The Doctor's Tale (21 page)

The phone blared like a fire alarm, but I didn’t hear it. Three beers and half of a pepperoni and mushroom pizza with extra cheese, coupled with chronic sleep deprivation, were all the sedatives I needed. Gabrielle grabbed the receiver from the phone beside the bed.

“Hello?”

“Yes, is Dr. Spezia around, please?” I heard the loud voice through the receiver.

“I’ll see if I can wake him up.”

“It’s important. Please tell him that.”

“Sure,” Gabrielle said. “Just a moment, please.” A steady rain pattered on the slate roof of the apartment building. The crash of thunder startled me into a foggy haze of semi-consciousness.

“What in the world?” I turned and stared at Gabrielle. “Who’s on the phone?”

“It’s for you.”

“I’m not on call.” I sat up and rubbed his temples. “Am I?”

“Hey, don’t ask me about your schedule. She says it’s important.”

“She who?”

Gabrielle offered the receiver to me. “Here you go. I am not your secretary.”

I accepted the receiver and pressed it to my ear. “Dr. Spezia here,” he said. “Oh yeah. Hi, Mary. What did you just say?”

Gabrielle approached the bed. “What? What is it, Tom?”

“No, don’t call anybody else in. I’ll come.” I slammed down the receiver. “Freeman overdosed.”

“Who’s Freeman?”

I threw on a scrub shirt and ran a comb through my hair. “You never had the pleasure of meeting him, huh?”

“No, do I want to?”

“Well, I’m a little surprised you never ran into him, with all of the drugs that he bought. Maybe sold, who knows?”

“He probably stole them from the hospital, didn’t he?”

“It’s not as easy as you might think for an addict to get the amounts they need that way. I’m sure he dealt with folks in the hospital parking lot. He didn’t have to go to the dealers. They came to him.”

Gabrielle slipped on her shoes. She checked to ensure that her gun was in her purse. “You want to take the patrol car? I can turn on the sirens that way.”

“Hey, why not? It seems a little shady, but I need to get there. Fast. Let’s just go. This is an emergency—at least in theory.”

“I haven’t used them yet this year. Let’s see if they really work.”

Six minutes later, the patrol car screeched to a halt outside the entrance to the Emergency Room. I opened the door before it stopped completely.

“Thanks, gotta go,” I said.

“I’ll sit out here for a while,” Gabrielle said. I was halfway to the entrance when I turned to speak to her.

“I’ll come out and let you know what’s going on.” “Remember to put your flaps up,” Gabrielle said.

If he could fly, she thought, he would. Nothing is ever fast enough for him. While she considered whether to stay or go home, she noticed three teenagers smoking outside the clinic door. Probably 13 or 14 years old and already smoking. When they disbanded and moved behind the large dumpsters, she got a better look: two black guys, one tall and lanky, the other a bit pudgy, and one scrawny looking white boy.

What was that glint she saw reflected in her side mirror? The white boy flashed a pistol at the two black boys. It shined like a silver dollar
in the moonlight. No way did it belong to him. No way should he be where he was, holding what he had—a punk with a pistol. Gabrielle watched while the white boy hid in the bushes and the two black guys flanked the entrance to the Emergency Room. It looked like a setup.

She wasn’t on duty. She sure wasn’t dressed for this. Yet, she was here, and she didn’t like what she saw—not at all. She reached for the car radio. “Officer at City Hospital Number 1, do you copy?”

Static, static, and then—

“Officer at City Hospital Number 1, I read you.”

“Officer request for backup,” she said. She reached into her purse for her gun.

“On the way, Officer.”

Her trigger finger clicked the safety OFF.

Through the glass, she glimpsed Spezia, making his way to the ER entrance. Her foot mashed the accelerator. The red and blue lights flashed and the patrol car wedged between the entrance and the three boys. Sirens whined while one, two, four, and then six more police cars surrounded them. All three teenagers tried to run; all three met with handcuffs.

Her partner approached her, on the way to his car. He had the white boy in custody.

“Nice work, Burns,” he said. “But I thought you took the day off.”

The white boy spat on the ground and glared at Gabrielle.

“You a cop?” he said. “I got busted by a girl?”

“Careful, Shorty,” Archie said. “Maybe you’d like it better if I busted you, is that it?” He tossed him in the backseat of the car like a bag of cheap laundry. “Think about it on the way to the station.”

“What’d you do with Pinky and Rat?”

“Don’t you worry about them.”

“They’re the ones got the blow.”

“You mean the coke?”

The boy’s lips curled in a sneer. “They got a call from a guy named
Freeman. We supposed to meet him here. He never showed up.”

“Who’s Freeman?” Archie said.

The white boy pointed to Spezia. “Maybe that’s him.”

“No,” Gabrielle said. “That is definitely not him.”

Despite the flashing lights and chaos, Spezia’s demeanor remained grim.

“Freeman’s dead,” was all he could say. “I can’t believe it.”

Gabrielle stared at him for a moment. “I thought you didn’t like him, Tom.”

“I don’t think I ever really knew him. And now, I never will.” He turned to the boy in the car and glimpsed the handcuffs. “You were here last week. Don’t tell me you came back. What did I say about one too many times?”

“I didn’t hear you say nothing,” the boy said.

“Let me tell you something. If you want to end up in a body bag, keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe if you’re really lucky, you’ll end up like a woman I know in the ICU, and have a massive stroke. Then you can be paralyzed for the rest of your life.”

“You’re just trying to scare me.” He spat on the floor of the police car. “You’re full of—”

At that moment, a gurney appeared at the entrance to the Emergency Room.

“Now, I’ve got to go sign papers to release Freeman’s body.”

The boy stared at the mound on the gurney, swathed in a black shroud.

“That’s him? That’s Freeman?”

I turned to face him. “Not anymore. That’s what’s left of Freeman.” From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the two black guys while they were escorted into the waiting patrol cars. “Your friends?”

“Daddy!”

One of the guys waved to a toddler in a stroller. He was sitting parked in the entrance to the ER, not far from Freeman’s gurney. A skinny black girl with a gap between her two front teeth stood behind it.

“La Shawne! You in trouble, baby?” she said.

He shook his head and the cop shoved him into the backseat. The toddler began to shriek.

“Daddy! Want my Daddy!”

“I hope you’re happy,” the white boy said. “LaShawne was gonna give his girlfriend some cash from this score.” He spat on the handcuffs. “Now this.”

“Well, I got a call to take care of a guy having a seizure,” I said. “But he died before I could help him.” He pointed to the gurney. “Now this.”

I turned to Gabrielle. “Let’s go home.”

Early the next morning, Mary Potts tiptoed into Starr’s room. The silence haunted her. A mysterious pall hovered in the air. Mary found it incomprehensible, until she inspected the IV. Someone ripped it from Starr’s thin arm. Fury surged in her like a volcano ready for an eruption. Who would do such a thing? Fools, all of them. Fools.

She knew all too well. Or at least, she had her suspicions. If you asked her, she thought while she restarted the IV, struggling to find a “good” vein, that crackhead Freeman did it, just before he injected his own no good self. Bad thing to speak ill of the dead. Yes, Lawd. But, she couldn’t help herself this morning. She would never forget calling Dr Spezia and dragging him in after two days of working like a dog. Man came in, too. She shook her head. When she first met him, she would have bet her house he didn’t have what it took to be a doctor anywhere, much less City Hospital. But she was wrong about him. Dead wrong.

She straightened the IV bag and squeezed it a bit. To her, Starr looked dead. If she unplugged the breathing machine that kept Starr alive, she would die. There in the shadows, all alone, Mary considered such a move. It wasn’t completely right. Mary knew that, but she despised white trash like Starr Hixson. The way she treated Miss Lori, stealing her husband the way she did, making her cry and feel so bad when she had the cancer, she deserved to die. She’d caused enough grief on this earth, her and her tight white pants. Lord knows, nobody would miss her. It would be a service to the community, sure would. Mary’ gaze fixed on the electrical outlet that powered the ventilator. One quick swipe and—

“Nurse Potts! Be careful! You’ll pull the plug from the wall!”

Mary whirled around to face Dr. Skelton. All dressed up that way, she barely recognized him,

“Is Dr. Spezia here yet?”

“No sir. He jus’ went home a few hours ago.”

“Really? And why is that?”

“I had to call him in when Dr. Freeman overdosed.”

“You what?”

“Didn’t you hear?”

“No. Are you certain? I came to discuss Miss Hixson, actually. Where is Freeman?”

“I believe he be in the morgue right about now.”

Dr. Skelton stared at the crucifix on the wall. He said nothing. “When Dr. Spezia arrives, please have him beep me immediately.” He turned to leave and then, paused to face Mary. “Oh, and Nurse Potts? No one touches that ventilator without my express permission. Do you understand me?”

Mary nodded.

“I knew you would.” He left the room. His heels clicked down the hall.

Mary fumed in silence. With the steady help of the ventilator, Starr breathed.

Starr was breathing when I arrived. I knew I looked disheveled and hassled, but from the expression on Mary’s face, I also knew I was needed.

“Dr. Skelton was already here, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, he was in here all right. Telling me my business.”

“I’ll have to go to his office.” I gestured to Starr. “How’s she doing?”

“Look at the EEG yourself. It’s in the chart. Looks like a flatliner to me. She’s as good as gone.”

I examined the test results. “Well, no. Not quite.”

“Why you want to help keep that piece a trash around here? After all she done to everybody? Tell me that.”

“Mary, it’s not about what I want or think I want. It’s about making the best choice in a given situation.”

“Same thing.”

“No, it’s not. The problem is Miss Hixson doesn’t appear to have any family members that can be contacted or identified, and Dr. Freeman has taken himself out of the picture, whether he meant to or not. Like it or not, we need to act as her family members, and make decisions for her that would be in her best interest. Clearly, we have some messy choices ahead of us.”

“Well, I’d be real happy to make them for both of us,” Mary said. “I got no problem wid it.”

Spezia smiled at the nurse. “Mary, remember when D’Yan was in trouble?”

“Yeah. Where you going with this?”

“I did what I thought was best for her and her baby. I don’t even recall what I felt, because I don’t allow myself that luxury. My personal feelings are never a consideration. And yes, it would be a luxury to let down for once and ask myself how I really feel in a particular situation. But, that is not what the physician does. A good doctor puts the patient first.”

“You mean you didn’t want to help D’Yan? You didn’t want to save her baby?”

“Of course I did. I don’t mean that at all. I’m just saying that during my time at this hospital, I have learned that I must regard each patient as a member of my family. I find that if I care for each person as I would a member of my family, I will always do what is best. I did my best for D’Yan, and I will do my best for Miss Hixson. It’s the only way, Mary.”

“You’re a good man, Dr. Spezia. You might be the only man I know like that. You better than Miz Hixson deserve, that’s for sure.”

“Well, this good man better get himself over to see Dr. Skelton before his first patient shows up. Eddie Raines is due here at 8:30 this
morning, and he needs to be seen by me. No one else. When he gets here, please ask him to wait until I return. I will come back to examine him, and he will get as much time as he needs. Unfortunately, I have no idea how much time to allow for the meeting with Dr. Skelton.”

“Will do. I guess you gone do your best for him, too?”

I nodded and shut the door behind me.

Immediately, Dr. Skelton noticed it: the self-assured demeanor, the confident stride, the solid handshake. This was not the nervous intern he had interviewed. This was a young doctor, a colleague. A shiver coursed through his body.
You always hope for it, but…

“Have a seat, Dr. Spezia.”

“Good morning, Dr. Skelton. I’m sorry I missed you.”

“Well, it sounds like you had quite a night. Tell me about it.”

“I don’t know if you heard or not, but—” I struggled to maintain my composure. I needed to confront the ugly truth.