“Hello, Dr. Shephard. I’m so sorry to disturb your evening.” It is a man’s voice on the line. He is so bright and chipper that I can be certain he is nowhere near the East Coast. “But I’ve got a gentleman patient of yours who says he needs to speak with you urgently. I’ll be honest, I might not have understood exactly what he was saying. His last name is N-A—”

“Thanks for letting me know,” I say, my tone clipped. I spin around to look behind me. This phone call has the effect of a home intrusion. “Have a good night.”

“But, Doc,” the man says just before I end the call. “Don’t you need his name and number?”

Chapter 44

I will not call Shair back. I want to be able to look into his eyes when we have our next conversation, to watch his pupils dilate and constrict, to see the muscles of his face arrange themselves into an expression I can judge for myself.

I am on the pullout couch. I’ve given Mom my bed, since I have my desk and computer in the living room. I log into the hospital system once more before I turn in for the night. I spot a low calcium level and give the nurse a call.

“I was just about to call you,” he says. “He says he’s not in pain but needs something to help him sleep.”

It’s not easy to sleep with IV lines and alarms and stiff bedsheets. I prescribe something to get him through the night, and then I crawl into bed. With my eyes closed, the day replays in my mind. I roll from my left side to my right and see Adam’s post about my patient. I huff in frustration and take my phone out to read myself to exhaustion.

Around one in the morning, the answering service calls again. I answer quickly and keep my voice low so I don’t wake Mom.

“It’s the same gentleman, Doc. He won’t tell me anything. Just says he really needs to talk to you.”

He reads me Shair’s phone number.

“You know, Doc, my aunt Regina wouldn’t walk to her mailbox without making sure it was okay with her doctor. My mom used to joke that some people are called patients because that’s what you need to care for them.”

I smile in the dark and thank him for passing the message along.

I set my phone on the side table and close my eyes again, but I’d have better luck trying to catch a tadpole in a pond.