Road Doc
Chapter 5
The first two weeks of the tour went quickly. Theresa was surprised at how busy she remained. One of the male dancers had sprained his ankle the first night, while one of the female dancers had come to her for a pregnancy test, which luckily came back negative. Nearly every member of the stage crew had come down with strep throat, and two of the bus drivers had bouts of the flu.
Theresa had seen hardly hide nor hair of the five members of the group, save AJ who would occasionally come around to flirt with her. He was a charmer and Theresa enjoyed his sense of humor and his company.
“What’s up doc?” a raspy voice from behind her startled Theresa. She was sitting in her ‘office’, a small partitioned area backstage, reading the latest Journal of the American Medical Association. AJ came in and sat down on the floor in front of Theresa’s chair.
“Whatcha reading?” he asked.
Theresa handed him the magazine and AJ quickly scanned the page she was reading.
“The consent process for cadaveric organ procurement: How does it work? How can it be improved?” AJ read the title of the article.
“I’m impressed! You pronounced all the words right!” Theresa teased.
“What can I say, I should have been a medicine man instead of a music man” AJ
chuckled. “Seriously, ummm....in English this means?”
“It’s about getting permission to harvest organs from someone who has died” Theresa said, laughing.
“Organ harvesting?” AJ fell back onto the floor laughing hysterically.
“It’s a pretty serious matter, actually” Theresa said once AJ had composed himself.
“I know, I’m sorry. It’s just that when I think of organ harvesting, I picture a great big field with a bunch of organs...you know...like church organs...and this big tractor going around harvesting them.”
Theresa couldn’t help but laugh at the visual, and they both laughed until they had tears rolling down their faces.
“Go out with me tonight” AJ said, suddenly very serious.
“What?” Theresa said, caught off guard by the invitation.
“Just go out with me and Howie tonight” he said, playing with a string that was hanging from one of his shoes. “We go out almost every night to blow off steam. You should come hang with us, have a few drinks, shoot a little pool maybe.”
Theresa sat quietly thinking. She really had no excuse for not going, and although she had never been one to go out partying much, she had to admit that it sounded like fun.
“Okay” Theresa finally answered.
AJ snapped his head up in surprise. “I’ll swing by your room when we leave, cool?”
And with that he hopped up and sprinted from the room, leaving Theresa anxious for the show to be over and for a night of fun to begin.
6