across the glass-topped table. “Were you with Ellen when you came here?”
“No, but I met her soon after, and we quickly became a couple.”
“It’s none of my damn business, and you can tell me to go to hell, but why didn’t you two ever marry?”
“She was married when we met, not living with a him, but still married. He was some sort of crazy, a physicist. He had been fighting the divorce for several years. In fact, we did not move in together until the divorce was final. And I wanted to marry her. I asked her many times. Her answer was always the same. ‘Why should we ruin a good thing?’ Near the end I proposed again, and she said she had always been happy with the way things were. She said the important thing was how we treated one another, not whether we had a contract to be together.” Ray swirled the drink in his glass. “How about you and Stephanie? She’s not your first wife?”
Chesterton looked at Ray and laughed. “You know, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if we weren’t both a little bit tight. Ah yes, I was married to someone before, nice woman, someone from graduate school. The first few years here she wrote her dissertation. She was very qualified, but she couldn’t get a job in my department because there was an anti-nepotism policy at the university at that time. She went into the job market and got a job at Johns Hopkins. We had an airplane marriage for a number of years, much longer than we should have. She eventually found someone else. And I had a few romances before Stephanie. She was a graduate student. We’ve had good years together. My cancer a few years back changed things….”
“But there is medicine for that….”
“Too much damage, too much damage from both the surgery and radiation therapy. They gave me my life back, but there was a price. Stephanie is a vital young woman. So we talked about it.” Chesterton finished his drink and set it back on the table. “To outsiders it might look sort of peculiar.”
Ray said nothing. He just sat there holding onto his glass, gazing into his yard and beyond.
“Are you two men ready for dinner yet?” asked Stephanie as she emerged from the twilight.
“Well, we’ve settled most of the major problems in the world,” Chesterton responded. “But if we don’t get some food soon, I think we may pass out.”
8
Wednesday morning arrived too early. Elkins was always awake by six, so he was startled when he looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 8:00 A.M. He laid in bed for several more minutes, placing the cool palm of his right hand on his throbbing forehead.
He stood in the shower longer than usual, and forced himself to eat a granola bar with his coffee before leaving the house.
Elkins settled into a waiting room chair in the Professional Arts Building adjacent to the Medical Center a few minutes before 9:00. He rummaged through the pile of magazines on the end table next to his seat . His choices were limited to dog-eared copies of Time , Car and Driver , Sports Illustrated , Sailing , and Better Homes and Gardens —all three or more months out of date.
He had just started reading an article on who would win the NBA championship—a championship that had been decided several months before—when the door to the inner office opened and Dr. Margrave came out to greet him. Elkins had met Margrave when Ellen was in the final stages of breast cancer. The doctor led the death and dying group at the medical center. After Ellen’s death, Elkins had also been in individual therapy with him for months.Margrave ushered him into his consultation room. There were two chairs in the room, one facing a window that looked out over the back of the medical center, the other off to the side facing the first. As Elkins settled into the chair facing the window he said, “Since I’ll be asking the questions this time, perhaps we should change chairs.”
“This one was built for me,” said Margrave with a smile.
“No, but I met her soon after, and we quickly became a couple.”
“It’s none of my damn business, and you can tell me to go to hell, but why didn’t you two ever marry?”
“She was married when we met, not living with a him, but still married. He was some sort of crazy, a physicist. He had been fighting the divorce for several years. In fact, we did not move in together until the divorce was final. And I wanted to marry her. I asked her many times. Her answer was always the same. ‘Why should we ruin a good thing?’ Near the end I proposed again, and she said she had always been happy with the way things were. She said the important thing was how we treated one another, not whether we had a contract to be together.” Ray swirled the drink in his glass. “How about you and Stephanie? She’s not your first wife?”
Chesterton looked at Ray and laughed. “You know, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if we weren’t both a little bit tight. Ah yes, I was married to someone before, nice woman, someone from graduate school. The first few years here she wrote her dissertation. She was very qualified, but she couldn’t get a job in my department because there was an anti-nepotism policy at the university at that time. She went into the job market and got a job at Johns Hopkins. We had an airplane marriage for a number of years, much longer than we should have. She eventually found someone else. And I had a few romances before Stephanie. She was a graduate student. We’ve had good years together. My cancer a few years back changed things….”
“But there is medicine for that….”
“Too much damage, too much damage from both the surgery and radiation therapy. They gave me my life back, but there was a price. Stephanie is a vital young woman. So we talked about it.” Chesterton finished his drink and set it back on the table. “To outsiders it might look sort of peculiar.”
Ray said nothing. He just sat there holding onto his glass, gazing into his yard and beyond.
“Are you two men ready for dinner yet?” asked Stephanie as she emerged from the twilight.
“Well, we’ve settled most of the major problems in the world,” Chesterton responded. “But if we don’t get some food soon, I think we may pass out.”
8
Wednesday morning arrived too early. Elkins was always awake by six, so he was startled when he looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 8:00 A.M. He laid in bed for several more minutes, placing the cool palm of his right hand on his throbbing forehead.
He stood in the shower longer than usual, and forced himself to eat a granola bar with his coffee before leaving the house.
Elkins settled into a waiting room chair in the Professional Arts Building adjacent to the Medical Center a few minutes before 9:00. He rummaged through the pile of magazines on the end table next to his seat . His choices were limited to dog-eared copies of Time , Car and Driver , Sports Illustrated , Sailing , and Better Homes and Gardens —all three or more months out of date.
He had just started reading an article on who would win the NBA championship—a championship that had been decided several months before—when the door to the inner office opened and Dr. Margrave came out to greet him. Elkins had met Margrave when Ellen was in the final stages of breast cancer. The doctor led the death and dying group at the medical center. After Ellen’s death, Elkins had also been in individual therapy with him for months.Margrave ushered him into his consultation room. There were two chairs in the room, one facing a window that looked out over the back of the medical center, the other off to the side facing the first. As Elkins settled into the chair facing the window he said, “Since I’ll be asking the questions this time, perhaps we should change chairs.”
“This one was built for me,” said Margrave with a smile.
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