Story: David Calls Home

Document 0987-DG-78

Transcript of Telephone Conversation Monitored on LTG Line 0863606452382

***
D: David Path-on-the-Peaks
G: Glenda Seagull
***

G: Hello?

D: Hi mom.  Sorry I'm a bit late in calling.

G: Hello David!  Thank you for calling!  How was the trip home?

D: Not bad.  Customs was easy, but then I've done it so often that I could practically go through a check in my sleep.

G: Was traffic bad?

D: No mom, I took the monorail.  The reason that it took me so long to call was that I had to call Uncle George.

G: Really? What about?

D: Well, I got this letter in the mail.  It was a job offer.  From a hospital in Redmond.

G: Redmond? But I thought you were going to...

D: Yeah, I did too.  Three years at Forks Hospital and then maybe a transfer to the facility on Council Island. But this came out of the blue.

G: David, hold up a minute.  How did they get hold of you?

D: I don't know mom, I really don't.  Its not like I applied there or anything.  I already HAD a job waiting for me, someplace out of this madhouse too.  But the thing is that this looks like it might be a good job.

G: What sort of a good job do you mean?  Any doctor job is a good job, isn't it?

D: This isn't just a doctor job - it's an assistant director position - at least that's what the letter says.  Assistant director of the trauma ward.

G: David, you can't be serious!  They want to interview you for a director position?  You're fresh out of medical school.

D: Assistant director, but no the letter doesn't say 'interview', it says 'hire'.  They apparently want to hire me sight unseen.

G: That sounds like a scam to me.

D: I know, it doesn't sound good to me either.  But what if it's on the level?  We could really stand to improve the quality of our trauma care.  Right now we have to transport some of our patients almost an hour by helicopter to Council island.  We just don't have enough shamans to cover everywhere.

G: What sort of a place hires an assistant director straight out of medical school without even meeting him?  I'm telling you, it's a scam, or some kind of joke maybe.

D: Probably, but Uncle George thinks that if there is even a chance that its legit I should check it out.  Don't worry - he made me promise not to sign anything without having one of our lawyers look it over.

G: But don't you want to come home?

D: Mom...  of course I want to come home - Seattle is a zoo.  But if I can come home next year with better training, and some administration time as well, that would really be something.

G: Your father isn't going to like this.

D: No, he isn't, but what you're really saying is that you don't like it.

G: I didn't -

D: I don't like it either.  Mom, I don't WANT to live in Seattle.  It's dirty, you can't breathe the air, and everyone here is pretty much certifiably insane.  They're all wrapped up in themselves and in making money and in who they can screw and how they can screw them.  Until I came out here to go to med school I would hardly have believed it possible.  I want out of this nuthouse, believe me I do.  I want to live someplace with trees and clean water and animals that aren't rats the size of dogs.  But a year or two working in a trauma ward...  Mom, I could learn so much!

G: Well, I still think...

D: And it's not as if I've taken the job yet.  I'm just going to go look!  Besides, Wendy will be starting college in another year, and I could help pay for it.

G: Let me get your father, I'm sure he'll...

D: Hang on a minute, mom.  I have a call on the other line.

[3 minutes, 17 seconds elapse]

D: Mom, I gotta go.

G: David?  What's wrong?

D: Um, nothing.

G: David?

D: The call.  On the other line.  It was Cora.

G: Cora?  Little Cora?

D: Yeah, little Cora.  She's in town and she wants to see me.

G: Really?  How long has it been?

D: Six years if you don't count the fact that we were partnered for 5 minutes in the Heron dance two years back.  Really, I've got to go.

G: You're going to meet her?

D: Yeah, for dinner.  In, like forty-five minutes.

G: You don't sound too pleased.

D: Well, it's just that... she said on the phone... she's in town for...

G: David, spit it out!  You know I hate it when you get all tongue-tied.

D: It's nothing, mom.  Really, I have to go.  I'll call you tomorrow after I take a look at the place.  I PROMISE I will not sign anything until I have checked in again with you and dad and Uncle George.  Love you!  Talk to you later.

G: David?

[connection terminates]
 

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