“This has to end.”
“We miss you.”
I deleted the message.
I turned off the lamp, pulled the covers over my head, and cried myself to sleep.
*
The sky was still dark when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m.
With a quick, easy morning routine, I managed to get dressed, eat a small bowl of cinnamon-roll-flavored oatmeal with blueberries, and drive the six minutes into the so-called town all in under forty-five minutes. A definite perk from the sometimes one-hour drives in traffic-jammed Denver.
I turned into the small parking lot of the local clinic that also functioned as a hospital and emergency room. As usual, I parked my car in my personal parking spot, noted by the sign reading “Dr.Cain”.
Not that I needed a spot. The parking lot of the dark gray, two-story structure had maybe fifty parking spots. I could definitely walk the twenty yards to the front door. But that’s how protocol worked.
An ambulance sat parked around the side of the building. It’s lights off. The emergency room, quiet.
“Good morning, Dr.Cain. How was your weekend? Did you patrol?” Jenna the receptionist greeted me from behind a round administrative desk as I came through the glass front doors. Silver garland hung in bows across the length of it.
“Good morning, Jenna. I did. It was a nice weekend. How are the twins?” I stomped the snow off my boots.
Her face broke in a smile. She pushed her glasses up off her nose with her forefinger. “Growing so fast. I can’t believe they’re already six months old.”
I walked towards the stairs that led to my office and gestured toward the blue and silver decorated Christmas tree in the front entrance. “Did you put that up?”
“I did.”
“It looks beautiful. And the garland?” I pointed to the greenery wrapped around the railing. Silver balls and white lights flickered from behind the branches.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Jenna. It looks very festive.” I walked up the stairs. “My first patient is at 8:00. Can you send them up to the waiting room when they get here?”
She smiled up at me. “I will. Should I bring you some coffee?”
“No thank you, I can get it. I appreciate your offer.”
She rewarded me with a grateful smile and a nod.
The stairs led to a large waiting area furnished with comfortable gray chairs and couches. A Keurig coffee machine sat on a large side table at the end of the room. Mounted in the corner was a television. The morning news played on the screen, sound off and subtitles rolling.
A door on the right separated the patient rooms from the waiting area. The door on the left gave way to four offices. A large corner one for me, and three others for part-time doctors - a gynecologist, a pediatrician, and a sports therapist.
Everyone that lived farther south and down into the Kenai Peninsula could make use of the clinic. The roads to Anchorage were sometimes inaccessible in the winter, so many of them came here.
At exactly 8:10 a.m. my nurse, Rebecca, knocked on my door. “Your eight o’clock is here. She’s all checked in.”
“Mrs.Viscotti?”
“Complaining of her arthritis.” She smiled knowingly. Mrs.Viscotti was in every other week.
“Thank you. I’ll head over.”
I grabbed my white lab coat, put my stethoscope in my pocket, stepped out of my boots and slipped on a pair of navy heels I kept under my desk. My day had officially started.
*