical provider for the entire journey and time in Coal Valley.
"You can go back now," the cheerful receptionist added with a nod down the hall. "Room E6."
"Thanks. My husband is supposed to be meeting me here. Can you send him in? He's going to take the baby after his physical so I can run some more errands."
As Elizabeth made her way down the hallway, a nurse passing her going in the opposite direction bent down and, like an experienced pro at retrieving baby-dropped items, picked up Aaron's pacifier which he had thrown to the floor. She smiled at Elizabeth and wordlessly handed her the silicone soother before she then continued on her way.
"Who was that?" the nurse asked the receptionist when she set her laptop on the counter and reached for a bottle of water. "I thought the doctor was finished for the day."
"Some woman and her kid going to deep space. It's her second time but the kid's first. I don't think we've ever had one that young going to a colony."
"Did you tell her that the doctor's going on the next transporter?"
"I did. I forget to mention that he's a twin. She may have even met his brother on one of her other flights."
Elizabeth tapped her foot impatiently on the tile floor and gently bounced Aaron on her lap as she waited for her son's new pediatrician.
I hope he's friendly. And good with children. Of course, he'll be good with children -he's a pediatrician. I hope we have the same parenting style and he agrees that babies shouldn't cry themselves to sleep.
When the door opened, she planted a smile on her face in anticipation of meeting the doctor she'd be dealing with for the next twenty-four months.
"Doc?!"
"Yes. I'm the doctor," the man in the white coat replied, although he thought it would be obvious that he was the doctor given the white coat he was wearing and stethoscope around his neck.
"Wow. This is a surprise," Elizabeth exclaimed when she recognized the middle-aged man with graying hair from her past two transporter flights.
The man's stern face didn't look any friendlier at her announcement. Instead, he looked . . . .puzzled.
"It's me. Elizabeth Thatcher Thornton!"
"Um. Sorry. I don't think we've met. Have I treated your child before?"
"It's me! Elizabeth!" she exclaimed in surprise that he didn't recognize her. All I did was change my hair a little since we were on the transporter. And had a baby. Do I look that different from when I was in space? Darn, I'm probably a little flabbier. He'll criticize me for eating too many chocolate croissants.
"I'm sorry. I have a lot of patients. Although, I usually remember all the children," the man responded in slight confusion.
"I was your patient. Elizabeth. Don't you remember?"
"Ma'am, I'm a pedestrian, not an OBGYN. And I think you've had your baby already." He nodded to Aaron Daniel.
An undeterred Elizabeth continued. "The sucky shoes. Lead apron. Horrible diet. You must remember me! You gave me sucky shoes!"
The doctor reviewed his computer screen and then looked around the room as if hoping there was a nurse or security guard nearby to come to his rescue.
"Perhaps you want a doctor in another office," he offered. He cleared his throat before hesitantly adding, "the mental health offices are one floor up."
"You were my doctor!"
"I deal with children, and I don't mean to be rude, but it looks like it's been several years since you've been a child," he said critically as he assessed her.
I'm not that old. He makes me sound like a senior citizen! Why am I not surprised? He was always rude.
"I don't think I was ever your doctor," the man continued. "You must have me confused with someone else."
He must have dementia! How can he forget when the pallet of rocks fell on Jack? Or when that horrible Union Jack woman poisoned me when she was trying to destroy the transporter? Or when he gave me ultrasounds when I was pregnant on the flight home?!
"You must remember me. You found me crying in a corridor after I found out my husband wasn't going to die. You said I had a blob in me. I ate the poisoned apple and was calling out for the seven dwarfs," she earnestly told him as she tried to jog his memory.
"Do you think you're Snow White?" the doctor asked hesitantly and wondered if he should push the panic button near the door.
"It's me! And this is little Acorn – you thought he might shoot out of me like a champagne cork or a tee-shirt at a football game." Elizabeth held up her son for the doctor to see more clearly hoping it would jog him out of his obvious amnesia. Gosh, I wonder if his staff knows he's lost his memories!
"But he didn't," Elizabeth added reassuringly. "Shoot out of me."
"He didn't?"
"Because you sewed me up," she reminded him.
"I sewed you up?"
"So I wouldn't propel Acorn across the room!" For goodness sakes, how many women has he sewn up in space? His dementia must be pretty serious. And they're letting him get on another flight? Man, that's just wrong.
"Perhaps you'd let me hold your acorn", the doctor suggested as he wondered if she was violent. It seemed clear to him that she had wanted her husband dead and had been unhappy when he had lived. Not to mention, she had thoughts of hurling her son - who she thought was a plant seed - against a wall. "It's a very nice acorn. I'd like to hold it," he noted in an effort to get the infant safely out of her arms.
Elizabeth hesitated and changed her mind about letting this confounded man even touch her son. "Um. Maybe that's not such a good idea. You know, that whole Stranger Anxiety thing."
"I thought I wasn't a stranger to you. Why don't you hand the acorn over to me now? I need to examine it."
The concerned doctor reached for the baby in her arms, but a worried Elizabeth twisted to the side and protectively shielded her son from the seemingly demented physician. "That's okay."
"Do you have more acorns at home? Maybe a stash of them hidden at home? Where you live in the forest?" he questioned in the voice he used for dealing with small skittish children.
"In the forest?" Elizabeth's eyes grew wide in bewilderment.
"With your dwarf friends?"
At the man's words, Elizabeth moved towards the door to escape, but he stepped in front of her, blocking her way.
He's lost it! He thinks Aaron's an actual nut!
The knock on the door interrupted the doctor who was about to wrestle Aaron Daniel out of Elizabeth's arms. "Get away from me!" she yelled as she struggled.
"Thank goodness. Law enforcement is here," the doctor noted when the door opened and a uniformed man entered the room. "Take her away please. She's a danger to this baby."
UP Next: Chapter 59