Rules Get Broken by John Herbert Read Free Book Online Page A

say?”
    “That probably makes more sense.”
    “Are you okay, Peg?” I asked, hoping for some sort of response that would reduce the fear inside me, which was increasing with every passing second.
    She didn’t answer.
    I could feel my throat start to close and became conscious of my heart pumping in my chest and my pulse pounding in my ears as I waited.
    Finally she spoke. “Can you do something for me?”
    “Anything.”
    “Can you pick up Jennie after you’ve seen Dr. Goldstein and bring her to the hospital with you? I’d really like to see her tonight. I’d ask you to bring John too, but it’ll be too late for him, and they probably wouldn’t let him in anyway.”
    “No, I’m sure they wouldn’t, but I can bring Jennie if you’d like me to,” I assured her.
    Again, silence.
    Our conversation was over. The news had been delivered, the plans for the next three hours made. We had nothing else to say.
    “I love you, Peg,” I said, blinking back tears and trying not to let the lump in my throat show in my voice.
    “I love you too,” she said softly, and then she hung up.

Fourteen
    Tell me I’m too late , I thought, as I opened the door to Dr. Goldstein’s office suite and stepped into an empty waiting room. I looked at my watch. Seven-twenty. Peg said he’d wait for me, but this sure doesn’t look good.
    I walked up to the reception window and saw that the inner office, although still illuminated, was also empty and closed down for the night. I looked around the waiting room to see if there was another door or another reception window. There wasn’t. I glanced at my watch a second time to make certain I had read the time correctly and then slid open one of the window’s sliding glass panels. I leaned through it far enough to make certain my voice would be heard in the farthest corners of the office suite.
    “Hello?” I called, feeling simultaneously anxious and foolish. “Is anybody here?”
    A voice came from somewhere inside the suite. “Mr. Herbert? Is that you?”
    “Yes, it is,” I replied.
    A disheveled young man appeared at the end of the hall. “Come right in, Mr. Herbert,” he called. “The door’s open.”
    I withdrew my head and opened the door. He beckoned me towards him with a wave. “Join me down here in my office, will you?” he asked.
    When I reached him, he extended his hand, introduced himself and immediately turned to go back into his office. “Nice to meet you,” I muttered to his back.
    He asked me to have a seat in one of the wing chairs facing his desk. I did as he asked and watched him sit down and pull a file that was presumably Peg’s from the pile of folders covering his desk.
    He’s young , I thought as I looked at him. Damn young. Probably a year or two younger than me. A frightening thought, and yet I realized as I sat watching him that, young as he was, he was the man in charge. He was the boss. Not Peg. Not me.
    He flipped open the file, looked at it briefly, and then without wasting time on any additional exchange of pleasantries, went right to the point of my being there. “I assume your wife has told you about our conversation this afternoon?”
    “She has.”
    “There’s no easy way to do this, Mr. Herbert,” he continued, “so I’m going to be direct and very much to the point. First, your wife is a very sick lady. As she’s already told you, she has leukemia, which is a form of blood cancer. Basically what happens is the white cells in the blood multiply out of control…so fast they never reach maturity, and in such great numbers they literally crowd out the red blood cells. That’s why the first symptom your wife experienced was fatigue. Her blood doesn’t have enough red cells anymore to carry the oxygen she needs to function normally.
    “There are several types of leukemia. Some take years to develop and run their course. Others are far more aggressive. Unfortunately, your wife has what is called acute myelogenous leukemia, which is