New Horizons: A Short Story

Words: 1566
Pages: 7

Arriving in his office Saturday shortly before his shift began, Doctor Brackett was confronted by not only his usual paperwork, but also by a confused Joanne and Roy.
Sitting down, he asked, “What are you two doing down here? I thought you would be upstairs waiting for Johnny to wake up.”
“Dixie said to meet you down here, so…” Roy shrugged, knowing that was enough of an explanation.
Smiling, Brackett nodded his head. No one who knew Dixie wanted to get on her bad side and one quick way of doing so was ignoring her orders.
“Well, I’m glad you all showed up,” Dixie informed them as she barged into the office. “I have some information about New Horizons I thought you might want to read.”
“How on earth did you get that information so quickly?”
…show more content…
It wouldn’t be the first time she had done such a thing and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last.
Not that it’s a bad thing, he reasoned. Without her thinking ahead of the rest of us, I have the feeling this ER would fall apart. Not that I would ever mention that to her.
“I also discovered some nurses have quit that facility because they hate the way its run,” Dix went on, ignoring the fact that Kel was riffling through the papers. “I’m told that some of them discovered that the director more or less tells the doctors there what he wants done and since he has, or has had a medical degree, they follow the director’s guidelines. The nurses have also felt as though their jobs are at stake if they don’t do as directed by those above them. The other problem many of them have encountered before quitting is the fact that they were ordered what to put on reports.”
Raising an eyebrow at her, Kel asked, “Are you sure about
…show more content…
As good of a concept as it is, no one deserves to be treated that way,” Kel said sternly. “No one. I’m just glad you got this information for me.”
“No problem. I wasn’t about to let anyone ship Johnny anywhere without knowing everything about it,” Dixie said, smiling. “So what’s in that other stack of papers?”
“That appears to be the paper work to make Roy and Joanne temporary guardians of Johnny,” Kel peeked through the papers.
“Already?” Roy asked in amazement. “I thought these things took a lot more time.”
“Not when you got a good lawyer,” Brackett told him. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll call Steve, see if he has any free time today and he can help you guys fill this stuff out.”
“I’m not sure we can afford this,” Roy glanced at Joanne. “I mean…”
Cutting him off, Kel informed him, “After hearing about your case, Steve offered to work Pro Bono, so don’t worry about a thing, okay?”
“Thank you,” Jo gratefully said.
“Luckily, I had been talking to Doctor Druthers last night and we have come up with what we hope is a better plan. Hank was asked a bunch of questions, mainly by Karl, which I think helped him decide that if John can meet the goals of each of us, the best place for him would be with your