September has been an eventful, busy month for yours truly. Also, I have had my fill of doctors and other medical professionals. My family has been a large part of September. God, love them. All the commotion and drama have stifled my writing time, for which my bride has no sympathy. “There are more important things to do. That can wait. (The life of a writer is a lonely existence.) So I played along like the dutiful husband that I am.

So it is the end of the month, and I have ignored Michael Townsend and the gang for ninety-nine percent of the month. He has not been pleased. This morning, he admonished me for my lack of progress in the story for the third installment of the Knight Bear saga. You know how grumpy bears can be. Even as a mild-mannered doctor, he still shows his animal side, fussing at me to get on with my writing and not delay. He looked at me from the page, pointing his claws at my face. The roar of “Do your job!” came screaming from the pages.

At that moment, the only excuse I could come up with was my recent need for a medical professional. I began with, “Family delayed me!”

Michael sneered at me, waiting for a lame response. My reply got the attention of Robin and Jim too. Ignoring my presence, Jim asked Michael, “Is he for real? This explanation had better be damn good. I’ve been the straight man in this tale, not getting any love.”

Robin’s head sunk, listening to Jim’s complaints. “Let’s shut up and hear him out. If we don’t know what he says, we can strike or find another writer and let him find something else to write about.”

“Come on, you three. It takes time and concentration to write a good story. Y’all want that, right? If I write a half-ass story, no one will ever care how y’all saved the universe. That would be a crying shame.”

Robin looked at the other two and said, “He’s got a point. He’s our only hope of getting the word out. I do not feel like finding anyone else to tell our story.”

“Yeah, who would ever believe I could have changed into a bear form without this guy writing our account? Or write about aliens who kidnap women?”

Jim was losing patience with me, about to walk away until Robin told him, “Get back here. He hasn’t told us the whole story. I know it will be good because the first book was action-packed and really entertaining.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing Robin was my hero. “Okay. I know everyone here has family events where the house is full of people. Both my sons, sister-in-law, and her daughter’s family, and my two grandchildren were stuffed in four bedrooms. I had blow-up beds in front of my desk!”

Michael began to chuckle. “Packed like sardines.”

“Precisely. As you doctors can guess, what happens when kids are involved?”

Robin asked, “Which one got sick?”

“Preceptive as well as beautiful.”

“Thanks, Michael. But even you could have guessed that one. Talk to me later.”

Without a beat, Jim asked, “So you were attacked with a biological weapon. What happened?”

“Sinus infection.” 

“If you were in town, I would have written you a prescription for a Z-pak.”

“Montana is a tough commute, Michael. I’m in the real world, remember?”

Robin shook her head, understanding the absurdity of Michael’s empty offer. “Why do you think the child gave it to you?”

The boy was fussy and warm that Sunday evening, so we visited the urgent care. The child’s mom was coming that evening, so we met at the clinic. I got there before mom, so I had the boy in the waiting room coughing and crying at me. Boom! Y’all know the rest.”

Jim looked at me expressionlessly. “Last time I had a sinus infection, it took me out of work three days, and I had to sleep more over the weekend. Didn’t fully recover for another week.”

“Okay, bossman. I will let it slide this time, but only if you get on the stick and catch up with your writing. By the way, dude, you need to sell more books! Put it on the website. ”

No joke, Michael. Now, all of you readers, go to the website, www.whithaney.com. Write in the comments that you did so for Michael. Thanks!