“You could talk about being a chef,” Jack said.
Preacher looked at Zach, smiled and said, “No way in hell. I barely talk to my own wife. Welcome to town.” Then he went straight back to the kitchen.
Zach leaned over the bar and looked past Mike and Mel to Doc. “Dr. Mullins?” he questioned hopefully.
Doc lifted his one whiskey of the day along with a bushy white eyebrow. He sipped, put the whiskey down and said, “In your dreams, young man.”
Zach picked up his beer and said, very good-naturedly, “That went well.”
“You know what you got yourself here, young man,” Jack said. “You got yourself an excellent place to have a beer.”
“How about you, Jack? You’d do it, right?”
“Sure, Zach. I’ll go tell the kids all the advantages of owning your very own bar. Right after that, Mel can teach them sexual responsibility. Kind of a little family business.”
“That’s it,” Zach said. “An excellent place to have a beer.”
Three
Sue and Doug Carpenter and Carrie and Fish Bristol—best couple friends—had been having an after-work beer at Jack’s a couple of times a week since he opened, so Mel knew them well. And Sue had called Mel to make an appointment for her sixteen-year-old daughter. On the phone she had said, “The girl is pregnant and we have to do something.” Well, this was Mel’s job—to give medical attention to pregnant women, whatever their age or marital status. And Sue was a bit put out that Mel insisted on seeing her patient alone first.
“What have we got, Brenda?” Mel asked, looking at the chart.
“I guess I’m pregnant,” she said. “Figures.”
Mel looked up from the chart. Brenda was a high school junior. From gossip between the Carpenters and Bristols at the bar, Mel had gathered that this girl was an honor student, cheerleader, student council officer—a leader. College bound; scholarship material. Nature certainly doesn’t discriminate, Mel thought. “Do you know how many periods you’ve missed?”
“Three. Can you get rid of it?”
Mel tilted her head, surprised by the caustic edge to the girl’s question. Brenda had always been soft-spoken, on the sweet side. The tragedy was usually that these young girls were ready to throw away their lives, their promising futures, based on some immature romance with a young boy. Didn’t sound as if Brenda was suffering from that syndrome. “You have lots of options, but first things first—how about I examine you to be sure that’s what’s going on.”
“Fine,” she said shortly. “Whatever.”
“Okay, let’s get you in this gown. Everything off. And I’ll be back. How’s that?”
Rather than answer, Brenda snatched the gown and didn’t even wait for Mel to leave before she began undressing.
Mel went to the kitchen, had a sip of her diet cola and ran this over in her mind. Maybe Brenda was just mad at her mother for finding out. Maybe the boy had taken off. Maybe a lot of things, she thought. She reminded herself to stick to the facts for now.
She gave Brenda a few minutes, knowing better than to stretch this out for too long. Brenda didn’t need to settle her nerves; she needed to get this over with.
“Have you had a pelvic before?” Mel asked her.
“No,” she said shortly. “Just do it.”
“Sure thing,” Mel said. “But let me get your blood pressure and listen to your heart first, if you don’t mind.”
“Whatever.”
“Brenda, excuse me, but are you angry with me?”
“I am angry in general,” she said.
Mel sat on her stool and looked up at the girl. “Because …?”
“Because this sucks.”
“Well, people make mistakes. You’re human …”
“Yeah? I could live with that if I knew I was making a mistake!”
“Okay, let’s back up a little. Want to tell me about it?”
“Why bother? Do it, okay? You’ll just think I’m as stupid as I already think I am.”
“Try me,” Mel said, crossing her legs, resting her arms on her knee.
“I went to a party. A kegger. I got drunk. I woke up sick. Puking sick. The guy I was with said he passed out and nothing happened. But obviously someone is lying if I’m pregnant.”
Mel couldn’t help herself—her mouth dropped open. “Brenda, you told your mother about this?”
“Not until two periods didn’t come, because how was I going to know? I did one of those home test things. I never thought it would be … positive …”
“Were you sore? In your vagina?”
“I was sore everywhere! Like I’d fallen down a flight of stairs! And so sick I wanted to die. My vagina was about the last thing on my mind!”
“When you woke up—you were dressed? Any evidence of rape?”
“Completely dressed. Right down to the vomit on my shirt. And in my hair,” she added with a shudder.
“And you were with friends? Anyone see anything?”
“I was with a couple of girlfriends and one useless guy. They were all as drunk as me. We’d never … It was like the first time for something like that. I’ve had maybe one or two beers, but I’ve never been to a kegger before. I’m obviously not much of a drinker.”
“Do you remember drinking a lot?” Mel asked.
“I don’t remember much of anything. A couple of the guys said I was totally shitty. Drunk out of my mind. And one of my girlfriends swears my date really did pass out right away.”
“Ever think there could have been a drug involved? Slipped into your beer?”
“What kind of drug?” she asked.
“What do you think happened?” Mel asked her.
“I think I got hammered and let some guy—Obviously I wasn’t in a position to make a good decision. Plus, these are my friends. Well, the girls I went with are my friends—they wouldn’t lie to me. I don’t hang out with the other ones who were there.”
“All of them were your friends?”
“Someone’s not—unless there was a guy there who also doesn’t remember.”
Mel leaned forward. It was in her mind to ask Brenda if she’d ever heard the term, whiskey dick. “An unfortunate reality for most males is that too much alcohol inhibits erection or ejaculation. Whoever did this remembers.”
“And is lying …”
“Well, somebody’s lying—and if you’re pregnant and can’t remember getting that way, it probably isn’t you. Brenda, you could have been raped.”
“Or—I could have been so stupid drunk I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Same thing, in my mind,” Mel said with a shrug. “Have you talked to the police?”
“Yeah.” She laughed bitterly. “Right.”
Mel reached out a hand to touch her knee and Brenda flinched. Mel’s mind immediately flashed on Carra and she cringed inwardly. “You have DNA in you, Brenda. The person responsible