A Vow to Cherish Read Online Free Page A

Dr. Morton, but by the time she sat on the edge of the examining table, vulnerable and covered only by the flimsy white gown, it seemed like a silly thing to bother such a busy man with.
    To her surprise, he brought up the subject. “Let’s see, Ellen…” He leafed through her chart. “How old are you now?”
    “This is strictly confidential, right?” she teased. Jerry Morton had been their family physician for almost twenty years, and Ellen was comfortable joking with him. “I’ll be forty-seven next month.”
    “Are you still getting your periods regularly?”
    “Like clockwork.”
    “Any problems with hot flashes or night sweats?”
    She shook her head. What was he suggesting?
    “Moodiness? Sleeplessness?”
    She seized the opening. “Well, actually, I have felt kind of run-down lately, but I’ve been…having a little trouble sleeping, so I just attributed it to that. It’s no big deal, except that I’ve always slept like a log.” She didn’t tell him about her confusion, getting dressed for work in the wee hours of morning. It seemed silly now and inconsequential.
    “Unfortunately, waking up in the middle of the night is common in menopause.”
    Dr. Morton’s statement jarred her.
    Her face must have reflected her surprise because he put up a hand and smiled. “Don’t worry. With your regular periods, you’re not there yet, but it’s quite possible you are in what we call perimenopause—the early stages. It’s not at all unusual for the transition between regular periods and fullblown menopause to begin as early as forty, or even before.”
    She hadn’t given that possibility a thought. She wasn’t even forty-seven yet. Surely she had a few years before she had to worry about that.
    Dr. Morton seemed not to notice her dismay. He gave her a handful of pamphlets and explained some of the symptoms she might expect to experience over the next months. She left his office in a haze, but with a clean bill of health.
     
    Two weeks later, on a stifling August day, Ellen walked through the front doors of Calypso Elementary on the first day of school. She’d had the same classroom in this building for ten years, and she had spent most of the past two weeks decorating bulletin boards and arranging the desks and other furniture in her room.
    She’d arrived almost twenty minutes later than she planned. Now she stood in the middle of a hallway bustling with parents dropping off children, and she felt completely disoriented. She didn’t know which way to turn. She could picture her classroom, where just yesterday she’d taped cute little frog-shaped name tags to the front of each desk. But suddenly, she hadn’t a clue where to find that room. She looked to the left and saw nothing familiar. Calypso Elementary wasn’t that big. She turned right. Same thing.
    She stumbled down the hallway in a daze, peering into each classroom she passed. She had no idea how she’d gotten into this strange place. Had she somehow gone to the wrong building? But there was only this one building on the grounds. Wasn’t there? At the end of the hallway, she turned and started back in the other direction.
    “Ellen! Did you lose somebody already?” A friendly voice greeted her.
    She looked up and recognized Ginger Barkley, a fourth-grade teacher. “As a matter of fact, I’m lost.” Maybe Ginger knew what was going on.
    The teacher gave her a funny look. “What do you mean?”
    “I…I think they switched rooms on me.”
    Ginger pointed to the other hallway, looking more puzzled than Ellen felt. “What do you mean? You’re in the east hall, right?”
    She looked down the corridor Ginger indicated. As quickly as the confusion had come over her, everything suddenly came back into focus. She was in the wrong hall. What is wrong with me? Ginger must think I’m crazy. She feigned a laugh, trying to cover up her confusion. “Oh, I’m just getting my exercise.”
    Ginger laughed nervously and Ellen hurried away, certain