I am the book keeper by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

This next one is also one that I love to read. Young unacknowledged love. Lost friends and fateful meetings This one is from my shelf. This is how fate is all knowing. Things happen that you cannot understand at that time but in the end straighten themselves out and become clear.

Caddy Kitty

Out there is someone that she hopes will understand her and love her as her. All she finds is the ones that lust after her or her souped up Caddy. Most men she meets are just little boys that are full of themselves.

Over inflated bags of hormones.

There is only one that she respected. A childhood friend that she had known for most of her school life. She met Micky in kindergarten. Other children were picking on her and he stepped in between them and her. He did get knocked down but she made a friend that day.

Micky was from the poorer side of town and Sandy was, well, let’s just say that her family was on the other side of the tracks. Actually, they probably owned the tracks. Luckly that family did not object to them being friends.

During the final year of high school, Micky’s family moved away. His parents got better jobs in another country. Then Sandy was actually lost. All she had was superficial groupies that were only there because of the money.

She is a very attractive woman now. Not that she was not in school. Her parents still have her live with them but wish that she would put the Caddy away and get married. They see that she has no interest in either.

They have seen this side of her since Micky left her life. Her father resolves that he would rather see her happy with a poor Micky as opposed to what she is now. Her racing will get her injured or worse, dead.

The day happens, a pissed off racer deliberately bumps her Caddy sending it into the wall. She is unconscious as she is raced to the emergency room.

This hospital has the best trauma surgeon in the world. He is able to save her with minimal scarring.

He always makes sure that he follows up on each patient he operates on. He realizes that the almost thirty year old woman is his childhood friend. He does not let on but finds that she is what was missing from his life.

Sandy’s father is very grateful. He really had given up on finding her childhood friend.

It is funny how time changes someone’s appearance. No one knows of Micky’s new looks. He made sure that the life of a trauma surgeon did not ruin his health. To that end, he had a fitness routine. He was not muscle bound but he was now the type that makes women drool and chase after him.

What those women do not know is the fact that he has the experience of his school years that helps him know who is real and who is fake. Who just wants to use him or drag him down to where they think he belongs.

He only has one perfect guide and that is his school love, Sandy. She was the only one that did not care of the differences in their social standings.. She was the one that felt his hurt when those innocent children would taunt him, challenge him, deride him for even thinking he is worthy of being with Sandy.

She would always feel that it was because of her that he was being picked on. He had told her that it was not because of her, it was because he was poor. He was the type that had one or two new sets of clothes at the beginning of the school year and that was it for the entire year.

Regardless of the season, he would wear a blue shirt with blue pants or a white shirt with black pants. They all were noticeably not winter thickness. Even those shoes had holes in them by the end of the year. Glued many times to stop the sole from flapping as he walked.

The only thing that they did not notice was the fact that, when they were shivering because of the cold, he was not because he was just used to the cold. He was the type that you see wearing shorts on the coldest days of the winter. He was toughened and strengthened without him even being aware of it.

Other than Sandy, his only other friend was the town librarian. Most of his out of school time was spent in the library. He was fascinated with the medical section. By the time of middle school he was reading the most advanced medical books they had.

The librarian would always make sure that she would order a book or books he would ask for. By the time he was in his final year of high school, he had gained notice from some medical colleges especially one in a different country that is this world’s most prestigious medical college.

The college was so interested in him, they found really good jobs for his parents and offered a scholarship to him. You see, he had been submitting some of his observations and theories on various medical practices especially in the trauma field to medical journals.

Those were of such brilliance that doctors were always waiting for his next article. What he was proposing was saving more lives. It was a shock to the medical community when they found out that he was just a student in high school.

A board of surgeons and trauma specialists formed and invited both Micky and his parents to meet with them. They ruled that he had to be a savant. His knowledge exceeded a lot of their current knowledge.

The invitations started to flow in to him to enroll in those colleges. All offering full scholarships. Books and board included. It was that other country’s college that won because of them finding his parents good employment.

In medical school, his research and skills came under the eyes of an elderly surgeon. They formed a bond and with very detailed tutelage, Micky was able to graduate medical school early as a trauma surgeon. His internship was short and he was licensed as a surgeon in his mid-twenties.

His father had died early in Micky’s life and his mother remarried Samual Commings. His mother made sure that he knew of why the difference in names. After he left that high school, he legally changed his name to Michael Commings out of respect to the only man he knew as father.

He actually had been publishing under that name so that it is really the only name any of the readers, members of the board and those colleges knew him by. Still the real reason was because he was his father’s son not his birth father’s. He had explained to his mother that he meant no disrespect to his birth father.

Even though his parents stayed in that country,. Michael returned back to the country he grew up in. The hospital in the city next to his old home town, had caught his eye. They had a good track record in emergency room recoveries but the extreme cases they were losing.

He just felt that he could do the most good there. That hospital’s director, it was told, did a fist pump when Michael applied for a position there. They offered him top salary and a signing bonus. With that, the hospital gained the reputation of being the go to trauma emergency room.

That hospital even built a helicopter pad.

Michael was teaching the current doctors how to do what he was doing. They all were appreciative for the opportunity to learn from him. All knew that they may not get to his level but Michael would remind them that he was only human. They knew that he was only telling them that they could even learn enough to equal or exceed him.

He would just point out that , before he started writing, those surgeons were doing the best of their knowledge. Someday, another will come along and that one will be the best in the world.

Michael always remembers those shoes he had in school. Anytime he started to think of himself as all that, he would always hear the flap of those worn out soles.

His skills were such that he was always the one that the worse cases would go to because, if he could not save them, no one could. Out of respect to the patient and their family, he comes across as blunt. Those that he cannot save because they are too far gone. He will tell the family that they just need to let their loved one go. No hope.

Some of them get second opinions, some have even sued him for not operating but he has the credentials, the knowledge and acknowledgement that he has never lost the few law suits that have been filed.

He has never dated, even Sandy. He has thrown himself into a stress relieving side line, exercising. He knows that to keep himself at the top of his skills, that he cannot neglect his own health. He has a workout room in his large house. A few hours a day, every day especially after a very complicated surgery, he will work out.

His neighbors will see him, in any weather, jogging in the neighborhood.

Sandy was alone after she heard those of her inner circle talking that they needed a vacation and that sucker, Sandy, would pay for it. She cut herself off from everybody outside of her family and those who worked for the family. They just saw her as Sandy.

It was her only refuge. Even in college, she commuted every day. It was at college that she found racing. She was enamored with the speed, not the racers themselves. Those men were just like the high school boys.

That is when she threw herself into racing. The first thing was that she found a car that she loved. It was one of the late fifties Cadillac Coupe Deville. Large fins and a very sturdy construction. But it was the style that she fell in love with.

With what she read, she knew that the large engine compartment, you could stuff anything into it.

The estate she lived in had a very large garage where she worked on it. Well she did get her hands dirty but the mechanic was the one doing the bull work. Only after he talked it over with her parents. Her father knew that, with their mechanic, at the very least, it will be the safest it could be.

She showed up at the track an was immediately laughed at. The general consensus was that she did not belong. Ridiculed for her choice of car. That showed that she did not know anything about racing.

Sandy did feel a bit of a tug in her memory. All those things that Micky had to endure. Now she was the one being talked down to but she took hold of Micky in her mind and told them that they should let the track do the talking.

She did hear comments from some that she was a caddy kitty trying to show her fangs and claws. She just drove to the starting line and revved her engine. The track bad ass pulled up next to her and got his ass handed to him as that big tank of a car beat him in his lightweight car by almost a lap.

Yes he beat her off the line but by the time he got through the second curve, he was looking at the tail lights pulling far away from him on the straight away. Once that Caddy picked up momentum, it just kept on going faster and faster.

The smaller cars reached their motors limits and that was as fast as they could go. She beat him and then drove home.

By the next race day. There was the name “Caddy Kitty” on her doors but on the hood was painted a picture of her Caddy and her but she now has cat ears and tail. She would beat all comers. Then came the bitterness of being shown what they thought was wrong.

They all wanted to see what she had under the hood. The bad ass was back but this time he also had an older car. She thought that he was taking a page from her. She still had the bigger engine and knew that she would win.

The police would later charge him with attempted murder when they examined his car and found various items mounted that were not just decorations. The steel bars on the side were actually mounted to extendable pistons that would spring out with enough force as to cause Sandy to lose control.

She crashed with enough force as to bend even the roll cage in half. The track safety crew and medics knew that she was not going to live but rushed to at least extract her. They had a helicopter and would fly her to the city hospital.

The bad ass, now crying because he knew that he really fucked up, said that he only wanted to put her in her place. Women did not belong in men’s racing.

That man is serving twenty years in prison for attempted murder.

As the helicopter lands, their expert team comes out and gets the stats from the medic. Multiple fractures but the impact of the steering wheel caused internal injuries that should have killed her instantly.

Her family is there and they are the ones that tell the surgeon that he can operate. Her father tells him that if there is any hope, please save her.

Michael knows that he needs to concentrate on the worst injury then work his way back to the least. He starts with the lung injury and works his finest. After almost a full day of operating, the last was setting bones, he comes out and tells her parents that she is stable but should recover.

He recommends that she start with hand and foot therapy but with a sports therapist. Only after the internal injuries heal sufficiently. He insists that she see him at his clinic so he can check her progress.

Her father actually wants him exclusively. As Michael is telling him that he does have others that are in as bad of shape as Sandy, he now recognizes him as Sandy’s father from the times he would pick her up from school. Only then does he realize that he operated on Sandy.

Now he does allow himself to feel proud, feel intitled because he would not want anyone but himself to operate on her. She will get nothing but the best but that old inadequacy bubbles up from old wounds he does have. He tells himself that he will not tell them who he is.

Only if they recognize him but he does not look the same.

Sandy has been put into an induced coma, one of his high school observations and articles. That way they could control her recovery. That helps with the patient not doing violent movements and opening wounds. There is no need to use heavy restraints.

Her father has been here most of the time but when Michael saw that it was time to bring her out of the coma, he told her father to be right there with him. She needed to grasp on a familiar face first. For this she was restrained but mostly her torso.

Her eyes started to open and she saw her father. She weakly asked where she was. Michael answered that she had a very terrible accident while racing. She now has been in an induced coma for quite a few weeks.

Then he explained her injuries. She is looking at him and gets a feeling that she has seen him before but then looks at her father’s expression and she starts to tear up as she tells him that she is sorry for the trouble she is in.

We do not tell her now that it was attempted murder. That will come later.

When she does find out, the investigators are trying to get her side but she does not remember anything after the start of the race. Michael tells them that it is common for those who are in similar situations, not to remember the exact sequence of events. It is like a self sanity barrier that the mind will not cross.

After a long period of in the hospital, home therapy and visits to the home, is she in a condition to have a medical transport bring her to his clinic. The two nurses know who she is but have been instructed not to inform her who he is to her.

Sandy has been informed as to what had happened that day. Even though she does not remember what exactly happened and that he is in jail, she is angry. He ruined her ride.

She is grateful for his work. Angry at herself and swears that she will get revenge for that deliberate act. He talks to her while he examines the healing process. She is telling him that she is thankful for the fact that she has minimal scarring and those are almost magically hidden.

Still having an inner connection, she is finding that she can just talk to him normally even when he is examining her almost naked body. He always has two nurses in the room with him to help her through the exam. She finds that she is secretly wishing that they were not there.

Her father, still looking, sees that she is showing signs of liking this guy. This guy is famous, rich and handsome. He would be a good catch. It would bolster their standing having a son in law as famous as he is. Especially if it keeps her from that Caddy.

She insisted that they retrieve it from that junkyard and she has it being restored.

Sandy is telling Michael of what she is doing and he forbids her from racing until he finds her totally fit for racing. Since she runs on certified tracks, she cannot return to racing until he signs the official racing organization’s release form. She, from the start, has tried to get him to sign but he will not.

He tells her that, if she gets some other doctor to sign, he will wash his hands of her but he will go to the organization and tell them that she went to a different doctor but her condition is such that she is not fit to drive a normal car, let alone race one.

He tells her in such a blunt way that Sandy knows that he is not kidding. That stirs a feeling that she has not felt in a long time. She interprets it as caring for her and she feels something that she feels that it could replace what was lost to her.

The father asks him over for a thank you banquet but his line of work always seems to get in the way. He will not allow himself to shuck off a case just for something to eat. He never feels bad about cancelling. Her parents, deep down, know that he is not deliberately cancelling.

On what would be her last visit to him. He knows that this is it. Time to give a definite clue. He has a framed picture of them at age ten displayed on his office waiting room table. Not conspicuous. He regularly changes the pictures but this one is in such a place that she should not miss it.

The nurse comes to get her. She catches the new picture out of the corner of her eye and stops with her hand over her mouth then points to the picture. He has told the nurses of their background. All the nurse does is nod affirmative to her then led her to the room.

Both nurses are there. They would not miss this event for the world and told him just that. She is in a daze but just looks at him. He just says “Long time no see” He does have a large size last picture they had taken from a school trip in their high school senior year.

The reunion is cut short by an urgent call. There is an accident that only he can handle. He leaves and his nurses, fill her in on the life that they will have. He will get these calls anytime of the day or night when he is not on duty. They want to make sure that she knows what she is getting into.

The two nurses do tell her that they have feelings for him but knew that she has the only spot in his heart.

Sandy does understand, she tells them that she wants to be a part of his life but does tell them that she does not want to knock them out of his life. She can tell that they also have a special bond with him. They also love him. She just wants to fit into his life as the third.

They both tell her that she has always had the second place in his heart. Sandy is thrown with that but then realizes what they mean. His profession is the first love. That is obvious now to her. What they have been asking her is. “Can you live with being his second love?”

She knows the answer is “I only want to be with him in any position.”

Now she is happy. She lets her family know that the poor high school boy that the Caddy was a poor replacement for is in fact her doctor.

She gives up racing and now is the receptionist in his office and scheduling assistant. He is becoming known for his entourage. His assistant and his two nurses. All three are his wives.

As I close this book, I love the last page. There is a man and three women. On the wall behind them is a car hood with a picture of a cat woman leaning against a Caddy hood.

All four are smiling and are a complete family. This book is returned to its place on my shelf.