Page 55 of Finding Jack
The article listed other accomplishments, but the two that caught my attention most were his superlatives: Class Clown and Most Likely to Succeed. Well. Those were two you didn’t necessarily expect to see together.
I, on the other hand, had been on drill team and voted as “Best Sneeze.” Look, I couldn’t help it. I always sneeze three times in a row. The first two sounded like a Chihuahua and the third big sneeze sounded like an old grandpa. It wasn’t intentional, and it also wasn’t avoidable. If I sneezed while a teacher was talking, they would stop and wait for the third one and then pick up where they left off. I had everyone in my grade trained. I was weirdly proud of it. But it was no “Most Likely to Succeed.”
I went back several pages to the oldest references I could find on Jack. He’d gone to Princeton for his undergrad and then the University of California, San Francisco medical school. That sent my eyebrows up. People knew about Harvard and Johns-Hopkins, but few people outside of the Bay Area or medical field realized UC San Francisco was just as highly respected.How long ago had that been? Had we overlapped time in the city? Why had he never mentioned he’d done med school here?
He’d done an oncology residency in Boston and then, working forward, I dug up a link to a spotlight feature from a newsletter for a children’s hospital in Oregon announcing his arrival to the oncology department.
Pediatric oncology? Wow. That was like a cop choosing SWAT or a soldier choosing Special Forces.
There were research articles co-written by him and other people with long strings of credentials after their names, articles with fancy titles like “Rhabdomyosarcoma complicating multiple neurofibromatosis,” and others I understood even less.
Then the mentions began to dry up, and by the time I pulled up the first page of his most recent results, the last mention of him was dated two years prior. He wasn’t listed on the hospital’s web page. There were no more scientific articles.
I sat back and stared at the results, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. Obviously, something had happened to make him leave medicine. I almost walked out to ask Ranée about it. This is obviously what she’d wanted me to find. She probably knew why he wasn’t practicing anymore.
But as I considered the possibilities, I began to understand why she kept insisting it wasn’t her story to tell. It was a big enough deal that he’d left behind a career as a cancer doctor for kids. But he’d gone far out of his way to bury that part of his history. Did he have something painful he didn’t want to talk about? Was he hiding the wounds from working in a tough career?
Or was he hiding a secret?
I hadn’t heard from Jack since the previous afternoon before I left work. He’d asked how I was feeling at the end of my work week. I sent him an exhausted emoji. He sent me a Photoshopped picture of me wearing a snorkel and diving into a giant cup of coffee.
I’d been telling myself that I was fine with him not asking for a date this weekend. I’d been busy enough that I thought I believed it. But not anymore. I almost went out and asked Ranée her advice on what I should do next, but I heard it in my head before I even climbed off my bed.Cowgirl up and ask him out yourself.
I texted him.Hi. Are you free tonight?
He answered right away.Could be. Are you asking for yourself?
Yes,I answered.
Then I’m definitely free.
I was glad he wasn’t there to see how big my smile was. It was a stupid response to someone who wasn’t a real presence in my life. But it was an honest response. I could admit that. But only to myself.
I hesitated before sending my next message.How about a date? My treat.
His response was slower this time.Wow. I feel so honored you can squeeze me in. I didn’t think you had room on your social calendar.
I rolled my eyes.Yes, yes. You’re very lucky. I’ll be sure to remind you of it when we hang out.
What’s the plan?
I wanted to get him talking, but I wasn’t sure how to pull it off yet. I needed to buy some time while I figured out what I even wanted to know, and how I wanted to find it out.I’ll surprise you. Facetime,7:00?
He sent back a thumbs up emoji, and I set my phone down. I had five hours to figure out how to crack Jack.
Chapter 22
This was going to take a visit to the toy store. And a costume shop. Obviously.
I had no idea where to find a toy store, but I grabbed my purse and set Siri to looking for the nearest one on the way out the door.
An hour later, I was back with a bag of loot, and then it was on to the next phase. I dug through all the magazines under our coffee table and created a stack that leaned more than Pisa.
I sat back to study the effect. I had all the right pieces. I had them in the right order.
But did I have the right?
Was it my place to push him like this? An uneasy flutter in my stomach had me reaching out to sweep everything off the table and shove it out of sight. But…
