Page 8 of The Scars I Bare
I just couldn’t.
So, instead, I awkwardly waved from the spot I’d planted myself to. “Cora,” I replied before realizing I wasn’t sure how to finish. “Cora Carpenter,” I said finally, realizing it was the first time I’d used my maiden name since my wedding day.
But not the last, I told myself.
“Nice to meet you, Cora Carpenter. I hope your stay in Ocracoke is as lovely as I promised. Maybe you’ll come back every year, like we do.”
I shook my head. “No,” I answered. “This isn’t a vacation, Mr. Lovell. I’m moving here. Permanently.”
Jake Jameson, my new boss, had offered to meet me at the dock to welcome me to my new home. Unsure of what mental state I’d be in after leaving Virginia that morning, I politely declined, agreeing to instead meet up with him and his fiancée at the inn. It had already been an emotional week after saying good-bye to my coworkers and packing up the small apartment I rented for Lizzie and me. I didn’t need to start this new adventure by sobbing all over my boss’s shoulder.
I’d met Dr. Jameson a handful of times over the past few years, as some of his patients went in and out of the hospital I worked at in Virginia Beach. Since Ocracoke Island was so isolated, being only accessible by ferry, and their medical resources were limited, many inhabitants needed care off the island.
Although we weren’t the closest hospital, we were the most advanced. So, for major events such as emergencies or catastrophic events, we were often the first responders.
We…
I had to remind myself that I was no longer part of thatwe. No longer a nurse managing a staff of twenty at a highly respectable medical establishment.
I was just a nurse.
The only nurse.
The two-person medical clinic Jake ran pretty much summed up the availability of help on the island. Besides a handful of volunteer EMT responders, I would be the only nurse on the island.
Me and about eight hundred or so residents and their guests.
The thought made me a little dizzy as I drove down the long, empty highway toward the sleepy town. Sure, I was used to stressful situations and handling multiple things at once, but an entire island?
It seemed like an insurmountable task.
“Mommy?” a sleepy Lizzie called out from the backseat. “Are we there yet?” she asked, her brown eyes briefly meeting mine in the rearview mirror. She had a red nose from her finger being wrapped around it while she sucked her thumb. At least a dozen mothers had told me how bad it was for an almost six-year-old to still suck her thumb.
But I didn’t care.
Most of those other mothers didn’t have a walking, talking encyclopedia for a child either.
Let the kid suck her thumb. That was my motto.
“Not yet, baby, but almost. You see the water there?” I pointed to the left side of the car. “Just over those dunes?”
“Did you know, some dunes can be over four thousand feet high?”
“Wow!” I said. “I had no idea.”
I truly didn’t. Who did?
My kid—that was who. I looked in the rearview mirror and caught her looking out the window with that raw curiosity that always seemed to go with her wherever she went.
“Are you excited?”
“Kinda,” she answered before adding, “Will we be able to go to the beach every day?”
“I hope so,” I answered. “Although you’ll be starting school soon, so it might be a little difficult.”
She let out an audible breath. “I don’t want to go to school.”
“Why?” That was a new one. Especially for my kid. The one who loved to learn.
