Lydia's Mollusk by Sean Monaghan

Author:Sean Monaghan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triple V Publishing

Chapter Twenty-One

The meal Arnt found consisted of a plate with mashed potato, some kind of brown meat casserole that might have had onion in it, with broccoli—itself pretty mashed—a roll on the side with a tiny knob of margarine, and an orange jelly in a small transparent cup. All on a steely tray, with a cup of water. Shiny stainless steel utensils.

A robotic arm whirred from the wall near the bed and took the tray from him, moving it across above Lydia, now sitting in the bed.

"Apparently," Arnt said, "hospital meals haven't changed since the late middle ages. At least, since Mom and Dad were there."

"Why change a formula that works?" Lydia said. She'd changed out of her clothes and into the standard hospital smock Samena had left. A single piece of fabric like a reverse coat, with arm holes and a tie at the back of her neck. The fabric was printed with images of stars and moons and planets. Very stylized. Saturn looked as if it was a marble stuck in a tiny plate.

Lydia ate, and it was much tastier than it looked. Despite its appearance, the broccoli was actually crisp.

"You're in bed," Arnt said. "Clearly not arguing about a return home today."

Lydia swallowed and jabbed her fork in his direction.

"Today I'll let them poke and prod me. Tomorrow, we go home."

"So I'll cancel the apartment then."

"You never even got an apartment."

He smiled and shrugged.

A nurse came by. A tall, burly man with purple tufts in his blonde hair.

He checked her name and date of birth.

"I love your work," he said.

"My work?"

"Your paintings. We have a print of one in our toilet." He put his hand to his mouth. "Oh. I know that's not very polite? But it's a waterfall. The one plunging fast and huge from the scarp with heavy bush all along the rim."

"Catsen Falls," Lydia said.

"You can practically hear the water rushing." A sheepish grin. "Kind of helps you pee."

Arnt sniggered.

"That's fine," Lydia said. "Whatever works."

"Anyway," the nurse said. "On to the task at hand."

He pulled out a piece of thin metal with a point on its tip.

"I won't lie," he said. "This actually will hurt just a little."

He had smile lines on his face and grinned at Lydia as he took miniscule blood samples from the tip of her right thumb while he sat on a rolling stool that had appeared from under the bed. The point did hurt, but not much.

Five drops. That was all.

Each of them went onto a stick of aluminum, and then into separate test tubes, held away from the glass by the way the aluminum stick was mounted on the lid.

He put a tiny sticking plaster on her thumb tip.

"All done," he said. He glanced at her left arm, which just lay against her, almost hidden by the meal tray.

"Did you want to see it?" Lydia said.

His smile kind of faded. "I'd like to say that it's professional curiosity," he said. "But I suspect it's more like morbid fascination."

"Things growing in my body, right.

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