EPILOGUE
Steven
One month later
We’re back in New York for a follow-up with Doctor Schmidt. While May is in his office I’m going to slide down stairs and pay the bill.
I spoke with HR and they said everything is okay. It’s still covered so I should be good to go. Keywords in that sentence? Should be.
I approach the counter for the moment of truth.
I hand the bill over to the woman. She types some things into the computer and appears to be hiding a concerned look…except she’s not hiding it very well.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“Can you just give me one second please?” she says in a friendly tone. It’s friendly with a heavy side of concern piled on top.
“Sure, no problem,” I say, but of course it’s obviously a big problem. An absolutely huge problem at that. I have no job, no pension, and if I have no health care then we’re going to be in the poor house for the rest of our days. Then again poor means something entirely different when you’ve finally found the one person on earth who was meant for you, and you for them.
I know we could be cash poor in a cardboard box, but we’d still be rich in terms of life and our relationship. We could have fun under just about any circumstances after what we’ve been through.
“Sir, it says here that the policy isn’t going to pay, but there’s a note at the bottom to talk to a supervisor.”
“Okay. That doesn’t sound good,” I say.
“Let me get a supervisor and see if we can get this all sorted out.”
The young woman leaves her desk and scurries off somewhere down a hall where I can’t see.
This is not good at all. I’m a pretty levelheaded calm guy, but it could be time to start worrying soon. I need to be prepared so when I go back upstairs and see May I can just act like everything’s okay. No way am I going to let her know if we have some sort of payment problem. What I will do is get to work immediately on solving it without bothering her about it. There’s no point in that anyways. She needs to rest and get better. The last thing she needs is more stress.
Suddenly the girl appears from around the corner down the hallway walking back in my direction. Behind her is another woman who on first glance appears to be her boss or some sort of manager. They’re bringing out the big guns to deliver this bad news it appears.
“Hello, sir.”
“Hello,” I say extending my hand to meet hers.
“I’m Mallory Davidson.”
“Steven Shield.”
“Mr. Shield, we have good news. Your account with us is all settled.”
“All settled?”
“That’s right. All treatments you, or in this case your fiancée I believe it is, has had or will have in the future.”
“Future treatments too? I’m not about to argue with that, but are you sure everything’s okay?”
“Absolutely.”
“But I thought my policy declined the payment.”
“They did, because your bill was already cleared.”
“Come again?” I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I don’t want to fly all the way back across the country to L.A. to find out there was an administrative mistake and I do in fact owe a boatload of money to the hospital.
“It’s the least we could do after your very generous gift,” Mallory says.
“My gift?”
“The donation, sir. We were told it originated under your name.”
“Originated…under…my…” Then it hits me. Mrs. Douglas. She made the donation. “Right,” I say. “I’m sorry for forgetting and my apologizes. I wasn’t trying to draw attention to myself.”
“No worries at all, Mister Shield. And it’s an honor to finally meet you. Your gift has really enabled us to help a lot of people,” she says.
“Thank you,” I say. “It was a friend of mine’s generosity, but the thing that makes me the happiest is that it’s helping others.”
“That’s what makes me happiest too.”
I smile and feel a warmth overcome me, quickly accompanied by goose bumps from head to toe. Mrs. Douglas you little devil. Or should I say my guardian angel?
“Anything else I can help you with?” Mallory asks.
“Not that I can think of. Thank you for your time. And sorry to disturb you.”
“Not at all. I wish you a pleasant stay in New York.”
“It’s been excellent. Thank you,” I say.
I turn and almost bump into May.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
“We finished up early. That’s what happens when they find zerooooo cancer in your body.”
“That’s great!” I say, wrapping her up in a big hug.
“How’s everything down here?”
“Too good to be true.”
“You were…paying the bill?”
“Something like that.”
“Did everything go as planned?”
“Not exactly.”
“Oh no!”
“Not exactly because it went even better than I hoped.”
“So everything is taken care of?”
“Everything is taken care of.”
“Nothing out of pocket?”
“Come on, you can’t ask me questions like that.”
“I just don’t want to feel like I—“
I raise my finger to her lips silencing her.
“Not one red cent.” I say.
She smiles and my finger is quickly replaced on her lips by mine.