Forever and Always

Chapter 21

"I'm sorry, I wish I knew earlier to give you a heads up, but it all just happened so sudden. I have to leave tonight to go to Europe, and I have no clue when I'll be back." Clara was sitting in chief physician's office, trying to lie as smoothly as possible. She made her reasons sound pretty convincing, coming up with the idea that her imaginary aunt became really sick and can't afford anyone to take care of her, so she would have to go their and help her herself. The chief position, sitting in his chair, tapped his finger-pads together. She could tell that he was trying to see if she was really telling the truth. Lucky for her, she became pretty good at lying.

"When did you find this out, again?" He raised an eyebrow, and he studied her every facial expression. Any suspicious movement or sign of nervousness would give her away, so she stayed as calm as possible and as natural as possible.

"Very early this morning. Around 1:30ish. I received a call saying that she was brought to the hospital after a neighbor heard a crashing noise in her house and discovered her unconscious in her house. I was an emergency contact, and she won't have anyone to care for her when she gets out."

"Can't you just hire a nanny or caregiver for her?" She was afraid that he was gonna say that. Fortunately she had a another card to play.

"Well, you have to understand, she is the only family I have left. If these are her last few weeks alive, I want to spend it with her. Once she is gone, I will have no other family left alive that I know of. This may be the last time I get to be with her, and it's already been difficult that past five years." Little did he know that she actually didn't have any family anyway. But he seemed to believe it because he became very, and I mean very sympathetic.

"Oh Dr. Peters, I understand completely. Usually I would have to tell you to find a another way, but these are in fact very hard times, and we never know what is gonna happen. Since you get ten to twelve weeks of vacation days, you can use those until you find someone to watch your aunt or until she's better or..." she knew what he was gonna say, and even though it would not affect her the slightest, she nodded and played along.

"Or if she dies. It's okay, I completely understand. I'm sure that I won't be there no longer than twelve weeks."

"Well then, I'll give you time to say goodbye to your patients, and I'll find a replacement for you while you are gone." Clara gave a sad smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, sir. I'm grateful that you are so understanding and considerate. I don't want to take up too much space though, so I'll be out of here in a few hours." Clara got up from her chair and headed out of his office.

"Dr. Peters," the chief physician called her name, and she looked back at him. He took his glasses off and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Her lie made him teary-eyed. Wow, okay then. "I rarely see you around, but I just want to say how grateful I am that you came to work at this hospital. I have heard excellent things about your father back in D.C., and how you excelled in school before disappeared for a while. But when you came back, saying you had been on retreats to help different countries and you wanted to help children, I knew you would be a perfect hire. This hospital has truly been lucky to have you. We will be awaiting your return." Clara was surprised to hear these words from him. Usually he would be very stern and cold around us. Seeing him express these words sort of made Clara feel bad for lying. She was liked here. She also felt a little guilty for rejecting Andrew last night as well. But the she remembered that she could only have this life, and have Andrew if she had a normal life. And nothing about why she was leaving was normal.

"Thank you sir. I'm glad I could make use of myself here. I felt like I was finally able to put my skills to the test here, and lugs my limits."