Sister City

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

I spent four days on the couch before I stopped throwing up from the pain meds and my shoulder had healed enough that I could sleep in my own bed. Once I was in my bed, I still had pillows heaped everywhere to support my arm. It was nice to be able to lie flat, but I really missed sleeping on my stomach with my arms underneath my pillow. Since I couldn’t even lift my arms to shoulder height, I was doubtful that I would ever get to sleep like that again.

Luka brought me the schoolwork I missed while I was recuperating. I was thrilled to have something to do, no matter how boring. The only thing that kept me from gouging my eyes out with a dull pencil was my calculus homework. We had started working on area under the curve and it was fascinating. Rotating parabolas around a fixed line and then calculating the volume of a solid of revolution made for fantastic mathematical equations. With nobody around to make fun of me for my math obsession, I doodled shapes and calculated their areas. I’m a geek to the core, I know, but it was fun!

After several weeks at home I was going stir crazy. I looked forward to the end of the month like it was Christmas. Time passed, and though it felt like it had been years, it was finally the end of the month and I had my last orthopedic visit to clear me to return to school. Luka and Megan were driving me to the appointment since Mom and Dad had exhausted their sick time and couldn’t take any more time off work to shuttle me around to my appointments.

I sat in the backseat, feeling a bit sad and a bit jealous as I watched them hold hands in the front seat. Another pang of jealousy hit me when they sat next to each other in the waiting room, holding hands.

“Catherine Townsend,” called the nurse who was standing in the doorway to the medical suites holding the door open.

“That’s me,” I called as I struggled to get to my feet and pick up the paperwork given to me by the cranky receptionist.

Luka and Megan had already told me they were going to wait in the waiting room, which I wouldn’t have found odd except that they felt the need to tell me. Odd. They’d been secretive since Christmas, but there had been no further meltdowns. The mystery of it all intrigued me.

The nurse took me into the hallway, weighed me, took my blood pressure and took me to the exam room.

“Take off your shirt and put on this gown,” she told me as she made her way toward the door. “The doctor will be in shortly.”

“How long is Doctor Patel going to be?” I asked politely.

“There’s about a 15 minute wait,” she said before closing the door.

Score! Fifteen minutes in Kaiser Time usually translated to thirty minutes on a watch. I dropped the thin paper gown on the bed and snuck out the door. I darted down the hallway that led back to the waiting room. I cracked open the door just in time to see the back of Luka’s shirt as he led Megan down the hallway toward the elevators. I followed them, as stealthily as possible for an utter klutz, wondering if I would have to abandon my spying to get back to my exam room.

There was no cause for worry because Luka and Megan stopped at suite 210. Obstetrics and Gynecology. Ew. Why was Luka taking Megan to her Ob/Gyn appointment? It wouldn’t matter how long I’d been with someone, I wouldn’t want them to see my hoo-hoo, let alone the wicked looking metal thingie they used during the visit.

Luka stood with Megan as she checked in for her appointment. The patient representative gave her something and she went through the door and into the back immediately, before the nurse came to call her name. Luka sat down on the nearest chair and dropped his head into his hands. I walked toward him, approaching him from the back.