As Lawrence pulled up to the house he reached into his glove compartment for the garage door opener. He had never returned it. She had never asked. What used to be "their" house was now "her" house. But at least he still had a part of it.
Strangely....he never questioned his actions. Entering unannounced into someone's house is generally frowned upon. But Lawrence was caught in the premise that something must be amiss. The voices were pushing him.....go in....you must find her. And he couldn't resist the urge. From the depths of his soul he thought, better yet knew, that something was wrong and that Carole needed his help.
As he pressed the garage door opener he leaped out toward the entrance. The first thing he noticed was that Carole's car was still running and there was noone inside. He ran to the door connecting the house and the garage and wrenched it open. Then he grabbed the metal trash can in the driveway and heaved it through the bay window in the front of the house.
Lawrence then covered his nose and leaped through the window ...and took stock of his surroundings. Carole's body was spralwed on the floor five feet from the phone and her chest was still moving up and down. Her husband had collapsed on the couch in a pool of vomit. Quickley he grabbed Carole and dragged her through the door. Next he returned and picked her husband off the couch and carried him to the front lawn. Finally Lawrence took out his cell phone and called an ambulance.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
Carole and her husband would survive. After being revived it was discovered that after a long day of work Carole's husband had accidently left the car running and closed the garage door. Unfortunately they did not have a carbon monoxide detector in the house.
Lawrence would leave medicine. After saving Carole's life he finally felt free. He had no more use for rituals. Based on his own existential calculus, in the game of life, he he had come out slightly ahead. He had traded one life sadly lost on the operating table for two lives pulled from the clutches of death.
Lawrence, ofcourse, knew that it wasn't that simple. Obviously throughout his career he had touched many lives. Helping some....hurting others, it was all par for the course. And in a sense this had nothing to do with being a doctor. We all affect the lives of people around us. often not as obviously as in the operating room. But in subtle ways we constantly shape the world.
Lawrence now preffered sublety to the brasch and egotistical life of a surgeon. He almost felt that the act of surgery, ie cutting open the human body and mettling, was to close to intervening with God's plan.
He would leave that to others.
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