Winner The Crystal Awards 2016, Best Multimedia Story (3d Place).
A spinster doctor rents her spare room to a brain-damaged patient who doesn't know he is a former undercover agent targeted for execution by a powerful criminal.
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Jean gets into a bloody fight at Daycare, and Carinne's "super hero" is discovered by Trish.
Enjoy Chapter 10 of DUBY'S DOCTOR.
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Sister Elizabeth sat at her desk, listening patiently to her visitor. Through the window behind her, the preschoolers could be seen at recess on the playground, under the watchful eye of a junior nun.
"I can't believe a real daddy would do that," her visitor was saying. "Maybe he's not her real daddy."
"I'm sorry to say, Jean, that real daddies and real mommies do it every day," Sister Elizabeth told him. "Usually it means that when they were children, somebody did it to them."
Jean rose from the visitor chair and paced the office, frustrated, saying, "But he's so big, and she's so little! Doesn't he know you don't hit girls? It's a rule!"
Sister Elizabeth smiled. "I'm sure he does. But sometimes life gets to be too complicated. People get angry at things they can't control, and they explode."
To Jean's literal way of thinking, this was a terrible shock. "They explode!" He mimed a volcano erupting.
"A figure of speech," the nun said. "It means they lose control."
Jean took this in and nodded his understanding. He went to stand at the window, looking out at the playground. Debbie was among the children playing there, and she wore a clean, white, plaster cast on her arm.
"Before, it was just bruises," Jean reflected. "This is much worse. It's getting worse. What can we do?"
"We have reported our suspicions to the Department of Children and Families, as indeed we are required by law to do. But, we have no proof, Jean. And, even if we did, if we called the police, they might take Debbie out of the home, maybe take her father to jail. That could only make the whole family even more unhappy. We want Debbie to be safe from her daddy, but I'm sure Debbie doesn't want to be separated from her mom."
"Debbie's daddy should be punished."
"How, Jean? Should I make him run laps around the school or clean the blackboards?" She waited until he shook his head. "Exactly. So, I – we – shall keep praying that the Lord will somehow get through to him. Change his heart. Give him more self-control, less anger."
"Or someone bigger to hit," said Jean. "Or someone to hit back."
Sister Elizabeth's look said she probably would not be praying for that.
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