Ghosts of the Past [ RDR2 - Arthur Morgan ]

Chapter 9 - Doctoring

Word count - 2207
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Bag in hand, Rosemary Levenson dismounted her horse on the muddy main street of Valentine. This was a livestock town, so the smell for sheep shit waded through the air in vast fumes. The locals were almost proud of the mud streets they lived in. The dirtier the better for them. But this didn't matter so much to Miss Levenson. After John had left her, she felt a new spark in her gut that maybe she could still do something with her life.

Unsure where the new inspiration had come from, she still followed her gut all the way to the next town over, and straight to the doors of the doctors office. She had worn her finest skirt for this moment and held her large brown leather medicine bag in her hands, staring at the wooden sign above the door with a glimmer of happiness.

The first year of her life in the east was spent attempting to convince the locals in Strawberry that she was a competent healer, this hadn't gone over very well. In fact not a single person agreed to come to her. There was a long time where she considered going to Rhodes and seeking out Jacob Coors once more, but he had no obligation to her and there was a strong will in her stomach that she would never again rely on a man the way she had to with her ex husband.

So in Strawberry she stayed. But something changed in the past day and Rose knew exactly what it was. Arthur Morgan lived around here somewhere. And she would be damned if she was just a lowly barmaid when they next met. So with that behind her, she entered the doctor's office with a smile "Howdy, sir." She greeted "I'm Rosemary, pleasure to meet cha."

"Hi, Miss, what can I do ya for?" The doctor barely looked up from his book as he replied, the office was otherwise empty. "Got plenty 'a' makeup over there if you're feeling flush."

Faltering, Rose pushed on "No, sir, I'm not looking to buy. I'm looking to sell!" She advised him, holding up her bag as though this explained all "See, I'm looking to get into the business 'a' healing. I've got a great deal of experience in all sorts-"

"I'm sorry miss..." The doctor cut her off, finally prying his eyes from the book "I just ain't in the market for midwives at the moment. Town's just not big enough to support that. Ya understand."

Irritation began to crawl up her neck. He had now disrespected her twice - barely allowing her to finish the sales pitch "No, no, Doctor. I ain't lookin' to be a midwife, see. I can treat just about anything. Cuts, sores, diseases. I treated my family all my life, then treated my husband beyond that."

Laughing was what stopped her talking this time. Clearly her insinuation was quite funny. The doctor stood to his feet, still holding himself as he continued to laugh at Rosemary's expense "Listen, Miss. I know you reckon you can give good healin' kisses to your babies, but being a doctor is quite a bit more than that. You're a woman! Your brain just ain't made for taking in this kinda information." He was already walking around her to the door, and pulled it open "Why don't you try Strawberry? Maybe he's lookin' for a midwife."

So Rosemary left, all feelings of confidence ripped from her as she stepped back out into the muddy street and walked back down to Sammy "Stupid doctor. Idiot can't even see a good thing when it walks right in his door." She grumbled while mounting up "Midwife, I mean honestly."

The horse nayed as though in response and they began moving. So distracted in her thoughts of anger and disappointed, Rosemary wasn't even leading her mount. She had only a loose hold of the raines as they left the town, turning left instead of right. It took a while longer of walking before Rosemary kicked back into consciousness to see her surroundings were not the same as she had seen on her way there "Oh shit." She cursed, making to turn her stallion around and head back into the town.