making changes

"Just a bad case of psoriasis, right?" Oliver knew it was a bad idea coming to this country now. It was doing something to his skin. He tried his best to joke about it. As it was he'd done some tests and talked to the doctor and a few others in the skin specialist area.

"Kind of." Then the doctor told him it was lupus.

"You've got to be kidding, me!" Oliver didn't want to believe him. Suddenly, he felt doomed. But then again, he was plenty tired.

"Maybe all I need to do is quit drinking beer." Oliver looked at the doctor wide eyed as if he had an easy fix on this. No need to be medicated.

"Oh, and do stop drinking." The general physician gave him a pat on the back.

"Really?" Oliver winced. "I have to?" There had always been alcohol in his life as long as he could remember.

Of course, later at home he wanted Kayla to know about this. "They don't want me drinking." He looked at her puzzled. "I don't drink that much, now do I?"

"You do like your beer." She nodded. "And hard cider. Get you and Eric together and you can't talk to each other without having beer."

"Wait, a minute, that's family time you're talking about." He warned her. There was a protocol for those situations, and a beer or two was part of it.

"Look, if you want to take care of your health, you have to stop the drinking." She told him. "There's been studies about people who have heart disease because they go to too many church potlucks. Maybe you socialize to much." She crossed her arms and gave him a shrug.

"But I'm running a place to eat, babe?" Oliver gave her a festered glare.

"All the more reason, you have to stay healthy. We need healthy food even at your place, down stairs." She glared right back.

Oliver blew out a breath. Oh, how he needed a beer, but he reached in the fridge for a juice instead, and looked at his medication on the counter waiting for him to take. He felt like a little kid, again..but this time with a mother who wasn't going to dare pour him a shot of brandy to relax him. No, this mother had a few rules to abide by. Maybe that's just what he needed.