Free Mabe's Burden by Kelly Abell Page B

doctor called,
increasing his pace. “Why are you here? Are you all right?” The
trim man’s brown eyes were full of concern.
    Mabe glanced at Mara who arched a brow.
She pushed the wheelchair through the doorway to Mabe’s protests.
“Wait a minute. I want to see what’s going on.”
    “ Let’s get you seen to
first.”
    “ But—”
     
    The door swung shut, leaving Meg in the
hall with the doctor.
    “ Why are you here?” he asked
again.
    Meg pointed at the door. “My sister
broke her arm. We’re here for her not me.”
    The doctor blew out a breath. “Oh,
good. I was afraid you’d had another episode”
    “ No, I’m fine.”
    “ I’ll call you when Dr.
Stevens comes in next week. We can decide what you want to do,
because I don’t want to wait much longer.”
    She nodded. “I don’t either, but I have
to take care of a few things first.”
    The man leaned forward, held her gaze.
“You’ve got to tell them, Meg. They will be your best support
through this.”
    A tear leaked from the corner of her
eye. She swiped at it angrily. “I know, but it’s just not so easy.
I show up on their doorstep after ten years, attend my father’s
funeral, and you want me to dump this at their feet?”
    “ It’s not dumping,” Dr.
Walker reminded her. “It’s building a support network for when
you’re going to need it most.”
    “ Look, when I got Dr.
Steven’s name from my friends in Little Rock, I didn’t know you
were going to come with the package. Just leave me alone. I’ll
handle this in my own good time.”
    “ I’m not the one who
strolled in here off the street two days ago in so much pain you
could hardly stand up straight.”
    She sighed. “I know. I appreciate your
help. It’s much better. But after sharing my diagnosis with you, I
certainly didn’t expect you to say anything in front of my
family.”
    “ I won’t. But you need to,”
He offered her a pointed stare, then left her.
    “ Mom, are you coming in?”
Her daughter asked, her head poking out the exam room
doorway.
    She forced a smile. “Yep. What color
cast are they going to give her?”
    “ Ooh, do you think they have
pink?”
    “ Let’s find out.”
    Meg entered the room with her
daughter.
    , “Okay,” the doctor spoke to Mabe.
“I’m going to have to set this elbow. It’s not off by much, but
this isn’t going to be pleasant. Do you want them to
leave?”
    Meg nodded. “Yes, we should leave,” she
agreed hurriedly.
    “ But, Mom, I want to
watch.”
    “ We’ll come back when he’s
ready to put on the cast, okay?” She pulled Emma out by the
hand.
    Mara followed, grumbling, “I surely
don’t need to see that.”
    They strolled down the hall a short
distance. Mara stared pointedly at her sister.
    Meg drew her hand across her throat in
a silencing gesture, tilting her head toward Emma. Mara got the
message, but her expression clearly betrayed both curiosity and
concern.
    When Mabe cried out in pain, their
attention was drawn back to the examining room. Emma’s eyes grew
wide again.
    Meg ruffled her daughter’s hair. “She’s
okay. It just hurts when they set the bone, then it feels
better.”
    Emma looked doubtful. “I don’t want
them to hurt her, Mommy.”
    “ It’ll be okay. Do you still
want to see them put on the cast?”
    Emma hesitated, her expression
doubtful. Meg could imagine the wheels turning in her daughter’s
mind. Emma glanced up, offering her mother a brave smile.
“Cool.”
    Meg returned the smile, nodding her
head just slightly. “Okay, let’s go back in.”
    When they entered the examining room,
the nurse had just started to wrap Mabe’s arm. Emma walked over,
took Mabe’s hand. She smiled, glancing into her aunt’s teary eyes.
“It’ll be okay,.”
    Mabe touched her forehead to Emma’s. “I
know, kid. I’m okay. Hey, what color should I get?”
    “ You get to pick a
color?”
    She nodded.
    “ Pink! Get Pink!”
    Mabe glanced up at the doctor. “You
heard her.”
    The