Mary Clark: Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Totally in sympathy with clients who had genuine problems, she felt mild contempt for the men and women who came in for procedure after procedure in their relentless pursuit of physical perfection. “On the other hand,” as she told her husband, “they’re paying my salary.”

Sometimes Kate Carpenter wondered why she stayed with Dr. Smith. He was so brusque with everyone, patients as well as staff, that he often seemed rude. He seldom praised but never missed an opportunity to sarcastically point out the smallest error. But then again, she decided, the pay and benefits were excellent, and it was a genuine thrill to watch Dr. Smith at work.

Except that lately she had noticed he was getting increasingly bad tempered. Potential new clients, directed to him because of his excellent reputation, were offended by his manner and more and more frequently were canceling scheduled procedures. The only ones he seemed to treat with flattering care were the recipients of the special “look,” and that was another thing that bothered Carpenter.

And in addition to his being irascible, in these last months she had noticed that the doctor seemed to be detached, even remote. Sometimes, when she spoke to him, he looked at her blankly, as though his mind were far away.

She glanced at her watch. As she had expected, after Dr. Smith finished examining Barbara Tompkins, the latest recipient of the “look,” he had gone into his private office and closed the door.

What did he do in there? she wondered. He had to realize that he was running late. That little girl, Robin, had been sitting alone in examining room 3 for half an hour, and there were other patients in the waiting room. But she had noticed that after the doctor saw one of the special patients, he always seemed to need time to himself.

“Mrs. Carpenter…”

Startled, the nurse looked up from her desk. Dr. Smith was staring down at her. “I think we’ve kept Robin Kinellen waiting long enough,” he said accusingly. Behind rimless glasses, his eyes were frosty.

“l don’t like Dr. Smith,” Robin said matter-of-factly as Kerry maneuvered the car out of the parking garage on Ninth Street off Fifth Avenue.

Kerry looked at her quickly. “Why not?”

“He’s scary. At home when I go to Dr. Wilson, he always makes jokes. But Dr. Smith didn’t even smile. He acted like he was mad at me. He said something about how some people are given beauty while others attain it, but in neither case must it ever be wasted.”

Robin had inherited her father’s stunning good looks and was indeed quite beautiful. It was true that this could someday be a burden, but why would the doctor say such an odd thing to a child? Kerry wondered.

“I’m sorry I told him I hadn’t finished fastening my seat belt when the van hit Daddy’s car,” Robin added. “That’s when Dr. Smith started lecturing me.”

Kerry glanced at her daughter. Robin always fastened her seat belt. That she hadn’t this time meant that Bob had started the car before she had had a chance. Kerry tried to keep anger out of her voice as she said, “Daddy probably took off out of the garage in a hurry.”

“He just didn’t notice I hadn’t had time to buckle it,” Robin said defensively, picking up on the edge in her mother’s voice.

Kerry felt heartsick for her daughter. Bob Kinellen had walked out on them both when Robin was a baby. Now he was married to his senior partner’s daughter and was the father of a five-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. Robin was crazy about her father, and when he was with her he made a big fuss over her. But he disappointed her so often, calling at the last minute to break a scheduled date. Because his second wife did not like to be reminded that he had another child, Robin was never invited to his home. As a result she hardly even knew her half brother and sister.

On the rare occasion when he does come through, and finally takes her out, look what happens, Kerry thought. She struggled to hide her anger, however, deciding not to pursue the subject. Instead she said, “Why don’t you try to snooze till we get to Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Grace’s?”

“Okay.” Robin closed her eyes. “I bet they have a present for me.”

While they waited for Kerry and Robin to arrive for inner, Jonathan and Grace Hoover were sharing their customary late-afternoon martini in the living room of their home in Old Tappan overlooking Lake Tappan. The setting sun was sending long shadows across the tranquil water. The trees, carefully trimmed to avoid obstructing the lake view, were glowing with the brilliant leaves they would soon relinquish.

Jonathan had built the first fire of the season, and Grace had just commented that the first frost of the season was predicted for that evening.

A handsome couple in their early sixties, they had been married nearly forty years, tied by bonds and needs that went beyond affection and habit. Over that time, they seemed almost to have grown to resemble each other: both had patrician features, framed by luxuriant heads of hair, his pure white with natural waves, hers short and curly, still peppered with traces of brown.

There was, however, a distinctive difference in their bodies. Jonathan sat tall and erect in a high-backed wing chair, while Grace reclined on a sofa opposite him, an afghan over her useless legs, her bent fingers inert in her lap, a wheelchair nearby. For years a victim of rheumatoid arthritis, she had become increasingly more disabled.

Jonathan had remained devoted to her during the whole ordeal. The senior partner of a major New Jersey law firm specializing in high-profile civil suits, he had also held the position of state senator for some twenty years but had several times turned down the opportunity to run for governor. “I can do enough good or harm in the senate,” was his often-quoted remark, “and anyhow, I don’t think I’d win.”

Anyone who knew him well didn’t believe his protests. They knew Grace was the reason he had chosen to avoid the demands of gubernatorial life, and secretly they wondered if he didn’t harbor some vague resentment that her condition had held him back. If he did, however, he certainly never showed it.

Now as Grace sipped her martini, she sighed. “I honestly believe this is my favorite time of year,” she said, “it’s so beautiful, isn’t it? This kind of day makes me remember taking the train to Princeton from Bryn Mawr for the football games, watching them with you, going to the Nassau Inn for dinner…”

“And staying at your aunt’s house and her waiting up to be sure you were safely in before she went to bed,” Jonathan chuckled. “I used to pray that just once the old bat would fall asleep early, but she kept a perfect record.”

Grace smiled. “The minute we would pull up in front of the house, the porch light started blinking.” Then she glanced anxiously at the clock on the mantel. “Aren’t they running late? I hate to think of Kerry and Robin in the thick of the commuter traffic. Especially after what happened last week.”

“Kerry’s a good driver,” Jonathan reassured her. “Don’t worry.

They’ll be here any minute.”

“I know. It’s just…” The sentence did not have to be completed; Jonathan understood fully. Ever since twenty-one-year-old Kerry, about to start law school, had answered their ad for a house-sitter, they’d come to think of her as a surrogate daughter. That had been fifteen years ago, and during that time Jonathan had been of frequent help to Kerry in guiding and shaping her career, most recently using his influence to have her name included on the governor’s shortlist of candidates for a judgeship.

Ten minutes later the welcome sound of door chimes heralded Kerry and Robin’s arrival. As Robin had predicted, there was a gift waiting for her, a book and a quiz game for her computer. After dinner she took the book into the library and curled up in a chair while the adults lingered over coffee.