Tombstone.
I walked into the clinic this morning and signed in with the notebook and greeted Mr. Stone. I showed him my small pox list and when people had had their check-ups last. I looked outside and saw Mr. Joe and went out to him.
“Mr. Joe!!! You had small pox vaccy yet???”
“What business is it of yours whether I have or not?” he turned to me.
“Cause I helping Mr. Stone in the clinic and everyone should have it. Don’t wanna get bad stuff growin’ on ya.”
“Hey Nat? Why don’t you come in here. Not everyone likes to talk about their medical history out on the street,” Mr. Stone suggested.
I looked down and walked in, looking at him. “I just…”
“I know. You didn’t do anything bad. But as doctors, we have to respect people’s privacy,” he looked at me.
Mr. Joe shook his head and said, “Correct, I didn’t want my medical history divulged to the residents of Tombstone.”
I sniffed, hearing Joe’s tone and went to sit on the couch as Mr. Stone said, “That’s one of the big things to learn.”
“I did bad last night then,” I frowned, thinking about asking everyone on the street if they’d had their vaccinations.
“No, it wasn’t bad,” Mr. Joe sat down beside me on the couch.
Mr. Joe walked in and looked at him. “What’s going on here?” he looked at us both. “My medical history is mine.”
I sniffed and went to wash my hands, trying to not cry cause I had to be like a big person doctor, and went to change the bed sheets as I listened to Mr. Stone say, “Nat is helping me out in the clinic. She just learned about vaccines and it a little excited. She wants to make sure everyone has one. I’m sorry if she embarrassed you.” He looked over at me and smiled. “That’s good, Miss Stark! That needs to be done and it’s really important.”
“Well maybe its time she learnt to control her excitement, whether reading journals and confronting people, and now this,” Mr. Joe said and I cringed, going to sit on the small pox box, looking down at the floor.
“She’s nine. She’s learning,” Mr. Stone told him.
“Well if she is yours, please control her then, the kids here seem to think they rule the place.”
“I sorry, Mr. Joe,” I said softly, looking anywhere but at Mr. Joe.
“Well looks like doctors confidentiality has gone. Let’s just hope I don’t turn ill here then,” Mr. Joe said.
“As I said, she’s just learning. She just started this week and that’s a lesson we’ll be going over today it seems.”
“I would have thought that the first thing she should have been taught was that,” Mr. Joe shook his head. “I will leave you to your teaching then,” he rolled his eyes and left.
I watched him walk out of the clinic and started to feel myself cry, ‘cause I knew I was in trouble. Mr. Joe looked at me and said, “Don’t worry about that too much. He probably has irritable bowels.”
I looked over at him but didn’t move. I was just... tryin’ to help… Thought it was... good to care ’bout people…”
“It is good to care about people,” he smiled at me.
“Not if they yell at you.”
“Come over here and sit down,” Mr. Stone said from the couch and I inched closer, sitting down beside him and looking down. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I musta. Mr. Joe no like me anymore.”
“Don’t worry about him, Nat.”
“He built us boat. I thought he was nice. No one was upset I asked em last night in the street. And there was lots there!”
“Most people aren’t going to get that uptight about asking if they’ve had a shot.”
“But it’s a blade and scratches, Mr. Stone. It not needle. And it better than getting bad things growin’ on you.”
I heard Mr. Joe talking to himself outside as he said, “That’s the last time I bother to do anything for them, dam spoilt brats.”
“But sometimes you’ll run into someone that doesn’t want to talk about that kind of stuff,” Mr. Stone said.
“Then he should be nicer ’bout it,” I argued.
“Well think of it this way. He’s being all cranky and that’s his problem.”
“My problem too cause he yelled at me.”
“He yelled at me too,” he shrugged.
“If people not like it they woulda said so last night. So I thought it was a good thing.”
“When people do that, you just have to smile and nod.”
“Even if you know they wrong?”
“Yep,” he nodded.
“Like when Mrs Joan kept wantin’ me to talk to Jimmy? Even though I know she the one who made him go back to orphnage?”
“Yep. That’s not easy, but you can’t change people so you just have to accept them the way they are. And sometimes they aren’t nice. So you have to be the bigger person and be nice in return, no matter what.”
“But they the bigger person. I jes little.”
He tapped my chest and said, “Bigger in here.”
“Oh..” I said and curled up against him, wiping the tears away with the hankie he gave me.
“He did bring up a good point though…. Not that he was nice about it but… When people come here and tell you something, it’s kinda like a secret.”
“I should bring people in here? Then ask?”
“No, you don’t have to bring them here to ask.”
“But…”
“We just have to be sensitive to the way people react and if they don’t want to talk about their medical history, we don’t want to push it.”
“I sorry,” I nodded.
“It’s okay, Nat. But going back to what people tell us when they’re in here… That’s personal and confidential. Do you know what that means?”
“Like a secret,” I nodded.
“Exactly. People’s medical issues are very private and sometimes it’s hard for them to talk about it with a doctor so they need to know that what they say isn’t going to be talked about in public.”
“But can I tell you?”
“Oh yes, you should tell me.”
“Or Doc Freja or Doc Lilly?”
“Right. Only tell other doctors”
“I have a question.”
“Sure, what’s your question?”
“What if someone comes in here and says they was shot and needs help... And they tell me who shot ’em. Shouldn’t I tell that to Ma or to Mrs. Aly or someone with a badge?”
“Well... that gets a little gray. You can ask them if it’s okay to talk to a law person.”
“Oh okay.”
“But sometimes we have to treat outlaws too and they don’t always want to talk. As a doctor, we have to treat them like anyone else.”
“Like how we had to treat Mrs. Joan yesterday.”
“Exactly. You can’t let your personal feelings into it.”
“But what if… What if they hurt Ma or Mrs. Aly?”
“We still have to treat them.”
“Even Mr. Joe?” I looked down and nodded.
“Even Mr. Joe. We have to help everyone. And if they’ve done something bad, we have to let law people take care of it when we’re done treating them.”
“This harder lesson than the other stuff.”
“Yeah it is hard. And that wasn’t the nicest way to bring it up either. I’m sorry he made you feel bad.”
“You not the one who s’posed to say he sorry,” I told him.
“Well, I’m responsible for you in here.”
“I sorry I made him yell at you.”
“That’s okay. Now we know not to ask him questions. I’m proud of you for doing your job when he got mean.”
“I didn’t wanna be over here and get yelled at.”
“You are doing a very good job.”
“Thank you Mr. Stone.”
“You’re welcome, Miss Stark.”
“What now, Mr. Stone?”
“Would you like to learn about the equipment in here?” he asked and I nodded. He went over to get a tray of medical tools and set it down on the couch. “This is something you’re going to want to know. If you’re in here when someone gets shot, the attending doctor might ask you for help to fetch things. You’ll have to know the names of all of these.” He pointed at a long pointy tool and said, “This is a prod. A doctor might use this to locate a bullet by inserting it into a wound and poking around. Sometimes they use their finger too. But this is a little thinner and longer so it’s probably easier.”
I wrote notes in my notebook as he continued and picked up a pair of tweezers. “These are tweezers. They pick stuff out of a wound, like if someone’s bits of shirt gets forced in there by a bullet. It can also pluck the bullet out too.” He picked up another one with a long handle and a thin sharp blade. “Do you know what this one is?”
“Um…” I looked at him.
“This is one of the most common ones.”
“Uh…”
“It’s called a scalpel. It’s used to cut.”
“Like cut skin? To get the bullet out?”
“Yep. Sometimes you have to cut a little to get it out.” He picked up a saw and said, “Now this looks like it belongs in my wife’s carpenter box.” I giggled and he smiled. “This one is kinda nasty. Sometimes a wound won’t heal or a limb is too destroyed to fix, so it needs to be amputated..”
“You ever have to use it, Mr. Stone?”
“No, luckily I’ve never had to amputate anything.”
“What’s it called? Amputater?”
“A saw.”
“Oh.”
“Just like one you’d use for wood. Amputate? That’s when you cut a limb off.”
“Don’t like that one.”
“Honestly, I’m not fond of that either,” he chuckled. He picked up a little needle and said, “And the last one here is the needle. Just like sewing, it’s used to sew up a wound.”
“I thought needle was used to put medicine into us.”
“Ah, now that’s a different kind of needle.” He got out a syringe and said, “See this one? It’s got a needle on one end and a chamber to hold the medicine on that other.” He put the tray of tools away and said, “The other thing you’ll need to fetch are bandages.”
“It takes out blood too right? The syringe?”
“Yes, it does take out blood too. Sometimes we look at blood under the microscope.”
“Can we?”
“Sure, we can look,” he smiled and took the microscope out. He took out a glass slide and wiped a little alcohol on his finger and poked it with a needle, wiping the drop on the glass. He peered into the microscope and then said, “Mmhmm, there it is. Okay, Nat, Take a look. You should be able to see the individual blood cells.”
I climbed up on the stool and peered into the microscope. “Wow!”
“The whole body is made up of little tiny "blocks" called cells. That’s something they recently discovered.”
“They’re so little!”
“Cells were discovered about 300 years about but only in the last 70 years or so have people realized our whole body is made of them. They are little! What do you think of those?”
“That’s pretty neat. There’s not many other people ’round today.”
“We’ll have to clean that like the other tools,” he took the slide out and smiled.
“Yeah it’s quiet today. You did a good job today, Miss Stark.”
“I guess,” I nodded quietly.
“Don’t let Mr. Joe discourage you. I’m proud of the work you’ve been doing here.”
“Thanks Mr. Stone, I think Ma is too.”
“I’m sure she is!” he smiled.
“It better than doin’ nothing. I like learning it.”
“Good!”
“Learning so much here I don’t have to go to school tomorrow!”
“Oh no, you still have to go to school!” he laughed.
“But… I learned more here this week than I have ever at school.”
“In fact, I saw Miss Aeryne the other day and she said she hoped you’d be at school this weekend.”
“And you a boy and I a girl and we can sit on couch beside each other and not get yelled at,” I said and he laughed. “I heard Miss Aeryne not dead!”
“Nope, she’s not dead. She’s teaching school tomorrow.”
“We saw her on the ground but I guess she was just hurt.”
“Yes, she was… but she’s okay now.”
“I’m glad. Ma’s happy too.”
“School is very important I know you don’t like it, but you still should go. If you don’t go to school now, you won’t be able to go to medical school when you’re older.”
“Sabi said she was sorry for bein’ mean to me.”
“That was nice of her. Maybe you two can be friends now.”
“Maybe.”
“And you seemed to get along with Payton yesterday,” he said and I nodded. “She told me she likes to get dirty, like you do.”
“I don’t like it so much anymore now that I work here. Gotta be clean to be doctor.”
“That’s exactly right!” he smiled. “You’re doing great! That’s the most important thing to remember, making sure to be clean. But you can get as dirty as you want when you play. As long as you can wash up before work. Well, Miss Stark, I think that’s enough for today,” he said then. “Maybe next time I can show you some of the other clinics and where to find stuff in them so you can help no matter which town you’re in.”
“Sure! I should get a horsey. Then I can ride around like Ma.”
“That would be fun,” he smiled and patted my head. “You have fun okay? Go play! ’m going to go home and check on Mrs. Stone.”
“Okay I go look for a pony.”
“Okay, good idea! Good luck.”
I headed off and then found a new black horse at the stables that the person in charge there said I could buy with the money I made at the clinic. I showed my horse off to a man named Mr. Tony and said that its name was Velvet. We talked about me working at the clinic and then I went for a ride on my new horse.
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