“Screw you, Yarborough,” Kevin said. He lowered his hands. His right nostril dripped blood. The bridge of his nose bent to the right.
Trent came over for a better look. “Looks like your beak’s been broken.”
“Shit!” Kevin said.
“Want me to straighten it?” Trent asked. “I won’t charge much.”
“Let’s just hope your malpractice insurance is paid up,” Kevin said. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes.
Trent grabbed Kevin’s nose between his thumb and the knuckle of his index finger and snapped it back into position. The cracking sound that resulted made everyone–even the surgeon–wince.
Trent stepped back to admire his handiwork. “Looks better than the original,” he said.
David asked if he could give Kevin a ride home, but Kevin told him he’d drive himself, still sounding angry.
A sub stepped into the game, taking Kevin’s place. For a moment David stood and gazed at the door where Kevin had exited. Then he winced as someone slapped him on the back. David turned and looked into Trent’s face.
“Don’t let Kevin bother you,” Trent said. “He’s broken two other people’s noses here that I know of. Kevin is not a particularly good sport, but otherwise he’s okay.”
Reluctantly, David resumed the game.
When David returned home, Nikki and Angela were ready for the day’s outing. There were to be no projects that Saturday because they had been invited to a nearby lake for an overnight stay. An afternoon of swimming was to be followed by a cookout. The Yansens, the Yarboroughs, and the Youngs, the “three Y’s” as they called themselves, had rented a lakeside cottage for the month. Steve Young was an obstetrician/gynecologist as well as one of the basketball regulars.
“Come on, Daddy,” Nikki said impatiently. “We’re already late.”
David looked at the time. He’d played basketball longer than usual. Running upstairs, he jumped into the shower. A half hour later they were in the car and on their way.
The lake was an emerald green jewel nestled into a lushly wooded valley between two mountains. One of the mountains boasted a ski resort that David and Angela were told was one of the best in the area.
The cottage was charming. It was a rambling, multi-bedroomed structure built around a massive fieldstone fireplace. A spacious screened porch fronted the entire house and faced the lake. Extending out from the porch was a large deck. A flight of wooden steps connected the deck to a T-shaped dock that ran out fifty feet into the water.
Nikki immediately teamed up with Arni Yansen, and they ran off into the forest where Arni was eager to show her a treehouse. Angela went into the kitchen where Nancy Yansen, Claire Young, and Gayle Yarborough were happily involved in the food preparation. David joined the men who were nursing beers while casually watching a Red Sox game on a portable TV.
The afternoon passed languidly, interrupted only by the minor tragedies associated with eight active children who had the usual proclivities of tripping over rocks, skinning knees, and hurting each others’ feelings. The Yansens had two children, the Youngs had one, and the Yarboroughs had three.
The only blip in the otherwise flawless day was Kevin’s mood. He’d developed mildly black eyes from his broken nose. On more than one occasion he yelled at David for being clumsy and fouling him continuously. David finally took him aside, amazed that Kevin was making such an issue of the affair.
“I apologized,” David said. “And I’ll apologize again. I’m sorry. It was an accident. I certainly didn’t mean it.”
Kevin irritably eyed David, giving David the impression that Kevin was not going to forgive him. But then Kevin sighed. “All right,” he said. “Let’s have another beer.”
After dinner the adults sat around the huge table while the children went out onto the dock to fish. The sky was still red in the west and the color reflected off the water. The tree frogs and crickets and other insects had long since started their incessant nightly chorus. Fireflies dotted the deep shadows under the trees.
At first the conversation dealt with the beauty of the surroundings and the inherent benefits of living in Vermont where most people only got to visit for short vacations. But then the conversation turned to medicine, to the chagrin of the other three wives.