Notorious D.O.C. (Hope Sze medical mystery) (35 page)

It was after midnight now. Too late to call Mrs. Schuster.
It was possible to call Wendy, but Reena was not about to break out of St.
Joe’s and murder her tonight.

I brushed my hair back from my temples and laid my forehead
on the steering wheel. I would call the police first thing in the morning.

There was just one thing nagging at me. I couldn’t quite
formulate it, but uneasiness sat in the pit of my stomach.

I turned on the ignition. The Ford Focus’s engine turned
over. I began to nudge my way out of my space, checking the rear view mirror as
I reversed. Péloquin Street was otherwise deserted. Reena’s voice beat in my
ears.

She hadn’t seemed depressed to me. If I’d met her on the
street, I would have said "pissed off" or "crazy." But
maybe there was some black hole at the centre of it. I didn’t understand. I
never would.

I shifted back to drive and signaled my way out of the
space, shoulder-checking, even though no one was there.

Reena’s frantic, furious voice raged on.

I’ll
show her ass.

I swerved into Péloquin and stopped at the light. My pager
went off, so I clicked on it to see a different, extension, but not OB and not
psych. I rolled my eyes. Who was Tucker play-acting now? I’d call him when I
got home. After I took a shower and washed all the Reena off.

Reena. Off.

Reena. Offed.

The light turned green. A truck rumbled up behind me, but I
stayed still.

I
don't give a flying fuck about myself.

The truck honked.

Everyone
has to go. Everyone has something to do. Even me!

Oh, shit. I screeched a right turn on to
Côte-Ste-Catherine.

I had to get back to the hospital right
now.

I pulled into the same parking spot, dashed into the
hospital, and sprinted up the five flights like it was a code.

A tiny Asian nurse wheeling a BP machine spotted me at the
end of the hallway. I ignored her and ducked into Reena’s room, banging it open
with the flat of my hand.

The nurse called, "Wait. What about—"

I screamed.

Reena was hanging from the curtain rod.

Chapter 39

She swayed slightly and gagged.

Her eyes bulged in her reddened face. She was already
turning blue around the mouth.

The curtain rod creaked and bent, but still held her a good
three feet off the floor. She clawed at the white sheet noosed around her neck.

I ran at her. Four minutes. Four minutes until her brain
cells died from asphyxiation.

The chair was overturned next to the radiator. I didn’t take
the time to set the chair on its feet. I scaled the radiator, my sandals nearly
slipping off the narrow, painted metal bars, but I managed to stay upright and
hoist her weight against gravity, relieving the pressure.

We swayed. Her gown was wet with what smelled like urine and
I didn’t want to think what else. Pain shot down the right side of my back, but
I clung to her.

I was screaming the entire time.

The nurse burst into the room and stopped dead at the door,
her mouth open.

"HELP ME!" I yelled, my throat already raw. Reena
began jerking in my arms. I couldn’t tell if she was seizing or trying to get
away, but I bit my tongue as I clung to her. My ankle twisted. My knees
buckled.

But I managed to hang on. Just.

The nurse glanced back at the door. "I—have
to—"

"Do you have SCISSORS?" I screamed. "Cut her
DOWN!"

She dug into her uniform pocket, excruciatingly slow. I
imagined Reena’s brain cells saying
sayonara
,
popping off one by one, while the nurse righted the chair and stood on it, her
legs trembling so hard, the chair rocked. Even with the chair, there was no way
she could reach.

She bit her lip and jumped off the chair.

"No!" I yelled, but she was already punching the
call bell next to the bed, while I tried to hold Reena’s weight up off her
neck.

"GIVE ME THE SCISSORS!"

She dashed back, scissors aloft. I did my best to hack
through the sheet, one-handed, but all I was getting was cramps in both arms
while some of Reena’s weight rested on my legs.

The call system squawked. "Code Blue, code blue!"
yelled the nurse. Too late, I remembered we could have dialed 55555 to trigger
a code right away. I kept sawing away with the scissors, but I couldn’t hold
Reena much longer. Even my neck was cramping up. Tears dripped down my face and
the side of my neck. "Get—up—here."

"I can’t reach!"

I pulled Reena over to make room on the radiator. Reena
wasn’t moving or groaning anymore. Good sign? Bad sign? I had no idea anymore.
Hesitantly, the nurse levered herself up.

"PULL DOWN the CURTAIN ROD."

She stretched her hand up. "I can’t!" She was even
shorter than me.

"She’s DYING! JUMP!"

She leaped up and grabbed the curtain rod. It sagged and
finally broke under her and Reena’s weight. I couldn’t hold her anymore.

Reena tumbled to the floor and I fell on top of her,
catching myself on my hands and knees. My neck and back seized up. I gritted my
teeth against the pain and raised my head to look into Reena’s dilated pupils
just as the emerg team burst through the door with the crash cart.

Chapter 40

I never thought I'd get caught.
Especially by something as stupid as a broken arm.

I dropped into a little ER that Reena
knows because she used to come here for psych. Her parents live here and the
waiting time's short because no one else wants to go to this little shithole.
Okay, fine. All they have to do is put a cast on it and give me some good
drugs. Anyone can do that. We go in and the nurse sighs when she sees us, but
Reena points at my arm. "It's not me this time."

The nurse looks at Reena like she's shit
and me like I'm vomit. "Do you have a hospital card?"

The one hospital card I already have in
this name has the St. Joseph's logo. Neat-o. I dig it out. It's so old it's
cracked in half and the nurse makes a face and says the clerk should have given
me a new one. Whatever.

The nurse takes one look at my arm,
checks my pulse, and gets the doctor to sign an X-ray requisition. That way,
while I'm waiting to see the doc, I can have my X-ray too. Good thinking.

I have to wait in the hall a long time to
get the films, and they do my arm and wrist because my wrist hurts, too, and
Reena and I laugh and look at my skeleton pics until we get bored and keep
taking smoke breaks, waiting for my turn for the doc. Short wait, my ass. It's,
like, four hours until I finally get in a cubicle.

"Hey, it's Laura," says Reena,
pointing out the open door. Sure enough, it's Dr. Laura who runs the borderline
clinic with Dr. Ven. She's wearing a white coat and has her hair up in a
ponytail, but it's the same girl. Reena and I trade looks. For some reason, I'm
bothered she's working here, but I shrug it off.

Then I hear her talking to the nurse in
the hallway. "Oh. I know this patient. At least, I think I do. Do we have
the old films?"

You can practically hear the nurse
rolling her eyes. "Do you need one? Her arm's broken."

"I always like to compare."

Reena and I just look at each other. Same
old slowpoke. Wouldn't know how to take a dump if she hadn't read a study about
it first. We're going to be here another hour, easy.

Reena touches my good arm. She's feeling
sorry for me. I could get an easy fuck out of this, except I wouldn't enjoy it.
"Can I adjust your sling or something?" she asks.

"Nah. But my ice is melted again.
Can you get that?"

While Reena's out doing that, I try to
read a five month-old Maclean's magazine. Reena gives me the ice and pats my
good hand. She's all shy when we're in public. It's cute. I whisper in her ear
what I'm going to do to her when we get home. She cracks up. There's no way
with a broken arm. Still, it feels good. But my arm hurts more and more. Seems
like forever I've been sitting on this green vinyl examining table. I stand up
and pace, even though my arm is killing me. The nurse frowns and closes the
door on me, like I'm disturbing the peace.

"You could ask them for a
Tylenol," Reena says.

I shrug.

She stands up. "I'm gonna ask
them."

Sometimes I actually like her. She's such
a pain in the ass, but when she does it to other people, it's great.

She opens the door. I hear Laura's voice.
"...seen this before? Today's film clearly shows growth plates, but on the
X-ray from two years ago, they're already closed. I've never heard of
ossification like this."

My scalp prickles. They're talking about
me.

"And the sesamoid bone in the index
finger..."

She's found me out. Holy shit, she
figured it out somehow from the X-rays that I stole the ID. I leap to my feet.
Awkward, with only one arm, and it jars the fracture, but I clench my teeth and
jerk my head at the other door. The door to the hallway.

Reena turns. "Wait, they're coming
over—"

But I'm already running. I have to make a
plan. I don't know what it's gonna be, but for now, I'm running. Running,
running, running. As fast as I can. Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man.

***

"So you’re a hero," said Tucker, much later, after
I’d showered, changed into fresh greens, and collapsed on the emerg resident’s
bed. The bed sagged under his weight as he sat within arm’s length.
"Heroine. Whatever."

I shook my head, too weary to speak.

"You figured out Reena did it and still saved her
life."

I shrugged.

"I know she might not make it. But now at least she has
a chance."

Yeah. A chance at a real coma. Mrs. Schuster would no doubt
bake a cheesecake to thank me for interviewing her daughter and triggering her
last, most dangerous suicide attempt.

He pressed a cool washcloth on my brow. It was the cheap
white terrycloth from the emerg, but it felt so good. More tears leaked from my
eyes again. I didn’t bother to wipe them away.

"You’re a good woman. I love you."

I shook my head. Right now, I didn’t feel good, loveable, or
loving. If anything, I felt like I was still missing a piece of the puzzle.

"Do you want to stay here, or I’ll take you home?"

I didn’t even glance at the four white walls or the bedside
tray that served as a table. "Home."

***

I fumbled with the keys to my apartment and stared at them,
trying to figure out which one unlocked the door. It was one of two brass ones.
Choosing the right one, at this moment, seemed at least as hard as the Medical
College Admission Test question about a waterwheel.

Tucker swiped the keys from me and unlocked the door on the
first try. "I'll see you in. You've been through enough."

I nodded and toddled through the open door.

Tucker shoved his hands in his pockets and hovered in the
entry. I realized he wasn’t going to come in. Part of me was relieved. The rest
of me was disappointed. His mouth was moving. I tuned into his words.
"Well, you delivered a baby and saved a life. Not bad for a day's
work."

I nodded, eyelids sandy with fatigue. "You too."
It might not have made sense, but I’d been impressed he’d run to the code right
on the heels of the emerg team. He even put in a femoral line. A triple lumen.
He had good hands.

I didn’t check my watch to see how late it was. I was so
wiped, I could hardly remember how to breathe.

He kissed my forehead. "Go to sleep. I'll cover for you
tomorrow. You're on emerg, right?"

I stirred. He couldn’t cover. He had his own clinic to do.
"But—"

He pressed his index finger to my lips. Despite everything,
his skin felt good against mine. I had the sudden urge to lick his finger. His
nostrils flared. We stared at each other in the dim light of the hallway.

Finally, I nodded and he dropped his hand back down to his
side.

"Lock the door," he said.

I did. I threw the main bolt and the tiny one in the floor.
I listened to his footsteps echo down the stairs. The apartment door squeaked
open and closed again. Tucker was gone. The night was over. I could finally
sleep.