Med school was no cakewalk. It was hard. But I loved it. In my second year, I decided I wanted to specialize in psychology. I wanted to work primarily with kids, and especially kids in the foster system or who suffered trauma. I wanted to do for them what Dad had done for me. Even if it was only an hour at a time. I felt I could make a difference in at least one kid's life.
And the day I walked across the stage to receive my medical degree all I could think about was how it really was thanks to Dad. And Mom, of course, that I got here in one piece. I've already said it over and over how I was an angry teen when I first came to them. But if they hadn't put in the work it took to calm me down and teach me how to love, how to be loved and that I am worth love, I could be some smack head out on the streets.
Once graduation was done, Mom, Toby, Erin and I went out for lunch in Copley Square.
"Congratulations, David," Mom said. We clinked glasses.
"So, Doctor Freud," Mom said. "Ready for your residency?"
"I'm just glad I matched at Nationwide. I can stay home."
"Wait, you thought I was just going to let you move back into your old room?" Mom said.
"Well, I'd hoped..." I said.
"Well of course you are," Mom smiled. "It'll be nice to have another man in the house, with Toby away for school now and Erin finishing high school."
We ate lunch then Mom and Toby and Erin went back to their hotel and I went back to my dorm to finish packing. Mom had rented a U-Haul and we were driving home in a couple of days. Toby would come with me and Mom and Erin would drive the car back to Columbus.
It was a fun trip, just Toby and I. We left at six in the morning hoping to be home by dinner. It was only about a 12 hour drive with decent traffic but we had music and stopped for crappy fast food. We talked and joked. Toby told me about his year away at school. He was studying journalism at Yale. Mom was very proud of him. As was I. He told me about his girlfriend, Christine, who lived in New York. He was supposed to fly to see her over the July 4th weekend. They had a place in the Hamptons and she'd invited him to join them for the week.
As we pulled into the driveway back in Columbus, Mom and Erin came out to help bring some of my stuff into the house. Most of it went into Dad's old office, just to keep it out of the way. Mom used the office to pay bills and turned part of it into a library. She'd put bookshelves along two of the walls. The office was at the back of the house, but it had a huge window that looked into the backyard. I stood by Dad's old desk and looked out the window.
"Do you remember the day Dad had you practicing your pitching and you got frustrated because you couldn't nail a curveball?" Mom said, coming up behind me and putting her arm around my waist and her head on my shoulder.
"Until I did," I said.
"Yep. Right through that window," she laughed.
"I think I'm still paying that off," I said, smiling at the memory.
"You're a doctor now, David. I think you've paid that window off and then some," Mom smiled.
I sighed. I still missed Dad so much. I wished he was here now. I wished I could hear him say he was proud of me just one more time.
"When do you start at the hospital?" Mom asked.
"July 1," I said.
"Oh. Soon. Not much of a summer break for you then. What are you going to do for the next couple of weeks?" She asked.
"Unpack all this," I said indicating the boxes in the room. "And sleep. And hang out. And do absolutely nothing. I'm going to let my brain go to mush for a bit before I jump into saving lives."
Mom smiled.
"Good plan. By the way, Spencer came by just before you and Toby pulled up. Give him a call. I think he said there's a party tonight. Dinner in twenty. I ordered pizza. 12 hours of driving made me really not want to cook."
I nodded. I'd call him later. Maybe. For now I was happy being home.
I went out into the backyard and opened the shed doors. On the shelf right by the door was Dad's baseball glove and the extra one that I'd used until I got a new one that was better sized for me when I started playing seriously.
"Wanna toss the ball around?" I heard. It sounded like Dad. I turned around and Toby was standing on the deck.
"Shit. You sound just like Dad. I thought I was going crazy for a second."
"Good thing you're going into psychology then. You can treat yourself."
"You really are a brat, you know that, right?"
"And that's why you love me," he grinned. I pulled him into a headlock and gave him a noogie.
"Stop! Stop!" He laughed. "Dude. The hair."
I laughed at him. Toby has really curly hair. Like Mom's. And for some reason he's decided to grow it out. So he basically has a huge bush of light brown hair on his head.
"No one would ever be able to tell if your hair is a mess or not," I laughed at him.
"Do you still miss him?" Toby asked, suddenly.
"Every day," I sighed. "Every damned day."
"Me too," he said. "He was something, huh?"
"Yeah. He really was," I agreed.
"You know, he cried the day you left for UCLA," Toby said.
"He did not," I said.
"He did. He cried and said how proud he was that you were forging your own path, but that he and Mom had helped set you on a path that would take you to good places. He was really, really proud of you. Maybe more than he was of Erin and I. And not because he wasn't proud of us but because you overcame your childhood to become who you are. We didn't have the same challenges as you did. Most of our life was sort of guaranteed to be okay. Yours could have ended up so much differently, but Mom and Dad helped you turn that shit around and now you're a fucking doctor!"
"Hey!" I said.
"No swearing!" We said together and laughed.
"Boys! Pizza's here!" Mom called from the back door.
I put my arm around Toby's shoulder, closed the door to the shed and led my little brother back into the house.