Callista, her face a mask of controlled frustration, delivered a sharp blow to the tin filing cabinet in her office. Her breathing was heavy, a clear sign of her inner turmoil; as a nurse observed, his expression was a mix of concern and suppressed amusement.
"Are you okay, doctor?" The nurse said with a slight smirk on his face, which bled slightly into the way his words came out. Leif Collins, a longtime staple at Brickhedge Medical and more widely accepted as the medical authority here than the actual doctor herself at the moment, was always there to lend a hand.
Callista's shoulders rose as she took in one last deep breath, then they rapidly sunk as she allowed her balled fist to fall off the now dented cabinet. The lioness exhaled loudly, shook her head, and then turned around to face her nurse. "I am a-okay, Leif, thank you." Cally wore her hair up in an admittedly large bun today; the thick strands and overall fullness of her hair made the up-do challenging to maintain. "Do you have Mrs. Oniker's file?"
The green-haired opossum smiled and handed the folder over. Leif had worked for years under the previous doctor, so his presence here was much appreciated on days when the dreaded Miribel Oniker came strolling into the office—the old field mouse with enough grit and hateful energy to fuel a platoon if needed.
The lioness paced around the office, and she looked over documents, chewing at the tip of one of her claws. She'd have some time before the next appointment.
Cally glanced up from the document at the opossum that stood near the entrance of her office. He was a slender fellow with a head that looked almost too big for his body. He wore his usual pair of salmon pink scrubs and had the transgender flag pin stuck just above his name tag. She smiled as she returned the focus to the patient's documents.
"So, Leif, will you be attending the festivities tomorrow?" Callista asked as she thumbed another paper from the folder. Her voice reigned in, sounding more professional than usual. She sat down in her chair and leaned back.
The opossum nodded. "Yes, ma'am. My boyfriend and I already have the whole day planned out. We're super excited." He paused for a second, chewing on the next question. "Will you be going as well, doctor?"
Callista nodded, "Wouldn't miss it. It's really refreshing to see such a small, backwoods town be so inclusive. You rarely see this sort of enthusiasm for such things outside of California."
"I know, right? I mean, most beasts I knew in town were supportive of my, um, change, but I'd no idea just how much they supported the community until the new Town Planner came along." He paused for a second, then gestured to the paper Callista was reading. "Well, most everyone."
Miribel Oniker. A genuine product of her time and one of, if not the only, of her sort in Brickhedge. As she read the file, she noticed more and more scribblings from the previous doctor talking about aspects of his patient that really had no place there.
"Doctor Taylor thought it was... necessary, as because of her monthly examinations, that anybeast practicing here should know." Leif pursed his lips as he spoke. "I probably should have shown you this before her first appointment with you; I'm sorry."
Professionally, Callista felt that keeping information that didn't directly relate to their medical needs was a gross occurrence and not something she would continue now that the office was under her name. "It's really all right, Leif. We shouldn't even be in possession of something like this, but given how... eccentric Miribel is, I'm glad it was kept in this instance. She really took me aback during my first appointment with her."
The lioness swiveled in her leather chair and held the piece of paper covered in doctor script above the shredder. "That said, however, I will not tolerate any further outbursts, hateful remarks, or nasty comments about anyone or anything in my office. Should she persist, I'll drop her as a patient."
RRRRZZZZZZ went the paper shredder as it devoured the previous doctor's notes. The opossum smiled. "You should probably go through the rest of our patient's documents. Mr. Taylor may have been respected in the public eye, but he wasn't very respectful behind closed doors."
"Where is that whore of a doctor?!" squeaked an old, wretched voice from the waiting room. The calm, collected tone of the receptionist met it. "My appointment was at 3 pm sharp. It's five past, and I want to be seen. Now."
The lioness and the opossum looked at each other, each knowing what the other was thinking as the shredder finished its meal. The pair parted ways, Callista headed toward the opposite door to the examining room while Leif entered the waiting area.
"Mrs. Oniker? The doctor will see you now--"
Miribel Oniker. While not the oldest living resident of Brickhedge, she was undoubtedly the loudest at 84 years of age and the most hateful, bigoted beast the lion had ever met in all her years as a medical student. Today, her voice was exceptionally whiny sounding, more-so than it had been on the first visit. A sign of agitation, Callista thought as she began taking notes before the patient even arrived.
The old mouse yelled, no doubt having the full attention of everybeast in the waiting room. She shoved Leif aside as she barged into the sterile examining room, her shriveled face honing in on the lion that towered over her in her pristine white coat.
"Afternoon, Miribel, I hope that--"
"That's Mrs. Oniker to you, woman." She spat, "Whoever heard of a female doctor? I bet you slept with everyone to get where you are. Despicable." She waved her tiny shriveled hand in a brush-off motion.
"And this abomination!" She pointed her flimsy-looking cane toward Leif. "Why I knew this girl from the day she was born; Now look at her: Mangled her beautiful god-given body, running around pretending to be a boy. I can't believe you would disgrace your parents like that, Jezabelle."
"Missus Oniker, that is quite enough," Callista yelled, slamming her clipboard down onto the examining table. "I will not have you coming in here and insulting my nurses."
But the old mouse just scoffed. "Even if she was a male, the very idea of a male nurse and female doctor is deplorable!" She wagged her cane at Leif with, if one were to describe it, a venomous motion.
"Need I remind you that I reserve the right to drop you as a patient," Callista growled, the mouse's attention snapping towards her. "I will absolutely not tolerate any further language of such kind or insults to my staff. Do you understand me?" She leaned over the examining bench to make sure she was eye to eye with the mouse.
"There you go again, showing off your big stupid boobs. Button yourself up, why don't you, and let's get on with this." She snapped, pulling her eyes away from the view down Callista's scrubs, ignoring Callista's rebuttal as if she'd never said a word.
The lion looked at the opossum and mouthed the words, "holy fuck" as her assistant left the room and shut the door behind him.
"So, are you going to drop her?" Leif said with a hint of excitement in his voice, watching as Callista locked the door to the primary office. The business day had concluded an hour ago, but the opossum had stuck around a bit longer to help Callista dispose of the rest of the illegal documents the old Doctor Taylor had kept on his patients.
"Depends on how the next appointment goes, But it's likely," She said with a sigh, then continued, "I'm sorry you had to go through that. I should have stopped her before she went as far as she did."
"I'm used to it," He paused, "from that one, at least. It's the ones that come out of the blue and get me that usually hurt. But what she said was true."
Callista topped mid-stretch, her ample chest jutting outward underneath the simple black t-shirt she wore beneath her scrubs. She'd let her hair fall shortly after the end of the work day, so now it draped over her shoulders and backside.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"That she knew me, or the old me, from birth. Miribel was my babysitter at one time. She and her husband were real close to my parents, being next-door neighbors and all."
The two stepped off the stoop and onto the sidewalk, headed toward Brickhedge Apartments. Daylight still stretched over the town even as the dinner rush flooded the town, with cars finding empty spaces wherever they could along the streets closest to the various diners that were littered about Main Street. Summer was now officially in full swing as the second to last day of June came to a close.
Advertisements, flags, and various other Pride Month decorations were strewn up on nearly every lamp post, storefront, and business along the main stretch. It was a refreshing sight to behold, but one that Callie couldn't help but wonder how well-educated the residents of this town were. She hated herself for thinking that way, but at the same time, given the circumstances and sort of town this was, it was a valid concern.
"I was already too old to need a babysitter when I came to grips with who, or what, I really was. But that still didn't prevent the Onikers from finding out. In fact, Miribel was the first to notice that I had stopped dressing up like a girl, stopping me on the sidewalk in front of my house one morning. I was still not fully 'out' as they say yet, so I played it off as a fashion experiment with friends."
"It wasn't until she caught me one day after I had cut my hair and had started taking testosterone shots that she really laid into me, then into my parents for 'letting their precious daughter' run around town looking like I did." He laughed; his voice had a lovely cadence, Callista thought. Like his voice, should he sing, wouldn't have been out of place in a boy band like Backstreet Boys or 98 Degrees.
"And how did your parents respond?" She asked, picking up her stride to keep up with the brisk pace the opossum was moving at.
"They reacted in pretty much the same way as you; Respectful at first, then they put their paws down on the matter and asked that she butt out." He laughed again, "You earned so much of my respect today, Ms. Reigns. You're the only other beast to have ever stood up for me like that." He paused for a moment. "Hey, Ms. Reigns, would you like to hang out with me and my boyfriend tomorrow during the festival?"
"I would love to, Leif. Just text me tomorrow when and where you'd like to meet. But now, if you don't mind, I've got to meet someone outside of town." she said, gesturing to the red car beside her. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She smiled as she pulled the handle and got in.
The opossum just smiled and waved, obviously pleased with the way his life had been shaping up as of late.
"Tomorrow is going to be a fun day," He thought to himself as he continued down Potato Street, one of the many branches that bled out of the main strip.
No comments:
Post a Comment