Amy Ruttan - The Surgeon's Convenient Husband

Why had she ever agreed to this sham of a marriage? She shouldn’t have, but Aran had been so persuasive. So insistent.

“You okay?” Aran asked.

“Why?”

“You seem a bit tense.”

“I’m fine. Sorry, I forgot you said you were from San Diego. I forgot you didn’t grow up here.”

And it was mistakes like this that made her worry about what they’d done.

“Don’t get me wrong—I love my mom. It’s just she does certain things a certain way.”

“Oh... That’s not going to bode well for us, then,” Ruby teased.

Aran cocked an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to doing things a certain way—like being on time.” She pointed to her watch and hoped he’d get her joke. She was relieved when he smiled.

“I think it’ll be fine.” He shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “Where do you want to go?”

“There’s a little crab shack down by the water. Do you like crab?”

He nodded. “I do—and it’s been some time since I had Alaskan crab.”

“Good. I can drive—or we can walk? It’s not far from here.”

“A walk would be nice. Lead on, Macduff.”

She hadn’t heard anyone say that to her in a long time. Her father had used to say it all the time, and it brought a memory flooding back to her.

“And where did you see this footprint, Ruby?”

“In the woods. Just before the ice road.”

“The ice road is closed and that’s all muskeg.”

“I know, Papa. I didn’t go traveling through that. I was on my way back from the corner store and I saw the footprint. I want to show you.”

Her papa smiled. “Okay, show me. Lead on, Macduff.”

They walked the way she had taken back from the corner store. She always listened to her parents and kept to the paths she’d been taught to. She knew not to wander in the woods because of bears and other wild animals—not that many would be out in the middle of the day in the summer. Usually the heat and the bugs drove the animals further into the woods. Animals were most likely to come out during the early morning or when it briefly went to dusk.

It was a short walk along the well-worn path from her parents’ place, and they stopped when Ruby found the strange footprints she’d never seen before.

Her father knelt down. “Ah, this is a wolverine.”

“A wolverine?”

“Yep—and they’re nasty. You did good, showing this footprint to me.” Her father stood. “Let’s go inform the elders and make sure that the other kids keep away from this area. The wolverine has obviously found a food source and will come back, like a bear. A wolverine would attack a young child if it was hungry enough. Remember that, Ruby. Remember that sometimes in the north it’s a battle of survival. Eat or be eaten. But you must also respect the land.”

“Right, Papa.”

“What?” she asked quizzically now, trying to shake the memory away.

Her father had never learned a lot of stories, except what he had been taught when he had been forced to attend a school far from home. The residential school was something he didn’t like to talk much about to her. It had been an awful place where his culture and heritage had been forced out of him. Where his language had been stolen. All he had known was what the priests and nuns had taught him, but her father had liked Shakespeare.

“It’s ‘Lay on, Macduff’,” Aran remarked offhandedly as he held open the door for her. “‘Lead on’ is a popular misquote.”

“I know. It’s just... I haven’t heard someone say that in a long time. The way my father said it.” She cleared her throat and tried not to let emotion overtake her. She didn’t have time to deal with her grief or her sadness.

Aran didn’t say any more as they walked down the street from the hospital to the waterfront.

Because it was summer, it was nice to have sunlight so late. It made for pleasant evenings. And it was nice to have the sun because in the winter the sun wouldn’t be around long, and there would be a period of time where it just stayed dark, especially the further north you went.

“How long have you lived in Alaska now?” Aran asked.

“This is my sixth year.”

“Right!” He chuckled. “We got married five years ago—right after our residency finished. I’m sorry I forgot.”

“Well, now I’m going to have to hold it against you.”

“Hold what against me?”

“Forgetting our anniversary,” she teased.

He shook his head. “So, where in Canada are you from?”

“Behchokǫ̀.”

His eyes widened. “I have no idea where that is.”

Ruby laughed. “Well, it’s just outside of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories.”

“I do know where that is. So you’re from the north? That makes a lot of sense of why you love it up here.”

She nodded. “I went to university and then medical school in London, Ontario. That was a hard transition. I much prefer the north over the city. Although Anchorage is a city, so it must be the north I love.”

She was rambling. She knew that. But she really didn’t know what else to say to ease the awkward tension that had fallen between them.

“I prefer the south,” he said.

“Then why did you come north?” she asked.

“My mother had an opening for a residency.”

“I know that. That’s how we met.”

“Right...”

“I mean now...besides our marriage, I guess.”

“It’s because of our marriage,” Aran stated, making her blush.

“Oh?”

“Also it’s an opening now I’ve been discharged from the army.”

“And your father? How does he feel about you moving near your mother?”

Aran’s expression hardened. “My father died just before I was deployed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

And she truly was. She knew what it was like to lose a parent when you were young. It sucked. And she felt bad that she hadn’t known that, since they’d got married right before he’d deployed.

Of course. Now it made sense why he’d been so distant during their wedding...

“Look, if you don’t want to go through with this it’s okay,” Ruby offered. Aran was not his usual jovial self.

“No. It’s fine,” he said quickly.

But he didn’t offer a reason why he was so cold. So preoccupied.

“Is it something I did?”

“No,” he said tersely.

Before she could back out the court reporter came out into the hallway. “Dr. Cloutier and Dr. Atkinson?”

Aran took her hand and led her into the judge’s chambers.

He looked down at her. “Why are you smiling like that?”

“Like what?” Ruby asked. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

“Relax. It’s okay.”

Only it wasn’t okay. He’d married her when he’d been grieving. People made a lot of mistakes when they were grieving. Life was like a blur. And when you lost a parent it was as if a piece of your soul had been gouged out from you and you had to relearn the world without that vital piece there. Even twenty years later she was still mourning the loss of her father. She was still grieving him, even though she kept it to herself.

They didn’t say much else as they walked the rest of the way to the crab shack. When they got down to the docks the familiar scent of Old Bay seasoning, melted butter and salt water hit her and her stomach growled in response. It had been a long time since she’d come down here and had some Alaskan King Crab. She’d been so busy at work.

Aran held open the door for her and they took a seat in the screened porch that looked out over the Cook Inlet.