Look to the Rainbow by Lynn Murphy Read Free Book Online

Skip?”
     
         Skip took a deep breath and said “I’m failing Gross Anatomy.”
     
         “Really failing or you think there’s a slight chance you might?”
     
         “Really failing. I’m actually failing everything.”
     
         Evan said, “Everything?” Skip had always been a straight A student.
     
         “All five classes. Evan, I don’t want to go to med school.”
     
         “Actually,” Evan said, “I never thought you did.”
     
         “I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t and I don’t know how to tell Dad.”
     
         Skip looked suddenly desperate and Evan understood this was about something far deeper than grades or changing career paths.
     
        “Skip? What’s really going on?”
     
         “ I was dating someone I was getting serious about. Serious enough I was going to bring her home to meet everybody. I went to pick her up for dinner and she didn’t answer the door or the phone. Her roommate happened to come home and let me in. We found her in the bathroom dead. She’d  slit both her wrists.” Skip started to sob and Evan pulled him into an embrace and let him cry. “I couldn’t concentrate in class and I really couldn’t work on the cadavers. Faulkner reamed me out and said he was calling Dad about my grades. I can’t go back Evan, I can’t.”
     
         Evan could well imagine the conversation between their old med school instructor and Ross. The man considered James O’Brien to be the finest doctor to ever graduate from Johns Hopkins and Ross had been his personal protégé. He’d gone head to head a few times with Evan, but still considered himself to be responsible for the successes he’d had professionally too. He would have expected James’ grandson to be the student the rest of his family had been.
     
         “No, I can’t see you going back, not right now anyway.”
     
         Skip pulled away and looked at Evan and said, “How do I tell Dad?”
     
         “In all the years I’ve known you Skip, I’ve heard your father tell you he loves you and that he’s proud of you, but I’ve never heard him say he wanted you to be a doctor.”
     
         “He was so happy when I was accepted at Hopkins.”
     
         “Of course he was. He thought that was what you wanted. Half the people who start med school don’t finish Skip. You really do have to have a calling for the profession because it’s too hard to get there if you don’t. Better to stop now than later.”
     
         “O’Briens don’t quit.”
     
         Evan shook his head. “I’ve never heard that come out of your father’s mouth either. Sometimes I think there’s a reason you find yourself up against a big roadblock. It’s because you need to turn around and change course.”
     
         “So what do I do now?”
     
         “If you were paying attention to the conversation before we left then you know John and Kel need some help with the campaign. They need someone to handle the press and they need a pilot. You can fill both those slots.”
     
         “I could.” Evan had taught Skip to fly a plane years before.
     
         “So, I suggest you go tell John you want to take a break from school and help them out and I’m going to call Ross. If they need to leave for the debate before I get done, go ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the Marriott. And one more thing, have you talked to anyone about this? Specifically the suicide?”
     
         “No.”
     
         “From now on, when something really bad happens to you don’t try to handle it on your own. You don’t have to. You have a big family that loves you. If for some reason you can’t talk to one of them, then call me. I could have been here in less than an hour.”
     
         “I know, Evan. I just didn’t know how to talk to anyone about it. Thanks for listening.” Skip hugged him again.
     
          “Go talk to