The Splendor of Ordinary Days Read Online Free

night.”
    â€œHmm. I see. And last time you were here, I gave you a ­low-­cholesterol-­diet plan. How have you been doing with that?”
    â€œI tried it for a couple of days and decided to hell with it.”
    â€œNice.”
    â€œHey, look. I still don’t drink coffee. There ought to be some points for that. All coffee does is make people do stupid things faster and with more energy.”
    â€œTell me, Luther. Do you lie awake at night just waiting for a heart attack to happen?”
    He glared at me with poorly masked contempt. “Ah, get off my back, Doc. You and I both know that except for my cholesterol, my annual physical and blood work last year weren’t that bad. Passed my stress test, had a clean colonoscopy, and no prostate issues. I’m fit as a damn fiddle.”
    The worst part of Luther’s venomous response was that he was right. Simply put, Luther had excellent genes. If med school had taught me anything, it was that poor genes were almost impossible to fix and great genes were hard to mess up. Lifestyle is a huge factor in good health, but genetics is the trump card. Despite his deplorable habits, Luther’s DNA had made him ridiculously bulletproof. He even had good teeth. And, true to form, he was pretty arrogant about all of it.
    I exhaled and offered him a thin smile. For the life of me, I didn’t get Luther. I couldn’t understand his rotten nature. Continued coaching would be pointless.
    â€œI heard you and the Chambers girl are dating?”
    My answer was clipped. “That would be correct.”
    â€œWell, good for you. She’s kind of a looker. Women are enough of a pain in the ass. They shouldn’t be ugly on top of that. The ones that are should just stay home.”
    â€œSounds like the making of a great editorial.”
    Luther grunted in response. My mind went immediately to his ex-wife, Claire. They had no children and had recently divorced. She was another odd chapter in Luther’s story.
    Claire was from California. They met and married when he lived there for a couple of years after serving in Vietnam. Claire was actually a lovely, engaging soul. Given Luther’s hard personality, people wondered what in the world Claire could have been thinking when she married him and why it took her forty years to divorce him. Most folks concluded that instead of California, they had met on a deserted island with no hope of rescue. That would explain Claire’s impulsive decision. Either that, or she had a mother she wanted to get back at.
    Luther spoke with an air of barely concealed contempt. “By the way, what was the Mennonite fellow doing here?”
    He was referring to a patient I had treated earlier. Luther had likely seen the man departing. A modestly sized Mennonite community bordered the northern part of the county.
    â€œLuther, I think that comes under the ‘none of your business’ category.”
    â€œHumph, seems a little out of place. Maybe the ­black-­hat boys should just pray a little harder.”
    â€œI see. And you know this from experience?”
    Luther turned to me with a lecherous grin, quoting scripture. “‘If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians.’”
    â€œYou know, Luther, somehow when you quote Exodus, it doesn’t have the same appeal as when my pastor does.” I had been quick to respond, but even I had to admit that considering he was such a jerk, Luther’s knowledge of scripture was impressive. I refocused the conversation.
    â€œSo, what brings you here today?”
    â€œMy eyes. I seem to be losing vision in the center.”
    Finally, here was one thing about Luther that I did understand. Loss of central vision is the hallmark of macular degeneration, a disease that causes blindness in the middle of the visual field, leaving only peripheral vision. This would