Baby Breath revised, John Andrew Durler Sr. [best short books to read txt] 📗

she should stay with relatives. How quick can I get a Visa?"

No one knew. They went back to Laura's apartment, and she looked up United Airlines and called inquiring about a flight to France. A visa was not needed. It was waived for tourists. Alex was ecstatic. He looked healthier than he had in weeks. He felt exuberant. The next day Alex was on a flight to Alsace, France. He called the number in the letter and was given directions to the farm. When he got there, there was excitement, confusion, and different versions of what happened many years ago. Alex was forty six. His William Sinclair had to be seventeen.

She said "Come with me. I want to show you something." She took him into the farm house, into a bedroom with a settee, sat him down and took out a huge stack of photographs from school yearbooks from all over Germany, France and England.
"Your Father was from Germany, a linguist, speaking five languages. She then took an envelope out with photographs. There it was, the spit of Alex. Under the photo was "Esau Lipvak," Germany. Another photograph was her spit, a dead ringer of her school photograph taken in Germany as a young girl. The name under it was Sharon Fienstein Old Pierre, Pierre's father told me the truth one day when the money stopped. He said my father and mother were dead, shot by German soldiers, who He killed, and saved me."

Another woman entered the room, elegant, self assured with delicate features. She introduced herself as Dr. Anna Septimus. "I am a Neurosurgeon and looking at you, you have something terribly wrong with you. What is it?"

"How could you tell that?"

"By your complexion, your eyes, the way you speak, so tell me."

Bluntly, Alex answered, "Cancer of the brain."

"Who told you that?"

"A doctor in New York, on Long Island."

Was he a specialist.?

"I don't think so, I went to him for a Nicotine patch."

"I would like to examine you."

Why, I already have been diagnosed."

"How long are you supposed to have what he said you have."

"Long enough to be certified."

"I don't think so. I believe it is something else. Listen, I am a good friend of the family. I used to baby sit for Sharon I love her as I would my own daughter. Let me continue. I think you have something else. There are organisms, and parasites that can enter your ear and then grow, punch through to your brain and do havoc. I want to run some tests tomorrow." She gave me her card. "Be there tomorrow at twelve noon. There are other things that can cause what you have too. American doctors are too quick to diagnose, a lazy tunnel vision. Some took the Hippocratic oath with their fingers crossed."

She was too intense for Alex to comment. She glanced at her watch. "I must go. I have all afternoon tomorrow, so please come. I'll be waiting. Arivederci`."

Alex couldn't get a good night's sleep. He kept entering alpha, then waking up. To know he was dying, and finding peace in that, and then have someone give him an armful of hope would be devastating. Just go with the flow, he thought. She is speculating. But she is the best there is. She indicated that. No reason not to let her do what she does best. It will only cost an afternoon. What if she confirms the cancer? A second opinion is always good and if she finds its something else curable, then what? Then rush back and get Ariel. If she doesn't? Stay?

He woke up drained. Half a gallon of coffee and a half pack of harsh French cigarettes he got from the airport shop, pronounced galoshes, like the buckle up rubber over shoes his mother used to make him wear in the rain.

Alex showed up on time. The clinic seemed it was more than a clinic. It had more wings than a flock of migrating birds sprawling out into a valley in the mountains.

Anna met him, directed him to admitting, where he signed forms which too a half hour, and another half hour to explain them to him afterwards, and then he was prepped for the operation. The next day She walked in wearing a green grown. "Do you trust me, Alex?
Really trust me?"

"I guess I do."

"That will not do. I must hear you say and mean you absolutely trust me before I invade your body with my instruments. Your life depends on it. If you go under with any doubt, you could die, even if the procedure is successful. Do you understand that?"

Alex looked into her eyes. They locked for a full minute. his whole attitude changed in that time. He fixed his mind on Ariel, transferred the love to Anna and said firmly, "I do, Anna, I
trust you absolutely."

****************

Three weeks later Alex was walking around the grounds. Anna came each day and walked with him. He told her about Jenny, how she died, to finding and giving away Ariel. After a week, Alex believed he was in love. He knew it was a common thing for patients to fall in love with their doctors and at the end of the third week he told her exactly that.

"So, you understand that. Excellent, Alex." She looked into his eyes and said, "men are such little boys inside. They keep falling in love--with their mothers, aunts, teachers, nurses, doctors, and when the personal contact is over, it is a remembered fancy. A warm remembrance." They were sitting on a bench on the grounds. Anna got up, she held her hand out to him as if to help, and as he reached for it, she held out her other one. Alex got up, pushed her hands behind her, bringing himself up against her. Instead of resisting, which he risked her doing, she pressed back, bringing her lips to his mouth.
They kissed, hungrily, pulled apart, and Anna said, "Doctors feel that way about patients, sometimes. With you it was easy, Alex. Now I must go, and so do you. I hope we will remain friends."

Alex was tongue tied. He didn't know what to say. They walked silently back to the clinic. She went to her office waving a bright good-by and he went to the office to settle his bill.

"Mr. Sinclair. Your bill is paid. You are free to go."

"Who paid it?"

"I don't know sir. It just shows paid in full."

"Thank you." He walked out of the clinic, and went directly to the airport, got a stand-by flight, and bought some gifts for Laura, Harry, and Ariel. He was going home.


Website ｩ Copyright 2010 Zoetrope.com
Imprint

Publication Date: 12-09-2010

All Rights Reserved