Chicago was a busy city. Marina had been there a few times for work before. She had done a few assignments at both Mt. Sinai and at Mercy. She had been so busy while working there that she had seen little to none of Chicago. Thankfully, the company had a car picking her up at the airport. She had been selected as a candidate for a position caring for a teenager with a long term chronic illness.
They didn’t give her more information than that, but she figured she had access to any current data necessary to care for almost any illness. Teenagers were notoriously noncompliant, at least in Marina’s experience. Parents were always harder to deal with than the teenager though. It seemed that they had a hard time letting someone else step in and do something for their child that they themselves could not.
Marina made a note of the car service. It was so nice to have someone drive in heavy traffic that didn’t have road rage and yell at the other cars. It took over an hour to get to their destination. Marina got out of the car and looked around. The house and lawn were pretty secluded and very nice. It wasn’t over the top extravagant, but the owner clearly valued their privacy and maintained things well. She heard what sounded like a garage door start to open and followed the sound. A man was coming out to meet her. He seemed vaguely familiar, but she knew she didn’t know anyone in Chicago.
“Marina McCord?” he called to her.
She smiled and went to meet him. “Yes, that’s me.” They shook hands upon getting close enough together to do so and she continued, “You have a lovely place here.”
“Thanks. I’m Richard, Richard Marx.” She recognized the name, but hid her recognition from him. “Why don’t you come inside for a bit and I’ll fill you in about my situation.” He motioned for the car to leave and then turned to go back inside. Marina followed him.
She normally would have had reservations about going into the home of a stranger, but she knew her company did lots of research before sending anyone to a client’s home. Plus Richard put her at ease. He just had that kind of personality. She noted that the cars in the garage were nice, but not unreasonable. As she entered the kitchen thru the garage door, she noted that Richard’s home was very clean. Things were nice.
He offered her something to drink and gestured for her to have a seat at the kitchen table. He brought her a glass of iced water and took a seat opposite her.
“I’m not real sure of how this is supposed to work. They’ve pretty much told me that you are the most qualified for what I need,” he started.
“What exactly do you need a nurse for? All they told me was that I would be caring for a teenager.”
“My youngest son is 15 and he’s been sick for a while.” He reached for a folder on a desk near the table and handed it to Marina. “This is a copy of his medical record with updates from this past week.”
She took the folder and began reading. Lucas Marx, diabetes, recurrent B cell lymphoma with new onset acute promyelocytic leukemia. Marina knew those illnesses well enough that she wouldn’t even need to review anything to help care for Lucas. Two types of cancer was a bad thing, but if you had to have two types of cancer, these were the two to have. Treatment for both of them would make Lucas’ diabetes very unstable. He should really be in a hospital for such a complicated therapy regimen.
“May I ask why you want to have him treated at home instead of at a hospital?”
Richard sighed. “None of my family is really up for hospitalization right now. Lucas’ mother died of complications from lymphoma about 2 years ago. Lucas took it the hardest. He’s terrified of hospitals. My other two sons and I are in agreement that we will do what we can to help keep Lucas from going to the hospital.”
No wonder they needed her help. “I’m assuming there will be a private physician assigned to Lucas as well?”
“Yes. Mark Davis will be here daily and available to you at all times for Lucas.” Richard checked the clock. “It’s time for me to check Lucas’ again. Want to come up and meet him?”
Marina would have thought it was odd of him to be so open to someone new in the house, but she also knew how much stress Richard must be under and having the chance at a break in some of it might be exactly what he needed. “I’d love to.”
She followed him out of the kitchen, taking Lucas’ folder with her. Just down a hallway were the stairs. She followed him to a room where the obvious sound of video games emanated. He knocked. “Hey Lucas? Company is here. Can we come in?”
“Sure Dad,” she heard from behind the door. Richard opened the door and she saw a scared little boy sitting with his brothers playing on an Xbox. He was a little pale, but otherwise in no distress.
“Lucas, Brandon, Jesse, this is Marina McCord. She’s the nurse that will be helping us for the next few months.”
The next half hour was wonderful for Marina. Sitting playing video games with boys reminded her of when she was younger. She and Lucas hit it off immediately. Richard couldn’t have been more pleased with how well they got along. If Marina was half the nurse that her agency had stated she was, this was going to work out for Lucas.