Opening My Heart by Tilda Shalof

Author:Tilda Shalof [Shalof, Tilda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7710-7994-8
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2011-04-26T04:00:00+00:00

8

A SLAB OF MEAT

My surgery is tomorrow.

Yesterday, on Saturday afternoon, I overheard Ivan talking on the phone when I walked into the kitchen. “You can’t tell her anything,” I heard him say. “She knows it all.” He handed me the phone. When I heard Robyn’s voice, all disappointment about her not calling me back dissolved.

“I’m coming to be with you,” she said, all fired up. “I’ve got my ticket and I’m leaving for the airport now. You’re my best friend and you can’t go through this without me. Or maybe it’s that I can’t go through this without being with you.”

“Don’t worry, there’s no need to come,” I assured her. “I’m okay now. I can deal with this. I’m actually looking forward to it. I’m curious to see how this whole thing will turn out. Don’t come. The flight is expensive and you have to get ready for your classes.”

Robyn is a high-school drama teacher and the school year starts in just two weeks.

“I’m coming. I’ll be there in the morning,”

“Okay, but no crying. You have to be strong like a nurse.”

“I’ll try,” she promises.

It’s Sunday morning and Ivan has gone to the airport to pick up Robyn. It’s time for me to have one final early morning powwow with the Bagel Club. I’m coming from home and they’re coming after their night shift. Eric, the owner of the bagel shop, welcomes us to our “reserved” table, but today we don’t debate the merits of a wood-burning brick oven over an ordinary electric one, or listen to his explanation of how adding salt to the dough toughens the texture or why he flips them halfway through baking (so the tops and the bottoms turn out the same). He places warm bagels on our plates and pours coffee – “on the house” – for us. Jasna and Stephanie, who carpool together, haven’t arrived yet.

“We’ll get to your problem in a minute, Tillie,” Janet says to me as she settles into the bar stool in her spot around our table, which is to my left, “but first, I have to tell you about last night.” She launches into another true story of saving lives on the ICU Rapid Response Team. Just after midnight, she was called to the floor see a woman in her twenties, six weeks pregnant with twins, who went into a hypertensive crisis, with a blood pressure of 240 over 110. She was immediately transferred to the ICU and put on an IV medication called Labetalol, which Janet has slyly renamed “La-bagel-ol.” During the night the woman became tachycardic and lost consciousness. Her prognosis is uncertain, but the fetuses are still alive. Luckily for her, Janet and the ICU team got to her in time, initiated treatment, and she now has a much better chance of survival.

Soon, the other two arrive. “I can’t stay long,” Stephanie warns as she and Jasna settle into their usual places, Stephanie to my right and Jasna across the table.

“How was your night?” I ask, wondering what made them so late.

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