Chapter 7

In his office at the clinic Steve was handed a phone message that Maggie had called. He returned the call and heard her say that her dog ‘Daisy’ was delivering pups and there was a problem. Daisy had delivered two pups but wasn’t delivering anymore and seemed to be in pain. Maggie wanted Steve to come out to her ranch and help.

“Maggie I am not a vet, I don’t know what to do.”

“You are a doctor aren’t you?”

“Yes a human being doctor and not an animal doctor.”

“Doctor Lang who you replaced would come out to help when I had animal problems.”

“Maggie I can’t come out to your ranch, I have patients to see. Hold on, let me check on something.”

Steve found Liz and told her of the situation and asked her if she thought she could do anything.”

“My uncle is a vet and I worked for him during the summers. Let me give him a quick call and see what he says. From what you say it doesn’t sound good. If you will cover for me I will go out there and see what I can do.”

Steve told Maggie that Liz was on her way.

When Liz came back to the clinic she said that she couldn’t save Daisy but she did get the other three pups out of her. She also said Maggie was a little emotional about the loss of Daisy. Steve thought that he probably now had replaced Daisy in Maggie’s doghouse.

Nothing of any major consequence happened for the rest of the week with the exception of a lady who broke her hip in a fall. Steve had the ambulance take her directly to the hospital.

The weather was starting to change but Sunday was forecasted to be a nice day. Steve made an early morning visit to the hospital to see the lady who had broken her hip three days ago. The operation went well but there was going to be a long recovery time. She said her daughter who lives with her would help her during this time.

Since it was a nice day Steve went to the club for a round of golf.

At the pro shop he was told they were booked solid but if he hurried he could tee off with a young couple who were next on the tee. The club’s staff put his clubs on a cart while Steve put on his golf shoes.

On the first tee he introduced himself to Don and Dana. They said they were students at the State University. To Steve they seemed like a nice young couple. He was a little surprised when Dana said she would play off the white tees, the same tees that Steve plays from. Don said he normally plays off the blue tees but he would play off the whites today.

While that was a little bit of a surprise, a bigger one was their golf scores. Dana was six over par and Don was one over par. Steve’s fourteen over par paled in comparison to their scores. He did however have a great time in watching these two good golfers play golf. It was a lesson in itself just to watch them play and they did give him a few tips.

Steve had enjoyed playing with them and insisted that they let him buy them lunch. While they were eating, Steve learned more about them. They both were seniors in school and were good students. Both of them were on the university’s golf teams which didn’t surprise Steve. The golf scholarships they had were paying their way through school as they couldn’t afford to attend school otherwise.

What to do after graduation was a problem. Don had applied to medical school and Dana to veterinarian school and they both had been accepted. They had applied for scholarships and grants but haven’t heard yet if they would get any. Loans were a possibility but it seemed that the bottom line was they couldn’t afford to go to the medical schools.

Steve who thought he was a good judge of character said, “Don, what if someone offered to pay your way through medical school along with some living expense money but in return after your internship you would need to be part of a medical practice in Lake Lancer for eight years working as a GP? Dana what if the same offer was made to you and they would also create an office for you to be a vet in Lake Lancer? Would both of you agree to something like that?”

In unison they both said, “In a heartbeat!”

“Give me you names and contact information and someone will be in contact with you to firm up this agreement.”

Don and Dana couldn’t thank Steve enough.

When Steve was back at the office the following week he phoned Troy to tell him what he had done and asked if there was a problem with the foundation in him doing that. This way he said Lake Lancer would get a vet and a doctor.

Troy said, “No problem in you doing that. John called me after he visited with you and said that whatever you want, you get. Give me the information and I will see that the agreements are formalized. Oh yes, thanks for the nice words you said to John about me.”

With that being taken care of Steve called Maggie to see if she was still pissed at him because of him refusing to help her with her dog. She was and he could feel the coolest in her voice has she talked with him. When he asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner with him there was a long pause but she finally said she would.

The atmosphere with Maggie was cool but it seemed that the ice was broken when he told her about the agreement he had made with Don and Dana. While it would be about four years before there was a vet in the area she agreed that it was better than having no vet.

Maggie’s chill turned into warmth and then into heat when they were back at her place. They hadn’t made love in a few weeks and it seemed she wanted to make up for lost time. Previously it appeared she wasn’t overly enthusiastic about giving head but this time that was all she wanted to do. Steve wanted to reciprocate and one time they both were giving head to each other at the same time.

Eventually they made love the traditional way with Steve in the superior position and it was great. With her heels on Steve’s buttocks giving her leverage to move her hips he knew he didn’t need to move if he didn’t want to. He did move however as he tried to penetrate her as deep as he could. The ‘oh’s... , oh’s... , she was giving him told him he was accomplishing what he wanted. They were two tired puppies when they agreed to go to sleep.

On a Friday in the early afternoon Steve was at the clinic. He thought the forecast was for a nice day tomorrow so he planned on golfing.

In looking into the empty reception room he saw Paula, John Wilkinsing’s aunt, come in with another lady of close to the same age. Instead of their waiting for a nurse first before they saw a doctor he walked up to them and asked them what was wrong.

Paula said, “This is Helen, John’s mother. She has been complaining about severe headaches so I thought we should come into see you. She didn’t want anything to eat or drink all day today.”

John told Joyce facetiously to have the technician fire up the CT as he was coming up with a patient. He had Helen sit in a wheelchair and wheeled her to the elevator to go to the CT lab.

As the scan was being done the tech said she would transmit the results to the radiologist on duty at the hospital and ask for a reading stat.

Fifteen minutes later they received a phone call from the radiologist who said he saw an aneurysm and it looks like it might be bleeding. Steve had Joyce tell the EMT’s to take Helen to the University hospital with the sirens on.

He then got on the phone and called Doctor Glen Waters who was a medical school classmate and longtime golfing buddy living in LA. Time magazine had just profiled him as one of the top neurosurgeons in the United States. It was a very flattering article and among other things mentioned that he had successfully operated on a current US Senator who had collapsed while giving a college commencement speech.

With his caller ID telling him who it was Glen answered the phone and said, “Long time no hear, how are things going out there in the backwoods?”

“Things are going fine and getting right to the point I need a favor.”

“What’s the favor?”

“I have a patient who has an intracranial aneurysm that is bleeding. She is on the way to the University hospital here and I would like for you to operate.”