gave the simplest remedy a try first.
Looking down at the little girl who was still holding her hand, she said, “April, why don’t you go to the kitchen and ask Miss Theresa to give you a glass of water for your brother?”
April, eager to help, uncoupled herself from Melanie’s hand and immediately ran off to the kitchen.
As April took off, Melanie turned her attention to Jimmy’s mother. “He really should see a doctor,” she gently suggested.
Worn and tired way beyond her years, Brenda O’Neill raised her head proudly and replied, “We’ll manage, thank you. It’s not the first time he’s had this cough and it won’t be the last,” she said with assurance. “It comes and goes. Some children are like that.”
“True,” Melanie agreed. She wasn’t here to argue, just to comfort. “But it would be better if it went—permanently.” She knew the woman was proud, but she’d meant what she’d said to April. Sometimes pride needed to take a backseat to doing what was best for someone you loved. “Look, I know that money’s a problem, Brenda.” She thought of the newly erected, state-of-the-art hospital that was less than seven miles away from the shelter. “I’ll pay for the visit.”
The expression on Jimmy’s mother’s face was defiant and Melanie could see the woman withdrawing and closing herself off.
“He’ll be all right,” Brenda insisted. “Kids get sick all the time.”
Melanie sighed. She couldn’t exactly kidnap the boy and whisk him off to the ER, not without his mother’s express consent. “Can’t argue with that,” Melanie agreed.
“I brought water,” April announced, returning. “And Miss Theresa, too.” She glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure that the woman was still behind her. “She was afraid I’d spill it, but I wouldn’t,” she told Melanie in what the little girl thought passed for a whisper. It didn’t.
Theresa Manetti gave the glass of water to Jimmy. “There you go. Maybe this’ll help.” She smiled at the boy. “And if it doesn’t, I might have something else that will.”
Brenda looked at the older woman and she squared her shoulders. “I’ve already had this discussion with that lady,” she waved her hand at Melanie. “We can’t afford a doctor. Jimmy’ll be fine in a couple of days,” she insisted, perhaps just a little too strongly, as if trying to convince herself as well as the women she was talking to.
Theresa nodded. A mother of two herself, she fully sympathized with what Jimmy’s mother was going through. But she didn’t volunteer her time, her crew and the meals she personally prepared before coming here just to stand idly by if there was something she could do. Luckily, after her conversation with Maizie yesterday, there was. It was also, hopefully, killing two birds with one stone—or, as she preferred thinking of it, spreading as much good as possible.
“Good to know, dear,” she said to Brenda, patting the woman’s shoulder. “But maybe you might want to have Dr. Mitch take a look at him anyway.”
“Dr. Mitch?” Melanie asked. This was the first reference she’d heard to that name. Was the volunteer chef referring to a personal physician she intended to call?
“Sorry, that’s what my friend calls him,” Theresa apologized. “His full name is Dr. Mitchell Stewart and he’s a general surgeon associated with Bedford Memorial Hospital—right down the road,” she added for Brenda’s benefit. “He’s been doing rather well these past couple of years and according to mutual sources, he wants to give a little back to the community. When I told Polly about it,” she said, referring to Polly French, the director of the shelter, “she immediately placed a call to his office and asked him to volunteer a few hours here whenever he could.” She moved aside the hair that was hanging in April’s eyes, fondly remembering when she used to do the same thing with her own daughter. “He’ll be here tomorrow. I’m spreading the word.”
Brenda still looked somewhat suspicious of the whole thing. “We don’t need any charity.”
“Seems to me that it’ll be you being charitable to him,” Theresa pointed out diplomatically. “If the man wants to do something good, I say let him.” Theresa turned her attention to Jimmy who had mercifully stopped coughing, at least for now. “What about you, Jimmy? What d’you say?”
Jimmy looked up at her with hesitant, watery eyes. “He won’t stick me with a needle, will he?”
“I don’t think he’s planning on that,” Theresa replied honestly. “He just wants to do what’s best for you.”
“Then okay,” the boy replied, then qualified one more time, “as long as he doesn’t stick me.”
Theresa smiled at Brenda. “Born negotiator, that one. Sounds a lot like my son did at that age. He’s a lawyer now,” Theresa added proudly. “Who knows, yours might become one, too.”
The hopeless look on Brenda’s face said she didn’t agree, but wasn’t up to arguing the point.
Theresa gently squeezed the woman’s shoulder. “It’ll get better, dear. Even when you feel like you’ve hit bottom and there’s no way back up to the surface, it’ll get better,” Theresa promised.
For her part, Theresa was remembering how she’d felt when her husband had died suddenly of a heart attack. At first, she had been convinced that she couldn’t even go on breathing—but she had. She not only went on breathing, but she’d gone on to form and run a successful catering business. Life was nothing if not full of possibilities—as long as you left yourself open to them, Theresa thought.
The last part of her sentence was directed more toward Melanie than to the young mother she was initially addressing.
“I’d better get back to getting dinner set up,” Theresa said, beginning to walk away.
Melanie followed in her wake. “Are you really getting a doctor to come to the shelter?” she asked.
It was hard for her to believe and harder for her to contain her excitement. This was just what some of the children—not to mention some of the women—needed, to be examined by a real doctor.
“Not me, personally,” she told Melanie, “but I have a friend who has a friend—the upshot is, yes, there is a doctor coming here tomorrow.”
“Photo op?” Melanie guessed. This was the Golden State and a lot of things were done here for more than a straightforward reason. It seemed like everyone thrived on publicity for one reason or another. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly, “some of these people really need to be seen by a doctor, but if this is just some kind of publicity stunt so that some doctor can drum up goodwill and get people to come to his state-of-the-art new clinic, or buy his new skin cream, or whatever, I don’t want to see Brenda and her son being used.”
Sympathy flooded Theresa’s eyes. She had to restrain herself to keep from hugging Melanie. “Oh honey, what happened to you to make you so suspicious and defensive?”
She was not about to talk about Jeremy, or any other part of her life. Besides, that had nothing to do with this.
“This isn’t about me,” Melanie retorted, then caught hold of her temper. This wasn’t like her. She was going to have watch that.
