A Rush of Blood by David Mark

Author:David Mark
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-07-23T06:00:00+00:00

LOTTIE

Lottie is blowing raspberries, quietly, behind her cupped palm. She likes her lips to look full for the camera. She wears a cherry-red lipstick that clashes extravagantly with her blue hair, which she has twisted into a 1950s curl. She is wearing clear-glass spectacles that curve upwards at the edges like cats’ eyes and is dressed in a tight pinafore dress beneath a baggy red lumberjack shirt.

‘Nearly there,’ says Jay. He’s an intern at the hospital and endlessly enthusiastic. He’s a year out of university and is managing to support himself during his unpaid tenure at the hospital by doing some technical wizardry for the various professors and doctors who enjoy high-profile social media work. He has been Lottie’s cameraman since the summer. It isn’t a difficult job. All he has to do is point the camera and Lottie does the rest. She is a natural. Sometimes Jay is literally open-mouthed in his admiration. One day, she might let him sleep with her, but it will have to be as a going-away present. She finds him far too earnest and excitable to consider him for anything more than a one-nighter. She gets the impression he would do irritating things, like get up early to make her breakfast, or do all her laundry as a nice surprise. She has no time for such largesse. It makes her shudder.

‘I think we’re good,’ says Jay, looking through the scope of the large black camera and double-checking the screen on the laptop at his side. The camera is trained upon a brown leather chair in which Lottie sits like a founder member of a gentleman’s club. She has her legs crossed at the ankle and her hands upon her knees. Behind her is the pathology museum that she helped to establish during her own internship; row upon row of clear glass jars containing perfectly preserved samples of human anatomy and labelled in her own neat hand. This place has become one of the standard bearers for the burgeoning world of morbid anatomy – a subculture filled with people fascinated by the art of death. Her YouTube videos detailing some of her favourite specimens regularly get more than a million viewers, though she suspects that many of those tuning in do so to get a glimpse of the crazy blue-haired lady in the mini skirt. She curates endless exhibitions and organizes guest lectures and theme nights. She writes a popular blog about her daily work and is the go-to girl when radio stations and TV shows are seeking somebody photogenic to give a layman’s terms description of something scientific.

‘You’re blocking the spleen,’ says Jay. ‘Just a touch to the left.’

Lottie shifts her position and gets a thumbs-up. She blows a final raspberry.

‘Just lost the Facebook Live feed,’ mutters Jay, holding up a hand and checking the laptop. ‘Plenty people logged in. Your pal is back. Eyeballz12. Wants to know if you’ll rub the liver like it’s a sea cucumber. Do you think he’s being rude?

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