Land of Last Chances by Joan Cohen

Author:Joan Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2019-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Dreading her neuropsychological test made no sense, but Jeanne couldn’t control her racing heart as she entered the Fenway Medical Center. Her intestines shifted in a way that foretold gas. Not on the elevator, please. Her innards shifted again as she joined the others turning to face the closing elevator doors.

Oh God, it’s a kick. While her eyes were fixed on the changing floor numbers, she felt another internal bump and looked around, half expecting other faces to register these alerts from within. Her fellow passengers were oblivious as she placed her hand on her stomach, which seemed necessary to acknowledge her baby’s communication.

Her first impulse was to call Vince, but that was not an option. After her evaluation, she would try to reach Maggie. Restless baby, please don’t kick me during this test. She took three deep breaths in an effort to calm herself.

In high school and college, she’d approached most tests of her cognitive abilities with confidence. To be over the hill in her forties scared her. That anxiety blocks memory was one of Jeanne’s newly acquired bits of information. It wouldn’t do to flunk her test for no other reason than nerves, and what about pregnancy brain? Was that real?

The waiting room was spare, but Jeanne had barely perched herself on an unforgiving vinyl loveseat before the neuropsychologist came out to get her. The conference room where she was to spend the next few hours had upholstered swivel chairs around a blond wood table, and between the comfortable seating and the doctor’s warm smile, she felt blood begin to circulate again in her clammy hands.

She could see why she’d been required to provide ahead of time her medical records and family information, sparse though that was. She was asked to elaborate on her father’s condition, though Jeanne knew only what her mother’s safe deposit box had revealed, and the doctor probed the symptoms that had worried her about her own mental state.

Somehow her missing and mysteriously reappearing notebook and her misplaced parked car sounded trivial in that setting, where she knew people had been interviewed who couldn’t find their way home or recognize their friends. At least she was able to respond.

After a lengthy interview, the neuropsychologist introduced Jeanne to the medical student who would administer the tests. She was a serious young woman, Indian perhaps, with dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Nara Shah’s nametag sat at an angle, as though she had clipped it hurriedly to her white jacket. She wasted no time arranging her papers and forms and setting up her stop watch, giving Jeanne the impression she needed to run off as soon as possible to do something more interesting, like viewing brain slices under a microscope.

The first test required Jeanne to listen to a brief, detailed story and repeat back as much of it as she could. Nara would come back to the story two more times during the battery of tests, and Jeanne was pretty sure, whatever the

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