Shira quickly pulled a printed sheet from one of the trays on her desk. Numbers covered the page. We could all feel the tension in the air. She was holding Lily’s lab results. Technically, it was just data – but data meant only for the doctors. The fact that Shira was the one standing there with the sheet, ready to brief Lily, showed how senior she really was in the department, even if not formally.
She gave me a meaningful look. I got the hint and stepped back. Lily stayed put.By the time I reached the doctors’ room, Lily had caught up with me.
“So, when can I give you the gift?” I asked.
“If you give me your phone number, I promise I’ll call.” When Lily said that, I knew there was a God. If we’d been anywhere else, I would’ve jumped with my fists in the air and shouted “Yes!!!” at the top of my lungs. But given the place and the risk of embarrassment, I settled for a silent “Yes” in my heart.I hurried back to Shira’s desk – she was gone. I grabbed a scrap of paper and a pencil and scribbled down the phone number of the apartment I shared with David, my excitement spilling onto the page.
“See you,” I said, still shaken, as I shook Lily’s hand warmly. She promised again she’d call in a few days, and I left, thinking about the wheel of fortune – hers and mine.
“Don’t you want to know her results?” Shira asked me a few hours later, maybe out of pity.
“What? She looked perfectly fine.” I glanced at the results and couldn’t believe my eyes.
“But you should face it – she’s not healthy,” she stressed.
“Her hemoglobin’s down to 9.5, and her urea and creatinine are slightly up,” I muttered, half to myself, half to Shira, still in disbelief. I also knew I was inexperienced.
“It just doesn’t add up – how can someone that sick look so vital? Just look at her…”Suddenly a spark of hope lit inside me. Maybe Lily wasn’t really that sick? Maybe the prognosis – two years to live – was a mistake. I wanted so badly for that to be the case. But it could also just be a temporary improvement from the treatment she’d gotten. My head was spinning.
“Did the boss give her something?” I pressed.
“Yes. She was off meds for a while, and now he’s put her back on steroids, 5 milligrams a day.”
“That’s it?” I asked in surprise.
“That’s it,” she whispered, then added, “So, what did you get her for a gift?” The abrupt switch in topic was jarring.
“I take it she told you. You won’t tell anyone, right?” I lowered my voice, even though no one else was around.
“I promise!” Her eyes lit up.
“A pair of glass candlesticks,” I revealed.
“For the happy couple?” she teased cynically.
“I was thinking of giving her one and keeping the other for myself. Maybe, just maybe, one day they’ll come back together.”
“Wow, what a romantic,” Shira exclaimed, kissed me on the cheek, and walked off.
The surprise of running into Lily, the bombshell news, and that tiny crack in the wall between us – all of it turned an ordinary workday into a day of hope.
Chapter 5
On Call
That evening, David and I were both on a “thirty-six.” That’s what the interns called the duty shifts – thirty-six hours straight in the ward. The job was taking care of patients; everything else – sleep, food – came second. Everyone with half a brain knew that demanding full concentration for thirty-six hours nonstop was unreasonable, even impossible. But someone had decided that’s how long a shift should be, and nobody dared challenge it – and the seniors found the setup convenient.We started our shift at six in the evening. The ward was busy and left us barely a moment to talk, just a word here and a sentence there. I was dying to tell him about what had happened that morning with Lily; I felt like I would burst if I didn’t. I longed for the moment we could sit down with a cup of coffee, so that I could finally tell him about seeing her.
Nothing else really mattered.I met David in med school. We clicked immediately. Naturally, we organized a study group together, and from then on, we were inseparable – devoted to medicine, loyal to each other. The same went for our shifts: we worked side by side, in perfect sync.Around nine, we wrapped up the round, each of us finishing on our respective side of the ward, and then we met in the doctors’ room.
“So, Michael – how was Finland?” he asked.
“Nothing like what we experienced together,” I said.
“Hope you didn’t expect too much.”
“Actually, I did. But honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking about Lily while I was there,” I admitted.
“The one who’s getting married?” he asked.
