A Tourist in Mayberry

2/5) Director of Riverview Retirement Center: Dr. Brooklyn Kinkaid

Foreshadow- to hint something is going to happen before it happens.

Brooklyn Kinkaid insists you call her Dr. Brook or Dr. B. She looks like a soldier of professionalism with her steel blue eyes and shoulder length, dyed frosty blonde hair, parted way too far to the right, over her ear in the blunt, razored style women of power tend to favor. The haircut looks somewhat like a helmet, as stiff and rigid as her personality. The helmet hair advertises what is beneath - something cold and frozen with little real feeling or empathy for others.

While Dr. Brook wants to appear to care about others because it is her job, this does not come naturally to her. She can fake it most days, but sometimes her true nature slips out in undeniable sarcasm that leaves the victim wondering. She has a reputation for embarrassing employees in public - something she prides herself on.

In her defense, Dr. Brook did not stand much of a chance because she was raised by the most unscrupulous doctor in the area, Dr. Gibbs. He was a heart doctor who told family members in the ER their daddy/grandma/papa was dying no matter if they were dying or not. When the daddy/grandma/papa did not die, Dr. Gibbs looked like a miracle worker, and he made sure you knew it too.

Dr. Brook grew up with this man as a father and a mother who cared more about the local theater and the United Way than her only daughter. With these two as parents, Dr. Brook did not stand a chance.

Fate stepped in and tried to change Dr. Brook, but it did not take. The chance to change her wicked ways came when she married a kind, considerate man. They both wanted children, but after years of trying, Dr. Brook learned she was as barren as a school yard playground after dark.

People that Dr. Brook consider as significant as herself think she is terrific because she is kind to them and helpful, but she only has one redeeming quality to those she considers less significant, and it is a strange quality for a person some consider a straight up bitch. She holds a soft spot for kids. Some attribute it to her long running stint as a Sunday school teacher, but the truth is she loves children. Dr. Brook wanted to be a teacher all her life, but her country club parents considered this beneath them. When she discovered blood made her sick early in her medical pursuit, her parents approved of her entering the business of medicine and this is how Dr. Brook came to run the Riverview Nursing and Retirement Center.

Her love of children is how the First Baptist Church of Mt. Airy youth group and Pastor Tommy convinced Dr. Brook to hire the most famous local looney tune in twenty years in Mt. Airy. And right here let me tell you Mount Airy, like all Southern towns, has its share of the mentally challenged over the years. There is Freddy the smelly man, and another unassuming man appropriately nicknamed Bashful who can be seen at all times of the night walking the streets and sweeping them with an old, straw broom. There is the veteran who after returning from war, wandered main street talking to invisible people. There's a toothless lady who greets you at the downtown businesses with - God bless you and happy birthday, or happy new year, or happy whatever day she thinks it is that day. Most people do not bother telling her it is not the new year or their birthday, they just say thank you or God bless her right back,

All these souls are tolerated and looked after by the locals, because as most of us know - we are all only one heartbreak, one war, one chemical imbalance, head injury, or addiction from being there ourselves.

All are looked after, but only one was ever the adopted pet of the town, and it is William. William survives on the generosity of friends and strangers. Though he never holds his hand out or begs for anything, people are always doing for him. People who know his story help him because of pity, but complete strangers either moved by his singing or something else making them feel uneasy, care for William. Nana calls it the grace of God, as in - But for the grace of God, go I.

People, friends and strangers, make sure William can get a cup of coffee on a cold day or something warm to eat. Several benefactors in town make sure William has a tab at area restaurants they pay at the end of the month so he can eat. It is the grace of God.

This grace of God helped William get a job. Dr. Brook was not known for granting favors, but the youth group made a personal visit to see her to ask her about William. This is how William got a second chance and became part of the improbable love story mentioned earlier.

Foreshadowing too much takes the mystery out of the love story part of this story, but people like to hear a love story. In a movie, the audience can already predict love is gonna happen, and they like being in on the fall.

Just making sure you see it coming.