Arlene James - The Doctor's Perfect Match

“Do me. Describe me,” urged Kent. “You’re very perspicacious. What do you see?”

Eva swept him with her gaze. Dared she say it? Of course she did. “An Easter egg in a suit.”

He and his wife gasped at each other then collapsed with laughter. “Very good! I almost wore a robin’s egg blue shirt with this, but as the darling wife pointed out, robins are not parrots.”

“And Easter eggs are?” Eva asked, puzzled.

“No, but they’re more colorful,” the missus said.

“So they are,” Eva agreed, winking. “Clever.”

“My word, there are two of them now,” observed Penny Loafers dryly from the armchair at the end of the low, oblong table before the love seat.

“Would you like a cup of tea, Miss Russell?” asked Silk-and-Pearls.

“Sure, why not?” she replied, taking a seat in one of a pair of armless chairs placed at the opposite end of the tea table from...Magnolia?

Silk-and-Pearls reached for the heavy silver teapot. “Brooks, dear?”

“Please,” he said, taking the chair beside Eva, “and thank you, Hypatia. I seem to have missed my dinner.”

“Hypatia,” Eva mused, “wasn’t she a Greek mathematician?”

“Why, yes,” the current Hypatia said, passing Eva a cup of tea, “as well as a philosopher and astronomer, though very few people seem to know it. How is it that you know about her?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Eva admitted. “I remember some things and forget others.” She helped herself to several spoonfuls of sugar and looked to the wiry one. “Magnolia is self-explanatory, but I find that names often portend personality and outcomes, so what’s your story?”

“Oh, Magnolia grows things,” the flamboyant one supplied. “Flowers especially.”

“Really?” She waved a spoon at the large, colorful arrangement standing on a small table in the center of the room. “Did you do that?”

Magnolia inclined her head. “I do all the flowers around here.”

“Excellent balance and composition. I’m sort of an artist, I know these things.”

“Why, thank you.”

Eva sipped her tea, made a face and looked to the third sister. “Odelia means wealthy.”

“It does,” said Odelia, beaming wide enough to set the parrots swinging from her earlobes.

“And are you? Wealthy, I mean.”

Odelia glanced around helplessly for a moment, but then she blinked and said, “I think we’re all wealthy, really.”

Eva wagged a finger. “But you’re the real deal, aren’t you? You’re all quite comfortable, I imagine, but you...” She lifted an eyebrow at Kent. “You married deep pockets there, didn’t you? Eh? Mr. Money Bags?”

Hypatia and her sister gaped at the Easter egg, who flushed a deep red, cleared his throat and said, “I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’ve done quite well. I paid for the wedding, the remodeling of the upstairs, the pool...” He patted Odelia’s hand, where an enormous diamond rested. “Whatever my darling desires.”

Odelia giggled like a girl.

“Awww,” Eva crooned, “that’s so sweet. At your ages people are usually sick of the sight of each other.”

Beside her, Dr. Leland choked on a swallow of his own tea. “Tell them,” he croaked.

“What?”

“Tell them or I will.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Eva has a medical condition,” Leland said, “and if she’s going to stay here you need to know about it.”

Hypatia handed cups to her sisters. “We assumed that was the case.”

“Duh,” muttered Eva. “The doctor calls—someone’s sick.” Brooks sent her a stern, almost sullen glare. “Just saying.”

“One of the symptoms of her condition seems to be a lack of an internal monitor.”

“That’s a nasty thing to say!” Eva squawked. “It’s not like I blurt inappropriate words or things that don’t make sense. I’m just honest. What’s wrong with that?”

“Not all honesty is socially acceptable,” he snapped. “If you were thinking normally, you would recognize that fact.”

“I’m perfectly normal,” she shot back, “except for the brain tumor!”

Three cups hit three saucers. She heard a gasp and a tiny moan. Looking around, she saw that the Chatam sisters were all staring at the doctor with looks of utter dismay.

“Oh, Brooks,” Hypatia said.

He shook his head. “It’s not like Brigitte’s situation.”

Brigitte? Eva glanced around. Who was Brigitte?

“I deal with things like this all the time,” he went on. “You’re not to worry about me.”

Him? They were worried about him ?

“What is it with you?” Eva asked, slumping. “I’m the one with the brain tumor, and they’re all worried about you ? What’s a girl got to do to catch a break around you?”

“You don’t understand,” Brooks began.

At the same time, Hypatia said, “Oh, my dear, we’re concerned for you, of course. We’ll be praying for you diligently.”

“Swell,” Eva drawled.

Odelia sighed, a hand going to her cheek. “You’re not a believer?”

“No way. I’ve had that church stuff thrown at me my whole life, and what good has it ever done? None.”

The doctor bowed his head, murmuring, “Ladies, I’m so sorry. Our acquaintance has been short. She’s my patient. I never dreamed she’d be so difficult. I just didn’t know what else to do with her.”

They all started talking at once.

“No, no.”

“It’s all right.”

“You always do what’s best, dear boy.”

“It’ll be fine. You’ll see. God has a purpose.”

“It’s just that she hit her head while I was in the grocery store and while I was stitching her up her van was repossessed, and she’s so broke that she hasn’t even been eating.” He shook his head. “She won’t stay in the hospital. She wouldn’t even tell me her name. I had to find out from the police.”

“Are you done?” Eva demanded indignantly.

“I am,” Leland retorted, shooting to his feet. “I absolutely am.” Bending, he placed his teacup and saucer on the large ornate silver tray and straightened. “Hypatia, Magnolia, Odelia, Kent, my apologies, but I’m leaving now.”

Hypatia came to her feet. She might have reached Eva’s shoulder, but her dignity stood very tall indeed, regally so. “I’ll walk you out.”

Odelia and Kent looked at each other and hauled themselves up.

“We’ll just make sure Hilda is aware we’ll be adding another place for meals,” Kent said.

“The, um, bed-sit should be ready,” Odelia said to her sister.

Magnolia smiled a slow, challenging smile. “I’ll show up our guest.”

The Monroes beat a hasty, if colorful, retreat.

Eva smiled at her remaining hostess, quipping, “I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be staying.”

Magnolia rose, still smiling, and said, “Oh, you’re perfectly welcome. Unless you hurt our beloved Brooks. If that happens, I’ll put you out myself.” With that, she turned and walked across the room.

After a moment, Eva rose and followed.

Chapter Three

“I won’t even ask,” Morgan said, handing Brooks a steaming mug of something hot, “because you wouldn’t tell me anyway.”

“Medical emergencies,” Brooks murmured, sniffing the mug suspiciously, “cannot be discussed.”

“My point exactly,” said Morgan, saluting Brooks with his own drink before sipping delicately.

“What is it this time?” Morgan asked, unable to identify the dark liquid in his mug.

“Cranberry punch. I like it.”

“You liked the birch bark tea.”

Morgan liked anything his lovely, feverishly domestic wife invented.

“Bri loves the stuff,” Morgan said in his own defense.