Page 52 of A Better World

“I don’t like owing the valley people.”

“Just come back,” Linda said with exasperation. She saw them off, letting them know they didn’t need an appointment. Just show up any Friday.

At the end of the day, she looked at her schedule for next week. Six patients in all.

Progress!

Saturday was a big night in the Farmer-Bowen household.

Around five thirty p.m., Cathy Bennett dropped her bike down onto their front lawn and left it there. The fact that it didn’t need to be locked—no one would possibly steal it—still surprised Linda. Rocking another onesie pajama, this time with a fringed collar made from what looked like recycled tires, Cathy appeared at their front door.

“Hi, Cathy! Come on in!” Linda said.

Cathy blushed, her gaze pointed between her funky, handsewn house slippers. “Hi, Ms. Farmer. Bowen. I’m sorry,Dr.Bowen,” she mumbled, lathering herself into a high-pitched panic. “Dr. Farmer!”

“Honey, it’s Linda.” Cathy looked like she might cry, so Linda put her hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Or whatever you want. Just glad you’re here.” Then she stepped aside so Hip could greet his guest.

In the time they’d been a couple, he’d gained confidence. He stood taller and his voice had lost its questioning lilt. He liked taking care of her.

“My mom made onion dip,” he said, which was true. She tried to keep the fridge packed with every possible temptation. It seemed to be working, as Hip’s appetite had remained strong.

Soon after Hip and Cathy disappeared, Josie came down in her heavy, knee-length coat. She’d become friends with a large crew of kids who traveled in a happy, clean-cut pack. They roamed the streets, goofing around in night parks, visiting one another’s houses, and generally looking for mischief, but finding none. The group was composed of the soccer team, the spring swim team, and the debate club—the ambitious kids who’d been marked as the most likely to succeed there. They didn’t seem to have silly bones, like Josie’s old friends in Kings. Nobody ever laughed until they cried. But they were upstanding and it was a relief that Linda could let her go out at night and know she’d be safe.

Josie opened the front door and there they were, a crew of about ten kids that would snowball into twenty or more over the course of the night. She walked out, engulfed.

Linda and Russell were last. He came down the stairs all dressed up and offered his arm. “Ready?”

Their first stop at Sirin’s was at the soccer parents’ regular table in the main room, where they were greeted with hoots, hollers, and hugs. The big topic was the new principal, who everyone felt needed more training. “It seems soon to cast judgment,” Linda said. “Shouldn’t we give her a year to get her footing?”

“We don’t have a year! BWU essays go out in the winter,” Farah said. “These towns are drawing wagons. If kids don’t graduate from honors track, they’ll never make it. Think about all those poor high school seniors whose futures are on the line. This has to be resolved now.”

“Outsiders are good for shaking things up, but they’re clueless. You can’t hire an outsider as a principal. It’s irresponsible,” Ruth Epstein said. Then she remembered that Linda and Russell were new. “Not you guys!”

“Are you coming to the pregame tomorrow?” Amir asked Russell.

“Looking forward to it,” he said.

Russell stayed. Linda moved on to that same back room from the first time she’d met ActHollow.

“You’ve arrived!” Anouk called with flourish. She draped her scarf as she did this, a little for humor, a little pure arrogance.

Like every other Saturday they’d been having these meetings, Linda gave them a breakdown: the on-site X-ray machine needed a regular technician, and they were still waiting for the MRI and drug printer. She also wanted oversight for her position. All doctors need fellow doctors with whom to review their cases. It’s often in the troubleshooting that better answers appear. She was confident, her tone definitive in ways it wasn’t at home or socially. She knew how to run a clinic.

“You don’t need oversight,” Daniella said. “You’re a marvel.”

“This isn’t a cowboy field,” Linda answered. “The best doctors have colleagues.”

“Point taken. We’ll send out a call,” Daniella said.

Kai read the budget. He’d been coming to meetings again. He and Rachel still lived in the same house but took separate cars and sat apart. They seemed to enjoy antagonizing one another, in the way that people with strong feelings, who aren’t yet willing to give up, tend to do.

“We’ve underprojected expenditures this month,” he said. “Which would be great, if we also hadn’t projected twenty patients a week.”

“So, basically, the only thing we need is patients,” Linda said.

“I didn’t guess that would be our problem. Their population’s not much lower than ours and they don’t have any doctors. I thought we’d feel terrible, having to turn them away,” Daniella said.

“Town relations haven’t been very good, have they?” Linda asked.

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