American Sycamore by Charles Kenney

Author:Charles Kenney
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648210082
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

20

Positron Image Tomography

Rob made his way to the Cancer Center through the beginnings of a blizzard that would bury the city for a week. He thought it too risky to drive in such weather and chose instead to take the Red Line from Harvard Square to Park Street and change to the Green Line to Longwood, where the stop was three blocks from the hospital. He wore his trusty Bean boots, heavy wool socks, a warm jacket, and his Bruins ski hat. This was a routine follow-up visit, yet Rob felt a familiar anxiety. There was something in his DNA—he had grown convinced of this—that prevented him from properly navigating his way from the Cancer Center lobby to the second floor for his blood draw. He boarded an elevator in the lobby, moved to the back of the space, and was hemmed in by a dozen others, including an older gentleman in a wheelchair. When the doors opened on two, Rob expected the throng to disembark. He waited a beat too long, and before he could excuse his way out of the elevator, past the gentleman in the wheelchair, the doors had closed. He got off on the next stop, seven, and decided to take the stairs, but when he reached the second floor, the stairway door included a red bar to be pressed in emergencies only. He kept going down and found himself in the subbasement.

When he finally made it to the second floor, the receptionist asked for his name and date of birth and whether he was suffering from a cold or fever and whether he had a port. She made his wrist band and strapped it on, sending him into the by now familiar waiting area, where another eighty or so people had gathered to have their blood drawn and analyzed. He was feeling confident. There were people here whose hair had been eliminated by chemo, others with oxygen tanks alongside their wheelchairs, and still others who, on the outside, appeared the picture of health. For this last group, the body’s betrayal was all internal, and the signs of illness for some would never make their way to the outside of the body. Some would be cured, others linger and be treated for a persistent chronic condition for years to come; still others would be doomed in a matter of weeks. Then he saw her. He caught sight of the wheelchair out of the corner of his eye, a young woman in her thirties huddled with a patient slumped in the chair, gown slipping off her shoulder on one side and down her arm. His perspective was from thirty feet away and from the rear, but his heart beat faster and he felt a surge of adrenaline. Rita B was alive! He rushed over and said, “Excuse me, Rita?” But the woman who turned around and faced him had a blank expression, glassy-eyed, defeated.

“Oh,” he said, “I’m sorry . . . I mistook you for a friend.”

He

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.