Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #85

… The future couple, just exiting their teen years, seems to have aligned most of the cogs in the gear of life…

Harvard Law School

“It does matter how much you love her, James, you are a twenty year old pre-law student. You do not need the responsibility of a young wife. And what if you father a child? Will you drop out of Harvard to work on some dock by the sea? I would hate to see your dreams and aspiration blow away like so much dust.”

These are the concerns of John Ferrell, who has just been informed that his son intends to take a bride; the Smythwick girl they had adopted two years past. Despite the high degree of maturity that the intended couple displays, it is his voice alone that is the lone foil to their plans. Wife Martha has been drifting in and out of reality ever since her brother perished aboard the battleship Maine. And of course the ensuing brush with the sordid minutiae of an increasingly complicated family life does not help.

“Father, this should come as a surprise to you… you know how dear Abbey is to me and I cannot afford to enter another year of school without her company. The distraction of her absence has a detrimental affect on my studies, which is why I matriculate to Massachusetts in the first place.” James’ focus cannot be denied.

“What will Abigail do in those years before you apply your craft?” John attempts to find cracks in this uncured foundation.

“I have been promised that my versatile wife is to be welcomed on the staff at the campus law library, which you know, will be of great help for me in the future. Mother has been kind enough to teach her library science. You met her in a library, right?” The question is rhetorical.

The future couple, just exiting their teen years, seems to have aligned the cogs in the gear of life. “Mother has given us her blessing.”

“I can see that my resistance is futile,” the elder Ferrell concludes, adding, “Have you told your sister?”

“No, but I plan to take Nessie for a ride over Ziggy and Frieda tonight. I will make the announcement then.”

John knows that Agnes will not take the news very well. He does not quite why, he just knows. He fears for his daughter, who has the deportment of a woman in her fortieth year, fully twenty-two years down the line.

“I wish you luck, son.”

Alpha Omega M.D.

Episode #85

page 78

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #146

…James Ferrell pursues his legal education, freeing him from the underlying despair of his southern roots….

Boston, Massachusetts is directly due east of Rochester, New York. The intervening 300 miles is richly historic land that was originally deeded to the Algonquin Indians, only to be replaced by the Iroquois, followed by the Dutch, English and finally independence.

Independence is the basis for James Ferrell, as he pursues his legal education, freeing him from the underlying despair of his southern roots. There are fine institutions of higher learning in his home state, but he could not pass up the opportunity to lose much of his regional accent and begin his career north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

For Harv Pearson to request his involvement in the formation of his new magazine is a lucky break on an epic scale. Attorneys are quickly becoming as numerous as the stars above. Rochester or Tallahassee, hither and yon, you can find one; practicing the art of writing the law, knowing existing law, finding a way around the law. Any and every number of them is as qualified as this upstart from Florida, but this first client comes from a place where people take care of their own, not completely without logic or potential of competence, yet bending over backwards to nurture and grow those families you know. Sow a seed, water it and watch it increase in your fertilized soil.

James and Abigail Ferrell are promising seedlings without pretense, fully aware of how fortunate they are. And do not assume that Abbey does not contribute to the overall plant. She has and continues to work hard to support her husband in his loftier pursuits, both monetary and motivational. She seems to stay abreast of everything that James has in the hopper, like she is a fly on every wall of every room that he occupies. If he, in her opinion, has a deviant thought in matters of the law, she corrects him lovingly with faultless knowledge. James has since stopped wondering on how she knows things, she just knows.

Alpha Omega M.D.

Episode #146

page 134

Complete Listing of Episodes

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #120

Chapter Seven

END CAREER BEGINNING

…What a relief it is to make it to 1901, the Twentieth Century at last…

What a relief it is to make it to 1901, the Twentieth Century at last. Progress is formally measured and affirmed by the lowness of the last two numbers of the years tracked since the death on a cross by the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Just as HE died to save the lost, so does this New Year rescue, in spirit, the United States from the scars of Civil War, deadly disease, horrible storms. Things cannot get worse, right?

The young seem to have the best chance of making the best of their world. For James Ferrell and bride Abigail, the last 12 months provides them with 1 year of marriage and the 2nd year of studies at Harvard University; on what will seem like the eternal road to lawyer-dom. Ergo, 360-some days of married living in an unaccustomed small living space in Cambridge Massachusetts, with not enough money and not enough time together.

“Won’t it be wonderful to see Mother and Father, dear?” offers Abigail in one of those rare shared moments when James does not have class and she is not working in the school library.

“Summer school really threw our plans for a loop, Abbey. But we could not afford to traipse around Europe. That’s more Agnes’ style, though she may regret going after she sees the shape the groceries stores are in.”

By his talk, one can see the focus the 21 year old has. Travel is not an option.

And no sooner than his and Abbey’s shared parents return from the old continent across the Atlantic, they now journey northward to Buffalo, New York on the 12:10 Crescent Limited. It is there they will meet James and Abbey at the Pan-American Exposition.