A New Start
By: Lisa Brown
ERDrLewis@aol.com

Damn it, she thought to herself. The medical tape wasn’t working. She needed scotch tape. She stepped away to pour herself another cup of coffee. She sipped it, looking at the pictures, taped so messily. Oh well, it would have to do. She took another sip, pondering about what she should do about it.

He walked into the lounge. He saw a beautiful woman, staring at a locker door. He noticed a picture of the woman, three kids, and another man and woman taped to the inside of the door with medical tape. Then, there were two hand-drawn pictures, they seemed to be drawn by younger children. He turned to examine the woman again. She looked no older than him, curly brown hair and big brown eyes. A little shorter than him too. So, this was the new second-year resident. She had been deep in thought and hadn’t noticed him walk in. He decided to break the silence. "So, are you the new resident?" he asked.

She turned, almost spilling her coffee on the both of them. "My goodness, you startled me!" she exclaimed. "Yes, I am. Who’s asking?" She smiled at him. He smiled back. She tried to remember if she had already been introduced to him but she didn’t recognize him from her two visits before. . .

"John Carter, another second year," he replied as he extended his hand.

"Ah," she replied as she shook it. "Molly Goldstein. Sorry for almost spilling coffee on you."

"Nah, it’s my fault. I scared ya," Carter replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise. So, am I the only reason that the staff meeting is called?"

"I think so. There aren’t usually too many of them," he answered. "Do you want me to get you some scotch tape?" he asked, pointing to the locker.

"Really? That would actually be great. I was going to ask myself, but I was trying to remember the receptionist’s name. John, or Jake, or Joseph-"

"Jerry?"

"Yeah, that’s it! Jerry. I’ll remember that from now on. And you’re Dr. Carter, right?"

"Yeah. You can just call me Carter if you want. Or John. Whatever. When does your shift start Dr. Goldstein?"

"Oh, please, call me Molly. Right after the staff meeting."

"Ah, you get to work with me today."

"I feel honored."

"Not to be rude, but why are you half an hour early? That’ll probably change after your first day."

"Well, I might ask *you* the same question," she said as she smiled. "I’ll be right back, I’m going to ask Jerry for some tape."

While she was gone, Carter took a closer look at the pictures. The six people were sitting on the steps to a house. Molly was on an end, and next to her was a woman who looked a lot like her, a little older and next to her a man. In front of them, there were two little girls and a little boy. The younger girl and the boy looked very much alike. The two looked about five, maybe six. They looked a lot like Molly. The other girl was a little older-maybe eight?-and looked more like the man on the end. Carter wondered who the man was. Molly’s husband? She hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean for sure she wasn’t married. Carter suddenly felt nosy and stepped away. Just in time too.

"Jerry wasn’t at the counter. A woman was, I think, Randi maybe? I *think* that was her name. She didn’t even look up from her magazine, just pointed to the drawer where the tape was. Anyway, I got it," she said, holding it up triumphantly.

"Yep, that’s Randi for you. So, have you lived in Chicago long?"

Molly smiled as she took down the photo. "I’ve lived here since I was thirteen. But eight years ago, I moved out to Boston for awhile. Got in a fight with my parents who live here. But I decided to come back."

"Why? Did you make up?"

"No. But, my sister’s here, and I was just lonely in Boston, you know? This is her in the picture. Caitlyn. This is her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Erin," she said as she put a piece of tape on the picture and placed it on the locker door.

"What about the other two?"

She paused, staring at the photo for a moment. "That’s Madeline and Jack. They’re. . .mine," she said, turning to face him.

"Oh. Really?" Carter looked surprised.

"Yeah," she replied. She blushed.

"Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, or anything. You just look kinda young to be their mom."

She looked at him quizzically. "Just how old do you think I am?"

"Twenty, um. . .twenty-seven?" he asked. He was going to say twenty-five, but he thought against it.

She laughed. "Close. Twenty-nine."

"Well, you had me fooled!"

"You, you look no older than twenty-seven," she replied.

"I am twenty-seven."

"Well, you had me fooled!" she said, mimicking him.

They both laughed. "Well, they’re both adorable. You should be proud of them."

"Yeah. . .they’re the reason I moved back. Well, they’re also the reason I moved away, so. . ."

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hmm. I moved away before they were born. My parents didn’t want me to keep them. *Long* story. Well, then they thought there was only one then. I moved to Boston, because that’s where my grandmother was. She was retired and helped me out and such. So, when she died last month, I decided to move back here. My sister convinced me to. She said that she’d help out and all, but I think the real reason is that she wants me to make up with my parents," Molly said, pulling a Life Saver from her endless supply in her pockets.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I haven’t spoken to them in over five years. I saw them for the first time since Mady and Jack were born at my grandmother’s funeral, but didn’t talk to them. We didn’t say a word to each other."

"Wow. My family’s mad at me too, but, no offense, yours sounds worse. Anyway, how old are they?"

"Both five. In kindergarten. Today was their first day of school here. They didn’t want to go, but I thought it would be a bad idea to bring them here on my first day!"

"Oh, I’m sure no one would mind."

"Ah, they’ll be alright. My sister is their teacher, so they’ll be fine," Molly said. She looked at her watch. "Well, it’s ten minutes until nine, so I have to go find Dr. Greene. Nice talking to ya. See you around."

"Sure thing! Good luck on your first day," Carter responded.

Molly turned and smiled as she walked out the door. "Bye, John."

As she was walking out the door, she ran into Dr. Greene. "Good morning Dr. Greene! I was just about to come looking for you."

"Morning Molly. Our meeting starts in tem minutes. It’s just to introduce you to everyone and so forth. Today, I’m going to have you stick around with Dr. Carter just to get a hang of things. He’s another second-year resident," he said. They walked back in the lounge. "Dr. Carter, this is Dr. Molly Goldstein, our new second-year-"

"Dr. Greene, we’ve met," Molly said.

"Oh, alright then. Don’t worry, Dr. Carter will take very good care of you. Meet us in trauma one in. . . .nine minutes, alright?"

"No problem, Dr. Greene."

As Dr. Greene left the room, Molly said, "Well, I guess it’s you and me today."

They exchanged a smile. Molly all of the sudden felt very nervous around Carter. She was quite attracted to him and couldn’t remember when she had felt this way about anyone. Especially since everything had happened. Up until this point, she had been very untrusting of men. But she had been very at ease with Carter earlier. She blushed as he looked at her and smiled.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing! Nothing at all . . ."

He gave her a questioning look. "Well, we better get going or we’ll be late for the meeting."

As they walked to trauma one, Molly thought to herself, here I am, thirty years old, and I’m behaving like a lovesick teenager half my age! But that smile. . .how she loved that smile. She only hoped that she wouldn’t be acting like this all day.

Luckily, she had pulled it together. They went through the day, only two major traumas, a kid fell off his bike and got his leg run over by a car and a guy fell off his roof fixing roof shingles. But the rest of the day was mostly sutures, stitches, headaches, and abdominal pains. By two o’clock, everyone was sitting around the admit desk or in the lounge because there were no patients to care for, except for one of Doyle’s, and she was just waiting for a blood test to come back.

"You know, it isn’t always this quiet!" Carol remarked.

"I assumed. I guess we just got lucky today," Molly replied.

"Hey, look," Carter said. "You jinxed it!" Everyone saw a mother carrying a little boy walk up. The boy was holding his arm and from his facial expression, it seemed to hurt a lot.

The mom offered a pained smile. "Hi. My son fell out of a tree and hurt his arm. I think it might be broken!"

"I’ll take it," Carter said. "Alright follow me this way, miss. . .is exam one open?" he asked, with a goofy smile on his face. He didn’t get an answer just a lot of strange looks. "Sorry, I couldn’t resist. . ." Chuni got up to follow him.

They sat around for another forty-five minutes, still no more patients. Doyle’s patient had been discharged, and Carter’s tree climber was just about finished. Luckily, his arm was just sprained.

The phone rang. Again. And again. . .Molly finally said, "Sure, *this* is what they pay me to do. ER?" she said, picking up the phone. "Ah, okay, hold on one sec. . .Dr. Greene?"

"Yep?" he said, swinging his chair around to face her.

"Is it alright if I take ten minutes off? I can understand if I can’t, due to the fact that we’re so swamped," she said, smiling.

"Sure, take your time. We’ll page you if anything comes up. You’ll be close, right?"

"Yeah, I’ll just be at. . ," she put the phone to her ear again. "Where? Oh, alright, bye," she turned to face them again. "Doc Magoo’s?"

"Okay, no problem. Have fun," Dr. Greene replied.

"Yeah, a hot date on your first day!" Jerry said.

Molly rolled her eyes. "FYI, Jerry, it’s my sister. I wouldn’t call that a hot date!" she said as she walked off.

"Now, next time be more careful, okay? Feel better!" Carter said as the mom and boy walked out the door. He walked over to the board and erased "Daniel Jones" from it. "Ah, a clean board. What a beautiful site! Hey, you know, I never had any lunch. You mind if I go get something at Doc Magoo’s?"

"No problem. . .if you bring me back a cheeseburger," Dr. Greene said.

"And me some fries," Carol said.

"Bring me back something," Haleh said. "Because I haven’t eaten all day!"

"Let me guess," Carter said, turning to Chuni, Jeanie, Jerry, Randi, and Maggie. "You want me to bring you back something too?"

"I could go for some fries," Jeanie said.

"That does sound good," Maggie chimed in.

Chuni just gave Carter a sweet smile. "I’ll get everyone fries, except for Dr. Greene, who wants a cheeseburger."

"Uh, I want a cheeseburger too," Maggie said.

"Alright! Two cheeseburgers and seven fries. Anything else?"

"No, I think that’ll do it," Carol said, smiling at him.

"Goodbye then! Page me if you need me."

"Come here you two! Mady, stop chasing Jack! I ordered you fries and you two better eat some of them," Molly said. Madeline and Jack sat down at the table. "You know better than to play tag in restaurants. Now tell me more about your day."

"It was lots of fun! I already made a friend. Her name’s Cessy. Cessy Rosenbloom. Can she maybe come over one day?" Madeline asked.

"One day when Mommy doesn’t have to work, Mady. I’m glad that you had a good day. How about you Jack?"

Jack just shrugged. "It was okay."

"Did you make any new friends?"

"Not really."

Molly looked over at her sister, Caitlyn, who was sitting across the table. They exchanged a "look". All of the sudden, Caitlyn’s daughter, Erin, came back from the bathroom. "Guess what?" she said.

"Hmm?" Molly asked.

"Outside, a little closer to the hospital, there’s a basketball hoop! Can we go outside and play?"

"Yeah, mom, can we?" Madeline asked.

"If you both stay with Erin. Be careful!"

Madeline and Erin ran out of the door. Jack followed at a much slower pace.

As Jack walked out the door, Carter walked in. They didn’t see each other. Carter just walked up to the counter and sat down. He had sat down quite close to Molly’s table, without even knowing it.

Molly turned to face Caitlyn. "I really am worried about him. How’d they do today?"

Carter was surprised to hear her voice. He turned, and yep, it was her. He normally didn’t like eavesdropping, but. . .

"Mady did fine. She made a few new friends, and fit right in. This afternoon, she already finished her homework, and then told me that it was quite easy. Jack’s another story. He’s been quiet all day. He hasn’t really said much all day, and ate lunch alone. I think he’s kinda mad too. I asked him to spell cat and he got all nervous and spelled it K-A-T. So, it’s partially my fault."

"No, it’s not," Molly reassured her. "Oh, I feel so bad for him. Stuff like that embarrasses him. Well, he’s always been much more quiet and shy than Mady. But he’s been more so quiet since Granny died. It worries me, ya know? It also worries me that he doesn’t have any male adults in his life. No father, no grandfathers. I hope Paul might make some kind of difference or something."

"Yeah, or maybe you could find a boyfriend?" Caitlyn said, smiling. "Since you haven’t had one in. . ."

Molly interrupted her before she could continue. "I am fully aware that I haven’t had a boyfriend since they were born. I don’t need a reminder," she replied curtly.

"No offense, but you really can trust guys."

"Really?" Molly replied sarcastically.

"Oh, come on you have one bad experience, and. . ."

"Okay, okay, I get the point. If it makes you happy, I did meet an *extremely* cute guy today."

Carter almost choked on his soda. She had met a cute guy today. Could it quite possibly be *him*? Yeah, right, he thought. He only hoped.

"See? We’re off to a start. Tell me about him."

"Well, he works at the hospital. Tall, dark hair, nice eyes. And that smile! Anyway, he’s a second year, like me. Kinda my guide for the day."

Oh my gosh, Carter thought, *it is me*!

"Name," Caitlyn demanded.

Molly paused. "Oh, alright. Carter. John Carter. Why? You know him?"

"Nope."

Carter decided to attempt to get out. He certainly didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping! He ran out of the door, and luckily, Molly didn’t notice.

"You know, I do want to thank you for all of your help," Molly said.

"Hey, don’t change the subject on me! Anyway, it’s no problem. Anything for my little sister!"

As Carter walked outside, he suddenly remembered about everyone’s food. He walked back in Doc Magoo’s to order, trying to avoid being caught. His plan backfired though. Molly saw him, and waved. He waved back and walked over.

"So, how’s everything over there?" Molly asked.

"Not one patient. Surprising, huh?"

"Yeah. Oh, John Carter, this is my sister, Caitlyn Wright." The two shook hands. Caitlyn gave Molly a look that Carter assumed (and hoped!) was a seal of approval. "So, why are you here?"

"Everyone in the ER was hungry. I was their runner."

"Ah. Well, if you think that they can wait, you can sit down."

"I don’t want to intrude. . ."

"Nonsense. Sit."

Carter sat. All of the sudden, the kids ran in.

"We beat Jack! We won!" Madeline said as they walked in.

"It wasn’t fair. Two-on-one," Jack said very quietly.

"It’s okay, Jack. Guys, this is Dr. Carter. He works with me at the hospital. And this is Jack, Madeline, and Erin," Molly said.

"Hi," the three of them said. Carter returned the reply. "Sorry, I must be in someone’s seat."

"It’s alright. Jack, come sit in Mommy’s lap." He obediently did so.

"So, like I was saying, we have to go have dinner with you-know-who. So, I’ll call you later, alright? Will they be okay with you?" Caitlyn asked.

"They’ll be fine in the lounge, right Carter? I’m only on another hour or so."

"Sure, they’ll be fine."

Then, there was a chorus of good-byes, and nice-to-meet-yous. "You two can just finish your homework when we get back to the lounge," Molly said.

"I’m already done. It was easy. You only have to color a picture inside of the lines," Mady said.

"Well, you can do something. How about you, Jack? Are you almost done?" There was no answer from Jack. "Jack?"

"Jack’ll never be done. It takes him too long. He’s stupid!" Mady said.

"I am not!" Jack said quietly as he sprang off of Molly’s lap.

"Mady!" Molly said.

"Yes you are! You can’t even spell ‘cat’! Anyone could have done that! C-A-T! You’re just a dummy!"

"Am not," Jack whispered, before bolting out the door.

"Madeline Ann Goldstein! Look what you’ve done!" Molly said. "What am I going to do with you?" She turned to face Carter. "I have the biggest favor to ask of you. Can you go find him? He has no clue where he’s going and I have to deal with her. . . ," she trailed off

"Sure, no problem," Carter said, giving Molly a sympathetic look.

"Thanks. Madeline and I are going to have a little talk."

Carter walked out of the door. His first instinct was to look by the hospital. Sure enough, Jack was at the basketball court, trying to get the ball through the hoop.

"Mady’s right. I am stupid. I can’t even get the ball though the basket," Jack said

Carter walked up to him. After he tried again, Carter said, "Your aim is wrong." Jack turned to see who it was and passed Carter the ball. "Look," Carter said to him as he threw the ball through the hoop.

"How’d you do that?" Jack asked in awe.

"You just aim differently. Aim for the box up there," Carter said. "Also, I think you need a lower hoop. Here," Carter said as he picked Jack up and put him on his shoulders. "Now try."

Jack did as he was told and made it in. "See? Good job!" Carter said.

"Thanks."

"You ready to go back to your mom?"

"Yeah, I guess," Jack said. The two walked back to Doc Magoo’s.

Everything worked out well. There were still no patients. Dr. Greene didn’t mind if Mady and Jack stayed in the lounge and they were both behaving. The doctors were just sitting around the admit desk, reading the newspaper or talking about their day.

"Okay, this is really beginning to scare me," Molly said. "We’ve had exactly four patients since two o’clock."

"That is scary," Dr. Greene said.

"I declare it the slowest day in the history of the ER," Carol responded.

"It’ll never end, they want to torture us," Carter said.

Suddenly, they heard a soft voice. "Mommy?"

"Come here, Jack."

Jack climbed on to his mother’s lap and whispered something in her ear. "Sure, Jack, this way. See where that door is?" Molly told him, "Be right there." He climbed off his mother’s lap and walked down the hall.

"Bathroom break," she explained.

"He is so adorable!" Carol exclaimed. "I hope my kids are that cute one day."

"Don’t worry Carol, they will be," Jeanie said.

Mark smiled at Carol, knowing the secret she held.

Molly and Jack walked back. "Yes, you can go get a dollar from my purse to get a snack. Can you reach it in the locker?"

Jack nodded his head and walked to the lounge.

"I was just saying to everyone that your kids are so adorable," Carol said.

"Thanks," Molly said with a smile. "I hope it’s not a problem that they’re here."

"Mark brings Rachel, his daughter here all the time, so don’t worry about it," Carol replied.

"I think Rachel spends more time here than my house!" Mark replied.

"Mommy," Jack said. "I can’t reach the place where the money goes in."

"Here, I’ll help you," Jerry said. "I was going to get something anyway."

"Thanks, Jerry."

When they came back, Jack exclaimed, "Mom, guess what? Dr. Jerry showed me how to get it for free!" He held up a hand which held a dollar bill and a bag of pretzels.

Everyone laughed. "Well, Malik showed me!" Jerry said.

"Jerry’s not a doctor. He just answers the phone," Carter said.

"He doesn’t even do that," Randi replied.

"Hey, I do that and more! And that had a nice ring to it. . .Dr. Jerry. . ."

"Stop him before it gets to his head!" Carol exclaimed.

Everyone laughed again.

"No, really. . .Dr. Greene, could I get a tag saying Dr. Jerry on it? Please?"

Mark rolled his eyes. "No, Jerry. . ."

Ah, more silence, Molly thought. She looked in the review mirror at the two sleeping children in the back of her Volvo. She was proud of herself for making a new start. She thought back upon her interesting day. Yes, *interesting* would definitely be the right word. . .

To be continued.....