Just A Scratch

Chapter Four: Arrived Late

     James purposely arrived ten minutes later than Flora to work. He wasn't actually feeling good, his skin a little yellow and sweat on his face. He wiped away the sweat and the shade from inside the buildings turned his skin back to a human flesh tone.

     "Hello James. Your late." Jill sat at the front desk. She had a dark lip stick color on that matched her black hair and dark grey eye shadow. "Hey, Mr. Hoss is gonna get you." James turned to her. His bangs swung to the left and stuck to his face. There were dark circles under his eyes from the some how not enough sleep he had received. The inside of the building had taken away the yellow tone in his skin but still left it pale. Concern etched across Jill's face for once as she looked at James.

     "Hey, are you okay?" She said in a softer tone. She leaned in closer to James to look at his condition.

     "Yeah, I'm fine." Jill nodded but inside knew that wasn't the right answer. She handed James a file for a patient. "Exam room two."

     James held the red folder in is hands. He still had his burlap sack over his shoulder. He ignored all of the things wrong with him and put the folder under his oxster. He looked in his burlap sack for his pager, a small black rectangle that only beeped when he was in trouble. He reached his left hand to the bottom of the sack and felt the familiar smooth surface. He felt a cylinder next to it and pulled it out.

     His pills. He popped the lid off and took his daily dosage in the morning and continued on to the examination room. He walked in to a young kid facing the other way. She was talking to her mother, some thing about a toy. Neither of them had noticed James open the door and stand there by the door. James coughed.

     "Mhmm. Hi, I'm Dr. Mathews. I'll be helping you today." The mother held out her hand to shake James's but James didn't offer his hand after the introduction.

     "My name is Holly and this is Rebecca." She withdraws her hand.

     "What seems to be wrong with Rebecca here." James said in a monotone voice. He lazily put his sack down and sat on the stool, leaning his back against the wall.

     "Well, she seems to have a congested nose and sometime a light headache." Holly said. Rebecca breathed hard through her nose, which produced a nasty snort. Holly gave her a tissue to blow her nose in.

     "That's it?" James asked. He looked at Holly like she was an idiot. He raised his eyebrow and Holly raised both of hers.

     "Yeah, well? Aren't you some doctor? Treat her."

     "Yeah, I am a doctor, doesn't mean I have to treat her." Holly gave him this I'll-sue-you-if-you-don't look "She's got a cold."

     Rebecca smiled. She probably had no idea why she was there but seemed to get a smile out of it. James smirked at her and she received a bad smile full of sarcasm. Holly rolled her eyes and took her daughter out.

     James sat there. He didn't even get up to put the file in the bin right outside the door. He wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet. He got up against the great temptation just to sit there and put the file in the bin. He walked over to the nurses desk to get another file for a patient.

     "Hey Xavier, what do you have for me?" The male nurse turned around with a red folder. He had short cropped black hair that spiked up in the front. He had dark skin like normal Mexicans would have. No one at the hospital judged him since he was the first Mexican to work at the hospital and was pretty good at it.

     "Exam room one, uno." He also spoke spanish which James thought was pretty awesome. He took the folder in his hand and walked to Exam One which was next door to Exam Two. He walked in and sat down on the stool and looked at the folder, not even looking at his patient.