The Cloud Reader

Garret

Doctor Frank Steadman put his feet up on the hassock and closed his eyes. It was the first time he'd sat down since he got out of bed that morning and every part of him seemed to protest the least movement..All day at the hospital he had been rushing from one emergency to another, performing surgeries, doing rounds, checking on procedures and arguing with his colleagues about the treatment prescribed for the soldier transferred to them by the military. None of the tests showed anything but the majority wanted to go in and explore; he objected precisely because of the negative tests.

Frank Steadman was not a cut and paste surgeon; money was not the driving force for him, he always tried to avoid the last resort methods most often prescribed by others in his field. He felt that it was quite possibly something psychosomatic and preferred to do his exploring along those lines with the psychiatric department. The debate was costing him more than just the scorn of his colleagues; he was carrying the stress into his domestic life.

"Can I turn on the TV, dad?"

"Huh?" Frank opened his eyes and gazed blankly at his son.

"The TV, can I turn it on?"

"Just give me few minutes quiet okay? I'm really bushed, son."

"Daddy I need to speak to you about next Friday!" Jean, Garret's sister, dashed into the room and bounced heavily onto the sofa next to her father.

"Honey, please, I just-"

"I need two hundred dollars for the entry fee at the auditions next Friday. Daddy I'll just die if I can't go."

He opened his eyes and sighed aloud. "What does your- what does Carol say?"

Jean pouted and clutched at his arm. "She doesn't care. She never cares about what I want."

Garret turned and left the room with a sigh of his own. He knew that any minute there would be a shouting match and his sister would run crying to her room while his dad would withdraw to a sullen silence, locking himself in his den and coming out only for dinner. Carol, his stepmother, was only a few years older than Jean and as far as Garret was concerned they were both big, spoiled baby brats.

When his mother had died, Jean had gone to pieces and had commanded all the attention their father could muster, all at the expense of Garret. Carol had been hired as a housekeeper companion and after a very short while had become their stepmother. His dad decided that it would be an easier situation for all concerned, something with some stability that would compensate for his long absent hours at work. Almost immediately, Jean and Carol had sparked at one another and the ill will just seemed to continue to grow.

Garret didn't care one way or another about Carol. He knew why his dad had married her and he accepted the fact that it was his dad's business. It didn't mean that she was anything to him except the housekeeper/companion that she was before. Garret could take her or leave her. What he couldn't take was the strain she and Jean were putting on his dad.

There was no humour any more, no family closeness and nothing to show that things would improve very soon. He also knew that his dad was getting in trouble somehow at work over some man who was sick and nobody knew what was wrong or what to do and he didn't think they should operate.

He sat on his bed and stared at the floor between his feet. If only he could talk to somebody, to ask somebody for help and advice. Somebody to explain his strange experience with the man out on Larkpoint. He heard Carol calling them for dinner and he slumped down the stairs to the kitchen.

"I can't help it, Carol, it's my job, it's what I do to pay the bills around here"

"What bills? We don't do anything to incur any bills." She put the plates in front of them with a careless bang and yanked out her chair, sitting and frowning.