“I’ll tell you what,” Kim said. “Meet me over at the University Med Center emergency room.”
“When?”
“When can you be there?” Kim asked.
“I guess in about a half hour,” Tracy said.
“I’ll see you then,” Kim said.
Since he was only about ten minutes away from the hospital now that peak traffic time had passed, Kim used the intervening twenty minutes to return as many phone calls as he could. When he got to the emergency room, he discovered he’d still beat Tracy, so he stood out on the receiving dock and waited. While he stood there, several ambulances pulled up to the platform with their screaming sirens trailing off. Hurriedly the EMT’s unloaded a couple of patients in dire need of emergency care. One of them was being given CPR. Kim watched them disappear inside, and it made him nostalgically recall his days as a surgical resident. Kim had worked hard and had been rewarded by being told repeatedly he was one of the best residents who had ever come through the program. It had been a heady time and in many ways more fulfilling than now.
Kim was just about to use his cell phone to try to contact Tracy when he saw Tracy’s Volvo station wagon round the corner and pull to a stop. Kim dropped to the pavement and trotted over to the car as the doors were being opened. He went directly to the passenger side and helped Becky. She smiled at him weakly as she got out.
“Are you okay, Pumpkin?” Kim asked.
“My cramps are worse,” Becky said.
“Well, we’ll get them taken care of,” Kim said. He glanced at Tracy. who’d come around the car. Kim noticed she looked as irritated as she had the night before.
Kim led the way back to the platform and up the half dozen steps. He pushed open the swinging doors, and they entered.
As the major emergency room in a large, sprawling, Midwestern city. the unit was so jammed it looked like a busy, urban bus station. Monday nights tended to be particularly busy because of a leftover effect from the weekend.
With his arm around his daughter, Kim steered her through the throng in the anteroom where the main admitting desk was located and past the crowded waiting room. He was almost past the nurses’ desk when an enormous, Brunhild-type nurse stepped out from behind the counter. Her bulk effectively blocked Kim from proceeding any further. Her name tag read: MOLLY MCFADDEN. Her height was such that she just about looked Kim in the eye.
“Sorry,” Molly said. “You can’t come in here on your own. You have to check in at the receiving desk.”
Kim tried to push by, but Molly held her ground.
“Excuse me,” Kim said. “I’m Dr. Reggis. I’m on the staff here, and I’m bringing my daughter in to be seen.”
Molly gave a short laugh. “I don’t care if you’re Pope John whatever,” she snorted. “Everyone, and I mean everyone, checks in at the front desk unless they’re carried in here by the EMT’s.”
Kim was so shocked he was rendered momentarily speechless. He could not believe that not only wasn’t he being deferred to, he was being openly challenged. Kim stared disbelievingly into the woman’s defiant blue eyes. She seemed as formidable as a Sumo wrestler dressed in white. If she’d heard Kim identify himself as a member of the professional staff she gave no indication whatsoever.
“The sooner you check in, Doctor,” Molly added, “the sooner the girl will be seen.”
“You did hear me, didn’t you?” Kim questioned. “I’m a senior attending in the department of cardiac surgery.”
“Of course I heard you, Doctor,” Molly said. “The question is: Did you hear me?”
Kim glared at the woman but she was not to be intimidated.
Tracy sensed an impasse. Having an all-too-good idea of her former husband’s temper, she took it upon herself to defuse the situation.
“Come on, dear,” Tracy said to Becky. “Let’s follow orders and get you checked in.” She guided Becky back the way they’d come.
Kim shot one more nasty look at Molly, then turned and caught up to Tracy and Becky. Together they joined the ragtag line of patients waiting to check in. But Kim was still fuming.