After The End by Patricia Thomas

Author:Patricia Thomas [Thomas, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-06T18:30:00+00:00

After breakfast, I had a scheduled physical with someone named Doctor Maiz, who was set to meet me in an unused office near the front of the Archive.

I had to ask three different people for directions before I found where I was supposed to be, all the while, hanging on to the mug of coffee I’d grabbed from the cafeteria, which had been spelled to stay warm until it was empty. Now if only I could find a coffee mug that was never empty and I’d be all set.

I found the door I was looking for slightly ajar. Pushing it open and peering inside, I found a tall black woman sitting on a swivel chair, flipping through a binder. She looked up as I entered, her thick brown curls bopping slightly with the motion. She looked to be about twenty years my senior.

“Are you Doctor Maiz?” I asked. “I might be a little lost.”

“Kadie?” She asked, her voice raspy and warm. I nodded, smiling a little. “You’re in the right place.”

It would have been hard to say if I was more relieved about finding the right place, or anxious about not knowing what was coming next. No matter how hard I tried to think about it, I didn’t have any experience with doctors. It made sense that the book I had come from hadn’t had any need for me to visit a doctor, but that left a giant question mark in my mind where a pretty normal life experience probably should have been.

“Have a seat?” The doctor said when I still hadn’t moved, tilting her head toward a waist-high bench. Or was it a table? “The councilors have filled me in on your situation, so you’re free to speak freely here. We just want to learn more about you.”

Yeah, that wasn’t exactly reassuring. Feeling stiff and awkward as I moved, I did as I was asked, looking around the room about any hints about what would be involved in a physical.

Not for the first time, I wished the Archive also held a collection of non-fiction that I could use as references for stuff like this. But no, of course those books were housed elsewhere, in yet another place I wasn’t allowed to go. But maybe the doctor herself would unveil some new information for me. That alone would have to be enough of an incentive to get me through whatever the councilors had planned for me.

“Roll up your sleeve please,” Doctor Maiz said once I was settled, bring over a tray of equipment I didn’t recognize and placing it beside me. “Have you ever had blood taken before?”

Feeling a little nauseous, I shook my head.

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“It won’t hurt?”

“Not much.” Well, that wasn’t all that reassuring. The doctor picked up a sterile syringe and a few clear tubes from the tray before starting to piece together a complicated contraption that I could only assume was meant to physically remove my blood from my body, which didn’t exactly sound like the best idea to me.

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