Chapter 70: A Possible Solution

January 9, 1988, McKinley, Ohio

“Band practice was supposed to start again today, if I remember correctly,” Kari said as we showered on Saturday morning.

“It was, and that was something I didn’t even think about when Kylie asked me to switch shift assignments. Everyone was available Thursday afternoon, so Kim switched practice. That really doesn’t interfere with anything, and because I don’t work Wednesday night, sleep won’t be a problem.”

“I don’t have class Thursday afternoon, so I’ll come by, if that’s OK.”

“Always. We’re meeting at 3:00pm. Anicka will watch Rachel, because she has office hours.”

Kari laughed, “That ought to be fun! The girls will love it, and the guys will cower in the corner! College guys are allergic to babies!”

“I think you can understand why!” I chuckled. “So are college girls. Though outside of college, girls that age aren’t, but guys still are. Anyway, if you want, we can have dinner on Thursday after band practice and before Vespers.”

“I’d like that! And next Friday?”

“I’m assuming we’ll see each other on Fridays unless you say otherwise, or my schedule interferes. In that case, we’ll negotiate.”

Kari smiled, “Thanks.”

We finished our shower, said morning prayers, had breakfast, and I dropped her at Rickenbacker on my way to the medical office building. After a routine four-hour shift, I drove to my in-laws’ house to get Rachel.

“She was an angel, as always,” Anna said. “She had her noon bottle.”

“Thanks.”

Rachel cooed and gurgled happily when I picked her up. We left my in-laws’ house, and I drove home to where Susana was waiting for us.

“Lunch is ready!” Susana declared. “I’ll take Rachel, if that’s OK. You can go change. I’m positive you don’t want to sit around in a tie!”

“I do not!” I agreed.

I handed Rachel to Susana, waited briefly to make sure she wasn’t going to fuss, and when she didn’t, I went upstairs to change. Five minutes later, I went downstairs to the kitchen and sat down.

“You can put her in the high chair,” I said. “She’ll be happy sitting there while we eat.”

Susana put Rachel in the high chair, then sat down. I said the blessing, and we began to eat the spicy chicken sandwiches Susana had made.

“These are really good!”

“My brother’s girlfriend at Miami of Florida is Cuban, and she taught me how to make this when she visited. I love these sandwiches, and I’m glad you like them, too. Besides cooking, I did Rachel’s laundry, put fresh sheets in her crib, and dusted.”

[Author’s Note: In Southwestern Ohio, ‘Miami’ refers to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Much like the rest of the country saying ‘Miami of Ohio’ to refer to it, people in Southwestern Ohio say ‘Miami of Florida’ to distinguish.]

“I really appreciate it. Thanks.”

“I’m happy to do it!” Susana declared. “How are you doing?”

“Mostly good days, but I still get emotional occasionally. Being so busy with medical school helps, as Rachel helps keep me focused. How is Ohio State?”

“I had all A’s my first semester and still managed to have fun!”

“I don’t think I ever heard what you chose for your major.”

“History with a minor in political science. I’ll probably go for a Master’s in Poli Sci, though I might get a JD. I have a few years to figure it out.”

“OK, Lawyer if you get the JD. What do you do with a Master’s in Poli Sci?”

“I was thinking of focusing on international relations, so I could work for the State Department or a think tank. A lot depends on what happens in the next few years.”

“DC, then?”

“Yes, unless I have a reason to stay in Ohio. If I do, then the JD is the more likely choice.”

“You don’t have to beat around the bush,” I said with a smile.

Susana laughed, “Obviously, I mean meeting a guy. If I do, we’ll discuss it and I’ll decide based on that discussion. If not, then I’ll just decide which I want to do more, and worry about the guy afterwards. Right now, I’m totally on the fence. And who knows? I could do something completely different. I seem to remember you wanting to be a doctor when you were a teenager.”

“It actually started in fourth grade.”

“I heard that story from someone when I was seven or eight, but I don’t remember who that was now. You would have been around thirteen or fourteen, and I knew you were planning to be a doctor then.”

“I’ll be twenty-five next month, and you’ll be nineteen in May, so that sounds right.”

“I’ve grown up since you left!” Susana declared.

“Yes, you have!” I replied.

She had been a scrawny kid until she’d turned fourteen, and then she blossomed into a beautiful young woman with a very large chest, though she was not curvy.

“I didn’t see you at the Cathedral on Wednesday,” I said, changing the subject.

“I didn’t want to skip class the first week we were back. I come home on the weekends, so I’m at Holy Transfiguration on Sundays. You were in Columbus on Wednesday?”

I felt I should give a safe answer that didn’t implicate Tasha or imply anything was wrong at church. The last thing I needed was Susana saying something that would inadvertently cause trouble. I didn’t think she’d gossip, but the wrong word to the wrong person could exacerbate the difficulties I was having with Tasha, and, by extension, Father Nicholas.

“I wanted to attend the Great Blessing of the Waters,” I said. “My schedule allowed it, and it also provided an opportunity to have lunch with Bishop JOHN.”

“I was really surprised by you asking to be laïcized, but when I thought about it, it made sense, because otherwise Rachel would never have a mom. Not that you couldn’t raise her.”

“I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment,” I said. “Speaking of your parish, do you like Father Alexi?”

“He’s awesome. I like him way more than I liked Father Herman. Having a young priest is great, because he totally relates to the young adults. He’s teaching young adult Sunday School and assigned Mr. Bykov to teach the adult Sunday School.”

Which was out of the ordinary, but a good thing in my mind, and something necessary if we wanted to keep our youth in the church.

“Have you seen my nephew?”

“Not yet. I’ll see him next Saturday when some of us girls are going over to spend time with Liz. Have you seen him?”

“Last Monday.”

“What kinds of things do you do at the hospital?”

“Right now, a lot of babysitting. Working in the pediatric ward at night is mostly about responding to problems, which are rare, and doing consults in the ER, which are more common. That means when a kid under sixteen comes into the ER, we evaluate them and treat them. Some of the time, we admit them, but mostly it’s sutures, casts, splints, or just observation.”

“What else have you done?”

“In terms of procedures, besides what I just mentioned, I’ve inserted IVs and catheters, drawn blood, hooked up monitors, and administered jabs — injections. In terms of services — surgery, OB/GYN, and ER. I have psychiatry next.”

“And you’ll be a real doctor in like sixteen months, right?”

“Sometime in late May next year.”

“Cool!”

We finished lunch, and I took Rachel to the study so I could call Katy to talk to her about Michelle. We had a brief chat, she agreed to speak with Michelle, and said her parents would invite me to dinner when she was home for Spring Break. When I finished the call, I went to the great room and built a fire. When Susana finished cleaning up, she joined me, and I put Rachel on the rug in front of the fireplace. Less than a minute later, I saw Rachel sit up and balance for about five seconds before slow-motion toppling back onto the rug.

“She sat up!” Susana exclaimed.

“That was the first reasonably successful attempt. She’s trying!”

“PA!” Rachel exclaimed.

I laughed and picked her up, instantly acceding to her demand, or perhaps obeying her command. Susana figured it out immediately.

“His Master’s Voice?” she teased.

“She’s three-fourths Russian, so what do you think?” I asked with a wry smile.

“That she’ll be a lot like her mom!”

“I hope so,” I said wistfully.

“Sorry,” Susana said quietly.

“It’s OK. I agree with your sentiment, and if Rachel turns out to be just like her mom, I’ll be a very happy dad.”

“How long has she been talking? Well, you know, using that word?”

“This is the second time in as many days,” I replied. “She’s been making the usual baby sounds, which are the easiest to make - ‘ma’, ‘ba’, ‘pa’ for a few weeks. ‘Da’ is a bit tougher, and that just started a few days ago. Yesterday, she said ‘PA!’ with intent, the same as she did just now.”

“She seems more advanced than the other babies I’ve seen.”

“She is, but not really by much. She’s trying to crawl but hasn’t quite got the hang of it. Give her two to three months and she’ll pull herself up standing. Language skills are trickier, and despite me believing she associates ‘pa’ with ‘papa’, it could just be that she made the sound, and I responded, reinforcing it, rather than her associating the sound with me. We don’t know much about how cognitive development happens, because all we can really do is observe external behavior.”

“I think your medical education is interfering with being ‘daddy’!”

I laughed, “Probably. It interferes with just about every other part of my life! That said, I’m not a child development specialist, or even a pediatric specialist. Well, at the moment I’m no kind of specialist, but I have focused on emergency medicine, surgery, and cardiology, in that order.”

“Cardiology?”

“Being able to read an EKG is a vital skill in a trauma, but many emergency medicine specialists call for cardiac consults rather than trying to read the EKG themselves beyond something obvious like V-fib — ventricle fibrillation. That’s slowly changing, but I wasn’t going to wait around, so when I did my cardiology Preceptorship, I asked to learn how to read an EKG and one of the Residents taught me.”

“What’s that word which began with ‘p’? I’ve never heard it before.”

“Preceptorship. It’s a new concept in medicine, and involves getting medical students into the hospital from the very beginning of medical school, rather than waiting until their Third Year. It’s observation only, as you can’t even touch a patient until you pass the first part of the MLE — the Medical Licensing Exam — which you take at the end of Second Year. As far as I’m aware, it was started by Doctor Albert Barton, in Indianapolis, and McKinley Medical School picked it up from there. That doctor is in Chicago now and really wants me to Match there.”

“But you won’t, right?”

“Right. If I was going to do anything like that, I’d have probably gone to Stanford Medical School in California, or Emory in Georgia. I thought about those, but decided, in the end, not to even apply.”

Rachel yawned, and I decided she was probably ready for a nap.

“I think she’s about to fall asleep,” I said.

“I’ll take her up to bed,” Susana offered. “Then you can take me to bed.”

I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, though the opportunity to see her naked certainly held an attraction, given she was more well-endowed than any other girl I knew. ‘PIG!’ sounded loudly in my head, as if Clarissa were standing right next to me, and I nearly laughed out loud. I decided to temporize, to give me a bit of time to think.

“Take Rachel upstairs,” I said. “Then come back down, OK?”

Susana nodded, accepted Rachel from me, then headed for the stairs.

“Are you ready for bed?” Susana asked Rachel, but didn’t receive a response as Rachel was already falling asleep.

Three minutes later, Susana reappeared in the great room, and I was both grateful and disappointed that she was fully clothed. The three minutes hadn’t been sufficient to reach any conclusions, mainly because I had no idea of her motivation, and I felt it was important to know. Countering that was the error I’d made with Kari, when I’d tried to talk things through rather than acting once I overcame my initial surprise at her saying ‘go for it!’.

“Are you ready for bed?” Susana asked, repeating the question, but this time directed at me.

I felt I had to ask the important question, even if it might cause a negative reaction. But a bit of levity might help.

“Besides the blindingly obvious, what’s your goal?” I asked with a smile.

“I don’t think I’d win a competition, and I’m not sure I’d actually want to,” she said. “I had no plans to marry before I graduated from college, and that’s over three years from now. And I don’t want to have my own kids until I finish my post-graduate degree, whatever it is. I think that is way outside your timeframe, and it would be tough to be a mom to Rachel.

“If you’re wondering why I want to, well, I’ve had a crush on you from the time I was thirteen, but never thought I’d have the opportunity, because by the time I was sixteen, you were already with Elizaveta. When Serafima asked if I would help out on Saturdays after Elizaveta’s tragic death, I said ‘yes’! About two weeks ago, it dawned on me that I had an opportunity, and nobody would possibly know or even suspect. I want to go to bed with you, Mike.”

“And that’s it? Just go to bed together? With no intentions for the future?”

“Unless you want to wait between six and seven years, no intentions for the future. I can’t be a wife and mom now. On the other hand, I can go to bed with you and I want to! I’ve wanted to since I was fifteen, though, as I said, I had the crush at thirteen.”

“Are you on the Pill?”

“No, but I bought a box of rubbers in Columbus yesterday. I wasn’t sure if you would have any, and I didn’t know if you had gone to bed with anyone since Elizaveta reposed. I never believed those nasty rumors, and the bishop was totally clear they were false. If you have, that’s OK. If you haven’t, that’s OK, too. I want to. With you. Today.”

That confirmed that it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing for Susana. Had she been on the Pill, it might have been a spur-of-the-moment decision, despite what she’d said. Buying a box of rubbers, on the other hand, meant she’d not only given it some thought, but had done something a typical eighteen-year-old girl would never do. Janey had, and Nancy had, though Nancy had bought them to use with her previous boyfriend, but it had never happened.

“I certainly can’t suggest you haven’t thought it through.”

“I’ve thought about it since I got these!” she thrust her ample chest forward. “Every guy I know wanted a chance to see or touch them! Guys in High School would follow me around like lost puppy dogs, and guys at Ohio State aren’t much better! But I think I know you well enough to know that for you, I’m more than just a girl with a big chest who wants to go to bed with you. Today.”

“You keep using that phrase,” I said with a grin.

“And I do know what it means!” Susana exclaimed. “That was an awesome movie! And I have some perfect breasts if you would like to see them! All you have to do is take me to bed. Today.”

She was quite insistent, but she was neither begging nor demanding. Her tone of voice was light and conveyed an obvious desire. The repetition was, I had to admit, having the effect she intended. Every time she said it, the more inclined I was to fulfill her request.

“I’d ask you if you were sure, but I think you might clock me over the head with the fireplace poker!”

“Might?” Susana asked with a silly smile. “So? Are you going to take me to bed? Today?”

“You have a one-track mind!”

“Tell me you aren’t thinking about it! Go on! I dare you! I’m positive you can’t deny thinking about it because I know you want to take me to bed. Today.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that point, and despite being fully and completely aware that she was manipulating me, it didn’t feel like manipulation, at least as the term was usually used. In fact, as I thought about it, I had to correct myself. She was stating quite clearly what she wanted, and would repeat it until I either agreed or said ‘no’.

Susana hadn’t done a single thing beyond using those words when she clearly could have. Had she come down the stairs topless, or naked, she’d have actually failed to achieve her stated goal. In fact, I realized, she had adopted the only strategy that could possibly have worked, given the circumstances. Ultimately, it came down to a simple point — Susana wanted to, and I couldn’t think of a single good reason not to.

“You’re right,” I said with a smile. “I can’t deny it.”

She turned, and without a word, picked up her clutch purse and started upstairs. I followed close behind, watching her small, tight, sexy butt as she climbed the stairs. Once we were in the bedroom, she opened her clutch purse, took out a small box of condoms, and handed it to me.

“Only three?” I asked, doing my best to sound disappointed.

Susana laughed, “I’m pretty sure that’s not a real complaint.”

“It could be,” I countered. “Maybe you’re just that good!”

“And you’ll have to perform repeated tests to make sure, right?”

“Obviously!”

I set the box of condoms on the nightstand.

“Get undressed!” Susana demanded. “I’ve been dying to see you naked for years!”

“Isn’t the guy supposed to say that?” I asked as I pulled my rugby shirt over my head.

“Right,” Susana giggled, “because girls don’t want sex as much as guys? Oh, sure, society says we’re not supposed to, but that’s BS! Girls talk about sex all the time! And we think about it, too!”

“Medicine is no different,” I said, pulling off my T-shirt. “Doctors routinely ignore female sexuality.”

“I bet you don’t!”

“You would be correct!” I said firmly, pulling off my sweatpants.

I took off my socks and finally my briefs, revealing my semi-flaccid shaft. Susana licked her lips and began undressing, both surprisingly and not surprisingly, removing her jeans first. Her socks went next, then her pink panties, revealing a tangle of black pubic hair. Next, she pulled off her sweater, then reached around behind herself to unhook her pink bra.

“And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for!” she exclaimed.

She unhooked her bra, pushed the straps off her shoulders, and let the bra fall away, revealing her magnificent breasts capped with large brown nipples. She struck a pose, looked at my erection, then without any hesitation, moved over to me, put her arms around me, and pressed her body against mine and turned up her face to present her ruby lips.