Eddie spent a day and a half scratching his groin area before he got to a doctor. He'd asked the motel clerk to give him a name and the clerk responded with a Dr. Nelson, a few minutes away in a nearby town.
Walking in with no appointment, Eddie spent the next two hours reading and scratching. He'd scratched the little scabs so much he felt some tiny drops of blood and the irritation was now down to both of his upper thighs. Finally he heard his name and followed a woman into an examination room. She told him to sit on a table and began to wash her hands. As she did, she asked him what his problem was.
"It's kind of embarrassing. Mind if I wait for the doctor?"
"I'm doctor Nelson. What's your problem?" She had the smallest of smiles.
Eddie took a deep breath, remembered his circumstance and proceeded to relate his symptoms.
"Please take off your pants and your shorts."
Dr. Nelson looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. She wore glasses, a doctor's white coat and was not unattractive. As Eddie fumbled around with his clothes, he prayed the appearance of his private parts would be uneventful. Upon removal of his jockey shorts and to his horror, Dr. Nelson was now staring down at something resembling one of the little turtles that were sold two for a dollar in Rita's old store. Eddie was so embarrassed he ceased to be embarrassed. The doctor looked and poked around for only a few seconds.
"Congratulations, Mr. Brown, you've got a classic case of Pediculosis Pubis. Get dressed."
Eddie quickly pulled up his pants. "What is that, doctor? Is it serious?"
"Crabs, Mr. Brown, you've got crabs. They're louse, bugs, they live in your pubic hairs and look like scabs. They lay eggs in the hair and the dark specks you see in the area is their excretion." Eddie felt like throwing up.
"To answer your question directly, it's not serious and if you follow the directions that come with it, the medicine should clear this up inside a week. Refrain from sexual relations for at least another week after all the signs are gone. You're highly contagious."
"Is that how I got it?" Eddie asked.
"Not necessarily. Toilet seats are a possibility."
The doctor handed him a prescription and told him to return in eight days if there was still any kind of a problem.
By the time Eddie got back to the motel, the guys were all packed up and waiting for him. They were to be at the Strousberg, Pennsylvania State Fair in less than an hour to open for the Brothers. It was a twenty-minute trip, so Tommy told Eddie to jump in the truck and tell him where he'd been later. As last man in he sat in the back with the instruments. He thought about Dr. Nelson, and the turtle and tried to decide if a baton would have been better. He found himself daydreaming about having sex with Rita, a thought that hadn't crossed his mind in several days. He decided that daydreams would have to satisfy his sexual appetite for a while. He tried to decide what he was going to tell Tommy, if the truth would set off a lecture or a laugh. And if it were a lecture, would he tell Tommy to fuck off as he'd been tempted to do along around the third or fourth speech Tommy'd given in the last ten days. He decided to keep his condition to himself.
Eddie's mom picked up Rita on her lunch hour and the two walked the two blocks to meet Maryann at Mitchell's. It was Maryann's lunch hour also and this would be the first time Maryann had met Rita's mother-in-law-to-be. Sherry Brown said all the right things, things that made Maryann jealous of her best friend's good fortune. But their lunch ended with Mrs. Brown inviting Maryann to have dinner with the family on Sunday.
On the way back to Rita's store, Sherry Brown very gently inquired about Maryann's now even larger size. The two women decided Maryann's job wasn't doing her figure any good and that she needed help quickly to prevent an unhappy senior year. Mrs. Brown's offer to broach the subject with Maryann gave Rita more of those lovely warm feelings she'd been getting since the day she met the woman who was fast becoming competition for Margaret as the mother she never really had.
Eddie's phone calls were still coming nightly, but were now often an early evening and a post concert call. What Rita chalked up to him missing her more was, of course, the fact that Eddie Brown was in quarantine. He'd almost gotten used to it and were it not for the fact that his band buddies continued to relate their sexual conquests (they of course weren't conquests at all, conquest implies a struggle) he'd have been all right with his dreams of Rita, if not his dreams of what life would again be like when his little debilitation had passed.
Ever since the day they'd spent together on the beach, Tommy Mullen had thought a lot about Rita Willis. He'd found her sweet, gentle and, most of all, appealing. And though he had always held Eddie in high regard, he had found it very difficult to watch him messing around with women and girls while Rita stayed at home carrying his child. The pregnancy, by the way, was a fact almost casually dispensed during a meal break on the first night of their trip. While Brian and Mike congratulated Eddie, Tommy's heart sank. Whatever chance there was that Eddie and Rita were not going to 'work out' had now been diminished considerably and that had caused Tommy's sadness, a fact he realized and immediately felt strange about.
It was the afternoon following Eddie's visit to the comely Dr. Nelson before Tommy and Eddie discussed his reason for almost being late the previous day. They had generally shared a motel room over the last few weeks, but for no particular reason, Tommy was bunking with Mike while they worked the Strousberg fair. Sitting on cheap chaise lounges next to an empty swimming pool with Brian and Mike twenty feet away, Tommy asked Eddie what had happened. His manner was matter of fact, in no way accusatory, but Eddie had over-prepared. He reacted very defensively. Already sensing Tommy's displeasure of his sexual escapades on the road and tired of his warning lectures, his response, while not in anger, was clearly out of character.
"I had a medical problem. I went to a doctor. She gave me some medicine and told me it'll get better pretty quickly. I really wasn't late yesterday and to tell you the truth, you're acting more like a father than my father would."
"Hey, man, no big deal. You're right. You weren't late and maybe I'm getting annoying with all these things I keep harping on. I'm just trying to keep things running smoothly, just tryin' to keep us together. And if you don't want to talk about your problem, that's fine. So, how's everything with Rita. How's she feeling?"
Tommy felt he was doing a good job effusing the situation, but almost immediately regretted choosing Rita as the subject change. He was confident that if Rita had thought their time together at the beach significant enough to tell Eddie about, he'd have mentioned it by now. Still, there remained a part of him that worried that his feelings for Rita would somehow show. But his guilt was clouding his judgment. If it hadn't, he would have remembered Eddie's lack of perception.
"Look, Rita's fine. That's not the issue. You're right,
though. I think you need to take it easy with the sermons. I know
you're trying to do the right thing so let's just forget it. Come
on, we'll go get some food. It's gonna be time to head over
before you know it."
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Material Copyright © 1998-2003 by Jim Bearden