Bells jingle overhead as the steady stream of patients meanders through the cramped waiting room, back into the spacious, yet dimly lit rooms. Ambient music plays softly overhead lulling everyone into a relaxed state of comfort. Dr. Gene Aiello strolls into the exam room greeting the mother and daughter like old friends.
“So, how is it today?” He plops on the wheeled stool never breaking eye contact. The young mother grimaces as she gently massages her left leg.
“All right let’s have a look at it. On your back.” He pats the back of the bed. Dr. Gene rolls around to the low-lying bed and begins to massage the pain-ridden limb.
“So I was reading this article today, did you know that ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ is an actual mental disorder now?” Full of fun, yet random bits of information, the mother and Dr. Gene discuss the infiltration of Facebook into everyday life while the daughter rolls her eyes and checks her newsfeed.
Outside Joanne his secretary/assistant answers the phone in between placing acupuncture needles, in between filing mountains of paperwork. The front window of her office is stacked to the brim with manila folders and to-do lists. She strains her neck over the stack to greet each patient as they enter.
Just behind her a pink princess blanket is sprawled across the floor and little Abby is perched in middle eating her lunch, waiting for her dad to finish with his patients. Whenever she hears the bell ring she looks up and smiles just like Joanne.
However, the moment boredom strikes, Abby wanders toward the exam rooms and peeks her head around the corner. Mindful of her father’s patients she quietly watches him work before she grabs a wheeled stool and rolls herself out of the room. Dr. Gene shakes his head as he shrugs to his patient’s daughter.
“Saturday was such a blur. My wife and I had to be up by six to get to my middle daughter’s swim meet.”
“Ouch,” the daughter replies.
“Yeah, I know, she got another pin at least so that was fun.”
In the other exam rooms, the schedule is tight so apprentice Andy does “Ps and Qs” on their regular Diane. Dr. Gene waves his hand through the open door as she is ushered to the next room. After a quick break Andy reemerges with a bottle of water from the label lined cabinets in the back break room. Those labels had to go somewhere after all so that Dr. Gene could use the bottles for his own personal brews.
The song turns over to a country ballad and Dr. Gene subtly squints.
“It’s Joanne’s day to pick the music.” He sticks his tongue out in mocked disdain but continues his work snickering as he goes. Joanne pops around the corner, and Dr. Gene snaps to a serious face to conceal his bemusement.
“What?” Joanne asks.
“Oh, nothing; we were just discussing your taste in music.”
“Oh I see how it is!” Joanne laughs. “Peter wants to know when he should come in next.”
“Hmm, was the last treatment not working for him?”
“He said it’s still just as bad.”
Dr. Gene’s face genuinely drops to concern. He pauses for a moment completely lost in the barrage of possible treatments tumbling before his eyes.
“All right, tell him to come on in tomorrow, I wanna try something different.”
“OK, it’ll be tight again; is that OK?”
“Yeah, I’ll make it work.”
With a smile, Joanne returns to her packed schedule to pencil in yet another patient.
Smiling to himself, Dr. Gene continues to talk to the daughter about a project she was working on last visit. After he finishes working the sore muscle, Dr. Gene offers his hand to the woman and helps her into a sitting position.
“How about next month?” I don’t want to see you for a while.” With a smirk he says his goodbyes to the woman as she passes into the waiting room, patting her back as she goes. A little appointment card is already poking out from behind a stack of folders as Joanne fields yet another phone call.
Bells jingle as the door bangs shut.
