I tugged it free of her little hands and arched an eyebrow at her disapproving face.
She sighed, the sound way older than a five-year-old’s, but turned back to Dr. Franklin. “It always hurts. It hasn’t not hurt in forever.”
He looked over at me for clarification.
“It’s been at least six weeks.”
He nodded, then frowned as he stood, flipping the papers on the board.
“What?” Frustration twisted my stomach, but I bit my tongue. It wasn’t going to do Maisie any good for me to lose my temper.
“The bone scan results are clean.” He leaned against the exam table and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
My shoulders sagged. It was the third test they’d run on Maisie and still nothing.
“Clean is good, right?” she asked.
I forced a smile for her benefit and handed the iPad back to her. “Honey, why don’t you play for a sec while I sneak a word with Dr. Franklin in the hallway?”
She nodded, eagerly getting back to whatever game she’d been in the middle of.
I met Dr. Franklin in the hall, leaving the door open just a smidge so I could keep an ear on Maisie.
“Ella, I don’t know what to tell you.” He folded his arms across his chest. “We’ve run X-rays, the scan, and if I thought she’d lie still long enough for an MRI, we could try that. But in all honesty, we’re not seeing anything physically wrong with her.”
The sympathetic look he gave me grated on my last nerve.
“She’s not making this up. Whatever pain she’s in is very real, and something is causing it.”
“I’m not saying the pain isn’t real. I’ve seen her often enough to know that something is up. Has anything changed at home? Any new stressors? I know it can’t be easy on you running that place by yourself with two little kids to take care of, especially at your age.”
My chin rose a good inch, just like it did any time someone brought up my kids and my age in the same sentence.
“The brain is a very powerful—”
“Are you suggesting that this is psychosomatic?” I snapped. “Because she’s having trouble walking now. Nothing has changed in our house. It’s the same as it has been since I brought them home from this very hospital, and she’s not under any undue stress in kindergarten, I assure you. This is not in her head; it’s in her hip.”
“Ella, there’s nothing there,” he said softly. “We’ve looked for breaks, ligament tears, everything. It might be a really bad case of growing pains.”
“That is not growing pains! There’s something you’re missing. I looked on the internet—”
“That was your first mistake.” He sighed. “Looking on the internet will convince you that a cold is meningitis and a leg pain is a giant blood clot ready to dislodge and kill you.”
My eyes widened.
“It’s not a blood clot, Ella. We did an ultrasound. There’s nothing there. We can’t fix a problem that we don’t see.”
Maisie wasn’t making it up. It wasn’t in her head. It wasn’t some symptom of being born to a young mom or not having a dad in the picture. She was in pain, and I couldn’t help her.
I was completely and utterly powerless.
“Then I guess I’ll take her home.”
…
I savored the walk from the county road back to the main house. Getting the mail this time of year was always my own little way of sneaking out, and I enjoyed it even more now that I had Chaos’s letters to look forward to. I was expecting number six any day now. The late October air was brisk, but we were still a good month away from the slopes opening. Then my small moments of serenity would be swallowed by the torrent of bookings.
Thank God, because we really needed the business. Not that I didn’t enjoy the slower pace of fall after the summer hikers went home, but it was our winters that kept Solitude in the black. And with our new, painful mortgage payments, the income was necessary.
But for now, this was perfect. The aspens had turned gold and were beginning to lose their leaves, which currently covered the tree-lined drive from the road to the house. It wasn’t far, only a hundred yards or so, but it was just enough distance to give visitors that feeling of seclusion they were looking for.
Our main house held a few guest rooms, the professional kitchen, dining room, and game rooms,