too, Doc.”
“Just doin’ my job.” The one God had blessed her with. She opened the nearby cabinet with her free hand, sorting through the supplies she would need, praying she could make a difference for the little creature in her palm. She couldn’t disappoint Julianna Stone with her big, soulful brown eyes.
“It’s a personal call, Doctor.”
Adam Stone didn’t need to ask who it was from. He knew only three people in this small town well enough to be called personal—two of whom were his daughters. He wasn’t interested in making friends during his temporary stay. No, this extended visit to Wyoming was not permanent. He did not anticipate getting attached to anyone in this tiny rural town. “Have them hold. I’ll be right there, Mildred.”
“All right.” The matronly woman closed the door to the exam room, leaving him alone with his patient.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized, although the elderly lady seated on the table didn’t seem to mind the intrusion.
“Oh, I know what it’s like to have young children.” Mrs. Tipple’s face was wreathed with lovely good humor. “Mine were a handful. I don’t know how working women do it these days. I couldn’t keep up with my brood and that’s all I had to do. I think I’m still worn-out from it.”
A sweet lady. “Your daughter was in last week. She’s fifty-five, so it’s been a while since she was twelve.”
“Yes, but it seems like yesterday. You just wait. Time flies. There’s no stopping it.” Mrs. Tipple’s eyes twinkled. “So, how’s my ticker?”
“Your heart is stable for now. I’ll call in your medication renewal.” He offered the lady his hand to help her down. “You’re still using the pharmacy in town?”
“For the last sixty years.”
Hard to beat that. He’d learned that Wild Horse, Wyoming, was about as stable as life could get. He opened the door for his charming patient. “You call me if you have any concerns.”
“Yes, Doctor. You have a nice day, now.”
“You, too, Mrs. Tipple.” He waited while the elderly lady tapped out of the doorway on her sensible heels before he headed to his office at the end of the hall. One of the lines was flashing and he grabbed the receiver. “What is it this time?”
“Dad?” There was noise in the background making it hard to hear his youngest daughter. “Are you in a good mood?”
“Not really.” Julianna’s question was always a sign that he wasn’t going to like whatever she had to say. He dropped into his chair. “What have you done now?”
Before she could answer, he dug out an aspirin bottle from his top desk drawer. He figured he might need it, as single parenting was harder than it looked. A strange yowling carried across the line, interrupted by a dog’s ringing bark.
“Daddy, don’t get mad.” Hard not to recognize her guilty tone. “I had to help her.”
“Help who?”
“Tomasina.”
Tomasina? He racked his brain for any information associated with that name. No children, no neighbors, no neighborhood pets that he could think of. He pried the lid off the bottle. “Time to explain, young lady.”
“She could be dying, Daddy.” Julianna sniffled. Her feelings were so tender and drove up the high notes in her voice. “I had to bring her here.”
The picture came clear. A dog barked in the background again, harmonized by an cat’s howl and a woman’s voice telling Grover to sit like a good boy. No mystery where the girl was.
“Haven’t I told you not to go across town to the vet’s office without clearing it with me?” He shook out two aspirin and popped them into his mouth, not even bothering with water.
“Y-yes.” Julianna’s tone went to a near whisper. His guess, she was kneeling on the floor, holding herself in, contrite and wounded. She’d been fragile since the divorce. “Daddy, are you mad?”
“Very.” He didn’t know how to begin to explain it all. “Tell me about Tomasina.”
“I couldn’t let her get gobbled up.” Misery quivered in her voice. “She was bleeding, so I held her while Jenny made up a shoe box like a nest and we hurried to the vet, except we had to walk careful so we wouldn’t shake Tomasina.”
Still no idea who or what Tomasina was, but it didn’t matter. His daughter felt it was her duty to save everything and everyone. He was at a loss how to make her understand. She couldn’t save the world. Why wasn’t she like other kids, busy playing with their toys, wanting the latest video game and trying to listen to unacceptable music on their MP3 players?
She was too much like the boy he’d once been, thinking God cared for every creature great and small.
“Dr. Stone?” Mildred tapped on his open door. “Your four o’clock canceled. Just thought you should know.”
“Thanks. Why don’t we call it a day?”
Mildred nodded, bustling off to close up shop and forward the calls to his cell because there was no answering service to hire in this town.
“Stay right where you are, Julianna.” He rubbed at his right temple. The pain in his skull drilled like a jackhammer. “I’ll be over in five minutes.”
“Am I gr-ounded?”
He winced at how little and young she sounded. He shrugged off his white coat. “We’ll see. Is Jenny with you?”
“Yes, but don’t punish her. Please? It’s not her fault. I made her come with me.”
That was Julianna, caring about everyone ahead of herself.
“I’ll take that into consideration.” He pushed out of the chair, hung his coat over the back of it and grabbed his keys off his desk. “I’m on my way.”
“O-kay.” She gulped audibly, fearing her punishment to come.
Grounding her was not working. He hung up the phone and marched to the door, remembering his patient. Mrs. Tipple had said her children had been a full-time job in and of themselves. He wished he had that kind of time to give to them. He’d wanted to hire a babysitter but Jenny had raised an earsplitting argument, pointing out that she was old enough to be a babysitter so she did not need one.
Life was changing and it was getting more complicated. But the girls were prospering here, where the pain of their mother’s abandonment wasn’t a constant reminder. That was the reason he’d locked up his town house, put his practice on hold and moved to Wyoming for the rest of the summer.
All this change, as temporary as it was, was tough on him. He called a goodbye to Mildred and pushed out the back door of the practice the town doctor had asked him to join. He breathed in the scent of freshly mown grass on the warm breeze and felt calmer. Overhead, leaves whispered from the old maples marching on both sides of the narrow street.
