Sparkles

One morning not too long ago I stepped off the elevator in the building where my office is located and was greeted by a patient I'd met for the first time the week prior. He is a very gentle soul whose speach is somewhat distorted by a facial deformity and who is troubled by mental illness. He was clearly waiting for me. He stood in the hall where I was sure to pass having already checked to see if I had arrived. He was holding a small gift-wrapped box which he extended toward me. "It's for you" he said quite simply. I was not completely surprised since I had learned through my staff that he had called after our appointment inquiring about my tastes in jewelry. I was very caught off guard by the presentation however and gravely concerned about the contents of the suspicious little box. Suspicious for bearing all he marks of being from a quite reputable jeweler. "Your really should not give me presents, you know" I said after thanking him. He explained that he took pleasure in offering gifts to people who were important to him and that he really valued my role as his new doctor. The way he put it was more charming. I felt I had to accept it with gratitude and figure out what to do later. "Ok, but no more gifts after this" was my preemptive strike. I walked into my office with the little box and received knowing looks from the staff. In my anxiety to find out the worst I ripped into the box and found its contents to be strikingly similar to a pair of diamond earrings. Doctor-me went "Oh no!" and regular-girl-me went "sparkly!"

While Pittsburgh is not a small town people here are generally separated by significantly less than the usual 6 degrees. Zed was on vacation so the front desk was being commanded by one of my staff I've yet to introduce on the blog and that is Everybody's Mother. Everybody's Mother had mentioned when the gentleman in question first came in that she, and indeed I, knew his sister. She further knew that he frequently did this kind of thing. Pittsburghers also being very neighborhood-y I guessed correctly which mall he would likely have gone to and confirmed with the jeweler that I was indeed in the possession of diamond earrings of significant value. The following morning at 9 on the dot I tracked his sister down at work. She was grateful to come and pick them up and more than happy to return the money to him without disclosing its origins. She and I agreed to keep this a secret in hopes that my earlier admonish against future gifts would hold. Never once did I consider keeping the gift but that primitive part of the human brain that is instinctively drawn to sparkly things produced a few soft focus thought balloons of me happily wearing very sparkly earrings.