Blanche took Dennis to the doctor’s office for his sports physical.
She had mixed feelings about him playing football. She knew he really wanted to join the other guys in the effort. It is a little school, and they need all the bodies on the field they can get.
But he hasn’t got his full growth yet. She knew they’d put him in with the seniors, bigger, stronger boys. She worried he could get hurt.
But she wasn’t going to say no to him, though she’d shared her worries. He seemed pretty confident about it.
Blanche looked around the waiting room. Dennis sat next to her, worried, she was sure about the “turn your head and cough” thing he’d heard from all the other boys at school. She smiled a little to herself about boys and privacy. She didn’t say it, but she wished they had all experienced childbirth.
As she was smiling to herself, she looked across the waiting room at a young girl over by herself. Couldn’t be much older than Dennis, maybe a sophomore. She had makeup on and was looking at her cell phone. Blanche didn’t like the torn jeans, though she knew it was the new thing.
A lady came out to talk to the young girl with a clipboard in her hand. The lady knelt down in front and explained something in hushed tones as the girl listened. Blanche saw the expression on her face change. First the girl had interest, trying to understand, then she started frowning. Then she tucked her chin in and started shaking her head. Then she just got up in a huff and strutted out.
Blanche could tell she was mad or hurt. Probably both.
“Something got her shorts twisted up.” She mutters to Dennis, who doesn’t miss much.
“Mind your own business Grandma.” He muttered back to her. She appreciated the good advice from this growing boy, soon to be a man.
The clip board lady retreated, and peace and boredom settled on the bland room again.
Not much else to study. An old guy with the oxygen tubes in his nose, a younger woman with him.
Blanche turned to Dennis. “You want me to go in with you?”
Dennis kinda snorted. “No Gramma, I’ll be OK.”
Blanche knew he would.
It was fifteen minutes after the appointment time, so Blanche was getting antsy. Doc Hawthorne never ran late. But he had retired, and they’d scheduled this with some new one, a nurse practitioner.
But the next thing you know the clip board lady comes out again and comes up to them. “Dennis?” She says to the both of them, kinda in general.
Dennis answers, “Yeah, that’s me.”
She does the kneel thing again in front of Dennis. Blanche wished she could still kneel like that. “I need to get your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to treat you for your visit today.”
Dennis nodded at Blanche. “She’s my gramma.”
Clip board lady looks at Blanche. “So, are you his legal guardian? Then just sign here.” She holds out the clipboard.
Blanche knows something about this, having struggled with Dennis’ mom’s legal issues in the past. “No ma’am, I don’t actually have guardianship over Dennis. His mother, my daughter is currently incarcerated. She has agreed to let me take care of him, but she wouldn’t sign no papers about it. She hates my guts since I turned her in.”
The clipboard lady seemed a little bored about the whole story. “Well, it’s Idaho law now that an unemancipated minor cannot receive care without the parent’s consent. We need consent to treat Dennis.”
“You have my consent.” Blanche offered.
“But you said you aren’t his guardian or have legal custody.”
Blanche looked back at the clipboard lady.
She rose. “Come on Dennis. I guess we gotta go to the courthouse. You might not be playing football this fall.”