Chapter Six
I really hate going to the doctor’s office.
It always made me feel that whenever I go there, I end up meeting the craziest people in the world.
This is exactly what would always happen whenever I would go to Dr. Kline’s office.
I had been going to Dr. Kline for about ten years now. When I first met him, he reminded me of Albert Einstein. Not in the sense of his smartness but the fact that he had this grey hair that wildly went everywhere around his head. It was as if he had just woken up, got ready for the day to begin and ran his fingers through his hair. But it wasn’t just how he looked that made me laugh at times, it was also the patients that he had. Some of the craziest people that you would never believe were born on this earth.
Today was no exception as when I went inside, there was a little old lady sitting over in the corner of the waiting room, looked to be in her 80’s with white hair that was pulled back into a bun so tight that it gave me a headache to even look at her. She was knitting something with white yarn, looked to be a scarf or maybe a blanket.
On the opposite side of the little old lady was a couple, who were talking in French accents. They were middle aged and the woman was very pregnant as they were arguing about what she had wanted to pain the nursery with. It seemed that she wanted a mural of Nursery Rhyme characters while he only wanted something plain, which was to have the room painted blue. She was really adamant about having what she wanted.
Then there was a mother with two little boys and a girl. Bless her heart I thought as she was having such a time keeping them occupied. “Here you go sweetheart, why don’t you color in your coloring book?” she told the oldest boy while holding the girl, who was probably no more than a few weeks old. He grabbed his jumbo crayons and began to color while the other little boy was busy watching something on the iPad.
“Hello there Ms. Taylor, how are you today?” the receptionist greeted me.
“Doing just fine thank you Zina, how are the kids?”
“Marvin is doing well. He’s on the Honor Roll right now and Marcie is on the Debate team.”
“You tell them both I said hello and to keep up the good work.” I signed myself in and tried to figure out where the hell I was going to sit. Thankfully, there were two chairs off to the other side. Putting my purse in the other chair to deter others from wanting to sit down next to me, I began looking over my phone, checking my email which of course was all junk but I did get a text from Charles inviting me to dinner with him and Simon. I hadn’t seen Simon almost a year and was excited to be able to see him again. ‘Sure, I’d love to have dinner with you guys, where do you want to meet up?’ I typed before sending it off.
Looking over, I noticed that I had an admirer, the oldest boy who had stopped coloring to stare at me. He had been staring at me but would go back to coloring in his coloring book which I thought was cute. A chime from my phone let me know that a message was coming through as I checked to see Charles letting me know that dinner would be at Simon’s house at eight. I messaged him back letting him know that this was fine and if I were running late, I would let him know.
Looking over again, I saw the little boy spying at me once more, then he again continued back to coloring furiously with the purple crayon in his hand. Then he stopped to look at what he had done and what he did next kind of threw me for a loop because he got up with coloring book in hand and brought it over to me. He had the cutest toothless front grin on his freckled face. “Oh my, you did this huh?” I looked over it, seeing that he’d been coloring on a page that had a house in the middle of a forest of trees with a smiling sun above.
He had colored the entire page purple.
“You know purple is my favorite color too.” I smiled which made him smile even more.
“Oh hon, come back over here. Don’t bother the nice lady,” the mom told him while looking distressed.
“Oh, no ma’am, that’s just fine, he’s no problem at all.”
He handed me the coloring book and quickly went back to gather his crayons, bringing them back to me as I decided to get on his level as he had sat down on the floor in front of the chair beside me and we both began to do a bit of coloring.
It was about three pages before I was called in by one of the nurses in which my new little friend was a bit disappointed that I was leaving. “I’ll be back I promise,” I assured him as he went back to his mom and I followed behind the nurse.
After she got my vitals and left me in the room, I grabbed the only magazine that was on the counter where the doctor would write down in the folder. When I looked it over, I realized that it was one I had already flipped through before and I put it back down.
The door opened and Dr. Kline came waltzing in with a big smile on his face. “Why hello Melanie, how are we today?”
“Doing just fine Dr. Kline, how are you?”
“I’ll be doing much better once the day is over and done with.” He smiled while motioning me towards the table to sit as I did so. “So we are here for a checkup huh?”
“That we are.”
He went and got a tongue depressor along with that thing with the light that was on the mount to look down my throat. “Now, open wide and say ahhh,”
“Ahhhhhhh,” I said as he continued looking even more down my throat until he turned off the light and took the depressor out of my mouth.
“Did you get in contact with the ENT doctor I referred you about your throat?”
“Yes I did. I go and see a Doctor Lee next month.”
“Good. Have you been doing any singing lately?”
“Actually, I am doing a recording for a demo tape. I’m supposed to be doing my third song today after I’m done with my appointment here.”
“Well, do me a favor. Try not to strain your voice so much when you hit those high notes and all. Also make sure to drink some of that tea I told you to get and to rest your voice as much as possible. I know that you want to sing but we want to make sure your voice is kept at its best. So far, your throat looks just fine, so I know you are following my advice.”
The one thing that a singer was often scared of, besides stage fright, was losing their voice. This was one of the many things I had worried about, next to surgery which I had always said to myself that I wouldn’t do unless it was absolutely necessary. But with the help of Doctor Klein, my chances of ever having surgery were very slim.
I had stopped off by the store to grab some of that tea from the herbal shop that Dr. Klein told me about along with some honey before heading over to Anthony’s studio. By the time I got up towards his floor, I could hear a guitar playing. There was no particular song that was being played, it sounded as if the person was just warming up. I got out of the elevator then made my way in and could see Anthony sitting at the couch playing on an acoustic guitar. I didn’t disturb him by saying hello as I continued listening to him play even more. The melody he played soon played in my head as I began humming to myself, humming out the melody.
He looked over at me with a smile. “Hello there.”
“Hi, don’t stop playing whatever it is you are playing, I like it.”
“Thanks, it’s something I like to limber my fingers up a bit.”
“Does it have a name?”
“Not really, just something I made up. What you got there?” He motioned towards the bag in my hand.
“I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to make some tea before I started singing.”
“Sure thing, let me put on some water. How was your doctor’s appointment?”
“Oh, it was just fine. Just a regular checkup on my throat.”
“Your throat? Is everything all right?”
“Oh yes, you see I like to go and check up on my throat to make sure things are good with it you know. Today was no exception and everything was just fine. I just have to continue to rest my voice, try not to hit too many high notes and drink my tea. That’s why I stopped off by the store so I would have some on hand.”
“Of course, well if you want, I can keep the tea and honey right here in my cabinet. So that way you, won’t have to bring it with you every time.”
“Thanks.” I smiled.
He then put some water in a kettle that he already had one the stove. Putting it on the burner, he turned it on and then went into the cabinet to grab a coffee cup. “Now if you will excuse me, I have a few calls to make. Let me know when you are ready to start.”
“That sounds fine with me.” My cell phone began to chime in. I already knew who it was since I had set this particular ring tone to the one person who deserved it the most. “Lil Pud!”
“God, I hate that nickname.” He sighed. “Can’t you figure out another one for me instead?”
“Nope, you will always be my Lil Pud, no matter how old we get,” I replied. “So someday, we could be sitting on a porch in some assisted living place, in our rockers with blankets over our legs so our arthritis won’t act up and I will say, ‘hand me my teeth, Lil’ Pud.’ ”
He started to laugh. “You are so crazy girl, I swear. This is why I need a Depends when talking with you because every time I do, I end up pissing my pants. Anyway, I was calling to see how you were since I had a small break here. So what are you doing?”
“Just came back from my doctor’s appointment to the studio here at Anthony’s. I’m waiting for the water for my tea to get hot.”
“At the place where you are doing your demo, it’s called Anthony’s?”
“No you nut. I’m at Anthony’s loft. He has his studio set up here.”
“You are at some man’s place, by yourself, alone. How does he look, is he hot?”
I giggled at his comment. Then when I looked over to see Anthony stooped down next to the crates of records while talking on the phone. Yes, he is hot. He wasn’t facing me but I could see his profile, that steely jawline, the way his lips curled when he talked and that smile of his. He must have gone to the dentist every other week to get a smile that bright but it was beautiful. “Well,” I told Charles, all along staring at the very hot Anthony while I talked, “He’s alright.”