Sasha nodded, glancing about the space. “Uh, alright. I’m… Well…” She laughed at herself. “Is it okay if I just wait here? I’m feeling a little too overwhelmed to navigate the bus system right now and I don’t have enough money to go to that expensive coffee shop down the road.”
“Of course.” The nurse reached out and gently touched Sasha’s upper arm. “You don’t have to leave, but why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get you a cup of coffee. We have a machine in the nurse’s lounge.”
“That would be amazing.” Sasha felt like throwing her arms around the woman and hugging her, but she resisted. “Thank you.”
They walked down the busy emergency room hallway. At the last door on the right, the nurse told Sasha to wait outside. She returned a minute later with two full paper cups of coffee and a pocket full of cream and sugar options. “I’ve got regular and hazelnut creamer. Do you have a preference?”
Sasha made a face. “Hazelnut used to be my favorite but lately it’s been making me sick. Even the thought of it—” She stopped and took a deep breath to ease her nausea. “Well, you can see what I mean.”
The nurse handed her a cup with a knowing look in her eye. “You know, I hate to admit this, but I might have overheard some of what you were saying on the phone earlier. When you were calling your doctor’s office.”
“Oh, that’s okay.” Sasha took the regular creamer from the woman’s outstretched hand and poured it into her cup. “It wasn’t a private conversation or anything. I was just leaving them a message to let them know I wouldn’t be making it to my appointment.”
“Right. But you did mention needing to take some sort of test?” The woman raised a brow. “You wouldn’t happen to be hoping to take a pregnancy test, would you?”
Sasha’s grip involuntarily tightened over her coffee cup so much that some of the hot liquid poured over the top and onto her hand. “How’d you know? I’m not showing already, am I?” She gawked down at her stomach. “I didn’t think I was more than four, maybe five weeks max.”
“No, you’re not showing. I just figured that was where the nausea was coming from.” She smiled. “You know, we can give you a test here, if you want.”
“I wish I could take you up on that,” Sasha said. “But I’m not sure my insurance will cover the test if it doesn’t come from my pre-approved doctor or whatever.”
“We have a program,” the nurse explained. “We give out free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to low-income women under the age of thirty. I’m assuming you’re under thirty?”
“I am!” Sasha didn’t mean to raise her voice; she just couldn’t believe her luck. “And I’m definitely low-income. I’ll show you my pay stubs just to prove it.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” the nurse said. “But let me go talk to the doctor who runs the program. She’ll know more and hopefully we’ll be able to get something set up for you while you’re waiting.”
Sasha was no longer able to control herself; she reached out and hugged the woman as best she could with a full cup of coffee in her hand. “Thank you so much. You just saved me so much stress.”
“No problem,” the nurse said cheerfully. “I’m happy to help.”
*
It had been a week, and still Molly wasn’t able to leave the hospital.
Her infection seemed to be responding to antibiotics at first, but then the doctors suspected she had caught something else while there, and now she was almost as sick as when she arrived. The only saving grace was that the medicine they had her on was alleviating her pain and keeping her fever in check, so she could have conversations with her daughter while they sat around for hours.
Though, Sasha would’ve called them spats rather than conversations.
“I just don’t understand how you let this happen,” her mom said. “You should’ve just gone into work. What good did it do, sitting around here while I was sleeping or whatever?”
Sasha scoffed. “Are you kidding me, mom? I had to be here! You’ve been basically on death’s door for the past week. I wasn’t going to bail on you just to save my job at the craft store.”
“But theyfired you,” Molly said, as if her daughter didn’t already know that. “And you really liked working there.”
“I wouldn’t say Ilikedworking there,” Sasha said. “It just wasn’t as bad as working in fast food. But it’s not the end of the world. Soon, they’re going to realize that they made a huge mistake letting me go. I’m the only one who isn’t afraid to clean the back room where all the spiders are.”
“I’m being serious, Sasha.”
“So am I!” Sasha doubled down. “I’m telling you, I’m invaluable and they’re gonna see that within a week. Maybe sooner! Not to mention, they were short-staffed to begin with, and things always pick up going into summer. If not then, during the fall they’ll need all hands on deck. Really, I’m more worried about your job than anything else.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got it all figured out.”
“Alright, great. Then let’s stop talking about work. It’s just going to stress you out, which is the last thing you need.”
Molly shook her head but said nothing in response. She was tired, Sasha could tell. And she hadn’t been eating enough. She was allowed to eat solid foods at this point in her recovery, but she turned nearly every offer away. After a week of nothing but IVs, ice chips, and some juice, she was starting to look very sallow.
“The doctors asked me if you had a favorite type of food or restaurant,” Sasha said. “They were thinking maybe I could bring you something that sounded appetizing. Can you think of anything?”
