When she was given a bed in a separate room, I realized something was seriously wrong. Lily suddenly began to cry. I quietly joined her.
“Yesterday I got my period,” she said after calming down.
“Did you tell the boss?”
“Yes, I also told him that it seemed normal to me.”
“And what did he say?”
“That they’ll check.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t think it would interest you. It happens every month pretty regularly.”
“Lily, I don’t think a month has passed since your bleeding in Washington.”
“What?” She began crying again. I held her tight. Her sobbing grew stronger.
“Just now, when things are beginning to fall into place for me – the workshop, the studies – and now my hemoglobin is dropping,” she murmured between sobs, swallowing some of her words.
“They’ll check. The boss promised,” I whispered in her ear.
“I can tell they think there are signs again of the illness. That maybe it really has flared up.”
“How do you know?”
“Someone mentioned a flare-up, and they also talked about impaired kidney function.”
“Were you at the College of Art and Design?” I tried to distract her a little.
“Yes, but there was no one to talk to. I didn’t want to wait. I came here. I promised you.” She seemed calmer.
Suddenly she burst out laughing, and then returned to crying. The swings between these two states were as sharp as a blade.
In one moment, our lives changed completely. To the four main circles that had defined us – the workshop, the College of Art and Design, the army, and medicine – a fifth circle was added, the circle of hospitalization, which we had wanted so much to postpone, but which had only just begun to take shape.
Over time, the threads of that weave would grow more and more dense.
Chapter 50
The Race for Hemoglobin
“That’s it, I’ve regressed three years. I’m sorry,” she told me that evening, when the transfusion was already hooked to her arm.
I didn’t understand why she was apologizing, as though she were to blame for something. We both knew this would come sooner or later. We had already passed the one-year grace period from the boss’s prediction, and maybe we would be granted even more time. Who knew?
“You, you didn’t deserve this,” she suddenly said.
“We both have responsibility for this relationship. And as a doctor, I knew even better than you what I was getting into,” I replied, with a trace of anger. “The decision was entirely mine, and I don’t regret it for a moment.”
Lily began to cry.
“I promise you, I’ll get out of this!” she swayed between laughter and tears. I had always known the closeness between us was like that of Siamese twins, but now I saw it more than ever.
“Of course,” I said, more a wish than certainty.
I squeezed her free hand tightly and stroked her face gently. Her skin was soft as velvet.
