Before Deborah knew it, they had pulled into the doctor’s office. Deborah got out of the car and looked around nervously. Her mother held the door to the doctor’s office open for her and they went in. The waiting room had rows of chairs. There were about four of five patients in the room. Two were children with their mothers. Two others were old ladies and then there was a man of about thirty. Deborah hoped they didn’t know why she was here. She didn’t know why they were there so it was reasonable to expect that they didn’t know why she was there.
She sat in her chair and read the Scarlet Letter some more while she was waiting while her mother filled out the paperwork. She was really wondering if Chillingworth was going to do something bad to the preacher, but then she had to put the book down when her name was called.
“Alison Murphy.” The man was older and he was wearing scrubs. He had gray hair and he just looked old. Deborah felt comfortable now. Sure it would be embarrassing to tell him about the wetting, but at least he wasn’t a cute guy.
“Dr. Ulman,” she said as she followed him down the hall.
“Actually, I’m Dr. Vance. Dr. Ulman will be with you later. Go into this room.” He pointed to an examination room. Deborah went inside and sat on the examination table. The paper on the table crinkled as she scooted up on it. Dr Vance put her folder in the pocket on the door and shut it leaving her in privacy.
Deborah sat bored. She looked around at all the posters on the wall. There were pictures of the heart, the lungs, and many of the other organs. There was also a picture of a man on a sailboat. Deborah didn’t think it fit in with the other images, but she shrugged. She thought the man looked kind of cute.
The door opened and a man in a white lab coat entered. He was the cute man on the sailboat. He wore a stethoscope around his neck and he was smiling. “Hi. What seems to be the problem?”
“Problem?” asked Deborah. “What problem? I’m just here for a checkup.” There was no way she could tell this guy that she couldn’t keep her bed dry and that she wet her pants sometimes.
The doctor looked at her chart. “It says here you are having some control issues. Is that correct?”
Deborah felt her face burn. She nodded and hung her head.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” he said. “Lots of people have bladder control problems sometime in their lives. If you don’t tell your doctor, then I can’t help you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. If he hadn’t been so cute, she would have told him.
“Your mother said it is mainly a nighttime problem, but you had a few accidents during the day.”
“Yes.”
“Does it burn when you pee?”
“No.”
“Well that doesn’t rule out a bladder infection, but I am going to run a test just to make sure.” He handed her a plastic cup and opened the door for her. He led her to a bathroom. “Just fill that up for me, please.” He shut the door leaving her alone.