Meanwhile, Ascana has gone up to her office, puzzled by why Daniel wants to keep his act a secret. The accident victims are a black couple, not his parents or relatives of any kind.
Ascana decides not to think about it any more and goes to the drugstore to pick up a few things; then drives to the cheap housing district to check up on “Pops”; then finally goes home where her real father is.
After visiting with Jedediah and Esther Wilson, Daniel is about to look at the I.D. card in the doctor’s bag to deliver it, when he sees her leaving the hospital building and walking across the parking lot. He calls to her, but she doesn’t hear him. He ends up bicycling after her to the drugstore; back across the bridge to the housing district where he finds her car parked in front of a small house (probably where “Pops” lives); but then nods off asleep partly in relief from having found her and partly in exhaustion from having pedaled so hard and fast.
Daniel awakes to the sound of Ascana’s car starting again, and this time she heads for home. It is almost 9 p.m. and dark.
Daniel does not have the strength or will to keep up with the car. So he decides to simply check the address on the I.D. card and find Ascana’s house that way. It will be late, but better late than never.
Meanwhile, Ascana has gone home and finds her real father, Fernando Morano, there. Ascana’s mother Yolanda passed away during Ascana’s senior year in college so hadn’t seen her go onto medical school or become a doctor. It was a dream she has asked her husband to help her daughter fulfill. But there has been another dream Mrs. Moreno had for her daughter: marriage.
As much as Ascana loves her Papa, she doesn’t know what to do when he talks about needing to find “someone to take care of My Princess” (He always calls her “My Princess”). Papa is not the authoritarian type, but the sad-eyed puppy dog type who uses the surer pressure of “I-can’t-face-your-mother-unless-I-find-a-good-husband-for-you.”
A few minutes after Papa gives Ascana a “welcome home” hug, he is talking with her about needing to get married. Ascana begins putting away drugstore things; making herself a mug of coffee; and the conversation gets heated. Ascana says defensively the “right man” just is not around, when the doorbell rings, and Daniel is standing there with the doctor’s bag in his hand
What is Daniel doing here? But Ascana is glad to see him.
However, Fernando’s first impression of Daniel is anything but positive. Daniel tried to return the bag at the hospital but thought he could find Ascana’s home by bike and deliver it, he tells her. Why is this young doctor visiting his daughter so late, Fernandez wonders? He’s not a doctor, Ascana tries to explain. Not vroom vroom bike but bicycle. Fernandez can’t understand why doctors are paid so little. Can’t they afford to buy motorcycles? And when Daniel says the bag is Ascana’s, and he is just returning it, Fernando begins wondering what he is doing with his daughter’s things.
Ascana is grateful Daniel is returning her bag and full of respect for him; but she feels horrible he is being treated like a playboy out for a night with a woman.
Oh well. After everything is over, Ascana simply thanks Daniel who thinks he is glad to have gotten that taken care of, and after a tiring, confusing, but satisfying day’s work, goes home.
Fernandez remembers he’d brought his daughter a surprise present and goes to his room to get it: a new, top quality doctor’s bag!
Ascana sighs at her father’s insensitivity. He means well, he really does. He loves his daughter, she knows. But then the bag her father holds out to her catches her eye.
It is the most expensive, useful one of all the ones available, and Ascana has eyed it since med school. Moreover, Fernandez opens it up to show inside some of the most expensive equipment in most doctor’s kits, brand new.
Fernandez usually doesn’t spend money buying spendy things but uses his mind thinking of what would be the most needful. Ascana can tell he’s made an exception this time.
“I still want to give something my Princess really needs, not just give her something that costs a lot,” her father says; “but this time, what my Princess needs seems to cost a lot of money too, so…”
Fernandez never finishes the sentence.
Laughing, Ascana hugs her father. “Thank you, Papa. But you always get the best presents?!” And Ascana thinks, “Maybe this night will not end a disaster after all.”
No comments:
Post a Comment