The Three of Us

60. The Second Doctor Visit

Marilla decided the next day that she ought to try to keep them on some sort of schedule so that Anne wasn't just laying around in their room losing all track of time.

Breakfast was always delivered at seven in the morning, and after eating, Anne washed and dressed for the day. Marilla thought Anne should go outdoors for a little while to get some fresh air and sunlight, before the day got too hot. There was a small patio in back of the boarding house, and it was shaded and semi private from the yard.

Marilla noticed that two of the residents of the building- a couple, the only couple there who had children- had given Anne disapproving looks and seemed to try to keep their children's attention away from her. Since the mother often brought the two little children out to the backyard to play, Marilla was glad the small patio was divided a bit from the yard, and hoped that Anne would not notice their treatment of her.

After being outside for a while, she'd bring Anne back into their room and have her work on her geometry. Anne did not like geometry any more than she had before, and so Marilla began finding books for her to read and giving her writing assignments as well. She thought that Anne must have things to keep her mind active and busy, and she wished she could make Anne feel as though she were still in school. It did feel like school, from about eight a.m. to noon, and Anne jokingly told Marilla that she ought to have a bell to ring once it was time to go to lunch.

Every day at noon, she and Anne would stop their school work and walk down the street to a little diner to have lunch. Marilla would have considered it an extravagance to eat out every day, but she found herself with extra money now that she was not paying rent or hospital bills, and she decided it would be good for Anne to be forced to leave the boarding house every day.

Once they returned, she made Anne lay down for about a half hour to rest.

After this, Anne spent most of the afternoon writing letters. Writing was to take up a lot of her time, because she would write long letters to Matthew- with parts for him to read aloud to Jerry, since Jerry couldn't be written to independently- as well as letters to Gilbert and his father, Emily, Diana, Ruby, Tillie, and Jane. The only people she would write to daily were Matthew and Gilbert, but all of the others would be written to at least twice a week.

Dinner was served at the same time every evening in the boarding house, and after dinner Anne went back to their room, read books, took a long soak in the tub, and then sat in bed knitting a teeny, tiny little green sweater until Marilla told her it was time to go to sleep.

On Saturday, they stuck to the same schedule Marilla had developed, but on Sunday they didn't, and they had quite the struggle with each other because Marilla had found a nearby church to attend and Anne was vehemently against any more outside contact than necessary. But Anne was relieved to find that churches in the city were much bigger than the church in Avonlea she was used to, and among the crowds, she was able to pass with little notice.

On Monday, they had their second hospital visit.

This time, Dr. Wescott was able to get Anne to let him listen with his stethoscope- eventually.

At first, she told him he could listen, but then she balked and refused.

Marilla exclaimed, "Anne, you're being silly- now, you know the doctor is just trying to help you. You started letting Dr. Carter listen, didn't you? This is no different!"

But Anne nearly cried and then Marilla just felt bad for scolding her.

Dr. Wescott had a solution:

"Why don't we do this. I'll keep the earpiece, and you take the chestpiece."

"I can do it myself?" Anne asked, wiping her eyes.

"Well...we'll give it a shot," he said. "Now, this side of the chestpiece is called the bell, and this side is called the diaphragm. We're going to put this end flat down, and then...Now, your hands can create false sounds, so we have to be sure to hold it like this- with your index finger here, and- yes, that's right, that will prevent those false sounds. All right- here, why don't you take this blanket, Miss Cuthbert, and you can hold it so she's covered a bit. Would that make you feel better, Anne?"

Dr. Wescott found listening to be a bit frustrating, since he did not have control over where she was putting the chestpiece, and the fact that every so often Anne's hand would create sounds. But he decided that if he could get her to be all right with doing this, it was better than nothing, and he hoped he'd be able to ease her into letting him handle the device himself the next time.

Dr. Wescott next asked about the baby moving. He wanted to know how often she was feeling it kick, and when.

Anne bit her lip. "Well...I...I have a question."

"Yes?"

"I didn't want to ask because I didn't know if it would mean...having to be touched, and I didn't want..."

The doctor nodded. "I think you ought to tell me everything you're worried about, and if there's something I need to do and you're afraid, we'll talk about it and try to figure out ways to make it less scary."

Anne's eyes filled and she looked away.

Marilla was terrified- Anne had not told her she had any concerns.

"The thing is...I...I've noticed that it doesn't move around as much anymore. It used to a lot, but the past few days it hasn't, and...and I was scared that something about traveling on the train made it...made it get hurt or something?"

Marilla's heart was thudding. She should not have dragged Anne miles and miles over railroad tracks. What had she been thinking? She should have found some doctor who could come to them, no matter what the cost...

But Dr. Wescott did not seem alarmed. "We're at about thirty-six weeks," he began, but Anne interrupted-

"Thirty-six weeks tomorrow," she told him flatly. "Tuesdays are the days it turns older."

Marilla said gently, "Anne celebrates each new week of the baby's growing."

Dr. Wescott glanced at Marilla, feeling bad.

Most women- married women- could not be sure of the exact date they'd conceived their little one. But with this new little patient he had, the weeks of pregnancy could be counted from beginning to end.

"The baby sounds healthy," he told her. "Moving less is perfectly normal late in a pregnancy. At this point, there's just not as much room for moving." He smiled at her. Marilla began to breathe again.

"But if it can't move around, what if it's arms and legs start to hurt from being squished all the time?" Anne worried.

"It won't have long to be...squished," Dr. Wescott said with a smile. "So don't you worry about it's arms and legs. It's all perfectly normal."

On the way back, Marilla had Anne cross the street at the other side, so they could stop at a bakery. "You need to pick out a cake for us to take home so we're ready for the baby's birthday tomorrow," she told her kindly.

Anne did not yet know this, but there would only be one more cake after this one.