The Doctor's Assistant

It was hot that day, when we met. There’s nothing quite like Georgia heat in July; it’s the kind of muggy, sticky heat that just seeps through your clothes and into to your bones, until all you want to do is just lay down and die. We were out in the field, Maggie and me, picking peas and tomatoes with Daddy. The sun was hot enough to fry your brains clear out of your skull and make them drip out of your ears in a lumpy mush, but it did wonders for the crops.

We had just hauled another bushel of the ripe, red orbs to Daddy’s old pickup when we saw the car rolling up to the house, kicking up a cloud of red clay dust in the air as it puttered along. I remember it was the fanciest car I’d ever seen: bright, shiny candy-apple red, with chrome on the fenders that dazzled in the sunlight and made spots dance in our eyes. Daddy said it was a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette, brand new off the lot. Daddy was smart and knew a lot about cars, so I took him at his word. Honestly, I didn’t care much about the car. The only thing I saw were the two men getting out of it after it rolled to a stop in front of the house.

The driver, and owner of the car, was Dr. Rufus Higbee. Old Doc Higbee was what folks around these parts called a “family doctor”. I knew him ever since I was little, and we’d seen a lot more of him after Ma had Little Sadie. Her lungs weren’t right; never were since the day she was born. Doc called her Early Bird, because she'd arrived in April but Ma wasn’t supposed to have her until the end of May. It was a miracle, he’d said, that she even made it to four years old at all, and that we were lucky to be so blessed.

Doc Higbee waved to Daddy and us, then called to the second man in the car who stepped out a minute later. This fella I’d never seen before, and for some reason just looking at him made my knees weak. He was taller than Doc Higbee by a full head, and nearly twice as broad across the shoulders. His mahogany skin glistened in the sun with sweat, and his eyes shone brighter than a pair of polished onyx stones. He wore his hair cropped short and kept his face clean shaven, but traces of stubble from a five o’clock shadow were clearly visible on his strong jaw. He wore a light blue three-piece suit - even though it was sweating hot out - and the black leather shoes on his feet were well-worn but polished carefully to a high shine.

Daddy shooed us off to go greet our guests, as Ma hadn’t come out of the house yet to do so herself. Maggie tugged me along by the hand, dragging me behind her as if I were a bumbling oaf unable to think or act for myself. In truth, I was struck plumb stupid at the sight of that man. My feet flopped as I stumbled along, trying to keep up with Maggie, until we were standing right there in front of Doc Higbee and his mysterious friend. Doc Higbee grinned and shook my hand first – seeing as I was the oldest – then patted Maggie on the head.

“Afternoon, Paul,” he greeted warmly, “Good to see you too, Margaret. How’s Early Bird been doin’?”

Maggie answered for me because my brain and mouth had stopped talking to each other. “She’s good,” she grinned, showing off the gap in her front teeth. “It’s been real dry, so she ain’t been coughin’ like she use to. Mama thinks she might have hay fever, though.”

Doc Higbee nodded, his lips pursed pensively, “I see. Welp, let’s have a look at the little Darlin’. Uh, is yer Ma in?”

Ma answered the question herself when she stepped out on the porch, drying her hands on her red gingham apron and tucking a loose strand of greying blonde hair back into place behind her ear. “Afternoon, Gentleman,” she said politely, then fixed a curious gaze on the unfamiliar man standing in her yard. “Oh, hello. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure… Mr.-?”

“Balls o’ fire, where’s my manners?” Doc chuckled, then slapped the man on the shoulder. “This here’s Sam Potter; I’ve taken him on as my assistant. Reckons he wants to be a doctor in his own right someday…and he seems to be a natural at it. Ain’t that right, Sam?”

Sam gave a small, polite smile that sent shivers down my spine, “Yes sir. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

He looked at me again with that same smile, but it felt more like he was looking through me, into my very soul. I looked away quickly, a flicker of fear shooting through my body. I had to have imagined it; there was no way he just looked at me like that. He couldn’t know... could he?

The truth was, I had known I was different ever since I was little. I always wanted to play with my sister’s dolls and not the trucks Daddy bought for me. When the other boys at school started talking about girls, I didn’t see the point of it at all. Then, the summer I turned thirteen, it finally hit me. I was showing a calf at the County 4H; the boy I was competing against smiled at me, just like Sam had… and it made me feel warm all over.

Nobody in my family knew, not even Maggie who I shared a room with still. Having somebody like me in the family was just pure bad for everybody, and I was scared if they found out I might be disowned. Or worse. There were rumors of a man down in Columbus who was the same way, and when the town found out about him they supposedly beat the stuffing out of him and tossed his body in the Chattahoochee River. Seeing as I had no plans to wind up at the bottom of the Hooch myself, I kept my mouth shut for the last five years and planned to keep it shut when I started classes at the City College in the fall. The way Sam looked at me though, it was like he saw the real me. When I laid in bed that night, I just couldn’t get that smile out of my head no matter how hard I tried.

Sam came with Doc Higbee every week for the rest of that summer. We didn’t talk much except to exchange pleasantries, not that Sam was much of a talker anyways. He was always listening though, taking notes when Doc Higbee told him to, and watching everything real careful-like. He was very gentle too, the way he talked in his deep, crushed-velvet voice and the way he held Little Sadie’s hand when he listened to her pitiful lungs.

I’d never seen anyone as strong as Sam neither. Ma had him help out with a few chores on days when Sadie wasn’t too bad off, which he did without complaint. He could do it all: cut wood, fixed the well pump when it broke, and even helped Maggie sew a button back onto her dress when it fell off. Everyone in the family liked him too, except for Daddy that is. Daddy didn’t like colored folk much, but Ma always said people were people no matter what color they were.

One night in early September, Ma invited Doc Higbee and Sam to stay for supper. She put Sam’s chair next to mine, although I didn’t know why at the time. My stomach was twisted in so many knots - just being that close to Sam - that I could hardly eat, My mouth was drier than a creek bed in June, so whatever I put in it turned into sawdust instantly. I was trying so hard to be invisible and pretend I didn’t exist, that I nearly jumped out of my seat when Ma asked me to pass the salt.

She smiled at Sam as I clumsily handed her the shaker. “Thank you, Paul. So, do you have a girl, Sam? A man like you is bound to have somebody chasin’ after him.”

Sam smiled and his mahogany cheeks flushed a dark maroon. “No, ma’am,” he rumbled. “The girls just ain’t interested in me, I guess…but I don’t mind. I’m too busy for courtin’ anyway, with my work an’ all.” He looked at me sideways and brought his hand close to my arm, which made my throat tighten up something fierce.

“Oh,” Ma said, giving me a funny kind of smile, “Well, I’m sure you’ll find the right person someday.”

Doc Higbee had to leave the supper table early after we got a call from our neighbor, Mr. Jones. Mrs. Jones was having a baby, and it being her first Doc Higbee had to get there right away. He told Sam to stay and finish his supper though, seeing as he’d delivered dozens of babies by now and didn’t need any extra help with her. Sam was grateful, but since Doc Higbee drove the three miles to the Jones farm, that left Sam with no choice but to walk back into town. Ma would have none of it, however: she insisted that I take Daddy’s pickup and drive Sam to his apartment in town personally. Daddy surely wasn’t happy about it, but he gave me the keys without a word. Knowing him, he didn’t want to start a fight with Ma in front of our guest.

We rode in dead silence back to town; me, too scared and tight-lipped to say anything, and Sam…well, I couldn’t figure on what he was thinking. He kept stealing looks at me as I drove along, but I didn’t have any idea what was going through his head. He told me to stop two streets away from his place and that he'd walk from there, but he didn’t get out of the pickup right away.

“You don’t need to be scared, Paul,” he said, not looking me in the eye.

I felt my freckly face redden in the moonlight and turned away. “I dunno what yer talkin’ ‘bout," I muttered, "I ain’t scared of nothin’!” My breath caught when I felt his hand on mine, and I looked back at him nervously.

“People are stupid,” he muttered, staring at me intensely, “about a lot of thangs. They don’t understand folks like us, because they just cain’t. It don’t make any sense to them like it does to you an’ me.” His hand slid up my arm and cupped my cheek tenderly, while the other combed my strawberry blond curls away from my face. “Don’t worry about what they think,” he whispered. “Love is love, no matter what… an' that ain't never gonna change.”

I didn’t know what to think; I felt like I might just break down and start crying right then and there, but I tried my hardest not to. “Sam,” I started, but whatever I was going to say was silenced forever when he pressed his full lips against mine. Fireworks exploded in my head. Lightning ricocheted through me from my scalp to the tips of my toes. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I wished it could last forever.

Many years have passed since that night. I never told Ma or Daddy the truth, but I finally came out to Maggie and Sadie after they passed. Neither of them were a bit surprised, like they knew all along. Sam moved into the farmhouse with me after Sadie left for college, and he stayed by my side until his dying day.