Another Time

Chapter Five: My Lazy Roomate

        “Let’s go.” The ground beneath me began to spin backwards. I sprinted to match the speed and ran. For about a minute, he pressed buttons on the monitor, and then the speed increased. I ran faster, my legs pumping. I was determined to go fast, and stay fast. For some reason, I wanted to impress him. The speed increased. I was breathing harder, forcing my legs to move. For about five more minutes, I ran, and then the treadmill stopped. My face was red, and sweaty.

        “Okay.” He came up and took the cups off my body. I took the necklace off and gave it to him. “You can put your shirt on.” He handed me my shirt, and I slipped it back on, thankful for the cover. Modesty is one of my biggest traits. He led me to the two chairs sitting across from each other. I turned around to see Thyme lying on the table with Tarragon wrapping something around her arm. “Pay attention please.” He had seated himself in the chair closest to him, and patted the seat my seat. “Come on.” He rolled his eyes and reached into his waist pocket. He then pulled out a flashlight and syringe. The needle was sharp, and shiny in a way. It horrified me.

  “I don’t like…needles.” I sat down in the chair, and watched him click the flashlight on.

        “This is a syringe, so that won’t be a problem.” The syringe was empty, and I couldn't figure out why. Maybe the injection was clear?

         “Look at the door over there.” I did as he said, and let him cup my chin in one hand, and point the flashlight into my eye with the other. I half expected the light to hurt my eyes, but it didn't. “Hm.” He grunted, and then did the same with my other eye. “You've had a minor injury to the head, yes?” He clicked the flashlight off, and let go of my chin.

“Yeah…I fell out of a tree.” It seemed more embarrassing to admit my injury. It takes professional stupidity such as mine, to fall out of a tree.

        “Mhhmm.” He fiddled with the syringe, making sure everything was working. “Now I’m just going to take a blood sample.” He took a bottle and cotton ball from his pocket, and soaked the cotton with the bottle’s contents. “Wipe your arm, right about here.” He handed me the cotton ball, and pointed to the skin below my elbow. “Oh, I almost forgot.” He stood up and went back to the treadmill. He returned holding a tourniquet, and put it around my arm.

        I wiped my arm with the cotton ball, and let him tighten the tourniquet. He took the needle, and stuck it into my arm with quick precision. I flinched as he pulled the plunger. Blood began to drip into it, making my stomach do a flip. Gross, stop looking! Edelweiss smirked as I turned around and tried not to think about the blood dripping into his syringe. “That should be enough.” He slid the needle out of my arm, and handed me a Band-Aid. I peeled away the paper, and stuck it on the small red dot where the syringe had been.

He undid the tourniquet put the syringe filled with my blood, on a metal table near the treadmill.

        “On to the next station.” He led me to the circular machine. “Lay on this, and try not to move.” I jumped onto the table, and lay down. Edelweiss typed something into a monitor by me, and the machine whirred to life, making the table slide underneath the doughnut-shaped tunnel.

           “What is this?” There were a few clicks above me.

        “Don’t talk! You’ll mess up the photographs!” I kept my mouth shut, and listened to the machine work. “Almost done, just hold on.” I had a feeling that talking wouldn't mess up the pictures and that he just didn't want to talk to me. The table began to slide out. “Okay, get up.” I sat up, and slid off the table.

                       “What was that?” He didn't have an excuse for ignoring me now.

                                                     “It’s called an MRI.”