Karin checked the messages on her office answering machine
before going to bed.
“Ms. Anderson, this is Clementine in billing at Dunewood
General Hospital. Please call me back at…” Karin pressed the pause button so
she could get the number, and then she tried it right away, not expecting to
get anyone.
“You have reached the billing and accounting department at
Dunewood General Hospital. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, nine
a.m. to six p.m….” Karin hung up and added this call to her working list for
the next day. She’d been on the collecting end of many accounts and she knew
what it was like, but she didn’t often have to be on the delinquent end of such
a call. She’d been expecting this one though. She knew that the bills were
adding up quickly on her mother’s behalf and she was going to have to deal with
it. Virginia had used her addiction to convince the government that she had a
disability. This allowed her to collect social security and receive food
stamps, but Karin had known there would be medical expenses that just weren’t
covered. There always were. She’d hoped to hear an update from the doctor
before having to deal with the billing department, but she was still waiting on
that.
Karin tossed and turned all night, getting up several times
to check the door locks or make sure she’d turned off the coffee pot or to
check that she’d written down all the messages and sometimes she even got up to
add an item to the next days’ check list. By the time her alarm went off, Karin felt like she hadn’t
slept at all. She returned phone calls, filed papers, processed rent payments
and finally, when she couldn’t think of any other item in her office to take
care of, she called Dunewood General Hospital’s billing department and asked
for Clementine. She made an appointment to go in and sign some papers later in
the day.
Then, she went to her closet to pick out something to wear to Mrs.
Bennett’s funeral. She only owned one simple black dress, so it should have
been an easy choice, but she stood at the closet door and pulled the hangers
from left to right, one by one, considering every possibility and wondering
which ones she would have taken to Chicago if she’d said yes to Jay. She paused
at every item until she was out of options and back to the one simple plain
black dress.
Karin hated funerals and she generally skipped them if she
could manage it, but Mrs. Bennett had been a dear friend and since Troy had
gone out of his way to say that it was an intimate affair and then to expressly
invite her, she felt obligated to make an appearance. She’d timed her
appointment with the hospital billing department for a quarter after two, which
gave her just enough time to show up, be respectful, say a few words to the
Bennett children and still duck out of the after service luncheon without
feeling like was being rude.
It was just after two o’clock when she pulled into the
hospital parking lot, and then made her way to the billing and accounting
department. She’d brought along the file she kept on her mother in case
anything in it would be helpful. Karin had the forethought to keep the rest of
her day clear when she made this appointment; it ended up keeping her at the hospital
for the rest of the day. When she finally was on her way out of the building,
she called Michelle.
“Hey, remember when I said I didn’t need to drink away my
problems?” she said.
“Yep, I remember,” Michelle answered, laughing.
“Well, tonight, I do,” Karin said exhaling a deep breath as
she stepped away from the hospital building and got to her car.
“I have one more appointment, and then I’m free for the
evening,” Michelle said.
“That’s fine. I have to stop by the office and check on a
few things, since I’ve been out all day.”
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