The Doctor's Wife Read Online Free

Chrissy.
    They swim until they are all three blue and their mother calls them in for lunch. Chrissy ignores the first call. Ann, who always does what she is told, says, “Come on!”
    â€œOne more jump,” Chrissy says. And still she lingers, swimming in toward the shallows. This is vastly preferable than walking back along the exposed dock. She swims until she can feel pebbles on her belly. The water barely covers her, and she is at the ladder to the deck in front of the cabana. She stands part way up and then hunches under the dock, lifting a heavy rock. A crawfish shoots backward between her legs. “I need a bucket,” Chrissy yells at Ann. “I found crawdads.”
    â€œThey’re always there. You need to get out of the water,” Ann replies. Chrissy climbs up the ladder and wraps a towel around herself.
    The sun shines fully, beating down on the lawn. The wind is blocked by the trees. Chrissy trains her eyes on the grass, trying to find a bee to trap in her cupped palms. She loves the electrical feel of the buzzing in her hands, but the trick is to catch and release before being stung. She’s been stung many times this summer. In a patch of clover Chrissy finds a huge bumblebee, slow moving, easy prey. She catches it, feeling the fur tickle her palms.
    â€œHurry up, slow poke,” Ann says, her hands on her hips. Chrissy lets the bee go, free to return to his hive. Chrissy wishes she didn’t have to go indoors.
    â€œCan we take sleeping bags and sleep down on the beach tonight?” Bob asks when they sit down for lunch.
    â€œYes, can we?” Chrissy asks.
    â€œWe’ll see,” the Doctor’s Wife says.
    â€œMay we spend the night on the beach?” Bob asks again at the dinner table.
    â€œSure,” the Doctor says.
    â€œTake your elbows off the table,” the Doctor’s Wife says.
    Chrissy’s not worrying about what she’s eating, mechanically shoving in the steamed broccoli, a roasted chicken thigh, big gulps of milk, and peach cobbler for dessert. After Chrissy and Ann finish washing and drying the dinner dishes, Chrissy and the others load up the wheelbarrow with wood and steer it down the front lawn. Bob and the Doctor build a fire in the pit on the beach. The Doctor’s Wife brings marshmallows down and once those have been eaten, her parents go back up to the house.
    Chrissy and the others stretch sleeping bags out on the lawn, close to the fire. Small waves lap the shore. Chrissy looks at the Milky Way, a white smudge across the black sky. Bats flit around above her, lots of them. She’s never slept entirely outdoors before. Once in Yellowstone, they were in a tent and the Doctor had to bang pots together to make a bear go away. Now there is no tent, no pots, and no dad. Chrissy hasn’t even seen any bears nor has she heard about bears around here but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. Chrissy hears something splashing in the water. It sounds big and like it might be climbing up the sand. Chrissy is terrified, but she doesn’t want to be teased. She doesn’t say anything as she scoots her sleeping bag as close as she can to Ann’s.
    â€œWhat are you doing?”
    â€œI’m cold.”
    â€œAre you scared?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAce will protect us,” Ann says confidently.
    Ann knows everything and sometimes this is a good thing. What she says is true. They are safe because Ace guards them, sitting like a sphinx.
    In the morning, the sleeping bags are damp from the dew and Chrissy is woken up by the rhythmic licking of Ace’s tongue on her face.

Bond Issue I
    Nancy Taylor and the Doctor’s Wife perch on the sofa in front of the television camera. Frank Anderson from the Community Development Bureau sits in an armchair close by. There’s real coffee in the coffee pot and it’s Nancy’s job to pour cups for everybody three minutes into the show.
    â€œJust