The Family Doctor by Bobby Hutchinson Page B

didn’t belong to him. That’s not right, is it? That’s stealing, right?”
    Tony felt defeated. How did he explain to his child his family’s conflicting views of the same event. “Grammy gave my father a ring when they were married,” he said. “It was a ring that had been passed down in her family from her great-grandfather. When we give something, we don’t expect it back. But Grammy thinks that because my father went to Australia, he should have given the ring back. Because it had been a family heirloom.”
    â€œWhat’s an air loom?”
    â€œIt’s something old that has been in a family for a long time and is valued by them because it represents their past.”
    â€œDo I have any air looms?”
    â€œYou have that photo album Grammy gave you, the one with all the old babies in it.”
    For her ninth birthday in April, Dorothy had given McKensy an ancient album that contained photos of their ancestors as babies and children, rolling hoops and dressed in outlandish costumes. Tony remembered looking at it when he was a child himself. It enthralled his daughter the way it had him, and she’d declared it her favorite gift.
    That was the thing about his mother, Tony thought. She could sometimes do the most original and meaningful things, and at the same time be sonarrow-minded and impossible he couldn’t bear to be around her.
    â€œAnd of course you have me,” he sighed dramatically, getting up and balancing on his wretched crutches. “Some days I feel old enough to be an heirloom.”
    â€œOh, Papa,” she giggled, arranging her stuffed toys all around her in preparation for sleep. “Sometimes you’re so funny. I’m glad you have a sense of humor.”
    Except it doesn’t show often enough. Tony suspected that at St. Joe’s, there were many who considered him grim. Lately he hadn’t found much to laugh about, certainly not with his family. He’d made Kate laugh today, though. The thought pleased him.
    â€œCould Eliza come over and see Fats’s babies?” McKensy’s pet hamster had produced a litter the day before. “I told her all about them. She said she was gonna ask if maybe she could have one. And I want to show her my room.”
    Dorothy had given McKensy a wall-size poster of a sun-filled forest glen, and made sunny yellow curtains. The window seat was filled with dolls and stuffed animals. The white dresser contained trays of hair accessories and nail varnish. It was all as alien to Tony as the surface of the moon, and a reminder of how much he relied on his mother to fill in the blanks for him.
    â€œSure, Eliza can come if she wants to. If Katesays it’s okay.” And why couldn’t he ask Kate over to see his room? The ridiculous lewdness of that brought a crooked grin to his lips, and when he went downstairs he was able to greet his mother with a kiss and a cheerful remark.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    â€œL ESLIE, GOOD MORNING , c’mon in. Have a cup of tea, the kettle’s on.” Kate looked up from her computer with a smile that faded as she got a closer look at her friend’s face. “What’s wrong, Les? You look pretty down.”
    Leslie closed the door of Kate’s office and sank into a chair. “I had to bring Mom into Emerg last night.”
    â€œIs she okay? What was wrong?”
    â€œWhen I got home yesterday, she was dizzy and staggering around. I was scared she’d fall and break her hip again. She’d been nauseous, and her right eye was moving involuntarily—nystagmus,” Leslie explained, giving the symptom its proper medical label. “As you know, nystagmus can relate to an inner ear disorder, or it might also be a neurological symptom.”
    â€œWas she admitted?” Kate set a cup of peppermint tea in front of Leslie.
    â€œNope.” Leslie shook her head. “Hersh was on, that new guy that nobody