Chapter 24 Two Places at Once #2
The woman, Alice, smiled. “Ah! So you’re the miracle worker!”
Bitsy’s cheeks went pink. “Oh no. I wouldn’t say that.”
“No need to. Katharine already did.” Alice pulled a leg from the stirrup and over the saddle, climbing nimbly down from the
horse. “And I agree. I gave Delilah a once-over before we rode out, and she seemed perfectly sound, barely a hint of inflammation.
I’m impressed. Treating laminitis isn’t easy.”
Mrs. Graham slid off her saddle, still holding Delilah’s reins.
“Bitsy, meet Alice Brennan, an old friend who’s in town for a conference.” Mrs. Graham’s smile spread. “Alice also happens
to be a professor at the school of veterinary medicine at University of California, Davis.”
Bitsy blinked her big brown eyes. “Really?”
Alice nodded. Mrs. Graham called to Joey, who was just coming out of the barn with shovel in hand. He put it down and jogged
toward the women.
“Joey, could you give me a hand unsaddling? I’ll take Delilah if you can take Crystal.”
He said he’d be happy to, took hold of Crystal’s reins, and led her toward the barn.
“Well, I shall leave you to it,” Mrs. Graham said, looking to Alice and Bitsy in turn. “I imagine you two will have lots to talk about.”
* * *
At first Alice did most of the talking.
Like Bitsy, she’d grown up around animals and had a loving, supportive father whom she adored, who happened to be a veterinarian.
Young Alice spent Saturdays and summers working in his hospital. She started out cleaning cages and filling water bowls, but
it wasn’t long before she was his assistant. Her father took pains to explain what he was doing and why, everything from how
he reached a diagnosis to the safest way to vaccinate a temperamental terrier. And as he instructed her, he would say, “When
you go to veterinary college . . .”
“Not if I went, but when I went.” Alice thumped the fence with her closed fist for emphasis. “He acted like it was a given, and there was no question
that I would grow up and become a vet. Because he believed it, I did too.”
She leaned closer and stood taller, until she and Bitsy were practically nose to nose. Then she let her voice drop to almost
a whisper, as if imparting some precious secret.
“Having faith in yourself,” Alice said, “believing you have as much right to be in the room as anybody else, is half the battle.”
She popped her eyebrows, giving Bitsy a meaningful look. Then she took a step back and clapped her hands together.
“So, Bitsy! Tell me about yourself. Who are you? Where did you grow up? How did you learn so much about horses? Why are you
working as a stable hand? And how in the world,” she said, tipping her head back, “did such a tall drink of water come to
be called Bitsy?”
Bitsy answered her questions and supplied all the background information Alice requested, including the one item Bitsy found
most embarrassing.
“Now, you listen to me, Theodora Leonora,” Alice said, grinning as she employed Bitsy’s given name, which they had agreed didn’t suit her at all.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. Not one thing. You were under a lot of pressure. It’s not like you’re the first woman who put her education aside to get married.
And it’s not as if this was an irreversible decision.
You’re only short one semester. Go back to college, finish up those last few credits, and take a crack at getting into vet school.
If you’re worried about recommendations, I’d be willing to vouch for you.
There are no guarantees, of course, but if you apply to our program at UC Davis, I feel confident that a recommendation from a faculty member would give you a good shot. ”
“Alice—I mean, Professor Brennan, you’re so kind—”
“Alice is fine for now,” she interrupted. “Once you’re admitted, then you can call me Professor Brennan. And I’m not being
kind. Veterinary medicine can be a lonely profession for a woman, and I’m out to change that.
“Everybody didn’t have the opportunities I did—a father who believed in her and was already in the profession, and who also
just happened to have donated to the college and done a bit of guest lecturing,” Alice said, chuckling. “So when I see a bright,
promising young woman with a desire to enter the field, I try to help pave the way for her, the way Dad did for me. Somewhere
down the road, maybe you’ll help pave the way for somebody else. That’s how the world gets better, Bitsy. One generation helping
the next.”
Bitsy swallowed back the thick feeling in her throat. Mrs. Graham was only trying to help, but Bitsy wished she hadn’t introduced
her to Professor Brennan. She felt as if someone was dangling a jewel in front of her, the glimpse of a life she might have
had but never would.
Bitsy tried to smile. “I appreciate your encouragement so much. And your willingness to recommend me. Truly, I do. But California
is so far away—”
“You’re right, you’re right,” Alice said, briefly raising both hands. “But there are other schools. A recommendation from me might not have the same clout at another institution as it would at Davis, but it would still count for something.”
“Yes, I’m sure, but there aren’t any veterinary colleges in this area, nothing within commuting distance. My husband has been
working hard to build up his practice. He’s not going to abandon it and move just so I can go to school.”
“Yes, Katharine told me about your husband. He sounds like quite a guy.” Alice twisted her lips and sniffed. “Well, far be
it from me to tell you how to live your life. But if I were in—”
Bitsy lifted a hand. She didn’t want to hear more. She couldn’t.
“I’m pregnant.”
The professor stopped midsentence. Her mouth hung open.
“Ah,” she said at last. “I see.”
“I’m not certain yet, and I haven’t told my husband, but he’s going to be so happy. I am too, obviously,” she added. “We’ve
been trying to start a family for over two years. Finally, after all this time . . . success!”
She flashed a smile, hoping Alice would read in it what she wasn’t saying. Bitsy had made a commitment, taken a vow. Now,
more than ever, she couldn’t turn away from that.
“Well, that’s wonderful. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Alice gave her head a sort of “guess that’s that” bob and started walking toward the barns. But then she stopped, retraced
her steps, and pulled a business card from her pocket.
“Just in case. You’re still young, and babies do have a way of growing up. Maybe someday?”
Bitsy took the card from politeness and slipped it into her pocket.
“Yes, of course. Maybe someday.”
* * *
Once the traffic started moving, Viv drove back to Concordia as fast as she could without risking a ticket, pulling into the
driveway at twenty-five minutes after four. Before she’d even turned off the ignition, a wet-haired Andrea came flying around
the corner of the house, waving her arms. Viv started apologizing while she was still getting out of the car.
“Honey, I am so sorry. The traffic was awful. But I’m here now, so go on and set your hair. Borrow my Lady Sunbeam,” she said,
referring to her new home hair dryer. “Just pull that plastic shower cap thing over the rollers and crank the blower to high.
You’ll be dry in no time.”
Viv was using her “nurse voice,” a reassuring tone that could calm the most anxious of patients. But Andrea still looked frazzled.
“Mom. It’s not that. It’s Jennifer. She climbed up on the roof and won’t come down. She says she’s going to jump!”
“What!” Viv slammed the car door and craned her neck, squinting in the sunlight as her eyes searched the roof. “Where is she?
How did she get up there in the first place?”
“She’s in the back,” Andrea said, grabbing her mother’s arm and pulling her around the corner of the house. “It’s all my fault.
The kids were complaining about the heat, so I set up the Slip ’N Slide. Mark grabbed the hose and ruined my hair, so I sprayed
him back. Jenny must have gone inside during the water fight, then climbed out the bedroom window while I had my back turned.
It was just for a minute, Mom. I swear!”
Andrea was on the verge of tears. Viv nodded reassuringly, said she believed her and that everything would be all right. Andrea
sniffled and opened the gate to the backyard. Viv looked up.
Sure enough, five-year-old Jenny was standing on the roof with a white bath towel tied over her shoulders and a defiant expression
on her face. Thankfully, she was standing on the lower of the split-level roofs. It wasn’t that high, perhaps nine feet, but
still high enough that she might break a bone if she fell.
The two youngest Buschetti boys, Nick and Mark, stood barefoot on the grass, their shorts and hair dripping wet, looking up at their baby sister and clucking like chickens.
“Come on, scaredy-cat!” Mark taunted, tucking his fists under his bony arms and flapping them like wings. “Scaredy-cat!”
“I’m not a scaredy-cat!” Jennifer cried.
“Then do it already!” Nick shouted. “Jump!”
Jennifer scooted closer to the edge. Viv broke into a run, pushing Andrea aside and calling out sharply to Jenny. Jennifer
appeared startled, but her face split into a grin, revealing a gap left by recently lost baby teeth.
Jennifer waved. “Hi, Mommy!”
Viv, puffing from the effort of running, came to a stop near Nick and Mark, gave Jenny a half-hearted wave, then cuffed the
boys’ heads.
“What was that for?” Mark said, blinking with feigned innocence.
“Yeah,” Nick said, sounding offended. “She wants to jump. We’re just cheering her on.”
“Not jump,” Jenny said, shaking her head to correct him. “Fly.”
Viv gave the boys an “I’ll deal with you later” glare, then looked up at her youngest and asked her to please come down. Jenny
pushed her lips into a stubborn line and shook her head. Viv glared at the boys.
“You two knuckleheads get upstairs, climb through that window, and get your little sister off the roof. Now.”
“We already tried,” Andrea said. “The window’s stuck. Vince and Mike might be able to fix it, but they went to the movies.”
“Yeah,” Nick said, scowling and kicking the grass. “And they wouldn’t take us.”
“Go to the garage,” Viv said. “Bring the ladder.”
“Nooo!” Jenny wailed. “No ladder! I want to come down by myself. I want to fly down!”
“I know,” Viv said sympathetically. “But you can’t, sweetie. People can’t fly.”
Doubt flickered across Jenny’s face as she considered this information, but briefly. She crossed her arms, jutted out her chin, and stamped a bare foot on the gray shingles.
“Maybe people can’t,” she declared, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t.”
Lord, but this child was stubborn! And oh, how Viv loved her for it. She pressed a hand against her mouth to cover her smile.
“Okay, Jenny. I’ll make you a deal. If I let you fly into my arms this one time, do you promise never to do it again?” Viv
asked, waving off Andrea’s protests and keeping her eyes glued on Jenny. “You have to promise. Otherwise, we get the ladder.”
Jenny seemed unhappy with these terms. But after a long moment, she sighed a disgruntled sigh and crossed her heart with her
index finger.
“Oh, okay.”
The little boys whooped with excitement and yelled at Jenny, reminding her not to forget to flap. Andrea bit her lip and looked
anxious. After taking a moment to reassure her eldest daughter that all would be well, including the baby, and that she’d
helped heave a two-hundred-pound patient off an exam table that very day, Viv took two steps backward and raised her arms
high, ready to catch her youngest. Jenny crouched like a swimmer on a starting block.
“Ready?” Viv called. “One. Two. Three!”
Jenny thrust out her arms and leapt into the air. Andrea gasped. The boys cheered. Viv stumbled backward a bit, bending her
knees to absorb the weight, but caught her easily.
“You did it!” Viv shouted, crushing Jenny to her breast. “You flew!”
“I flew!” Jenny cried.
“You did not,” Nick groused. “You jumped.”
“Yeah,” Mark said. “You jumped and Mom caught you. That’s all.”
“I flew,” Jenny said, sticking out her tongue at them. “Didn’t I, Mommy?”
“You did,” Viv agreed. “Like a little bird.”
Jenny gave an exaggerated nod that her brothers couldn’t miss, then wrapped her thin arms around her mother’s neck and moved
her lips to Viv’s ear, voice dropping to a whisper.
“I flew a little,” she said. “And you catched me a little. Didn’t you, Mommy?”
“Yes,” Viv said. “And I always will.”