Jeanette and Doc

Jeanette stretched out on the porch swing at her grandmother’s house. She had just finished polishing her toenails and was letting the polish dry as she applied polish to her fingernails, The polish was candy apple red, just like her lipstick. Jeanette was 18 that summer. She was tall, willowy, blonde, and tanned to the color of the top of a biscuit. I had never seen a more beautiful human being in my entire life.

She saw me approaching and grinned.

“Hey, Doc,” she drawled. When a girl like that speaks a guy’s name out loud, it’s like sunrise after a long, dark night. I know that sounds corny, but it’s the only comparison that seems to fit.

“Hi, Jeanette , what’s up?” I asked. I was 17 and spending the summer on my grandparent’s farm in Indiana. Jeanette lived with her grandparents less than a mile up the road. They had adopted her after own parents were dead. They were killed in a car wreck when she was a small child.

“You busy this evening?” she asked. She had a mischievous expression on her face, but I could see some sadness, maybe worry in her eyes.

“It’s Dukes of Hazzard night,” I teased. “I really can’t be bothered this evening.”

She giggled. She always giggled at my pathetic attempts at humor.

“Silly boy!” she said, still giggling. Then, she became a bit more serious.

“Look, I was thinking that maybe I could pick you up around 7 and we could go to Holly’s and have milkshakes. I know you’re headed back to Kentucky next week, and I’d like to have a talk with you.” She gave me her pouty face. “Kinda important, Doc.”

To this day, I believe that a pouty face gives a woman an unfair advantage that a guy has no defense for.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting for ya!”

I had only walked down to say “hi” to her. Grandpa was expecting me to help him with his tomatoes, so I really didn’t have much time to chat. I really wished that I had my license and a car so that I could pick Jeanette. I felt like a complete jerk having a girl who I really liked picking me up in her vehicle, and I also wished that I had the guts to ask her out on an actual date.

Despite that, I looked forward to 7 p.m. all day that Friday. Grandpa was an all time great kidder and he kept asking me if I had bought Jeanette an engagement ring yet. Grandma would playfully scold him and remind him of their courtship days.

She arrived at seven. I was sitting in a rocking chair on my grandparents’ front porch, reading Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I had just finished the next to last chapter when Jeanette pulled into the driveway in her battered Oldsmobile. I dropped the paperback into the rocker and ran to her car.

“Hi, good lookin’,” she greeted me with that drawl of hers. I climbed into the car and we headed to Holly’s, the local drive -in burger joint. It was only a five-mile drive to town. When we arrived, we ordered milkshakes-chocolate for me, strawberry for her. As we sipped the shakes, she seemed to be preoccupied. Finally, I reached over and touched her knee.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Doc, I need to tell you something. I’m hoping that if I can work up the nerve to tell you that I’ll be able to tell my folks.”

“OK, what’s up?”

She stared at the windshield. When she answered the question, her voice sounded choked as though she was fighting back emotion.

“I don’t know how you’ll react…”

“Look we’ll be friends no matter what!”

I was trying to sound forceful and masculine, but the words squeaked as they came out.

She sighed deeply before she spoke.

“OK, here goes: I am pregnant and I’m getting married. I’m 100% sure that Ronnie Hargis is the father and I’m going to marry him. Well, there it is. Sorry t dump that on you, Doc.”

Ronnie Hargis was Jeanette’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. He didn’t treat her the way a guy should treat a girlfriend. I visualized Ronnie as she spoke-tall, lanky, curly and unruly jet black hair, pockmarked face, and buck teeth. He wasn’t worthy of sweet Jeanette and, at that moment, I had never hated anybody more than Ronnie.

“I’d be willing to marry you, Jeanette,” I said as I took her hand.

She shook her head.

“No, you’re going to graduate high school and go to college. You’re going to be a pediatrician. You don’t need to be burdened by a wife and a baby that isn’t yours! Besides that, Doc, you’re just a kid. I don’t wanna hurt you, but be realistic! You don’t even have a driver’s license! What kind of job can you get? Bagging groceries? Pumping gas? McDonald’s? Look, I realize Ronnie ain’t much, but he has a job and a vehicle! He has his own place! And it’s his baby! It’s his responsibility! You need to face facts!”

Regardless of her intentions, the truth hurt and it hurt badly, like a stab wound.

“I wanna beat his brains out!” I hissed the words as much as saying them.

She traced my jawline with her index finger.

“Aw, I love you for that, sweetie, but he’d jack your jaw!”

I sighed deeply and nodded.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

I had never felt more helpless and worthless in my life.

“Look, you’re just about the best friend I’ve ever hand and I’ll always love you,” she said. Then, she kissed me on the cheek. It was the first time a girl who wasn’t a relative had ever kissed me. Her lips were as soft as they had been in my dreams.

And that was it. She took me back to my grandparents’ house. I returned to Kentucky and tried to forget that I’d ever met Jeanette, but it was impossible. I didn’t hear from her until my 18th birthday the next May. I came home from school and a pink envelope postmarked Tunnel Hill, Georgia was lying on my bed. The envelope contained a birthday card and underneath the poem was a hand written note:

Dear Doc,

Ronnie moved us down here to Georgia. He got a job in a carpet mill and makes pretty good money. His boss says they’ll hire me on when Judd, my baby, is old enough to stay with a sitter. I enclosed a picture of Judd and me. Hope you are doing good in school and that you still plan on going to college. Happy Birthday!

Jeanette Arnold Hargis

The picture was of Jeanette sitting in a rocking chair. She held a tiny baby in the crook of her arm. She was smiling, but it looked forced to me, but, she was still beautiful.

The cards and pictures came each year. Each year, Judd got bigger and, fortunately, looked more like Jeanette than Ronnie. Jeanette gained weight and started sporting shorter haircuts, but I still though she looked incredible. I’d put each picture on my wall, first thumb tacked like posters on my bedroom wall and, later, at college, on a corkboard in my dorm room.

By the time I turned 25, I had graduated from medical school and had opened a practice in Lexington. The card arrived at my apartment, this time in a purple envelope postmarked Bargerville, Indiana. I pulled out the card and the picture fell out and landed on the carpet. I knelt down and picked it up. Judd, now a grade schooler, was in swimming trunks and flexing his muscles. Jeanette was in a bikini and looked thinner than she had in the last few photos. They were standing in front of a trailer.

The note read:

Doc,

If your plans worked out, you should be out of college. Things have changed for my boy and me.

Ronnie and I divorced. He found a 17 year old girl who he liked more than me. I’ve moved back to Indiana I have a job at Dollar General in town. My folks are helping out as much as they can. I won’t lie-we’re just barely making it.

I’d love to catch up sometimes and Judd would like to meet my friend Doc. He’s heard so much about you. If you come up and see your grandparents, look me up, okay?

God bless,

Jeanette Arnold

A few months later, I took a few weeks off. I did want to see my grandparents. Grandpa was in his 80’s and had COPD. Grandma was battling Alzheimer’s and not doing well. I figured I needed to spend time with them while I still could.

I also promised myself that when I returned home that Jeanette and Judd would be with me.

Promise kept.