Slice of Life: A Day at Work

This is a thing I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Since the Thoreau’s are so plot-driven, there are all these little moments that pop up when I play that I don’t get to share! Well, now I’m going to start sharing them in a series called “Slice of Life.” Yay for extra content!

—Shirley—

I walked into the exam room and came to a stop. I knew the boy on the exam bed; it was one of Loralee’s younger brothers, Blake. I quickly glanced around the rest of the small room, but didn’t see Anna or Huy. Maybe they’ve gone to the cafeteria. We were having a busy day today, so they could’ve been waiting a while.

I walked over to Blake, smiling at him. “Hi, Blake. Do you remember me? I’m Shirley, one of Loralee’s moms.”

He smiled weakly. “Oh, yeah, I remember you. Hi.”

“How are you doing today, Blake? Your chart says your head is bothering you?”

He nodded, but his expressions said he wished he hadn’t done so. “Yes. Mom brought here. She went out to call my dad.”

Whew. So I probably wasn’t going to have to run into Huy. Good to know.

“Alright. Let’s see about getting you feeling better.”

After checking his temperature and testing some samples I got from him, I went back into the room. “Good news, Blake. You’ve just got a little case of Starry Eyes.” I poured him a dose of medicine. “This should get you feeling better in no time.” After he took his medicine, he smiled and thanked me. I left an orderly with him to wait for his mom to come back again, then I moved to the next room.

“Hads!” I rushed into the exam room. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

She smiled and waved me off. “I’m fine. That’s why I didn’t even call you about it. I thought I’d just let whoever was around fix me up.”

“If you were fine, you wouldn’t be here,” I admonished. “What’s going on?”

“I’m just feeling a little run down. There’s something going around at school. Nathan was sick last week, and I think I’ve got it now.”

I tsked as I examined my older sister. “You should’ve called me. Then you wouldn’t have had to wait.”

“I don’t expect special treatment just because you’re my sister, Shirl.” She smiled. “You have lots of patients to see. They might be worse off than I am.”

“Still,” I groused. “I’m going to go run some tests. Do you want to wait in my office?” Even as I offered, I knew what she was going to say. Sure enough, she declined the offer a moment later.

I pushed through her lab work as quickly as it could go through and came back to the exam room in less than an hour. “You’ve picked up a nasty bit of Llama Flu.”

She groaned softly. “That means a shot, doesn’t it?”

“Yep,” I said as I filled the syringe. “Sure does.”

As she started to sit up after the shot, I smiled. “See? Wasn’t so bad, was it? Do you want a lollipop?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re so funny.” She got up and started changing into her regular clothes. “We’re still going to see all of you for dinner tomorrow?”

I smiled. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. And that means you better take it easy today, or I’ll find out from Carter tomorrow.”

We said goodbye, and I walked her out. As I went by reception, I grabbed another chart and got ready for the next patient.