Free The Doctor's Tale by Claire Applewhite Page A

“Personally, I never shot that good myself, and that’s the God’s truth. Got to hand it to you, Dr. Spezia. I got a question for you, though. If you ain’t proud of yourself, then why’d you do it?”
    “He tried to kill us, Mary. I had to protect everyone in that room, including myself. But, I’m not happy about it the way it ended. I know some other people who aren’t going to be happy about it, either. I took a man’s life tonight. My problems are just beginning.”
    “Well, from where I stand, there’s no problem at all. ‘Cept Maypo isn’t looking so good.”
    “No, he sure isn’t. I’ve tried my best to save him. If he dies, I’ll feel even worse.”
    “Well, don’t. All a man can do is try. You did that.” The stout nurse paused. She straightened her shoulders just a bit. “Doctor, you got my respect.”
    Mary Potts respected me? I couldn’t believe my ears.
    “You know,” I said, “the police confiscated your gun.”
    “Don’t you worry about that. I’ll get another one. Get you one too if you like. What kind you want? I can get any kind you say—and my prices are very reasonable. Believe it.”
    “I don’t doubt that for a minute, but I don’t want another gun. If I want one, I know where I can get one.”
    “You stole that one, did you?”
    “No. Of course not. I thought I mentioned it.”
    “No, you didn’t say anything about a gun. I would have remembered something like that.”
    “The night that cop knocked on my door, I had a gun in my apartment. It was already there when I moved in, stashed in the floor of the closet. I noticed one of the boards was loose, and when I lifted it, I found the gun.”
    “Cop? What cop you talking ‘bout?”
    “Her name is Gabrielle. Gabrielle Burns.” For a moment, I hesitated. I decided this wasn’t the time to discuss my personal life. “Pretty lady, kind of on the tall side. She was looking for a guy who used to live in my apartment. There was a shooting in the neighborhood, and she thought the guy that used to live in my apartment have had something to do with it.”
    “You learn to live with this stuff. I did. You will, too. If I was you, I would carry that gun. In this city, a man needs one. It’s just the way it is.”
    Maypo let out a loud wail, followed by a whimper. The alarm on the monitor sounded. The green line on the screen ran straight and flat. His blood pressure flashed on the monitor—dropping, dropping—faster and faster.
    “Call a code!” I said.
    Mary simply stood there, frozen in place. “He’s already gone. He’sflat lining. Just look at that monitor. Let the man have his peace.”
    “We can’t just let him die!”
    “Yes, we can. Maypo wouldn’t want to live with a brain, all shot full of holes. If we save him now, he’ll hate us forever. Mays wouldn’t have no way to talk, or get around, and lemme tell you, for a man like him, that’s worser than dying. What’s the point of bringing him back to a life where he can’t have a few drinks or shoot a few rounds of pool or even drive Tyrell’s Caddy? I know Mays. I know what he wants me to do. If you love someone, you let ‘em go. That’s what I believe, and that’s what I think Mays would want. Now, I’m gonna turn this machine off.”
    I watched the nurse work in silence. Until now, I had always believed that doing anything less than the most I could do was the wrong thing to do. Now, I just proved that I didn’t know myself as well as I thought. The fact was, I didn’t know what I would do until crunch time—until the rubber hit the road. So far, two men died tonight—one, because I decided to intercede, and another because I did not.
    “This the first time you ever see anybody die?” Mary said.
    I nodded and struggled to find the words to express what I didn’t understand.
    “Mary, I just met Maypo a little while ago. Now, he’s gone. Just like that. I feel like I failed him.”
    “You want to hear about failure?” Mary grinned and