The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,30
fourteen months. She had given it up on her own, and Zoe was sad about it, but it was time. Austin had been relieved, his mother kept telling him that Jaime was too old to be nursing, a message he did not pass on to his wife.
“How was the park?” Austin asked when he got home, still wearing tennis shorts and a white Lacoste shirt. He looked tall and handsome, and his face was still flushed from the game he had won.
“Not so good, I guess,” Zoe said as she kissed him. “We were playing and Jaime dislocated her elbow. We just got back from NYU, the doctor said it can happen easily at this age. He put it back in place and it was fine. She scared the hell out of me, she just started screaming. I was swinging her around when it happened.”
“Jesus, I do that all the time. I’d better not anymore. I can’t believe how often she gets hurt,” he said, looking worried. “I wonder if all kids are like that. I don’t think my nephews were, and they play rough.”
“Cathy says it’s all normal, she’s a lively little girl.”
“I guess so,” he said and went to shower, still thinking about it. He got to see how easily it happened a month later, when Zoe was putting Jaime in her pajamas after a bath, and the same arm dislocated again, just as the doctor had warned Zoe it could. Austin watched in horror at Jaime’s extreme pain as she screamed. They made a quick trip to the ER, with Jaime in her pajamas, and the pediatrician on duty put it back in place again. Zoe didn’t look as upset this time, since she knew instantly what had happened and that it wasn’t serious. But Austin looked distraught seeing Jaime in such acute pain.
The same nurse was on duty that night, and greeted Zoe and Jaime by name, which Austin commented on after they left. “I’m not sure it’s a good thing that half the staff in the ER know us by name. I think it means we’re there too often. Does that ever worry you, Zoe?”
“I can’t put her arm back in place myself at home,” she said simply.
“Of course not, but she gets hurt all the time.”
“No, she doesn’t. We’ve had a few incidents, but that happens to all kids.” He didn’t think so, but he didn’t argue with her.
He brought it up with Cathy Clark the next time he saw her, when Jaime was due for a vaccination, and Zoe didn’t have time to take her, so he said he would. He’d been wanting to talk to her for a while, without Zoe. The opportunity was perfect.
Austin brought it up after the shot, Jaime only cried for a minute, and he lingered to talk to Cathy when she asked how Jaime was doing.
“It’s a little like The Perils of Pauline. I feel like she gets hurt every five minutes. She’s dislocated her elbow twice recently, the broken arm a few months ago, stitches in her lip, apnea, colic, teething. Zoe says it’s normal, but is it?” He looked harried and concerned and Cathy was sympathetic. She was a quiet, low-key, serious woman, with a wonderful way with children. She had mentioned at one of their meetings that she came from a medical family in Columbus, Ohio. Both of her parents were doctors, and her two brothers. Her grandfather had been a doctor married to a nurse. Austin liked her style. She had a down-to-earth, unpretentious manner. She was patient with Zoe’s many theories, and equally so with Austin’s concerns. She had said she didn’t have a husband, and was married to her job. She was attractive without artifice in a very natural Midwestern way.
“They’re not serious injuries, fortunately,” she reminded him, “more like the perils of childhood. Some kids are more accident prone than others, just like some adults. She’s active and lively, and curious about the world around her. Usually, boys get into more mischief, but some girls do too. She’s delicate, but she’s also energetic and fearless. It’s a tough combination. She’ll stop falling and getting injured when she’s steadier on her feet.” She didn’t sound worried and Austin was relieved.
“I’m glad to hear you say it. I have five nephews a little older than she is, and they’ve never had a stitch or a broken bone. And we can’t even blame our nanny, most of Jaime’s injuries have happened