Recoveries... a KnightWATCH story

Chapter 10

         Melinda Bradley called herself a power shopper, certain she had it down to a science. Then Stephanie Berglund took her to a whole new level. Melinda would later refer to the day as ”Warp Speed Shopping”. In four hours, the two off duty nurses had blown through the Clairbridge Center mall as if there were no tomorrow. Melinda tried on so many outfits that she joked she’d spent more time undressed than dressed. Yet for all the time in dressing rooms, Melinda had purchased only one item, a soft and slightly oversized tan sweater.

         “Okay, kiddo, it’s breather time.” Stephanie set her two large shopping bags on a bench to emphasize the point.

         “Wait a minute.” Melinda looked at Stephanie in visible shock. ”Stephanie Berglund, the self-proclaimed queen of the power shoppers, needs to take a break? Take me now, Lord, for I have seen everything.”

         “Hah!” Stephanie looked over the top of her eyeglasses. ”One, I just need to pace myself. Two, you’re too young to have seen everything. Three, it’s past lunchtime, and this mall’s food court is better than 90 per cent of the restaurants in this town. Let’s eat.”

         Across the way, Dr. Karl Marx had just walked out of Sam Goody with three new CDs and some blank tapes. While debating which store to go to next, he saw Melinda and Stephanie. Without a conscious thought, Marx went into ”prowl mode,” deciding he’d again try to convince Melinda she should date the young doctor. His hormone-fed ego ignored the fact that Melinda had turned him down over a dozen times.

         Melinda and Stephanie made their lunch purchases (spaghetti and meatballs for Stephanie, Mexican combo platter for Melinda) and found a table overlooking the mall’s rain forest area. They each spent several minutes eating. Then Melinda started staring over the balcony at the waterfall.
         “Okay, kiddo,” Stephanie asked, ”what’s on your mind?”

         “Huh? Oh, places like this always put me in a peaceful mood. Back in high school, I went on a senior class trip to Hawaii. Everyone else raved about the beaches. But what made the trip special for me was this mountain waterfall. I’d gotten into an argument with my then-boyfriend. We stormed off from each other. I found this waterfall, and the sound just relaxed me. Ever since then, a waterfall always calms me down better than anything else. The first few weeks after Jeremy’s funeral, I’d spend large chunks of my days off down here, just letting the waterfall relax me. I even brought my therapist down here a few times so he’d see the effect it had on me.”

         “Just so long as you don’t become addicted to them, Mel. They aren’t always easy to come by.”

         “No kidding,” she chuckled. “I can’t even find any good recordings of waterfalls. It’s a good thing I can also relax with sax music.”

         “At least you’ve learned to relax, and that relaxing is necessary. You and I both know people who haven’t learned that. Some of them simply refuse to learn. Darlene Thomas in ICU is the perfect example.”

         “Darlene Thomas? You mean ‘Madame Anti-Vacation’?”

         “That’s her, Mel. Hasn’t taken a day off in almost three years. I think the dictionary has a picture of her next to the word ‘workaholic’. I’ve heard rumors that she’s a lesbian, but I doubt it. Shoot, she’s never away from work long enough to date anyone, let alone be in a relationship.”

         “Hey, Steph, if it works for her --”

         “I know, Mel. I guess I just can’t make that leap. But then, I’ve been with Mike for 20 years. Hey, I need a refill. Want anything?”

         “No, but thanks.” Stephanie went to get another large iced tea. Melinda turned her attention back to the waterfall. She soon became so entranced that she never noticed Dr. Karl Marx walk up to her table.

         “Hey there, gorgeous!!” Marx had never been known for his subtlety. ”What’s a beautiful lady like you doing sitting alone? You obviously need some company.” Marx pulled a chair over to provide that company. Melinda looked up, startled by the scraping of the chair on the tile floor.

         “Oh, hello Doctor Marx.”

         “Doctor Marx? Please, Mindy, don’t be so formal. We’re off duty, call me Karl.” He flashed a beaming smile in a supposed attempt at sincerity. To Melinda, it all came off false. Because of his past treatment of her, Melinda had no desire to ever date the overly self-assured doctor. “Now, why are you sitting all alone in a shopping mall food court?”

         “I’m just enjoying the waterfall. And I’m only temporarily alone. My friend, whose lunch you almost planted your elbow in, is off refilling her drink. I imagine we’ll start shopping again when she gets back.”

         “Shopping? That’s no fun. How about you and me catch a movie? There’s some good shows across the way at the multiplex.” Marx pointed to the sixteen-screen movie theater on the other side of the rain forest area.

         “Thanks, but no thanks, doctor. I’m not interested in a movie with you, today or any other time.” Melinda took a sip from her cup of iced tea.

         “Oh, you’ll change your mind, Mindy. Everybody does. In time, you’ll come to see the error of your ways.”

         “Doctor, how many times have you asked me out? And how many times have I said ‘no’ in reply?”

         “It doesn’t matter, Mindy. It doesn’t matter because you WILL go out with me. I guarantee it.”

         “Excuse me, young man,” Stephanie chimed in. ”But you’re blocking my chair. I’d like to sit down.”

         “Get lost, lady.” Marx never bothered to see who was talking to him. ”This is a private conversation.”

         “Doctor Marx,” Melinda replied, ”My friend would like to sit down and finish her lunch. As far as I’m concerned, she’s much more welcome at this table than you are.”

         “What do you mean, Mindy? I’m welcome anywhere I go!”

         “Well, doctor, in this case you’re wrong. Frankly, you wore out your welcome when you opened your mouth. Please leave. You’re interrupting our lunch.”

         “Okay. But I don’t give up, Mindy.” Marx stood up and moved his chair away. Then he bent down to snarl in her ear. “And remember, I ALWAYS get my way.” Marx walked away, and Stephanie sat down to finish her meal.

         “God, he gives me the creeps.” Melinda shuddered. ”What the Hell is with that guy, anyway? I’ve said no to him at least a dozen times. Can’t he take the hint?”

         “You’re not alone in having that problem, Mel.” Stephanie started ticking off names on her fingers. ”Paula Pawlush, Kathy Rhee, Kerri Richards and both of the Rathburn sisters have turned him down. Those are just the rejections I’ve seen personally. I’ve heard through the grapevine that several other nurses have turned him down flat.”

         “Okay, I know Kathy and Paula both have boyfriends. No matter how much Paula tries to hide it, everyone knows she’s ‘The Duck’s Favorite Hen’. Why don’t they just announce an engagement and get it over with?”

         “My guess is they are afraid of anti-fraternization rules.”

         “I thought those were for relationships between admin types and the worker bees. I’ll have to look that one up. Anyway, that’s Paula. Kathy is dating Greg Gunderson, as you mentioned last night. Kerri Richards is engaged to an architect. Jenny Rathburn dates a lot of guys, but they’ve all been pretty classy, at least that I’ve seen. I’m not surprised that any of them have turned down Dr. Marx.”

         “But a rejection from Jill Rathburn surprises you?”

         “Considering she was once known as the ‘Pickup Queen of Carrolton’, yeah, that surprises me. Shoot, I saw her hit on three different guys at Magoo’s one night. And that was after several hours of sweaty August softball!! I had thought she’d date any two-legged male. She actually turned down Marx?”

         “Dropped him like yesterday’s garbage.” Stephanie took sip of her drink. ”Yes, even our resident pickup artist has some sense of taste in her dates. And give Marx one little bit of credit. For the most part, he’s targeted some of the more classy ladies around Carrolton.”

         “That’s another thing,” Melinda replied around a bite of her lunch. ”We’re targets. I wonder if he keeps notches on his belt, or some other remembrance of his conquests. We certainly don’t seem to be people in his mind.”

         “Neither are EMTs and Paramedics, for that matter.” Stephanie recalled several incidents involving EMS crews and Dr. Karl Marx. “Last December, he overruled the report a paramedic gave over the radio. Just totally tossed it. And when they arrived, Marx started issuing orders without information.”

         “How did he not get canned?”

         “He got a first-offense disciplinary report. Since then he’s taken radio reports, but he barely pays attention to them. And then he’ll make claims in the staff lounge that he’s saving patients in spite of the EMS crews.”

         “I’ve heard him do that. It’s a wonder part of my tongue hasn’t been chopped off from all the times I’ve bitten it during his tirades. Why is he so anti-EMS? It’s like he’s on a mission of some sort.”

         “And then there’s yesterday, Mel.”

         “I’m still waiting for fallout from the little showdown I had with him. What else happened?”

         “Oh, you missed a good one. When the air crew brought in that EMT, Marx tried to send him straight to Ortho without a work-up.”

         “He did what? And how did I miss this little melodrama?”

         “You were off double-checking Trauma One just as they arrived. Right after they walked off the helipad elevator, Marx walked up, took a quick look and tried to ship him off to Ortho.”

         “He tried to send a critically injured patient straight to Ortho? No labs or x-rays? No attempt to see if he was stable?” Melinda shook her head in disbelief.

         “And no report from the flight crew, Mel. Once he saw the uniform, Marx was out to ship this guy off without any information.”

         “In a way, it fits. The whole reason Marx and I had our little showdown was because he kept grilling me on the patient’s identity. Marx wanted to know if it was the EMT being flown in, or the guy in the other vehicle. What stopped Marx from pulling it off?”

         “The paramedic from the helicopter. She challenged him right there, told him he needed to take report, get x-rays and see if the patient was stable enough to go to OR. Marx told the flight medic she didn’t have the experience to contradict him. Then Angie Swanson spoke up.”

         “So THAT’S what that was all about. I came out of Trauma One and saw Marx stammering to Dr. Swanson. No wonder he looked like a gutted fish out of water. Any chance that will finish him?”

         “Not sure, Mel. Our young, impetuous doctor seems to have a knack for landing on his feet. And he’s certainly confident that everything in life will go his way. The crazy thing is, a lot of times he can be a good doctor. But he refuses to deal with EMS crews with any sort of respect, and he stomps on nurses, technologists, and anyone else he considers ‘inferior’ to himself. Never mind how much training and experience they have. That will probably be his downfall.”

         “Unless he’s brought up on harassment charges. Shoot, just from the names you mentioned earlier, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already. And if he keeps acting the way he did today, it will happen sooner or later. ‘Remember, I always get my way.’ God, what a creep!!”

         “Don’t worry too much, Mel. He’ll get what he deserves. In the end, we all do.” And that includes happiness, Stephanie thought to herself. All of us get the happiness we deserve... even if we’re too scared to recognize it at first.