The glass doors slid open automatically and Joan stepped into the clinic and up to the counter. He was thirty, she was fifty-five. They rode together on weekends through the fields and gentle hills out beyond the city limits. Her thighs and calves had never been better, her endorphins higher, her libido stronger. But there had to be limits.
Joan glanced quickly at the text, I understand that the procedure I am about to undergo blah blah blah, and signed it. Oh, how her students loved that word clearly. Daphne pulled up to the curb and gave Chuck a quick kiss. Some came to him with major avoidance issues, scared to death of their doctors and dentists, though somehow not of him. He worked through questions to help them locate what they were really afraid of, embarrassment, shame, death.
In truth, it was part of his. She made him feel ten years younger, which was meeting her halfway. They kissed again and he got out of the car. He marched as resolutely as he could and joined the short line to the reception counter. When he turned to wave Daphne had already driven away. Joan was grinding her teeth through an exasperatingly weak essay on Balkan nationalism when the outer door opened and someone stepped in and sat opposite her.
They looked up simultaneously. Neither was lying. Both recognized what had blossomed in the other with new, younger love. They were happy for each other, and it had helped them start to let each other go, which they needed to do. A pattern there, she guessed. It had been several months since Chuck had last dropped by the house to pick up some books he needed that had been exiled to the basement along with the rest of his things.
Chuck shook his head slowly, laughing to himself now. Of all theโฆ. The nurse handed Joan a plastic bag for her clothes and belongings and a hospital gown and booties to put on and sent her behind a screen to undress. The gown was open at the back, of course, and as she padded out to where the test would be done she thought, well, they see dozens of asses every day, most of them probably much worse than mine.
