Page 22 of A Winter of Discontent for Henry Milch

“Sorry,” he said. Then, “Your mother disappeared? You don’t think something horrible…”

“Nothing happened to her,” my grandmother said. “She sent a Christmas card.”

“Do you know when she’s coming back?”

“Not a clue.”

“She married Emerald’s father.”

Awkwardly, Edward said, “Well, that’s something. Can you lift your leg?”

As my grandmother grimaced, I said, “Is it something, though? I can’t work out if it’s better to be abandoned by two parents or just one.”

Oh my god, I could hear the anger in my voice. Getting angry in front of the sexy doctor who occasionally gave me pills was a terrible idea. I shut up.

“Okay, I’m going to send you for X-rays. Sorry we don’t have a portable machine. Too small a hospital.”

He nodded at both of us and then left. I scooted out after him, baby bouncing in my arms. “Edward.”

Turning back to me he asked, “Did I forget something?”

“I just, um, I don’t mean to sound so pissed off.”

“Sounds like your mom is being irresponsible. It’s okay to be pissed about that.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, I’m pissed.”

We kind of gaped at each other for a moment. Then he spoiled the moment by asking, “The situation isn’t… How are you doing with the pills?”

“Well, I could use another prescription, if you’re so inclined.”

Emerald took that moment to wallop me in the face with one hand. Really? She couldn’t possibly understand?—

“Not what I meant,” Edward said, then he whispered, “Oxy?”

“I haven’t had any of that for a hundred and eighty days. Eighty-one? Eighty-two? Something like that.”

“Good. Good for you. There’s a chip for that, isn’t there?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well…”

He looked like he was going to walk away from me, so I blurted out, “Rather than a chip… How many days before we can try having another date?”

“I’m not really supposed to date patients.”

“I’m not a patient. My grandmother is.”

“You’ve been my patient. Repeatedly.”

“Um… Isn’t that a problem? This is the only hospital in like two hundred miles. Basically, everyone is your patient.”

“That’s occurred to me.”

He paused and then after a moment said, “Let me think about it. I need to go order your grandmother’s X-ray.”

When I was back inside Nana Cole’s bay, curtain-room, whatever, I put Emerald back into her car seat which resulted in her starting to cry. I looked up and Nana Cole was glowering at me in a way that made me say, “None of this is my fault.”