Page 32 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

I drove around for a while after I left Claire’s, not wanting to sit in my dark, empty rental. But I couldn’t think of where else to go. I knew sort of where Sam lived from his pics on socials — a nice place in Germantown, close to a park. It wouldn’t be hard to find if I looked. But Sam hadn’t invited me, and he’d been distant. I’d meant to look up some other old friends, but I hadn’t got round to it with the whole shock of Oli. So I drove around as the city grew dark. I slowed in front of a diner that looked warm inside, but the families in the windows made me feel cold. How lonely would that be, a table for one, while all around me folks talked and laughed?

I drove by the bars I’d gone to in med school, and a few more upscale ones with wine-themed décor. People spilled out inpairs and in groups, young people mostly, but no one I knew. They made me feel old, though they looked around my age. The thought of joining them made me feel tired.

With nowhere to go, I circled back home. I headed inside and lay flat on the bed. It wasn’t late enough yet I could go to sleep, so I watched the pale blooms of headlights ride up my walls, cars going by on the street outside. Claire had once felt like home to me, but this town… it wasn’t. I’d left, and my old life had moved on without me.

My phone buzzed and I reached for it. Relief flooded through me when I saw it was work.

“Finley,” I said.

“Hey, Blake. It’s us.” A swell of music came through, and a muffled shout. “Hey, knock it off. Blake? You still there?”

“Hey, Rick.” I smiled. “What’s going on? Aren’t you on duty?”

“No, we’re— where are we?”

A muffled answer came back, all garbled with static. Rick made a snorting sound.

“We’re at this house party, this… uh — I thought it was a christening, some civvie’s new baby. But everyone’s just drinking.”

“Some German thing, maybe.” I checked my watch. “Isn’t it like three a.m. over there? I don’t think a newborn should be up that late.”

“Oh, the baby’s not here. At least, I don’tthinkit is. Anyway, I’m calling because?—”

“That him? Ask him!”

I grinned. “Ask me what? Who all’s there?”

“Brown, Smith, y’know. Reynolds and Wood.”

“Shit, you’re all there. Who’s minding the zoo?”

A couple of guys bawled out hellos. Rick hollered hi back for me. Someone called for a toast.

“Askhim,” yelled Reynolds. “That shit’s long distance!”

I groaned. “Ask me what?”

“It’s this game,” said Rick. “Like trivia. We figured, with you being this massive nerd?—”

“Hey. We all sat through four years of med school.”

“Yeah, but you’re…” Rick laughed, and I could tell he’d had a couple. He wasn’t drunk, but he was loose, happy. “What do you call a bird’s nose?”

I frowned. “What, its beak?”

“No, that’s its mouth. What’s itsnosecalled?”

“I don’t know, man. Its nose? I’m not that big a nerd.”

“He doesn’t know,” bellowed Rick. Somebody booed. I heard Rick get up and weave through the party, music swelling then fading as he passed by the speaker. A door slammed, and the noise dropped by half.

“Sorry,” said Rick. “Brown made me call. So, how’s your leave? Enjoying Memphis?”

I thought about telling him the whole ugly truth, how I’d stepped off the plane into a place that felt strange. How my best friends from college had blown me off. How I’d gone walkingto lick my wounds and run headfirst into my surprise family. If anyone would get it, my Army buds would. A lot of them had girls and families back home. We’d been through it all — war, family drama. Long, bloody nights in the trauma OR. There was nothing on earth I couldn’t tell Rick, but he’d likely just come off a harrowing shift. The last thing he needed was one more wound to fix.

“It’s good,” I said. “Saw me some penguins.”

Rick snorted. “Penguins, huh? And what’s their nose called?”

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