Read Online A Christmas to Remember by Thomas Kinkade - Free Book Online

sandwich. “She was just trying to scare you.”
    “It worked,” Lucy admitted.
    “Listen…what’s your name?”
    “Lucy Bates.”
    “Listen, Lucy, when you start your training it’s nerve wracking. You want to do everything right, but nobody’s perfect. You’re bound to make mistakes. Dumping water on a patient may be the least of it.”
    “That’s encouraging…I think?” Lucy gave him a doubtful look. “I’m going to screw up even more before this is all over, is that what you’re saying?”
    He nodded, his thick brown hair falling down across his eyes. “There’s a reason they call it training.”
    “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
    He smiled and wiped his mouth on a napkin. “That patient who blew up at you? She had just gotten some upsetting news about her condition.”
    “Oh.” I should have guessed something like that was going on when I saw her sitting in that dark room, Lucy thought. “What’s wrong with her, or can’t you tell me?”
    He looked away a moment. “I guess it’s easy enough for you to read her chart. She has cancer. She had a tumor removed about five years ago, but it’s come back, spread to her kidney. It’s not operable and she’s refusing other courses of treatment.”
    “That’s awful. She looks so young.” About my age , Lucy thought.
    “She could live a long time with the right treatment—if she’s lucky.”
    “I guess it’s hard for her to see it that way,” Lucy said, trying to imagine how Helen Carter must feel. “It’s hard to know the right thing to say in a situation like that.”
    “It is,” he agreed. “That’s why most doctors don’t say anything.”
    “That seems wrong, too, though, don’t you think?” Lucy looked up at him. “Are you her doctor?”
    “Just an attending on the floor. I’m a resident here.” He held out a hand to her. “My name is Jack Zabriskie.”
    Lucy shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, and thanks for the words of wisdom.”
    He laughed. “I’m only a few rungs up the food chain from you, so I guess I can identify. I am a bit older than most of the residents, though. So they do call me Yoda from time to time.”
    “Yoda’s not so bad. The other student nurses call me…Mom,” she admitted. “Not to my face, of course.”
    “They do not.”
    She shrugged. “Maybe I just imagine that.”
    “You should be proud of yourself. Lots of people think about a career change or going back to school when they’re older, but few have the guts to really do it.”
    “It wasn’t easy,” she admitted. “It still isn’t. But I always wanted to be a nurse. Until today, that is.”
    “I always wanted to be a doctor but ended up driving an ambulance instead. I couldn’t get into med school right after college. Then I gave up for a while. But one day I just decided to go for it. I couldn’t go on doing the EMS work anymore. It was worthwhile, but it wasn’t what I really wanted.”
    Lucy understood that. She had felt the same way about running the diner with Charlie.
    “I know what you mean. Even if nursing doesn’t work out for me, I can’t see myself going back to the diner.”
    “Don’t worry, your training will work out,” he assured her. “What was it that you used to do at a diner?”
    “I love hearing that past tense,” Lucy admitted. “Actually, I still work there. My husband and I run the Clam Box in Cape Light. I’m a waitress there…when I can’t avoid it.”
    “You’re married?” He glanced at her left hand, and Lucy realized she had taken off her rings to wash up and had forgotten to put them on again.
    It made her feel odd to think Jack Zabriskie had even noticed. For one thing, he was light years younger.
    “Charlie and I have been married…oh, almost twenty years now. We have two boys. Are you married?” she asked quickly.
    “My wife and I are separated. We’ll probably get a divorce.”
    Lucy wished she hadn’t asked. “That’s too bad.”
    “These things