Disclaimer:
This story is a work of fiction. If you cannot discern fact from fiction and fantasy from reality, do not read this story. Views and opinions expressed in this work of fiction belong to their respective in-universe characters and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author. The author is not condoning the actions or attitudes of fictional characters for the real world.
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"Dammit Craig, I warned you those DUIs would catch up with you. I don't have time to come get you. I just left work and driving across town to get to my appointment; my doctor's last appointment of the day. I NEED to get this physical or I can't get my new life insurance policy. Call your dad."
Craig's voice boomed from every speaker throughout the car via its Bluetooth connection to her cellular phone. "I did. He told me to call you."
"And there's no one else you can ride with?"
"Not now, they've all left."
"Shit." Maria rubbed her forehead while driving with one hand on the steering wheel. "Okay, wait inside until I get there. It's like a hundred and five outside so stay indoors. But as soon as I pull up at the curb, come out. I can't be late for this appointment. I already had to postpone last month. if they don't see me today there won't be time to reschedule again and the insurance company will drop my application." She ended the call without waiting for his response.
Maria's stepson, Craig, gigged as a session musician--getting paid only when they needed him--at a small recording studio on the outskirts of town, but he thought he was destined to be the next big name in music. At twenty-one he still lived at home and two weeks prior he had lost his license and had his car impounded. Since then, she was driving Craig to work and his father was picking him up in the afternoon but evidently had something more important to do that day. "The one goddamn day he knows I can't," she seethed out loud to no one as she turned off the main boulevard and put her high heeled foot down hard on the accelerator.
As she'd been heading to the clinic straight from her job as a bank teller, she was smartly dressed, wearing black heels and dark silk stockings, a white blouse with a long, narrow navy blue skirt and matching blue suit jacket. Her medium length sandy brown hair (chemically lightened) was tied into a tight bun and she had just swapped her normal prescription eyeglasses for prescription sunglasses for the drive.
Maria had remarried at thirty-four, following the death of her previous husband. Now six years later, she still enjoyed married life but her stepson was a frequent aggravation. Loud parties with drunken friends well into the night or coming home in the small hours of the morning after drinking at one of their homes and setting off the burglar alarm, which scared the living shit out of her, were only some of her issues with Craig.
She actually hit several traffic lights green and reached the recording studio with around eighteen minutes to make her appointment. She pulled to the curb and honked the horn. Several seconds later she honked again. The door of the little warehouse-style building swung open and out he stepped, his ruddy face down while tapping away on the screen of his cell phone with both thumbs. Maria blew the horn again and hollered, "¡Córrele, mi hijo!", even though all her windows were rolled up and the air conditioner was blasting full force inside the car so it was likely he couldn't hear her. Still, it felt good to shout just then.
Craig was on the shortish side for a full grown man, standing around five feet eight inches when not hunched over his screen, with curly chestnut brown hair, light blue eyes and several days' stubble beginning to form into a passable mustache although he kept his chin and cheeks shaved clean. He was toned and lean and on that afternoon wore a tight tee shirt which showed off his six pack abs, though his lack of muscle bulk in his upper arms and chest just made him appear skinny.
He got into the car and was still putting on his seat belt when Maria stepped on the gas to exploit a gap in traffic. Without looking in his direction, she snarled, "I swear to God, if I don't get in today because of you, I'm gonna rip you a new one."
"Blame dad, he's the one who didn't come get me."
Her response dripped contempt. "Neither one of us would have to come get you if you learned responsibility." They drove the rest of the way without speaking.
Ever since her bank had been taken over by another three years before, Maria's health insurance coverage had gone to Hell and she could only see in-network doctors. The group clinic where she now had her gynecology exams stood just across a three lane street from a half deserted boarded up shopping center and a couple of short blocks from a park known for drug deals and gang fights. They arrived to find the parking lot still mostly full with only a few free spaces near the rear of the building, farthest from the entry doors.
"Come in and sit in the waiting room until I finish," she ordered flatly. He declined, which led to a brief but energetic argument in the car until she glanced at her wristwatch and told him there wasn't time for his bullshit and that he could not stay out there alone since it wasn't safe.
"Then why do you come here?"
She faced him and shouted, "Because I HAVE to, Craig. I HAVE to. Some day when you learn to be responsible and you have a real job with benefits, you'll find out how insurance works. THIS is where I have to go, I have to be inside RIGHT now, and YOU ARE coming with me! Now move your ass." Craig grumbled but stepped out and followed her.
The interior was divided into several office suites, each with its own waiting area, reception desk and private examination rooms. The doors from the main hall all had safety windows for visibility and it seemed that every waiting room they passed was full or nearly full.
Craig asked with a furrowed brow, "Didn't you say you were the last appointment?"
Maria shrugged. Her tone was softer now, more even. "The last for my doctor, I guess. There's all kinds of different doctors in this place. There's even a lab and a pharmacy. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so out of the way."
Arriving in the designated suite for her appointment, they found the tiny waiting room to be crammed with patients and not one empty chair to be found. Maria checked in with the receptionist who informed her that because she'd missed her appointment by several minutes, her doctor had taken another patient. She could wait a few minutes to see a different doctor or reschedule. Maria thew up her hands in defeat. She absolutely, positively needed to get this exam done that day, so whomever could see her would be fine.
Being a health group clinic, the doctors were primarily general practitioners. Some were licensed in specific areas of healthcare but there were no specialized departments, and the people in the waiting room were indeed a motley bunch, from young to old, male and female, both healthy and ill. A few people throughout the room coughed, sniffled and/or blew their noses. Maria was relieved to hear she could go into the back office to wait on account of the room being over capacity. That also meant Craig could not stay in the waiting room and would need to wait outside the office or go with her to the examination room. Maria told him this would be okay, that it was fine and that it would take just a few minutes and he could just look away while the doctor did what needed to be done.
The examination room was small, one could call it cozy or possibly tight, with one wall taken up almost exclusively by the exam table with only the space for the door to swing inward kept clear. In the corner across from the head of the table stood a basic armless four legged waiting room chair and in the corner across from the foot of the table was a desk and a rolling stool for the doctor or nurse to sit while accessing patient records on the desktop computer. Maria sat right on the end of the exam table and Craig took the chair in the corner.
They waited no more than a few minutes before a doctor wearing a white lab coat, dark slacks and deep brown leather shoes entered. He was a tall and full bodied man at over six feet tall and seemingly almost half as wide, balding, with a round face and full salt and pepper beard and mustache partially concealing a pale complexion which suggested he spent most of his days indoors. Draped over the back of his neck so that both ends hung down his barrel chest was a stethoscope and various instruments peaked out from a breast pocket and two waist pockets of the coat.
He introduced himself while reviewing Maria's paperwork to verify the reason for her visit was a complete physical plus gynecology exam for a life insurance policy, the health evaluation form for which had been faxed to the office. Then he looked up and noticed the young man seated in the corner.
"Don't mind him," Maria stated, "it's a whole ordeal. He's my stepson, he needed a ride because he lost his license, that made me late which is why I'm seeing you and not my regular OBGYN, and I really need to get this done today for the insurance application, I didn't want him hanging around outside in this part of town but there's no place for him in the waiting room which is full of sick people anyway, I don't want him to get sick because then I'll get sick and wind up missing work..."
The doctor motioned for her to stop speaking and she at last took a breath. He said, "This is unusual, but if you're fine then it doesn't bother me." Turning to Craig he added, "Please just remain seated and quiet during your mother's checkup."
"Stepmother," Craig corrected. "And as you can tell, she'll do more than enough yammering for both of us."
Maria snapped, "Oh fuck you, Craig." Looking back to the doctor she said more pleasantly, "I know it's unusual, doctor, but it won't be a problem. He'll probably just play on his phone the whole time. It won't be a problem."
The doctor shrugged then used a foot to slide an electronic scale from under the desk into the middle of the linoleum floor. "I need you to disrobe for the exam. I'll start with your measurements and then move on to the basic checkup."
"Oh, okay," she said as she stepped down from the exam table. She removed her suit jacket and folded it neatly, then looked for somewhere to place it. Normally she might lay it on or over the back of the chair, but her stepson was in it, so she laid it neatly on the sanitary paper which ran the length of the exam table. Next she popped each button of her blouse out of its hole starting from the bottom and working to the top. She shrugged out of the blouse, revealing a quite sturdy underwire minimizer bra, folded the blouse and placed it atop her jacket.
