“Promise me.” She grasped my arm hard. “…that she’ll go to someone good. Someone who can give her everything.Promise.”
“Is Jennie your real name?”
She said nothing.
“I—I just wanted to call you by your name.”
“Crystal,” she whispered. “It’s Crystal.”
“I promise, Crystal,” I said with determination. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to see that she’s taken care of.”
I asked if I could ask her some quick health questions about her and her family, so that the baby would have some family medical history. I ran down the list quickly. Nothing stood out.
As soon as we’d done that, the door opened, and a woman of slight build burst in. “Hello, hello, Jennie, I’m Dr. Parik, the obstetrician. I’m going to be taking over now. We’ll get you all finished here and to your room, okay?”
Crystal gave a weak nod. I squeezed her hand. “Hi, Dr. Parik,” I said. Then to Crystal, “You’re in great hands.”
With a nod to my colleague, who was already bustling around, preparing to deliver the placenta and finish things up, I de-gloved and left the room, completely shaken.
Outside the room, I fumbled with the strings on my gown. I was physically shaking. Crying too, but trying to hide it.
Suddenly I felt someone quickly untying me, grasping my elbow, and gently tugging me down the hall. I felt strong hands on my shoulders, reassuring, urging me forward.
“We need to call the social worker on call,” I said.
“Already done,” Adam said. I’d lost track of him—he must have been waiting for me.
“How did your patient do?” I asked as I stopped to wash my hands, took a quick swipe at my eyes, and tried to pretend this was just another day in the life. There were inevitably patients waiting to be seen, and regardless of how emotional I felt, I had to carry on.
“Three thousand Joules cured him from his v-fib, and he’s upstairs in the unit.”
“Oh, that’s a relief,” I said, a little absently. I was still shell-shocked and jittery from all the adrenaline coursing through my blood.
“You did a fine job in there,” he said softly.
I nodded, appreciating that he knew it.
“That teenager did her research,” I said. “If you hand over your baby to a health care worker and say you’re giving it up, that’s legally binding.”
He touched my arm. There was a flash of sympathy in his eyes. But then he suddenly seemed to realize that he was out of character because he dropped his hand, cleared his throat, and stepped back. “This isn’t a Hallmark movie. The world is a harsh place—for everyone. There’s only so much we can do.”
Dr. Grumpenstein wasba-ack. A pity, because I’d caught a glimmer of something wonderful beneath that fatalist façade.
If that mansplaining spiel was his version of sympathy, I couldn’t take it. “No,” I said, pulling my arm away, frustrationoverwhelming me. “I can’t accept that. We can always do more.” Then I pulled my arm away and went to keep doing my job.
Chapter Six
Ani
The next morning, a Saturday, I was awakened from a deep slumber by a knock on the door. More likemanyknocks, a haven of angry woodpeckers, rat-a-tatting me awake. I opened my eyes to a profusion of bright sunlight streaming through the family room of the house where I was dog-sitting. And speaking of that…I was soon accosted by a giant reddish-brown labradoodle who jumped on the couch and began walking all over me with his big paws like an ashiatsu massage, and then proceeded to lick me to death.
“Okay, okay, Arnold.” I couldn’t help laughing at his over-the-top way of greeting me. I sat up on the couch, threw off the crocheted Afghan that I’d used as a blanket all night, and stumbled toward the door in my bare feet.
The McClellans’ house was huge and beautiful and full of an amount of bright morning light that told me I’d waaay overslept. As I wound my way through the magazine-worthy kitchen and hall to the front door, I raked a hand through my hair, straightened my flannel PJ pants and Packers sweatshirt,and opened the door to my two best friends, Mia and Samantha. Arnold promptly shimmied straight between my feet and shot straight out the door.
All this before coffee.
“That dog is an escape artist,” Sam reminded me with a warning voice.
