aroma hit Krystal the way heat blasted her face when she stepped outside from cool air-conditioning, causing her stomach to revolt. She uttered, “No, thanks,” then bolted for the bathroom. She barely managed to get there before she was sick.
As she washed up at the sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and thought, Oh yeah, I’m real smart when it comes to men. She clicked her tongue in disgust, dried her hands and went back to work.
GARRET WAS TIRED. He’d spent most of the night at the hospital with a patient and after only a few hours of sleep on a cot in the doctors’ lounge, he’d had to make his morning rounds, fill out a mountain of paperwork and attend a staff meeting. Now he’d promised one of the nurses at the clinic that he’d stop in and check on her mother who was a patient in a nursing home.
Garret knew that if Dolly Anderson still lived in her house on the east side of St. Paul, she’d be outside in her large floppy hat tending her vegetables. But at eighty-nine, a broken hip had marked the end of her days as a home owner and landed her in the nursing home not far from her old neighborhood. Although her bones had healed, she’d never regained the strength and agility to return home. That hadn’t stopped her from gardening, however.
When Garret arrived at the nursing home, he found her outdoors tending to the plants on the tiny patio outside her room. One hand rested on a cane helping her stand, the other clutched a plastic watering can.
“Got any pumpkins in that patch?” he called out as he made his way across the lawn toward her.
She looked up at him. “It’s a good thing you’re a brilliant doctor. You’d stink as a farmer. Pumpkins need room to spread.” As he drew closer she added, “You look tired. You’d better go easy on the women for a while and catch up on your sleep.” She gave him a crooked grin.
“Oh, Dolly, you ought to know you’re the only one for me.” He’d never been much for flirting with women, but with her he couldn’t resist. “How come you’re not wearing your sun hat?”
“Don’t want to mess up my hair.” She turned back to watering her plants. “Just had it styled. I always get it done on Tuesdays.”
He didn’t correct her and tell her it was Wednesday.
“What brings you here?” she wanted to know.
“I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop and see how you’re doing.”
She slanted a look at him. “Liar. I know Mavis called you.”
He didn’t deny the accusation. “She’s worried you might have a cold.”
She harrumphed. “Can you believe it? My daughter is fifty-nine years old and she still doesn’t know the difference between a cold and allergies. If I cough, it’s because the pollen count is high. It tickles my throat. It’s been that way ever since I was a child.”
“That’s why I told you to stay inside in air-conditioning this time of the year,” he said with a gentle wag of his finger.
“Can’t. Have to take care of my garden.”
The garden to which she referred was comprised of large pots holding a variety of vegetable plants on her patio. To his amazement, she had cherry tomatoes, radishes, green peppers and even a bean plant, which she’d staked with a yardstick.
“Don’t they feed you here?” he asked.
“Of course they do. That isn’t why I have my vegetables and you know it,” she scolded him.
Yes, he did. On more than one occasion she’d told him that she’d planted her first garden during World War II when Americans were encouraged to grow their own vegetables as a sign of support for the troops. When her husband had been killed in the war, she’d decided to continue the tradition in honor of his memory. She’d been planting her victory garden for over sixty years.
“I brought you something,” he told her.
“Not more pills to swallow, I hope.”
“No, something sweet.”
That had her setting her watering can down and giving her attention to him. “Ooh. Gingersnaps,” she cooed, when he pulled a box of cookies from his bag and handed them to her. “What do I have to do for them? Take off my clothes?”
He saw the twinkle in her eye and smiled. “You know me well, Dolly.” Not many of his patients did, but he had a soft spot for this octogenarian with her sharp mind and keen wit.
“You’re not going to take my word for it that it’s only the pollen, are you, Dr. G.?”
“I’d like to, but I’m afraid if I don’t give you a clean bill of health, Mavis won’t get any sleep tonight. How about it? Should we put her mind at rest?”
She hesitated momentarily, then said, “All right. To please Mavis.” She moved slowly but with a gracefulness few women her age possessed. He slid open the patio door for her and followed her inside.
“You’re not going to make me get back into bed, are you? Once I’m up and dressed, I don’t like to even look at that thing,” she told him with a wave of her hand in the direction of her bed. “Someone around here is always trying to get me to nap. I’m not a nap person. Never was, never will be.”
He patted the leather chair. “How about sitting right here.”
Sitting had never been easy for someone as active as Dolly and today was no different than any other time he’d visited her. She squirmed and fidgeted, but he managed to complete the exam and was relieved when he found there was no cause for alarm.
“Okay, that’ll do it,”’ he said, stuffing his stethoscope back into his bag.
“I’m as right as rain, aren’t I?”
“You are. How’s the hip?”
“The only thing wrong with my hip is that it kept me from getting my hair done yesterday because I had to go to physical therapy,” she grumbled.
He looked at her white curls. “I thought you said you had your hair done today?”
“I did. My gal came back this morning. Made a special trip for me. Isn’t she just the sweetest thing?” She didn’t wait for an answer but continued on. “I think you’d like her. She’s pretty. Really pretty.”
“Now don’t go getting any ideas, Dolly,” he warned.
“I know better than to do that,” she said with a flap of her wrinkled hand. “Kryssie’s got too many boyfriends the way it is. She gets flowers all the time from this one or that one. They usually end up here…the flowers, that is. She doesn’t want reminders of a bad date.”
Garret didn’t comment and she continued on, “You wouldn’t be interested in her anyway being you’re not looking to settle down just yet. You have too many things to accomplish.”
“Yes, I do,” he agreed.
“Are you still thinking about the Doctors Without Borders program?”
Because Dolly’s husband had been in the Red Cross, Garret had told her about his interest in doing relief work. She’d shown him journals her husband had kept during his tour of duty overseas and shared stories of what it had been like to be a doctor’s wife during the 1940s. Besides being a very interesting woman, she was easy to talk to and encouraged Garret to use his medical training in whatever way he felt was best.
“I don’t think I’ll be leaving until after the first of the year,” he told her.
“I’ll miss seeing you, but I’m happy to share you with the rest of the world,” she said with a gracious smile. “You remind me so much of my husband. Dedicated. Passionate about helping people. A true gentleman.”
“Thank you. I wish I had known him.”
“You