One and Only

Chapter 10 -Sticks and Stones

"Hello, may I please speak with Dr. Jennifer Parks?"
"This is she," I responded, pulling my phone away from my face momentarily so that I could see who was calling me. The screen said only LDS Hospital, which seemed odd, since I had no affiliation with Intermountain Healthcare.
"Can you hold one second, I've got Dr. Holden for you."
"Sure." I put the phone back to my ear and plunged my hands into the warm, soapy water of the kitchen sink where I was cleaning the muck off of Max's dog food bowl.
"Hi, is this Dr. Parks? This is Ian Holden over at LDS ER. I'm calling on behalf of your grandmother Mary Ellen Anderson."
My breath escaped me, like I had been sucker punched in the stomach by a bully wanting to take my lunch money.
"Oh my God," I said, forgetting all formalities of medical professionalism, "what happened, is she alright?" I removed my soapy hands from the water and dried then quickly in the hand towel hanging on the edge of the sink. I moved the phone to the other ear, as the sound of my own racing heart was getting so loud I could hardly hear.
"She's had a pretty significant fall. She banged up her knee pretty bad and she also hit her head. It doesn't appear that anything is broken, but she's still pretty disoriented, likely from a concussion. She's also lost a significant amount of blood. We're going to admit her to the hospital, but she wanted us to call you to let you know where she was. She said that you guys had lunch plans today, and, well, she insisted that I tell you that she wasn't going to be able to make it."
The laughter welled inside me like a deep sea earthquake. Before I knew it, my body was convulsing and I guffawed loudly, cackling in such a way that I must've sounded like a maniac.
As the comic tsunami inside of me subsided, I wiped away several tears which had formed in my eyes, and again, switched the phone to my other ear.
"Will you let her know that I'll be there in 30 minutes? Oh, and does she have a room yet?" I was already walking over towards my shoes, picking up my keys and my wallet which were on the counter near the back door.
"Not yet, but she will by the time you get here," he said. "She sure does have a lot of spirit for someone her age."
"Dr. Holden," I said, "thank you so much for calling me and taking care of her. She means the world to me."
"Well, she hasn't stopped talking about you since she got here, so don't be surprised if you're greeted by name when you arrive," he said.
"See you soon," I said, as I slipped on my clogs and headed for the back door.
———
<group text to Zack and Andy>
Omg, Grandma has had a fall and she's in the ER at LDS hospital. I'm headed over there now, so obviously brunch is cancelled. I'll call you both later."
I waited to see if either of them was immediately going to respond but I knew that they wouldn't because they were lifting weights together at the gym. I shrugged and put my phone in my purse, locking the back door, after a brief look at Max, who wagged his tail supportively as I left.
—-
When I arrived at the hospital, I parked next to the ambulance bay and walked into the main ER entrance. There was a two person line, which didn't seem to be moving very quickly, so I contemplated going directly to the main entrance of the hospital, but gradually the first person finished and the lady in front of me was also looking for someone and so was quickly directed to where she needed to go. As I walked up to the window, I could feel butterflies wrestling in my stomach. 
"Hi, I'm Jennifer Parks, I'm here to see my grandmother Mary Ellen Anderson."
"Hello Dr. Parks," the gentleman behind the counter said, "Mary Ellen is expecting you. She's over in exam bay 7." He futzed around on his computer, and then a small device near his desk printed out a stick-on visitor's name tag with my name on it. It said "Dr. Jennifer Parks visitor for Mary Ellen Anderson."
I smiled at the attention to detail and looked back up at the attendant, smiling as warmly as I could.
"She told all of us that you were a physician the moment that she got here. She must've told EMS the same thing, because they also mentioned it in their report to Dr. Holden."

I chuckled privately, and took the name tag, affixing it above my left breast. "You know, sometimes she tells me that I'm a doctor, so I'm not surprised that she listed it as part of her past medical history."