Sophia Sasson - Mending The Doctor's Heart

“You bought the house, and it’s probably worth ten times what you paid for it. You should keep it.”

He shook his head. “I haven’t been there since the day you left. Tito has been going once a month to do some basic upkeep. I paid the insurance, so any damage from the tsunami should be covered.”

“What will I do with the house? I don’t even live here. You should sell it.” As she said the words, her breath stuck. The house was not a commodity; it wasn’t a car or jewelry that you sold and split the proceeds, even though she knew that’s what most divorced people did. The house had been home. Their home. One they built together.

Nico swerved hard to avoid an upturned car and Anna slammed into the side door. His jaw clenched. “The house is not for sale. If you don’t want it, we’ll figure out another solution.”

Why did she feel relief? He was being totally unreasonable. Not that she wanted any money from him, but if he wasn’t going to live there, he should sell it. The firm line of his lips told her he was done with this conversation. One of the many things about him that irritated her. It wasn’t that his mind couldn’t be changed. When they were married, a kiss in that crook between his neck and shoulder or a nip on his earlobe melted his resolve. Fights didn’t last long. Until she had Lucas.

After more than an hour of driving, he pulled up to a white building. At least three cars were on the roof and a good-sized yacht was on its side on the front lawn.

“The building was in the direct path of the tsunami. The roof will be an expensive repair.” Nico’s voice was grim, as if he was surveying the damage anew.

The windows were blown out but the building seemed intact, which was far better than what the other buildings in the area looked like. Most of them were missing walls and had roofs caved in.

“Will insurance cover it?”

He nodded. “They should, but they’ll be dragging their heels with all the claims that’ll be hitting them.”

They picked their way across the lawn. The revolving door at the hospital entrance had been blown out, so all that remained was a gaping hole. Still, Anna didn’t miss the etched brass sign next to the door.

In memory of Lucas Michael Atao. The baby who remains in our hearts.

All are welcome, all will be served.

We save lives here.

Hand on her mouth, she staggered and gasped. He was right there as her knees buckled. She waited for the panic to hit but it didn’t. All she felt was Nico’s strong chest on her back, his arms holding her upright. It had been 1,923 days since he’d died. Yet the vise that gripped her heart was as strong as it had been the day it happened.

“I’ve never forgotten him, Anna, and I never will. Your sacrifice, and his, will not go in vain. Good will come from his death.”

She couldn’t talk about this. Nothing in the world could take away the hole in her soul. Not a new hospital, and definitely not Nico. Leaving his embrace, she steadied herself for what waited inside. Silently, he walked in first and she followed. Several people were in the lobby mopping and piling litter into large garbage bags. They waved to Nico and Anna, automatically greeting them with “Hafa Adai!”

She knew a few people, but not well. Some frowned, obviously trying to place her. She walked past them before recognition dawned.

Unfortunately, that luck didn’t hold. “Anna, is that really you?” Before she could stop him, Nico’s uncle Bruno enveloped her in his arms. Never mind that he hated her and they’d never gotten along. He greeted her like she was his long-lost daughter, kissing both cheeks and wiping tears from his eyes as he gushed over how good it was to see her back on Guam.

“Uncle, enough now. Mrs. DeSouza is critical—Anna needs to attend to her.”

Bruno patted her on the shoulders. “It’s so good to see you.”

Anna shook her head as they walked away. “What’s come over him?”

“Aunt Mae died last year and he’s been going on these emotional extremes ever since.”

Anna stopped. “Aunt Mae died? How?” Anna had been quite fond of Bruno’s wife, who had taken Anna under her wing and shown her how to fit in with Nico’s family. She had taught Anna how to make Chamorro food and perform the rituals at church. Aunt Mae had even shown her what to plant in her garden to deal with the briny air. The woman was no spring chicken but she couldn’t have been more than sixty.

“She had a heart attack.” Nico’s voice was matter-of-fact but Anna knew how much he too had cared for Aunt Mae. “I wrote you an email to let you know, but you never replied.”

Anna had set her account so emails from Nico went to a special folder automatically. It was the only way to make sure she never saw his name in her in-box. After returning to California from Guam, she’d been sitting on a bus and checked her smartphone, mindlessly scrolling through emails. She’d read the email from Nico even before her brain had fully processed who the note was from. Crying uncontrollably for the rest of the bus ride, she had almost packed her bags when she got home. Luckily her brain kicked in. So she’d made sure she never accidentally read his emails again. Keeping him out of her mind was the key to her survival.

“I didn’t see the email,” she said sheepishly. “I’m sorry about Aunt Mae, she was a good woman. If we have time, I’d like to go to her grave and leave some flowers.”

“She’s buried near Lucas.”

He might as well have dropped a boulder on her. Since the day she buried him, Anna had not seen her son’s grave. On that horrid day, she’d buried a piece of her soul along with him, a part that she’d never get back. It was the same part that once loved Nico.

“What’s this about Mrs. DeSouza?”

Nico got the hint and led the way. Anna noticed that though the hospital wasn’t quite functional, the inner core was intact. It seemed the entire community was there fixing beds, rolling medical equipment, tending to sick patients. An old man bent low over a cane handed water to a young man who was sitting with a towel over his head. We take care of each other. No one comes to help us, we only rely on each other. Nico had explained this to her when they’d first met; it was what had first made her fall in love with Guam. She had traveled the world and seen a lot of close-knit communities, but never had she witnessed the kind of kinship that existed here.

Nico left her in what would eventually become the ICU. Right now, a generator was powering the few pieces of equipment that weren’t waterlogged. A gap-toothed man sat at the nurses’ station taking apart a defibrillator. Far from a sterile environment, but Anna was used to that now. In Liberia, she’d been lucky if there was a tent available to deal with a patient gushing blood. It was a minor miracle she hadn’t gotten sick.

Mrs. DeSouza had suffered a stroke. Anna vaguely remembered her from community parties. If her memory served, Mrs. DeSouza had never been married, so she fostered little children. Teen pregnancy was common on the island and young mothers often needed child care while they studied for exams or took courses at Guam University. Anna did the best she could for the sick woman.

She moved on to the next patient on a bed, thankful she’d never seen him before. He was in better shape, though he’d obviously had a heart attack. Someone had used a defibrillator but he still had an arrhythmia. She administered some medication and hung an IV bag for a continuous drip. The man would need more invasive testing but he was fine for now.

Nico returned as she finished with her fifth patient. “Mrs. DeSouza won’t make it through the night,” she said without preamble.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he nodded. “Dr. Tucker said there were surgeons on the way.”