Decisions; a Dr. Channon Alyxandra Hanes novel

Here I am driving alone to my hometown and the one and only town that I had always wanted, dreamt and eventually did literally run from. Now almost 15 years later at the very tender age of thirty, here I am willingly; forget that I am actually wanting and dreaming of returning to my hometown of Summer Hill. Damn men, you know sometimes they really are only good for nothing but trouble with a capital T. And they say women bring all the drama but for real, it's the men. Men bring so much drama to a girl’s life along with buckets of tears, but anyway before I continue on this rant. But to be serious, who knew that I of all people would be saying that; I actually achieved my dream of becoming an amazing doctor with a specialty in pediatrics and general medicine with a great career at one of the top hospitals in New York. Along with a long ,long list of patients around the world who actually included celebrities, royalty and dignitaries…..but since I finally found the courage to divorce my good for nothing husband and I was willingly leaving my career along with moving to my hometown to start over. I am moving from Manhattan to my hometown of Summer Hill, Wisconsin with a population of about two thousand. Yeah, I know how crazy it sounds trust me lots of my friends and co-workers have told me. You know like the big city of New York is so much better than my small town place of Wisconsin, yes I’m rolling my eyes. But I can honestly say they just don't understand. If I am truly going to start over with my life, then I want it to be with friends and family that actually know me, the real me and not the person that I pretend to be during the daylight hours. You know, where I would smile, laugh and make jokes and pretend that everything was fantastic and perfect in life. I of course am moving in with my aging (and calling her aging out loud will only piss her off) but hay at 90 years young, as she always likes to say, is actually old. But anyway I am moving in with my Nana Laine until I can find something of my own and the decision is finally made about Jo and Rod coming to live with me. Now you may be asking why am I not going to stay with my parents in their home or should I say mini mansion that my Mother demanded that my Dad buy her even though my Mother does not work. Well that would be because my Mother and I are not on the best of speaking terms, well technically that's not entirely true we aren't speaking to each other at all since we cannot be in the same room as each other without fighting. My Mother disapproves of the fact that I got a divorce from Holden David James Senior, said good for nothing ex-husband. According to my Mother, Mrs. Ellie May Smith-Hanes, the divorce was strike one, the fact that I "asked" for the divorce was strike two but strike three and that which was actually what put the nail in the coffin well as far as Ellie May was concerned and made it get to the point where she decided that she no longer wanted to talk to me was when I decided to leave my very cute but very expensive apartment that was just blocks away from my amazing career I had made for myself and worked so hard to achieve as a great doctor at Bellevue Hospital Center. Where in just a couple of years, I was on my way to becoming Chief of Pediatric Medicine, in just two years! But as a consolation prize, well according to my Mother and to Anna Bell (my grandmother who prefers that I don't actually call her grandma or any term of endearment) say if I can't be the trophy wife or have the wealthy husband to take care of me then I better be the top in my career and have the best career. Ellie May blames me for not trying harder to save my marriage and continue to look the other way as my husband continually cheated on me then threw it and his illegitimate children in my face. But I say, six children who did not come from me is enough. I gave Holden fifteen years of my life and ten years of marriage while he cheated on me time and time again along with bringing six children, two of which I adopted when their mothers gave up their maternal rights after finding out that Holden was married and Anna Bell guilt tripped me into. This is not to say that they are my children and I will fight you. Now okay I can't really in good faith or logic blame my Mother for her way of thinking, even though I would really like to and truthfully I really want to, but I can't. I mean really I very highly doubt that she'd have put up with even half of what I have in the last ten years of marriage if my Dad had treated her how Holden's treated me. But I’m supposed to continue to, that's just a very large and smelly load of bullshit that I will not tolerate. The majority of the way my Mother thinks and acts is from the way she was raised but the rest is all Anna Bell whispering in her ear as to what to say, think and how to act. Anna Bell believes that if a man has enough money a woman can turn a blind eye to anything and you should cling to him with a death grip. Yep, that's how Anna Bell Graham-Stone-Jones-Smith and what she demands of her girls, meaning my Mother and myself. The gold digging witch oh I so cannot stand Anna Bell and no Anna Bell is not even close to the loving, caring, extremely sweet grandmother that I am staying with when I return to my hometown. Anna Bell has already told me that I am not welcome into her home unless I go back to Holden's cheating, conniving skanky ass. God I hate that she actually thinks that I’ll agree to that stupid ass idea like that's gonna happen ever in a million years. I'm willing to bet that I’ll take Holden back when hell freezes over and pigs fly on the same f*****g day. Not to mention I have 5 friends who would rather I and them beat the ever-loving crap outta said ex-husband. My parents, Hendrix and Ellie May Hanes were always the type of people I thought had this perfect marriage, this amazing perfect marriage every one of my female friends and myself always wanted and dreamed of having. They, my parents I mean, seemed like two halves of one whole. They were made for each other. They looked like they were so completely happy and in love with each other and their marriage. My Dad, Hendrix is a hard worker and worked his butt off in his private law firm while my Mother was more than willing to stay home and doing all the house wifely things or so it had looked and seemed to me. Growing up I had never seen or heard my parents fight or even have an argument with each other about something. But as Nana Laine always says "you shouldn't throw stones inside a glass house" and come on I really have no room to talk or throw anything especially stones in any glass anything or judge their marriage when I couldn't even manage to keep my marriage in one piece or my husband happy with just me so I guess my Mother is doing something right. I guess if Ellie May's completely content to order her house hold staff to clean the massive house they live in along with all the charity work and stuff that she does and my Dad is perfectly happy with letting her, then really who am I to judge them and the way they do their marriage. That’s their right, right? All I had ever wanted to do when I was growing up in the small town of Summer Hill, Wisconsin was to leave that stupid small country town in my dust and become a great doctor if not a famous one. Summer Hill is not a town you become famous in and has round two thousand people give or take a newborn and it's the place where everyone knows everyone along with knows their business and are all related to each other in one way or another. Since I wanted out of my one stop light and it's not even a true stop light, it's really just a red flashing light on top of a stop sign, small country town what can I say. But anyway, like I was saying since I wanted out I did everything in my power to make sure that I had a one way ticket out of town. I graduated from Summer Hill High School at the age of fourteen with a GPA of 3.98, all honors classes with a couple AP classes. I earned a full academic scholarship to any college of my choice anywhere in the world along with that one way ticket from Anna Bell and Ellie May. Anna Bell made an agreement with Ellie May and myself that if I waited until the next year to go away to college then I not only could go to any college I wanted but that Anna Bell would pay for all of my college no matter what or how long I was in school for. Anna Bell would pay for the room, books, food, clothing, and anything else that I needed or wanted. I agreed of course and Anna Bell made sure that I had a supervisor that the family knew; Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Barker, whom I saw once a month at their Bel Air mansion since they did not want to slum it on a college campus to meet a child who they thought had no business being on a college campus. After much debate and thinking, mostly on my part, I considered going to Cambridge College in London, England but when Dad, Papa Joe, and Papa Ron ganged up on me they actually convinced me that England was just too far for me to since they would want to visit me. So I choose to attend the well-known University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Beautiful, sunny and about twenty-one hundred miles from Anna Bell and Ellie May. Los Angeles is on the other side of the country and far from my; if you don't like the weather wait five minutes small town of Wisconsin. There were actually a number of reasons that I choose USC but if I am completely honest the top 3 were actually Ellie May, Anna Bell and the ex-boyfriend that shattered my heart, all them were going to be a few thousand miles away from me along with the fact that I would be going to a big city. Well big to me at least. It was and is extremely far from everyone and everything I knew and who had betrayed me. Yep, I was running from a broken heart. According to Papa Joe and Papa Ron the University of Southern California or rather USC for short is the farthest I should let anyone drive me from my home and logically be the farthest from the control of Anna Bell and Ellie May. The absolute best thing for me was that I was going to be away from Anna Bell and Ellie May's control, criticism and bad attitude about everything I did or didn't do. College was an amazing adventure and experience for me but not only because it challenged me academically but it was a beautiful, big, exciting city with so many new people and new adventures around every corner and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I spent morning in class learning and my nights on the town or in houses having so much fun. I meet so many new people from around the world and made a crap ton of friends along with doing and seeing all these extremely wild and crazy things that were so far out of my small town country zone, but hay I had a blast doing, seeing, and trying any and everything and certainly love all the great amazing memories I made. I graduated high school May of 2021 at the very very young age of fourteen years old and in August of 2022 at the age of fifteen I was able to go to USC, alone. I must say that whole year, I had to wait to leave was the longest year of my life. But Papa Ron took me to Cancun for two weeks and I meet some amazing ladies, Phoenyx Marcellus, Spencer Knight, Kennedy Stewart, and Kaede Haven. When I got back my Dad and Papa Joe took me to London, Paris, Rome, and back to Cancun. I had an amazing time and my Mother came along but my Dad was able to keep her distracted and away from me. Finally, I was able to spend a lot of time with Papa Joe at his cabin where I could swim and fish all I want plus practice hunting and shooting until I was finally able to leave and head to USC. When I got to USC, I focused on my schooling and graduated with a double major along with a minor in my undergraduate studies. I got a major in Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery and a minor in Family Medicine with a 3.82 GPA. Then I went to Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts again with a double major and a minor in my graduate studies. I got a major in Pediatric Surgery and Pediatrics and a minor in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) with a 3.96 GPA. I then attended John Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore Maryland, with a double major and a minor along with doing my internship at John Hopkins. I got a major in Pediatrics and Family Medicine and a minor in Pediatric Surgery and graduated with a 3.98 GPA. Finally I did four years of residency at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, New York. Where I was offered a full time Pediatric Surgery position within two years of my residency. You know, just an FYI of how hard I worked at my career and how much this move back to my hometown was actually costing my professionally. I could actually choose to work anywhere in the world or just stay in New York at Bellevue to continue working my way to Chief of Pediatric Medicine but I choose to move away from my very lousy, cheating ex-husband and the off chance I could see him anywhere.