Chapter 46: Celebrations and Discoveries

March 19, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"There's a call for you on line 2, Steve," Kaitlin said late Thursday morning.

I picked up the handset and, before I could even say a word, Jessica shrieked almost incoherently that she'd matched with UofC.

"Congratulations!" I said. "We'll celebrate tomorrow night! I assume that Doctor Barton knows?"

"He should. The hospitals get their Match information sometime between Monday and Wednesday. I'm sure they told him, or that he called the Administration Office to check."

"I guess now it's just slogging through seven or eight years of Residency!" I chuckled.

"Well, not quite. After the first year of Emergency Medicine, I have to apply for a general surgical Residency, and then after that, back to the ER, then a fellowship for a trauma surgery specialty. None of that is guaranteed, but getting into the program at UofC makes it about as close to a sure thing as possible. Also, the surgical Residency could be year three instead of year two.

"I'm sure you'll handle all of that!" I said. "I have complete confidence in you!"

"Thanks! I have to get back to work! I'll see you tomorrow evening!"

After telling Jessica that I loved her, I hung up the phone and dialed Doctor Barton's office number. His secretary answered the phone and asked me to hold while she paged him. I was about to ask her if I could just leave a message, but she put me on hold before I could say anything more.

"Hi, Steve! I know why you're calling!" Doctor Barton said by way of greeting.

"Jess just called," I said. "I assume you knew yesterday?"

"Yes. We'd like you, Jessica, and Kara to come for a celebration dinner on Sunday."

"We'd love to," I said. "See you then!"

At lunchtime, instead of taking Jesse for a walk, I drove to Bridgeport to meet Father Basil for lunch. We'd met again in February and continued our conversation about life, death, and God. This would be our third lunch. I enjoyed the conversations, but the impediments were not going to go away.

"Will you be coming to Pascha again this year?" he asked after our food was brought to our table.

"We're planning on it," I said. "I'm not sure I can bring my son, but both Jessica and Kara will be there. Sofia is planning to go to the Greek cathedral with her boyfriend, Stavros."

"How is your friend Elyse?"

"She's doing well," I grinned. "She's due at the end of May or the beginning of June."

"I suppose the more important question is how your friend Stephie is doing."

"She's still well enough to travel with her husband, so that's something, I guess."

"He's a crewman for a stock car team, if I remember correctly."

"Yes, for Alan Kulwicki," I said. "And she's good friends with Bill Elliott's wife."

"Has there been any change in her prognosis?"

"No, and I can't imagine that there will be. There are no treatments and they basically gave her a May to November timeframe."

"When it happens, I'm available at any time. You have my home number. If you get the call at 2:00am and you need to talk to someone, call me."

"Thanks, Father. I have a question for you."

"Ask away!"

"Let's say that I can't resolve my impediments. What does that mean for my children? Hypothetically speaking."

"If they wish to join the church, we'll happily baptize them. It's kind of hard to do when they're babies if none of their parents are Orthodox, but your impediment wouldn't apply to them. But that's years away, I would think."

"It was just a curiosity," I said.

"How are thing in the rest of your life? Work? Friends?"

"Good. Jessica will be moving to Chicago at the end of May. At work, we're really busy. Tasha is doing really well, and she's making good grades."

"And your spiritual life?"

I chuckled, "What spiritual life?"

"Oh, it's there, even if you don't acknowledge it. I could call it your 'interior' life — your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs. Are you struggling with anything? Besides Stephie, that is."

I was, but I didn't think it was a topic for conversation with a priest. There was already enough trouble with my unconventional relationship with Jessica and Kara that I didn't need to add in my other struggles.

"Not really. Overall, things are going well. To be honest, I haven't been thinking too much about spiritual things lately. It seems to come and go, so to speak. I'm sure that when Stephie's time comes, it'll be foremost in my mind."

"I see that a lot with men and women your age," he said. "God tends to come to mind only when they're suffering or people they love are suffering. That's especially true when they've had bad experiences with religion in the past, or they're completely unchurched."

We finished our lunch, and as we stood to part, I asked for his blessing as I had the last time, and told him that I'd see him at Pascha.

March 22, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"Welcome!" Doctor Barton said, showing us into the living room. "And congratulations, Jessica!"

"Thanks, Doctor Barton," she said.

"What do we owe the special visitor to?" Belinda asked, nodding to Jesse.

"Jennifer and Josie are at a dinner hosted by the company where Jennifer works. I volunteered to watch Jesse."

"Oh my God! He's so cute!" Fawn squealed when she saw Jesse. "Can I hold him? Please? Please? Please?"

Jessica and Kara both laughed, and I nodded. Fawn came over and took Jesse from me.

"Dada!" he said firmly.

"Jesse, Fawn is really nice! Say 'Hi' to her."

"Hi!" Jesse said, instantly switching from being annoyed to turning on all the charm he could muster.

"That kid is just sickening in how he can do that," Jessica said quietly. "He was ticked and suddenly he's all sweetness and light!"

"And she's eating it up, too!" Belinda whispered.

"My son has an eye for beautiful girls, that's for sure!" I chuckled. "But I should warn Fawn that he already has a girlfriend!"

Belinda laughed, "Someone his age, or does he only go for older women?"

"His age. Francesca is a few months older than Jesse, but they've known each other for nearly a year at this point. He sees her at playgroup, and sometimes at the park when I take him for walks at lunch."

"He's starting young!" Belinda said.

I nodded and smiled, "Fawn seems to be taken with him."

"She's at that age when girls are in love with babies, but don't realize just how much work they are!"

"Jesse is a breeze to deal with," I said. "First of all, he has two moms, so they split the work between them, and he's really smart and really advanced, which makes it easier. He has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about having a new brother, though."

"No baby!" Jesse said emphatically.

Everyone laughed.

"See?" I said. "He's decided he wants to be an only child and I haven't been able to change his mind. But it's not as if he has a choice in the matter!"

"True!" Belinda said.

"Doctor Barton," Kara said, "Steve and Jessica were telling me that even though Jessica has her Residency, it's not guaranteed that she'll get into a surgical program? Or that she'll end up with a trauma specialty."

"That's true," he said. "She'll need to apply for a surgical Residency during her first year as an ER Resident. I sit on the committee that makes that decision because I'm a surgeon and head of Emergency Medicine. I can't guarantee anything, of course, but given what I know about her, her grades, and her focus on surgery during her Third and Fourth Year rotations, she'll have a very, very good shot. There won't be many candidates that are better, if any."

"So she has to train as a general surgeon first?"

"Yes. If you think about it, it makes sense that she gets to do lots of procedures in a very controlled environment before we turn her loose in the ER. What happens is that she'll assist more senior Residents and Fellows in the ER, and assist on procedures in a regular surgical theatre. As she moves through her Residency, she'll rotate through the various surgical services, but most likely concentrate on thoracic surgeries. Once the Chief of Surgery signs off, she'll be able to do more procedures on her own in the ER, though always supervised by a Chief Resident, an ER Attending, and a Surgical Attending."

"And it's going to take eight or nine years?"

"Yes, something like that. The usual course starts with a year of general Residency in the ER, then five or six years of surgical Residency, which includes being in the ER, and then two years of a trauma surgery Fellowship. She'll have her medical license at the end of her first year of Residency, if she wants it. But to become Board Certified in surgery takes a long time. Even longer if you specialize in emergent cases."

"So she really can't work completely on her own until she's 30?"

Doctor Barton chuckled, "As a doctor in a hospital, you pretty much never work on your own. There's always somebody watching over you. All the doctors and nurses in the ER are supervised by me, even if they've been practicing for thirty years. If you want to fly solo, you have to hang out your shingle as a General Practitioner. Medicine has management just like any other job. The difference is that, in our case, management is almost always medically trained, right up to the hospital administrator. That's changing a bit, as some schools are offering specialized advanced degrees in hospital management. I don't like it. I think the Navy has it right that only a pilot should command an aircraft carrier. Only a doctor, preferably a surgeon, should run a hospital."

"Preferably a surgeon?" I asked.

"Pill-pushers have a very different perspective. And someone with an MBA or a Master's in Hospital Administration is too focused on costs, and not enough on care, in my opinion. Fortunately, the JCAH keeps them honest."

"JCAH?"

"The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. They're actually based in the western suburbs. They review every aspect of the hospital and they have some pretty exacting standards that have to be met. That keeps the paper-pushers and bean counters somewhat in check."

Belinda got up to check on dinner, and announced that it would be ready in about two minutes, and that we could come to the dining room. I went over to Fawn to get Jesse back from her, so that I could bring him into the dining room.

"Do you really think I'm beautiful?" she asked, blushing deep red.

Warning bells, sirens, and flashing lights went off in my head. I'd made an offhand comment, and she'd taken it seriously, and now I was going to have to do some fast dancing to keep things under control. I also didn't want to crush her or hurt her feelings.

I smiled, "Yes, of course. You're a beautiful young woman. Jesse clearly thinks so! And I'm sure lots of boys your age do, too."

She giggled and handed me Jesse and then skipped off towards the dining room. It seemed like I'd defused the situation, but I couldn't be sure. Jessica grabbed my arm to stop me from following Fawn in.

"That's why you have to be careful, Tiger. Even a throwaway comment like that can encourage her. I think your comment about boys her age made your point, but stay on your toes."

We went into the dining room and sat down. We had a wonderful meal, as we usually did, and Belinda served coffee while Fawn and Gerry did the dishes.

"When did Jesse stop nursing?" Belinda asked.

"When he was about five months old. He basically couldn't be bothered. He wanted table food when he was three months old and the pediatrician said to let him gnaw on mini bagels and Cheerios. We give him expressed breast milk, but he's not thrilled with that, either."

"He sure seems like he wants to grow up really fast!" she observed.

"He's in a house full of adults who treat him like they do anyone else. He pulled himself up standing at six months, and was toddling around ten months. He started partial sentences before he was one, and well, you hear him now."

"I'm amazed that only being about a year old, he's started communicating as well as he is."

"We started reading to him from Dr. Seuss, Little Critter, and the Berenstain Bears books almost as soon as Jennifer and Josie brought him home. His favorite TV show is Jeopardy!"

"Alex 'beck!" Jesse said. "Watch TV!"

"It's not on right now, Jesse," I said. "You watch that with your moms when they get home from work."

"He doesn't quite have the TV schedule down," Kara said.

"How does he tell the difference between Jennifer and Josie?" Belinda asked.

"At the moment, he really doesn't. He says 'Mama' and whichever one comes to him seems to be OK. I'm sure at some point he'll need to come up with something."

"Mama One! Mama Two!" Jesse said with a silly grin.

I laughed hard. "We've been reading The Cat in the Hat! You know, 'Thing One' and 'Thing Two'? Sounds as if he's decided that's the way to refer to his moms!"

"I'm not sure that Jennifer and Josie are going to appreciate THAT reference," Kara said, still laughing hard.

Fawn and Gerry came back into the room and Jesse toddled over to where Fawn was sitting and held his hands up to her. She picked him up and put him in her lap, and he smiled contentedly. We spent another twenty minutes talking, but then we needed to leave so that Jessica could make the drive back to Indianapolis and get in before midnight.

"Thanks for having us over," I said.

"And I'm sorry I have to run," Jessica said.

"Don't worry about it!" Belinda said. "I'm used to Al coming and going at odd times and making a hash of plans. It's the life of a trauma surgeon. Of course, now that he's management, his schedule is a bit more predictable. He's only on call once a month, and only because he wants to be."

"I have to keep my hands in it, or I'll turn into one of those management pukes I can't stand! I work two regular shifts every week, but because I'm the boss, I get daytime shifts on Monday and Thursday. Unfortunately, I spend most of my time in meetings or supervising. On the plus side, I get to remake the entire ER in my image."

"So let it be written, so let it be done!" Belinda said with a smirk. "If you don't realize that surgeons think that they are gods, you will soon enough!"

I shook hands with Doctor Barton, and Belinda and I exchanged a quick hug. Kara and Jessica hugged them both and then I waved to the kids and said 'goodbye'. Jessica, Kara, Jesse, and I walked the two blocks home, helped Jessica get her bags to her car, and then hugged and kissed her. She drove off with her usual wave, and Kara, Jesse, and I went back into the house.

When Jennifer and Josie arrived home, Jesse was sleeping, and Kara and I were sitting on the couch in the coach house waiting.

"He had a good time at the Bartons and made a new friend," I said.

"Let me guess, a cute girl!" Josie laughed. "He's your son alright!"

"Yes. And you two will be pleased to know that he's decided how to refer to you so you know who he wants."

"Uh-oh," Jennifer giggled.

"Mama One and Mama Two," I chuckled. "I think The Cat in the Hat rubbed off on him."

"That kid is too smart for his own good!" Josie declared, shaking her head. "Thing One and Thing Two? Mom One and Mom Two? I think we need better reading material!"

"Better than Doctor Seuss and the books by P. D. Eastman?" I asked. "I don't think any such thing exists."

They thanked us, and after quick hugs all around, Kara and I went back to the main house.

March 28, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"Happy birthday, Honey!" I said when Kara woke up on Saturday morning.

"Happy birthday, Kara!" Jessica said.

"Thanks!"

"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked.

"You're going to breakfast with your friends, then karate, and then we'll have lunch and hang out. My friends will be here around 4:00pm for the party. And of course, we're having our private birthday celebration tomorrow."

"What did our wife decide?" Jessica asked.

"Sex!" Kara giggled. "We're going to spend tomorrow in bed! Elyse will bring us lunch and dinner. After dinner, we'll spend some time in the sauna. I reserved it for some private time!"

"Are we giving you your gifts today or tomorrow?" Jessica asked.

"Either one is OK," Kara said. "Well, unless they're the kind that should be given in private."

I laughed, "You're the most open person in this house about sex, except maybe for me. Maybe. What could we possibly give you that would embarrass you?"

"Good question! I'll have to think about that one!" Kara giggled.