Two Feisty Kids

Dr. Lenny strode from the soccer fields to the town’s only ice cream shop, followed by a gaggle of pre-teen soccer players and their mothers. As the team’s new doctor, he had promised them that he would treat them to ice cream every time they won a home game. They had been winning consistently, and this parade had become a common sight. The shopkeepers waved as the boisterous entourage passed their stores.

Dr. Lenny led the parade dragging the wheeled first aid kit that he took to the games. He had only returned home a few months ago to join his parents’ medical practice, and his father had immediately assigned him as the school’s team doctor, replacing himself. Natalie followed directly behind him in her wheelchair. Millie and Jessie tag-teamed the chair. For Lenny, of everything that the soccer games represented, the dynamic between Natalie, Millie, and Jessie was the most gratifying.

Joining his parents’ medical practice had been Lenny’s dream since he was in elementary school. He finished his residency in pediatrics and came home to open arms and a full workload. He had been on the job for less than a week when a series of incidents occurred on the same day that required a creative solution.

Natalie and her mother had recently moved to town. Natalie had been seriously burned in an incident involving mishandled charcoal lighter fluid that killed her father. Natalie had been confined to bed in the hospital for six months and could barely walk. Upon Natalie’s release from the hospital, she was referred to Lenny by his ex-girlfriend, the burn specialist in the hospital near where the incident occurred.

Millie and Jessie arrived in the office while Natalie was with the physical therapist. They had been fighting due to a difference of opinion at soccer practice, and both needed stitches. Lenny knew that if he did not intervene, these fights would go on forever. The greatest factor in his favor was that Natalie, Millie, and Jessie were in the fifth grade at the same school. The coincidence was not lost on Lenny, but coincidence or not, he needed to make this work. He had three kids who needed each other.

Jessie’s father, an executive with the county’s largest construction company, arrived to pick up his son, the youngest of three aggressive boys, at the same time as Millie’s mother came to pick up her budding pugilist. Lenny presented them with the idea of teaming Millie and Jessie to help Natalie recover her strength and help her adjust to the new school. Lenny hoped that by giving them a project that was bigger than themselves, they could set their differences aside. He knew that by having Natalie seen with Jessie, and by extension, his spirited older brothers, she would be shielded from the bullying that often befell new students with handicaps. Millie could steer the trio through the social landmines that lay in their path.

The three families gathered at the same ice cream shop that was their current destination to decide how to proceed. After a frank and open discussion, they agreed that the plan would benefit everyone, including Jessie’s and Millie’s siblings. Jessie’s brothers, both older than Jessie, were especially excited about the project. They informed Millie’s brother, who was in first grade, that he was now part of the extended family and could count on their protection from bullies at school. As they explained the situation, every school has bullies, and many schools have people that the bullies are afraid of. They made sure that bullies never messed with them or their friends.

Natalie and her mother left first. Lenny went soon after that. No sooner had they gone out of sight than Millie hatched the plan to fix Lenny up with Natalie’s widowed mother.

Lenny vacillated between being insulted that they thought he could not do this independently and being thrilled that they cared enough about him and his well-being to intervene. Millie enlisted Lenny’s parents, brother, sister, spouses, and nieces into the scheme. It was a full-court press, and it was one of the worst kept secrets in town. As Lenny explained to one of his colleagues when they were in med school, the universe has a conspiracy against young single doctors.

Millie chattered the whole time they walked from the soccer fields, and Jessie repeatedly tried to get her to shut up so he could talk. He was as thrilled with his game as she was with hers. Jessie put his hand over her mouth several times to get her to stop, but that effort was short-lived. She had bitten him in the past when he did this, and he knew better than to press his luck.

Growing up with two older brothers, Jessie was often relegated to the background. He had grown comfortable there. It was one of the reasons his relationship with Millie worked. Most of the time, she chattered, and he listened. People at school knew that Jessie, like his brothers and his older cousins, was proficient with his fists and more likely to fight his way out of trouble than talk his way out of it. Millie made him angry more than he liked to admit, but except for that one fight where she had hit him first, he resolved to never hurt her again. It wasn’t right. Guys did not hit girls, especially the girl he had been teamed with to help a girl who needed their help relearning how to walk.

The parade arrived at the ice cream shop and took over their usual corner. Lenny diverted the conversation from the game to the science fair. If they wanted his help, and he was happy to help, they needed to plan their projects soon. The discussion covered a wide range of possible projects, but it eventually returned to the recent game.

Millie dominated the conversation again, and Jessie became increasingly irritated. When he could stand it no longer, he stood, pulled her chair away from the table, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her. She sputtered for a second while the adults laughed nervously.

Standing defiantly with his hands on his hips, he puffed up his chest and proclaimed with the power of a vaudeville actor, “I have a story. It’s my story, and I will tell it.”

If there had been any doubt about how much Jessie cared for Millie, it was quickly dispelled. In his own juvenile awkward way, he loved her. This, of course, was no surprise to Natalie, who figured it out the first day the three had gone to school together. Jessie described how Millie dominated her game. He described her devilish smile with her bright eyes and how she intimidated the other players, even the players on her own team. His imitation of her smile was definitely diabolical. He compared her playing style to that of a comic character who he followed. He talked about how her ponytail blew out behind her as she ran the length of the field and how if she turned her head quickly enough, it became a weapon. He had been in the path of that weapon more than once and knew how it felt. He allowed that if he had been playing against her, she would have intimidated him as well. When he finished, he gently pushed her chair back to the table.

“I’m sorry, but I had to do that,” Jessie whispered.

Millie glared at him for a moment and closed her fist as if to strike him but stopped. Natalie glared at Millie and shook her head. Millie looked Jessie in the eye and said, “I guess I had that coming. I’ll try to not talk so much if it bothers you.”

Jessie took the hand that had been curled up and said, “No, that’s one of the things I like about you. You always have interesting things to say. I love listening to you. I just want to be able to say something when I want to.”

Millie put her other hand on top of his and said, “Okay.”

Natalie, who had been stuck in her wheelchair between Millie and Jessie for this last part, said, “Now that we’ve cleared that up, can I eat my ice cream? It’s melting.”

This story is based on characters from the second book in my “Ridge” series, “Welcome Home Doc.” The incident described above is not included in the book, but similar incidents are mentioned as passing references.