Page 6 of True Blue

“Hello, I’m Dr. Miller...”

It’s easy to fall into the work, the time being swallowed by another patient, another diagnosis.

Two hours later, I'm feeling excited as I head into the infusion center. This job is hard, but there are silver linings.

“There she is!”

Silver linings like Eleanor Ambrose.

My smile only widens as I walk over to the silver-haired woman reclining in her blue chemo chair.

“Hello, Ellie,” I say, taking a seat in the open chair for our patients' guests.

“I read it all in one day,” she says, reaching for the tote bag on the floor.

Moving so she doesn’t have to, I grab the bag and pass it to her. She gives me a smile of thanks as she rummages through it.

“Ugh! I couldn’t get enough,” she gushes. “You were right.”

She pulls out the book I loaned her two weeks ago and hands it to me.

“Spicy,” she smirks, her voice a hissing whisper.

Ellie fans herself, and my cheeks flame. I had debated whether or not to give her the book because of the rather explicit sex scenes.

But Ellie isn’t a typical grandma. Her once-blonde hair has gone a gorgeous silver, only slightly thinned by chemo. She wears flowy dresses that remind me of a flower child of the sixties.

And when she smiles, she does so with her whole face.

I remember how she made me laugh when I was going over the side effects of chemotherapy.

“Hair grows back, sweetheart. Unfortunately, I don’t!”

It didn’t take long till she stopped feeling like Eleanor Ambrose, my patient, and started feeling like Ellie, my friend.

There’s something about her that just disarms you. I was speaking more plainly than I usually did during appointments, asking questions as she went through her love story.

During our first appointment together three months ago, during the physical exam, Eleanor spoke about her husband—the late, great Theodore Ambrose—with so much love and devotion. Even though she’s been widowed for the last decade, she spoke about him like he was still here.

They met on the beach in Florida. He was surfing, and she was on vacation with her parents. She—rather passionately—recounted that she was wearing her gorgeous new red bikini, and he wiped out when he got a good look at her.

Like something out of a novel, he emerged from the water, came right up to her, and asked her on a date.

It reminded me of a book I was reading, and I soon found myself telling her about the book and my love of reading. That’s how our little book exchange started.

“Did you like Brandon?” I smile, feeling a little excited jolt.

“Loved him! What a sweetie,” she says, handing me back the book. “Loved Candy even more—she didn’t take any of his crap.”

My smile widens. “Knew you would like her.”

“When she told him to crawl if he wanted her to forgive him,” Ellie fans herself, making me giggle. “Lord almighty!”

“Do you think he earned it?”

“Her forgiveness?”

At my nod, she purses her lips, considering.