Dividing Line by Mary Langton

Author:Mary Langton [Langton, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781477211311
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2012-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Jim passed his test with flying colors. He enjoyed pointing out that the doctor said he’d rarely seen a better colon in a man Jim’s age. So pleased was Jim with his results that he forgot about the grumbling he’d done during the preparation for the test—“This whole bowel-cleansing thing,” as he’d referred to it during the three long days before they went to the endoscopy suite and Jim’s complaints were silenced by an I.V. drip.

Sharon, of course, was equally pleased. She was also relieved. She felt like she had experienced a frightening dream, only to wake up to the sun streaming through the windows. Had she really been scared during the night? It didn’t seem possible now, in the light of day and with the sound of birds outside the window.

A few weeks after the test, Jim and Sharon were sitting on the couch in their TV room. They were watching a reality show about people stripped of modern conveniences—such as matches—and stranded in the wilderness. Jim liked these programs, which he said tested the limits of man’s endurance. To Sharon they just seemed to involve a lot of hiking and going without showers. She was about to drift off to sleep, as she usually did during these shows, when Jim’s voice roused her.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said.

“Careful,” she murmured. “Don’t want to overload the circuits.”

Seriously,” he said. “Now that I’ve had my colonoscopy, and all those other tests I had to have before the colonoscopy—you know, the blood pressure, the blood work, the complete physical—we know I’m in good shape.”

“You certainly are.” Sharon was fully awake now. “And I’m delighted to know it. We can grow old together. Well, not exactly together. You’ll always be nine years ahead of me.” She smiled.

“But what I’m thinking is, what about you? You may not need a colonoscopy yet, because you’re not fifty and there’s no family history. But what about other tests? What about a complete physical?”

“Why, Jim. I do believe you’re worried about me.”

He laughed. “Well, you started it.” He picked up the television remote and pressed the mute button. The sound of people trudging up the side of a mountain while gasping for breath ceased. “When was the last time you had a checkup?”

She thought about it. “I’m not really sure,” she confessed. Was it right before she went away to college? Or was it during college, at the student health center? She could not recall if physicals were required for girls seeking birth control. Surely they must have been, yet she could not remember having one. She was at a loss.

“That’s what I mean,” Jim said. “I hadn’t been to the doctor in a long time, and neither have you.”

“We’ve been very lucky with our health,” she pointed out.

“True. And one way we can keep on being lucky is to get screened for stuff. Catch it early, before there’s a problem. Or prevent it entirely.”

“Jim, you have—what do they call it? The fervor of the convert.”

“You’re not the only one who reads the health section,” he said.

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