When we finally broke for air, I rested my forehead on hers.
We were both breathing hard. Her hand came down off my hair and around the side of my face. Her thumb stroked my jaw slowly.
She pulled back, slid down off the hood, and came up onto her feet on the asphalt. Then she looked up at me.
She kissed my cheek softly, intentionally, and stepped back half a step.
"I don't know what this is," she murmured.
I shook my head.
"Neither do I."
8.Sabrina
“And so what we’re talking about, Bonnie, is something we call a preemptive intervention.”
Dr. Reyes had a kind face and a nicer face for kids than for parents, and he was using the kid face. He had Bonnie up on the exam table with her sneakers on the paper and her water bottle on her lap, and her ponytail was at the same angle it had been since breakfast. He was on the rolling stool, his clipboard balanced on one knee, leaning forward and talking at her eye level.
“Preemptive means before something happens. Intervention means we do something. Together, it means we do something before something has the chance to happen. We don’t want your heart getting tired sooner than we want it to. So instead of waiting and seeing, we do the procedure first.”
Bonnie nodded slow and considering, holding the information for later.
“How big is the procedure?” I asked, swallowing past the knot in my throat..
“Big enough that we need to plan for it. Not so big that we can’t.”
“Will I be asleep?” Bonnie asked.
“You’ll be very, very asleep.”
“Will my mom be there?”
“Right outside.”
“During?”
“During.”
She thought about that. “Will Pickles be there?”
The cardiologist didn’t break stride. “Pickles isn’t allowed in the hospital, but you can bring something of his.”
“I have a Pickles plush.” She smiled.
“That’ll do.”
She nodded again. Her thumb was running slow circles along the cap of her water bottle.
“Bonnie.” Dr. Reyes set the clipboard on his knee. “I have a question for you. The nurse at the desk has a brand-new sheet of stickers in her drawer that I think she’d like to show you. Want to go meet her for a few minutes while I talk to your mom?”
Bonnie didn’t buy this.
She looked at Dr. Reyes. Then looked at me. She’d known what the sticker maneuver was at six years old. He knew that she knew. He held her eyes anyway.
“Yes,” she said. “I would like that.”
She slid down off the table, picked up her water bottle, and went to the door. Dr. Reyes opened it. She walked out. The door clicked.
