Page 61 of The Devil You Know
“Mila, you don’t have to…”
She waves her hand at me. “Too much food for me anyway. Better for you and Leah.”
Of course, Leah will only eat dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. But maybe in the parallel universe that my daughter occupies when she’s here, she’s someone who would eat stuffed chicken breast.
As I clutch the Tupperware to my chest, Mila says, “My husband. He left for a while too.” Her eyes soften. “He came back though. He was a good man. I miss him.” She offers me a tiny smile. “Your husband is a good man too.”
I hope she’s right.
Chapter 24
Mr. Holton is here for back pain.
Back pain is the second most common chief complaint in primary care, the first being upper respiratory infection. It’s frustrating because there’s really very little we can usually do about either of those things. Really, most people are probably better off just Googling remedies. My job is to reassure Mr. Holton about his back pain and maybe prescribe him a medication or physical therapy. Of course, the fact that he’s eighty years old means that he might be stuck with his back pain.
“So how did your back pain start?” I ask Mr. Holton.
“Well…” He smiles at me with slightly yellowed teeth that are at least (mostly) still there. “This all started in… 1975?”
This man has had back pain since before I was born. My rule of thumb is that if a condition has been around more years than I’ve been alive, then it’s probably not something I’ll be able to fix.
“So my girl was messing around with this other guy, see?” he says. “He was more successful than I was and I guess she liked that. Anyway, I saw this other guy on the street and I knew he was the one who was messing around with my girl. So I said to him, ‘Hey!’ And then he didn’t even say nothing, like he didn’t even know who I was! So I said ‘Hey’ again. But he just kept pretending that he didn’t know who I was. Can you believe that?”
I clear my throat. “So… you injured your back then?”
“Wait, you didn’t let mefinish,” he complains. “So anyway, later that day, I went to the store to get some smokes, and…”
I tune out Mr. Holton’s story, confident that it will have absolutely no bearing in the diagnosis and treatment of his back pain. I’ve been distracted recently—since my trip to Reading. Ben returned home two days after we left him, as promised. But things have been subdued since then. I’m still peeved at him for not coming home with us, and he’s just… I don’t know. He seems preoccupied. I can’t say we’ve had one conversation in the week since he came home.
Maybe Ben’s having an affair. With a woman in Reading.
Nah, probably not.
While I haven’t been answering Ryan’s text messages, there’s part of me that can’t help but wonder what would have happened if I had taken a chance all those years backand waited for Ryan instead of ditching him for Ben. Yes, we’d just be starting our lives now, but that wouldn’t be so horrible. If only he’d taken that genetic test like I’d asked him to…
But then I wouldn’t have Leah.
“… And I said to Freddy, I’m never helping lift a piano for you again, buddy!” Mr. Holton bursts out.
It takes me a second to realize he’s expecting more of a response than my vacant nodding. “Oh!” I say. “So… that’s how you hurt your back?”
“Well, that got better, but that was how I hurt it the first time,” he says. “That’s what you asked right? How it all started?”
I suck in a breath. “I meant how did it startthistime? This time,right now.”
“This time?” Mr. Holton says thoughtfully. “Well, three months ago, I was going to play golf with my buddy Norman…”
“So you hurt it playing golf?”
“No. So what happened was that I was going to play golf with Norman, but then I got this phone call…”
I grit my teeth. Well, at least this story starts in the current century.
_____
When I get home with Leah tonight, Ben is in his usual spot on the couch, a tub of peanut butter by his side,staring at his laptop. He doesn’t bother to say hello or even lift his eyes from the screen.
The thought of cooking dinner tonight makes me physically ill. In my head, I tick off a list of local restaurants that deliver, and choose the one we’ve had least recently. “How about Chinese food tonight?”
