The Barrens & Others Read Free Page B

died without me! And now he's suing me!"
    "I'm sorry," Lydia said.
    It sounded lame to her but it was all she could say. She felt somehow partly responsible for Dr. Johnson's misery. After all, Howie was her brother.
    "Maybe I should have done what a lot of my fellow neurosurgeons do: Refuse to take emergency room calls. That way you don't leave yourself open to the shyster sharks prowling around for a quick fortune. Maybe I should have gone into general practice with my brother back in our home town. A foggy little place on the coast..."
    He rubbed a hand across his eyes. "Looks pretty hopeless, doesn't it. If I go to court, I could lose everything I've worked for during my entire career, and jeopardize my family's whole way of life. If I settle, I'm admitting I'm wrong when I know I'm right." His jaw tightened. "It's that damned greedy bastard lawyer."
    Although Lydia knew the doctor was right, the words still stung. Howard might be a lot of things, but he was still her brother.
    "Things have got to change," Dr. Johnson said. "This kind of abuse is getting way out of hand. There's got to be a change inthe laws to control these...these Hell's Angels in three-piece suits!"
    "Don't hold your breath waiting for tort reform," Lydia said. "Ninety-nine percent of state legislators are lawyers, and they're all members of law firms that do a thriving business on liability claims. You don't really think they're going to take some of the bread and butter off their own tables, do you? Talk about conflict of interest!"
    Dr. Johnson's expression became bleaker. "Then there's no hope of relief from the Howard Weinsteins of the world, is there? No way to give him a lesson in empathy, in knowing what kind of pain he causes in other people."
    Dr. Johnson's car pulled up then, a maroon Jaguar XJ.
    "I don't know how to teach him that lesson," he said. "My brother might, but I certainly don't." He sighed heavily. "I honestly don't know what I'm going to do."
    "Keep fighting," Lydia told him as she watched him walk around the car and tip the attendant.
    He looked at her over the hood of the Jaguar. There was a distant, resigned look in his eyes that made her afraid for him.
    "Easy for you to say," he said, then got in and drove off.
    Lydia stood there in the garage and watched him go, knowing in some intangible way that she would never see Dr. Walter Johnson again.
    *
    "He's dead! God, Howie, he's dead!"
    Howard looked up at Lydia's pale, strained features as she leaned over his desk. He thought, Oh, no! It's Dad! It'll be in the papers! Everyone will know!
    "Who?" he managed to say.
    "Dr. Johnson! The guy you deposed last week in the malpractice case! He killed himself!"
    Relief flooded through him. "He killed himself? Did he think that would let him off the hook? The jerk! We'll just take his estate to court!"
    "Howard! He was depressed over this suit. You drove him over the edge!"
    "I did nothing of the sort! What did he do? Shoot himself?"
    Lydia's face got whiter. "No. He...he chopped his hand off. He bled to death."
    Howard's mind suddenly went into high gear.
    "Wait a minute. Wait. A. Minute! This is great! Great! It shows tremendous guilt over his negligence! He cut off the appendage that damaged his patient! No, wait! Wait! The act of suicide, especially in such a bizarre manner, points to a deranged mind. This means I can bring the hospital executive committee into the suit for allowing an obviously impaired physician to remain on the staff of their hospital. Maybe include the hospital's entire department of surgery, too! Oh, this is big! Big! Thank you, Lydia! You've just made my day! My year! "
    She stood there with her mouth hanging open, looking stupid. "I don't believe you."
    "What? What don't you believe? What?" What the hell was wrong with her, anyway?
    "Isn't there a limit, Howard? Isn't there a place where you see a line and say to yourself, 'I can't cross over here. I'll cause too much pain on the other side.'"
    He smiled at