A Happy Man

He made up his mind to die. Not that he wished to die;

on the contrary, there was a great deal that he wished to live to do; but if he must die, he must.

Dying did not seem so very dreadful;

"Still, I wish I had done something first--something worth doing,

that somebody might remember me by," thought he.

"Suppose I had grown a man, and had had work to do,

and people to care for, and was so useful and busy that they liked me, and perhaps even forgot I was lame?

Then it would have been nice to live, I think."

The Little Lame Prince - Dinah Mulock Craik

Chapter 1

“I’m telling you, the man is incompetent to be in that position.”

“Look, I’m telling you, I’m the person who checked his references and reviewed his transcripts.I saw no reason why he wouldn’t be capable of the job.”Dr. John Montaigne was irritable. A large, strong-looking man in his fifties, he looked like the type of man anyone would want to avoid irritating. Dr. Montaigne had come downstairs from his third-floor office on the surgical wing expecting to have a peaceful lunch with his colleagues, not to be spending his much-needed break defending the new department head in Emergency at Seaward Memorial Hospital.“He’s an excellent doctor.”

“Look, John, I’m not denying he’s a good doc.But he’s a lousy department head, and the hospital is suffering.Old man Seaward is livid.”

Another doctor chimed in.“I hear that he has him up in his office at least once a week, chewing him out.The secretaries in administration say they can hear the old man screaming at him right through two sets of closed doors.They say sometimes old Seaward’s so mad, they can hear him beating on the sofa with that cane of his.”

John snorted derisively.“Seaward and his ebony stick, walking around the hospital like some European count.”

The first doctor resumed speaking.“I said it from the beginning.What doctor who has a son who’s a doctor doesn’t brag about his son?This son showed up out of nowhere.There has to be a reason why he was kept hidden away. Scardi says he’s a moron.”

“Scardi!”John grimaced in disgust, his deep voice almost a growl.“That old bully!We all know what he was like.He always hated old man Seaward’s guts and he resented having young Charley brought in to take his place when he retired.Personally, I think Scardi should have retired long ago, while he still had all his wits and his sense of professional ethics, and I hope to God somebody hauls me out of here if I ever get to that point myself. Half the problems in the department were caused by Scardi sabotaging Charley with the staff.So don’t talk Scardi to me.”

“John, be realistic.We have almost a staff rebellion going on down there.Patient surveys are coming back with lots of negative comments.It’s only a matter of time before we start getting marked down on our Joint Commission inspections. That could lower our rating. Somebody needs to do something.”

“Somebody, somebody.That always means me, doesn’t it?All right, all right.I’ll see what I can do.”John glowered at the doctors around the table.“After I finish my lunch – in peace, please.”

“Part of the penalty of being chief of staff, John.It can’t all be perks, you know.”

“Perks?”Montaigne snorted.“I get perks?”

Chapter2

After finishing his lunch in silence, Dr. Montaigne headed down to Emergency.He took his time, and was glad, for a change, that the elevators were running slowly.He stopped at the Emergency Department desk.“Beverly – busy today?”