Looking for Jane: A Novel by Heather Marshall

Author:Heather Marshall [Marshall, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16 Evelyn

SUMMER 1983

In her office at the back of the clinic, Evelyn reaches across the desk for her coffee mug and takes a swig. It went stone-cold hours ago, but with a busy practice, she’s become quite used to cold coffee. She might even prefer it that way now.

She’s been reviewing this week’s patient charts in a bleary sort of way. She’s tired enough that she should probably give up and go home. She has the house to herself tonight; Tom is out for dinner with a man named Reg, a lawyer he met through another gay friend at a party. This is their second date, and Evelyn’s happy for him. She wishes he would get out and date more for his own sake, but she also enjoys the solitude of an empty house every once in a while to be alone with her thoughts.

Evelyn looks at her watch. She’ll give it another ten minutes and then pack it in. Tomorrow she has a full day of regular patients and two abortions for the Janes in the evening.

Just as she’s locking the charts away in the filing cabinet under her desk, the phone rings. Her receptionist went home an hour ago, and Evelyn hates leaving her patients hanging. Reliability is important.

With a sigh, she picks up the receiver. “Dr. Evelyn Taylor.”

“Oh, Dr. Taylor? I’m so glad I caught you. I’m sorry to call so late in the day. It’s Ilene Simpson.”

Chester Braithwaite’s daughter.

“Ilene! So nice to hear from you. How is everything?”

With a lurch in her gut, Evelyn braces for the worst. Despite Chester’s initial assurances that he was in perfect health and only required the services of a doctor to appease his nagging daughter, he ran into some difficulties with his blood pressure and cholesterol. He came in for his flu shot and yearly checkups, but also for more minor concerns like a scab from a rope burn that didn’t quite want to heal, or a stubbed baby toe he thought might be broken. His daughter and her family lived an hour’s drive from the city center in the northern suburbs, and Evelyn often got the sense that Chester was simply lonely. His enthusiasm for Evelyn and her practice served as a welcome confidence boost in the absence of support from her own parents, so she didn’t mind his frequent presence one bit.

Then there was a prostate cancer scare five years ago that precipitated tests which, to Evelyn’s immense relief, came back negative, and his health was reasonably consistent until the whiskey finally caught up to his pancreas. Evelyn was in regular contact with Ilene as she struggled to provide care for him in her own home, and she made a dozen house calls before the family eventually decided to place Chester in nursing care a few months ago. Evelyn hadn’t heard from Ilene since then.

“Well, he’s… he’s in his last weeks now,” Ilene says. “Maybe days. They declared him palliative. There’s nothing more to be done.”

Evelyn sinks back down into her office chair.

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