House Calls and Hitching Posts by Dorcas Sharp Hoover

Author:Dorcas Sharp Hoover
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

18.

A DOG IN DOC’S BED

How did I ever find this little corner of Eden? Dr. Lehman wondered as his Jeep threaded up a blacktopped driveway just a stone’s throw from the clinic. Every time I head up this lane, I marvel how we ever got this property in the first place, he thought, cresting a grassy knoll and parking in the circle drive in front of the stone, L-shaped home.

Walking through his house, he glanced at the view framed by the plate glass windows. Prettier than a painting, he thought, looking across the wooded hills, plowed fields, and farmsteads in the valley below. Sliding open the glass door, he stepped out onto the deck.

Dr. Lehman marveled at this piece of paradise tucked away just a short walk from his office. He and Phyllis could sit on the deck at the end of the day and take in the sunset without another soul in sight while the children played to their hearts’ content. Thank God we didn’t build a house on the corner of Harrison Road and Route 241, he thought, looking out over the valley. God knew I needed this quiet, hidden retreat at the end of a long day.

The day he had changed his mind about building a house on Harrison Road had been an invigorating spring day much like this one, when the sun gently woke the tulip bulbs from their long winter slumber.

“Let’s fly your kite over at the field where we are going to build our new house,” Dr. Lehman suggested that spring afternoon. Though the small yard offered no place to fly a kite, there was plenty of space on the acreage he had just purchased. Besides, he and his son would have a few moments alone, uninterrupted by the patients who always dropped by when they spotted their doctor outside the white Victorian house.

“I can’t wait until we build the new house. Then you can go outside with me every day without people stopping to talk to you about their problems,” Brent announced as Elton parked his car at the edge of the field.

“I can’t wait either, Son,” his father remarked, thinking of the safe haven he and Phyllis would create for their family away from the loaded semi trucks that roared passed Brent’s tricycle on the sidewalk. They’d build a quiet retreat where they could sit together on the deck and watch the sunset away from the gaze and intrusion of every passerby. Yes, the new lot was a start toward more family time together, he hoped as he watched the kite lift into the air.

“Higher, Daddy, higher!” Brent shouted as the kite dipped and soared in the sky as they ran together across the field. The tension of the doctor’s heart unwound and disappeared into the breeze as the kite string slipped through his fingers.

I’ve got to spend more afternoons like this with my son, he realized. Maybe after the house is built I can go out and play with Brent without every sick person around Mount Eaton stopping by for a free diagnosis.

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