Mary Brady - He Calls Her Doc

“It didn’t have anything to do with a Daley brother. At least it didn’t at the time.”

“It had to do with…” Sally peered over the top of her glasses at Maude.

“I didn’t want to work that hard for something that broke my heart every day.” Maude expelled a breath of frustration.

“Amanda,” Sally said quietly.

Maude nodded her head as she thought of the accident twenty years ago that now seemed as if it had happened yesterday. “One day I was the goofy girl with an older sister who wanted to take over from Doc Avery and the next day all I had were neighbors hovering over me not telling me a thing about what was going on.”

“And all this time, I thought it was because you couldn’t afford it.”

“Mom and Dad owed so much to the banks, I told them to sell it to the highest bidder.”

“Yeah, one of those rich Coasters or some Arab sheik. I hate it when families move off the ranches.”

“Henry was sanctimonious when he thought I’d lose my childhood home forever. He was determined I’d want it someday, so he bought it to save it from your Coasters and sheiks. Said he’d sell it to me when I was ready. He was so excited, I just couldn’t convince him I might never want the ranch. And my parents, well, they were tickled to be out from under the burden and retire to Great Falls with the nest egg Henry overpaid them. And we all knew with Amanda in a bigger town, she’d be well taken care of for the rest of her life.”

Sally rubbed Maude’s shoulder. “Do you want the ranch now?”

“I don’t. Too many memories. Too much work.” But as she said the words she thought of taking a dip in the swimming hole and long hikes to the hunter’s cabin.

“Are you sure?”

“We did have fun there.”

The two friends sipped coffee as warm sunshine streamed between the white curtains with embroidered red tulips and fell over them like a warm blanket. Maude thought of the solace they had found in each other in grade school when they realized they each had an older sister who outshined them by, Sally had said, about a gagillion candlepower.

“Maudie likes the enemy,” Sally singsonged softly.

“Creep.” Maude laughed and smacked the top of the table with her hand. “I’m going back to the office where there is no one to tease me.”

“No, you aren’t. You’re going to the hunk’s ranch to make a house call.”

“Nothing is a secret in this town.”

“There’s nine hundred and seventy-three of us in the entire valley besides you—no, nine hundred and seventy-four—Midge had her baby last week and, of course, we all know as much of everybody’s business as we can ferret out or make up.”

“Can we change the subject to something that doesn’t involve me?”

“But you came here to talk about you.”

“I came here to sulk. You can imagine the jubilation that will break loose in this town if they find out there is a real doctor, a man doctor, in the valley.”

Sally waggled her blond eyebrows at Maude. “Want to eat Oreos and watch Sesame Street?”

“Yes, and then I have a house call to make.”

Lizzy sat between them on the couch. All three wore headbands with sparkling stars on floppy stalks and ate cookies with a big yellow bird. Barney sat on the floor with his muzzle on the edge of the couch, eyes watching each cookie go from package to mouth, hoping.

EARLY WILDFLOWERS greeted Maude as she drove the highway toward the ranch. At intervals a granite gray stream rollicked beside the road, and in some places rough escarpments soared high, held back by luck and prayers.

Around many curves in the road, snowcapped mountains peeked above pine trees but never seemed to get any closer. Around others lay breathtaking drop-offs where the world fell away and if you drove off the edge, no one would find you for weeks—or ever.

Maude accelerated, loving the sense of adventure clinging to the edge gave her. She smiled. Henry had taught her to push the envelope once in a while. And then she slowed, wondering if anyone would ever care that she felt that way, if she’d ever have a relationship and a family like Sally had, if the town would ever accept her as their doctor.

What would her sister have done under the circumstances?

She gripped the steering wheel hard and then made herself relax. There wouldn’t have been any such “circumstances.” Amanda, the golden child, had been smart and beautiful with an aura of grace and strength. Everyone would have welcomed her warmly as a replacement for Doc Avery…even though she wasn’t a man.

She rounded the last sharp curve, and the valley green with both darkness and light spread out before her. The stunning nature of the land had not changed.

She could face Guy Daley—

“Oh God.” She laughed. She had tried so hard not to think of him. If what didn’t kill you made you stronger, then this man had contributed greatly to her strength over the years.

She slowed to turn onto the long road from the highway to the ranch house. The roughly graded gravel took her through what had been pastureland, but now seemed unused and undisturbed, still beautiful, not lessened by having nature’s free hand.

As she rounded the last corner, the ranch house and buildings came into view.

She stopped near the barn.

A rustic yet sturdy-looking two-story log building stood next to the house, apparently a guesthouse for the participants in Henry’s program. It didn’t destroy the look of the homestead, but it had replaced the old oak tree. The one that Granddad had always insisted shouldn’t be growing there, and maybe it shouldn’t have been.

They’d put the building right where Amanda had lain for so long in the snow. A heart-wringing longing filled Maude, and she rested her forehead on her white-knuckled hands. She missed her sister and the life they’d had.

She suddenly felt closer to Amanda than she had in years. “I’m doing it, Amanda.” She would fulfill her sister’s dream no matter how hard she had to fight to get the people of the valley to accept her. The lovely, craggy valley, full of skeptical people, would have a doctor, one who cared, and one everyone could call Doc.

The sound of rapping on the window of the car brought her head sharply up.

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