The Doctor's Wife Read Online Free Page A

talk to each other naturally, as if you were at home,” the producer, a man from Channel 9 says.
    â€œNaturally?” Nancy asks. “We’d better get the kids here too, then.”
    â€œAnd the dogs,” the Doctor’s Wife says.
    â€œI’m sure he doesn’t want us to curse.”
    The producer laughs nervously. The lights are hot and the Doctor’s Wife feels sure she’s perspiring. She takes her compact out of her purse and powders her forehead so she’s not too shiny. She hopes it’s obvious to the viewers that she’s pregnant and not just overweight.
    The whole things is only fifteen minutes, enough time to talk about bacteria levels, the immediate and long term costs of the bond issue, and how it will be spread out over fifteen years so nobody gets socked with a huge bill all at once. There is to be a special election on October 16, 1958 for the bond measure. The interest on the bonds will be paid from monthly service charges and the charges will be capped at $4.50 a month. The Doctor’s Wife is satisfied that she has all of the facts in order in her head.
    â€œFour, three, two,” the cameraman says, counting down with his fingers. The cameras begin rolling. This is a live show.
    â€œEverybody remembers a couple years back when the algae bloomed and it started to smell,” the Doctor’s Wife says.
    â€œIt was terrible,” Nancy agrees.
    The Doctor’s Wife gives her speech. This seems to be going spectacularly well. A page of Frank’s notes slips from the coffee table. Frank starts to talk. “350 people showed up to the first Community Development meeting—out of a town of 3,500!”
    Nancy, smiling brightly at the camera, reaches for the coffee pot, starting to freshen up the cups. Frank moves his leg excitedly as he talks, crumpling the notepaper underneath his foot, but he doesn’t notice the noise he makes. An assistant crawls on his hands and knees below the camera shot. Nancy pauses mid-pour as the assistant creeps toward them. The coffee keeps coming, overflowing the cup and streaming down the side of the table. The producer is gesturing frantically at the cameraman. The cameraman pans the camera up so that the spilling coffee won’t be filmed.
    â€œNancy,” hisses the Doctor’s Wife.
    Nancy jerks the coffee urn upright.
    â€œWell, that went beautifully,” the Doctor’s Wife says afterward.
    â€œThink they’ll ask us back?”
    â€œNot likely,” the Doctor’s wife says, but the children are excited. Chrissy wants to know if this means the family is moving to Hollywood.

Zoology
    Ace howls, scratching frantically at the front door. Chrissy opens the door to see quills protruding from his muzzle. “Grandma!” she screams for Petie, visiting from Lawrence, Kansas. Petie grabs Chrissy by the shoulders and moves her. The screen door slams shut and Ace continues to howl.
    â€œBring me pliers from the workbench downstairs,” Petie orders.
    Chrissy flies down the basement. When she comes back upstairs, she helps her grandma turn the kitchen floor into an operating room, the lights blazing, the rheostat at the highest level. Ace’s eyes look very sad but he is stoic as Petie grabs a quill with the pliers, pulling the quill all the way through Ace’s lip, into his mouth and then out. “We have to do it this way because the quills are barbed,” Petie explains, showing Chrissy the barb with the tip of the pliers.
    â€œIs Ace going to die?” Chrissy asks.
    â€œNo,” her grandmother says. “Petrea” is Chrissy’s real first name. Chrissy’s whole name is Petrea Christina Hagen. Chrissy likes to think that she’s like her grandmother, and not just because of her name.
    When the operation is done, Ace is allowed to sleep in a nest of blankets on the utility porch in front of the washing machine, and Petie makes cinnamon toast for