6. Dr. Benson Confesses
Ethel and Ted had gone on a short tour of New England for their honeymoon. The routine of the hospital resumed, and Eileen Gordon became official Supervisor of Nurses. Jean was amused at the comparison of the two girls. For Eileen had taken over Ethel’s classes, and Jean and the other girls soon realized that Eileen was every bit as devoted to her profession as Ethel had been. Eileen was a bit different from Ethel in that she was new at handling girls. But there was no question about the fact that she knew her business. And she was friendly and helpful, so the students became used to her brusque manner in class and on the floor.
Jean, Sally, Hedda, Lucy Peckham and Ingeborg were all in dietetics class when Eileen took over the class for the first time. The new Supervisor was plainly nervous, and the students smiled encouragingly at her as she opened the notebook which Ethel had left for her.
Eileen toyed with a pencil as she scanned Ethel’s notes. “You all know, or should know, by this time,” she said, “the importance of a balanced diet.” She smiled at the class. “I’m rather hoping that one of you will plan to specialize in dietetics, because we will be needing a good one for our own kitchen. But we all have to know about diet ... in fact, every human being should know about it.” She stopped, realizing that she was being too repetitious and long-winded.
“Let’s start with the three major groups of foods. Miss Peckham, will you please name them?”
Lucy smiled and said, “The three major classifications of foods are fats, carbohydrates and proteins.”
Eileen nodded. “And who can tell me what a calory is?”
The class groaned in mock despair. Counting calories was an unpleasant job which some of them occasionally had to do.
“Something we could do without,” Sally said flippantly.
Eileen laughed with the rest of the class. “As a woman, I agree with you, Miss Hancock,” she said. “But as a nurse, I have to send you to the foot of the class.” She looked about the classroom. “Miss Craig, will you tell Miss Hancock what a calory is and why she couldn’t possibly get along without it?”
Jean laughed. “A calory is a unit of heat ... or, in the case of food which provides fuel, weight. And Sally would have to have calories or give up eating altogether.”
Eileen nodded as the rest of the class tittered. “Can anyone name foods which do not have calories?”
The class thought. Lucy raised her hand. “Coffee doesn’t have any calories,” she said.
Eileen frowned a little and nodded. “Strictly speaking, I think you can’t exactly call coffee a food. It’s actually a drug ... or, at least, its main function is that of a drug.”
“How about salt?” Hedda asked.
“That’s right,” Eileen said. “But of course no pure minerals have calories. The function of the mineral is not to provide body heat.” She flipped a page. “Now let’s talk about diets and people. Can someone name three special categories of people needing different diets?”
Jean held up her hand. “Adults, children and expectant mothers.”
Eileen nodded. “Very good. Any more?”
Sally raised her hand. “Sick people have to have lots of different diets, depending on what’s the matter with them. And an office worker needs different food from the food needed by a laborer.”
Eileen hesitated. “You’re right about the first category, but don’t forget that all people need the same basic foods, no matter what they do.”
“All except Dr. Benson,” Lucy muttered under her breath. “He eats people. He’s a wolf!”
Eileen caught part of Lucy’s remark and blushed fiery red. She hesitated a moment and then decided to pass on to something else. For the rest of the hour, the class discussed the essentials of a balanced diet. And when Eileen dismissed them, the class adjourned for a few minutes in the lounge before they returned to duty.
They all helped themselves to cokes from the machine in the lounge and relaxed. Sally giggled as she opened her coke bottle. “That was a lovely remark you made in class, Lucy,” she said. “Eileen heard you, too.”
Lucy made a face. “I don’t care. She feels the same way we all do.”
Jean looked questioningly at Lucy. “I didn’t know you knew Dr. Benson that well.”
Sally giggled. “Haven’t you heard? Lucy had a date with the man himself last night.”
“Really?” Jean asked.
Sally nodded. “Lucy and I made a bargain that the first one he would ask yesterday to go out would date him. Just to see if his bark was as bad as his bite. So he asked Lucy, and Lucy is forthwith ready to make her report to the clan.”
Lucy took a drink of her coke. “It wasn’t bad at all,” she confessed. “In fact, I would have been quite flattered by all the lovely words. That is, I would have been if my name had been Jean.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?” Jean asked.
“Such a crush on you our Dr. Benson has! He talked on and on about you till I almost got insulted.”
The door opened and Eileen came in. “Okay if I join you?” she asked.
“Come on in,” Sally answered. “We’re having a time roasting Dr. Benson. Lucy went out with him last night.”
“So that’s what was behind the remark you made in class,” Eileen said. “Well, how was it?”
“We went to a movie,” Lucy continued. “Then the dear doctor started to make a play for poor little me....”
“Oh, goodness, Lucy!” Eileen interrupted. “You aren’t actually telling them all about your date!”
“She went out with him on a sort of a dare,” Sally explained.
Eileen shook her head. “Even so,” she said, “it doesn’t seem right to talk about it. It’s sort of unkind, don’t you think?”
Sally grinned. “He has it coming. You know perfectly well he’s been chasing everyone in sight ever since he got here. The perfect redhead, disposition and all.”
Jean shook her head. “I think Eileen’s right,” she said.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Sally cried. “Now all at once Dr. Benson is perfectly okay, and we aren’t to betray his confidences.”
Eileen smiled. “He’s stupid in lots of ways. But he is a good doctor, and he’s awfully young, after all. Maybe he’s never been away from home before.”
Sally shrugged. “Well, if you feel so tenderly towards him, why don’t you go out with him, yourself?”
Eileen chuckled. “Never! He’s not my type, in the first place.”
Jean laughed and put down her coke bottle. “I’m on duty, so I’d better get back to work. I’m glad you had such a lovely time, Lucy.” She stretched and yawned. “Well, so long, gang,” she said.
She hurried down the hall of the second floor to look at the call sheet. Each day after lunch, the students were assigned to special duties for the day, and Jean wanted to check on her assignment. She frowned as she saw her name opposite that of Dr. Benson. Then she grinned sheepishly and shrugged her shoulders. As long as he was on duty, Dr. Benson would be professional and mannerly. Jean determined that she would be as pleasant as she could be to the young man.
Dr. Benson was making routine checks in the contagious ward when Jean found him. He seemed very grave as he examined his patients. Jean noted with satisfaction that he made very thorough checks on each one. He didn’t even seem to notice Jean as he worked. Quietly and efficiently she followed him from patient to patient, making notes on each chart.
“Well, that’s that,” Dr. Benson finally said as he finished examining his last patient. “Thanks, gorgeous.”
Jean smiled in spite of herself. “Anything else, Doctor?” she asked.
Dr. Benson ran his fingers through his red hair. “I guess not. Not now, anyway. But tell me something, beautiful? How did I make out with Lucy last night?”
Jean blushed and looked up at him questioningly. “I don’t have any idea,” she asked. “Why?”
Dr. Benson grinned wryly. Jean noticed that he had a dimple near his mouth. “That’s not a straight answer, and you know it, Miss Craig,” he said. “I know I was up for discussion today. Well, did you all approve of my technique?”
Jean instantly felt a warm surge of feeling for the doctor. He was actually pathetic. He sensed her reaction and waved his hand as if to brush it off.
“Forget it,” he said brusquely. “My ears are still burning from a dressing down I got this morning from Dr. Barsch. I’m still shaky on making out reports. Well, we all have to learn....” His voice trailed off, and he grinned. “What’s new with the boy friend, cutie?” he asked.
“Ralph’s fine,” Jean answered. “He’ll be back next week.”
“I wonder if he knows what a lucky guy he is,” Dr. Benson said. “To have a girl waiting for him ... you know, having someone he cares for thinking so much of him. Oh well, skip it. This is just a bad day.”
“I know how to make out reports,” Jean said. “Let me help you with yours.”
Dr. Benson stared at her. “You want to help me after the way I’ve acted towards you? The other nurses treat me as if I were poison!”
Dr. Barsch came down the hall. He smiled affectionately at Jean and nodded to Dr. Benson.
“I’m sorry if I was a bit rough this morning, Doctor,” he said gravely. “Sometimes I forget how complicated these reports can be till one becomes used to them.”
Dr. Benson actually blushed. “It was my fault, sir,” he admitted, “and I had it coming. Miss Craig has promised to help me with my next batch.”
“Good. Good,” Dr. Barsch said. “Our great trouble around here is that we’re too busy to teach routine. Well, a bright boy like you shouldn’t have any trouble.”
“Thank you, sir,” Dr. Benson said. “I’ll try to live up to my notices.”
“I’m sure you will, son,” Dr. Barsch said, clapping his hand on the boy’s shoulder. Then he smiled and walked off.
Dr. Benson pounded his fist into his hand. “That’s right,” he muttered. “Makes me feel like a heel!”
“Oh, no!” Jean cried, “he didn’t mean to! Dr. Barsch is a very considerate man!”
Dr. Benson shrugged and turned away. “I can’t figure out this deal at all. People just aren’t as considerate as everyone here seems to be. I know. I’ve been around.”
“You sound so tough,” Jean giggled.
“Well, I found out a long time ago there’s only one thing that really is interested in you ... as long as you have it. And that’s the dollar. People? Huh, they’re interested in you when you’ve got it. And I’m going to get it!”
Jean nodded and said, “And that’s why you’re living on sixty dollars a month as an intern now.”
“It’ll pay off,” the young doctor said.
Jean grinned in spite of herself. “A man with your intelligence could make a fortune quickly in business ... real estate, for example. But of course you chose medicine, and now you’re going to tell me you have to pay back your parents’ financial investment by going through with it.”
Dr. Benson set his jaw. “My parents! That’s a laugh. I’ll tell you a secret, Miss Craig. My fairy godmother sent me through school.”
Jean looked at him in amazement. “I don’t understand,” she said.
Dr. Benson smiled bitterly. “I think you do. You all do. I’m not good enough for you and your friends to date. I am the bright young boy from the other side of the tracks, didn’t you know? I’m the guy who sent himself through school. Why, I was out on the streets of New York peddling papers, shining shoes ... doing anything I could to support my parents, when I was just a kid.”
Jean gasped. “Really, none of us knew. We didn’t have any idea...!” she cried. “You were just so ... so fresh!”
Dr. Benson sighed. “Okay,” he said. “Skip it.”
“It really was awful of you to take Lucy out and talk all evening about me,” Jean said softly.
“I suppose I should have talked about what I really was interested in. Then you all could have had a real laugh!”
Jean frowned. “Now listen, Dr. Benson,” she said coldly, “I think you’ve got things completely mixed up. If you weren’t so busy feeling sorry for yourself, you might have noticed what we really are like here.”
The doctor set his jaw and mimicked her voice as he said, “All right, what are we all like here?”
Jean resisted the impulse to walk away from him and said, “I suppose you realize that you’re not the only one who’s had trouble in the past. Miss Simpson ... I mean, Mrs. Loring ... was raised in an orphanage, you know. And her husband, Ted, is probably one of the most popular men in the community today. He put himself through school. Only he never thought it was any disgrace to make his own way.”
“And you? What about you and your fine family? You wouldn’t give me a tumble,” Dr. Benson said.
“If it were any of your business, I could tell you how we managed to stay together without any money after the war. And of course I won’t date you when I’m engaged to someone else. Now forget this nonsense. We’d all like you if you’d give us the chance.”
Dr. Benson grinned sheepishly. “I really blew off,” he admitted. “I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
Jean smiled. “I’m glad you did. At least I know now why you seemed to be so ... so....”
“So terrible. Okay, beautiful. Let’s get back to work. And listen, what I’ve said is just between you and me. It’s no one else’s business.”
Jean grinned despairingly. Just when Dr. Benson seemed to let his guard drop, he picked it up again. But now, at least, she felt confident that he would discover how to make friends at the clinic.