Digger - The Doctor Will See You Now by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 6

The money cleared the bank in roughly thirty days, as was typical for that sum. Meanwhile, he rented a small apartment with the remainder of the money his mother had given him. He explained to his mother that he needed a quiet, private atmosphere to study, thereby sparing her the real reason for his decision. But she already knew. A mother always knows. She just never let on. “Well, if you’re sure,” she said.

“Yeah,” he replied. “There is going to be a lot to do.” Her masquerade had worked, and with Ryan preoccupied with the urgency to begin studying, the only thing he realized was his mother’s concern.

Within the next few days, Ryan had moved into an efficiency apartment near the UNE campus on Stevens Avenue. It was minimally furnished, reflected the monastic life he had been living for the last four years. He didn’t need anything complicated or grandiose. The less he had to deal with, the more he could focus on studying. So in this way, less was more. During the first two weeks of the summer, Ryan began preparing his apartment for an atmosphere conducive to the workload he would face come autumn. One of the things he chose to avoid was purchasing a TV. He knew it would be nothing but a distraction, and felt that cutting himself off from the outside world might be beneficial in other ways as well. He felt some of his old habits returning from his time at Bowdoin, and stocked up on two or three weeks of food at a time. If he needed something quickly, there were several small stores in the immediate area. But the nearest grocery store was a Shaw’s on Auburn Street.

He did, however, decide that with all the studying he would be doing over the summer, it might be good to take a few weekends off. He didn’t want to become overloaded before the semester began, and when he wasn’t studying, Ryan was walking through nearby Evergreen Cemetery. He wasn’t looking for his father’s grave. His father was buried elsewhere, and he had no desire to visit it. But he would walk the dirt roads, looking at the gravestone art. He marveled at the simplicity of the ancient rocks as well as the precision and complexity of more modern stones. But mostly, he was drawn there by the quiet and the chance to regroup. Once the semester got underway, he would occasionally need these walks. Yet, he knew the workload would be heavy, rendering his presence nearly