Page 25 of Raymond's Forever

Amelia walkedinto the clinic building, reset the alarm, and made her way to the break room. After starting a pot of coffee, she went to her office. With the lights on, she surveyed the mess, and it took her less than five minutes to realize that it wasn’t all hers. Her mess was regulated to the top of her desk, and that was it. All her belongings were off the three sets of shelves, and there were fifteen boxes for her to go through that Perkins had someone set in there the week before. The first thing she did was pack up her belongings, and set them off to the side. With that done, she found the box with x-rays sticking out, and stacked them on the cleared off desk. She snapped photos of the outside of the envelope, and put them up on the light box. For the next hour and a half, she snapped pictures, forwarded them to where they needed to be, and sent copies to Raymond.

After putting the last of them back in their respective envelopes, she laid them on the shelves, and went for a cup of coffee. She returned to her office, and realized she still had almost an hour before the first person arrived for their shift. She fired up her laptop, and grabbed the boxes where she’d seen a stack of DVD’s, she slipped the first one in her computer, dug in her purse, and found a fresh flash drive. The DVD contained notes, and she downloaded the contents to the drive. She had just put the last disc back in its case when there was a knock at the door. She quickly put the box on the shelf, closed the laptop, pocketed the drive, and called for them to come in.

She sighed in relief when she saw Betty poke her head in.

“You okay?” Betty asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because you look flushed.”

“Come in and close the door.” She nodded and grinned when Betty locked it behind her.

“What’s all this junk?” Betty asked as she sipped from her own travel mug, and waved her hand at all the boxes littering Amelia’s office.

“Perkins’ shit, he informed me every time he saw me this week, that I had to unpack his boxes for him.”

“Like that’s going to happen.”

“I did unpack the x-rays,” she said as she pointed to the stack on one of the bookshelves.

Betty grinned as she put her mug down and gave her a silent clap. “Where are your things?”

“That box next to the door. Everything else I’ve already removed. That’s the last-minute things I forgot.”

The two of them sat there in silence for a good three minutes before Amelia spoke, “Are you going to be okay here without me?”

“Yes, I’ll make sure of it. As I told Raymond and Yvonne last night, I have three suitcases packed in the back of my trunk. I have the key to your place, and directions to Broken Two. The only thing I need to grab if I have to, would be my laptop. My place was furnished when I moved in, so I don’t have any furniture. The bed isn’t all that great, I got it at a discount mattress place decades ago. I’m good. And, I don’t know if I’ll be too far behind. I’m not going to wait around to get hit again, nor am I going to wait for them to fuck up.”

“But it sounds like you are going to wait for something.”

“I am, and once that’s done, I’m gone.”

“What’s that?”

“You had already left last night, and I had already met with Yvonne, but Perkins called here last night. Five minutes before we were officially closed.”

“What did he want?”

“Today, at exactly, he said that word, but at exactly twelve ten, once you’ve turned in your badge, your clearance has been revoked, and you’ve turned in your keys, I am to personally call Shay Hall and have him come in first thing Monday to discuss his upcoming surgery.”

“Holy shit, he’s going to railroad Shay into the surgery?”

“That’s what it sounded like to me. I’m to tell Shay, if he questions me, that his previous doctor was let go for incompetence, and since he’s taking over all their former cases, then his previous surgeon lied to him and that if he ever wants to use his leg again, he needs to come in for the consultation on Monday, and expect to go under the knife by Thursday.”

“Damn, I don’t know if I should laugh, cry, scream, or what. I know I can’t shoot the asshole, one because I don’t own a gun, and two, because I sure as hell won’t go to jail because of him. Thankfully, we’ve briefed Shay on this scenario, and he’ll take it from there. Don’t put any pressure on yourself to document anything except your normal notes. We’ll have to trust that Shay, Naomi, and Clark will be here as back up.”

“Yeah,” Betty said with a gigantic sigh. “I’m going to get the exam rooms ready for the first patient. You’re out of here at noon?”

“Unless they kick me out earlier.” She grinned when Betty snorted a laugh. The other woman left, and Amelia sat in her chair shaking her head at the audacity of Perkins. She gave a start when there was a loud knock on her door, and she called for them to enter. It shocked the shit out of her to see Dr. Alexander Ervin standing there with the woman from HR beside him.

Ervin never waited to be invited in, he came in, sat in the chair before her desk and got right to the point. “Since you’re not seeing any patients today, I thought it would be nice to get your exit interview out of the way, then you can leave whenever you want. We don’t need you here any longer.”

Amelia remained calm, leaned back in her chair, and picked up her travel mug. She took a sip, never taking her eyes off of Ervin. She didn’t speak until he started to squirm. Only then did she speak, and it was so cold that even the HR person shivered.

“Since I’m your superior here at the clinic, Ervin, you don’t get to dictate what I do here. Just because you have a pair of tea bags, that doesn’t give you the right to dictate to me. You may be in charge on paper, but seniority wise, I outrank you. You are nothing but the administrator that pushes papers around. I have never in the last year plus that you’ve been here reported to you, nor have I ever taken direct instructions from you. You don’t have that type of authority over me. With that being said, and if you don’t believe me, then contact the real HR department to verify everything I just told you, I have it set up that I will leave here at noon, and I’m already on the books with Janet from HR for my exit interview at eleven. I’ve never seen this person before, so how do I know you’re telling me the truth as to who this is. She’s not even wearing the hospital badge required of all employees of the hospital. So, now that I’ve said my piece, please leave my office.” When he sat there dumfounded, she firmed her voice, “NOW!”

He jumped to his feet, scrambled to the door, and he called out, “You’ll regret your treatment of me. You have no right to talk down to me like that!” he screamed, and walked out of the door.