The Colonel and the Kid by Elizabeth Ashtree

Author:Elizabeth Ashtree
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWO HOURS LATER, Viktor sat with Natalia in the waiting room of the blood center in the hospital. They had been to visit Sasha, who was doing surprisingly well. Angeline Lee’s shift was over, but the nurse who came on duty after her seemed nearly as nice. Sasha had already charmed her into letting him walk to the playroom with his IV bag hanging from a wheeled pole. Viktor had found him there and helped him build a castle with little plastic snap-together units that Natalia called Lego. When the time for their appointments at the blood bank arrived, he left his smiling son, who needed no promises about when they would return.

“You don’t like blood,” Natalia mentioned as they waited.

“Not to worry,” he assured her. But she looked at him doubtfully.

A woman entered the room. “Colonel Baturnov?” she said. “You can follow me.”

Viktor stood, glanced back at Natalia’s worried face, smiled at her to show he was not afraid and followed the woman into the room. There were tables along the walls where blood donors were to lie. Two were occupied, and dark liquid flowed slowly through tubes into plastic bags suspended below each. This did not bother him until he thought about the fact that his own blood would soon be spilling into a similar container.

“Now, you just come on over here, Colonel, and we’ll get you settled up on the table,” the woman said. Her name tag read “Suzy.” She patted the cushioned surface to encourage him to climb up onto it.

He reminded himself that this was for his son and slid onto the table.

“You’re looking a little pale, Colonel. Will you be okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Okay,” he managed to say. But he was not sure this was true. A low buzzing sound had begun to hum inside his head. Stoically, he stretched out on the table. He felt a little better now that he did not have hold himself upright.

Suzy moved aside to reach for the things she would use to draw his blood, and he saw that Natalia had entered the room. She was led to a nearby table, and Viktor took heart when she flashed him her smile and gave him a thumbs-up sign. But then Suzy straightened and strapped a rubber hose around his upper arm. He knew what was coming and his stomach turned.

“Now, let me see that arm,” Suzy said. Viktor complied so she could check his veins and then turned his head away as she tapped at the inside of his elbow. The needle would be next and he simply could not watch.

“You need to squeeze this ball now,” Suzy advised as she placed something round in his hand. “Your veins aren’t standing out very well.”

He had a difficult time keeping his breathing normal. The urge to pant like a dog gripped him. His fingers had gone very cold.

Suzy spoke to another woman, but Viktor could not make out her words over the hum in his ears, which had grown louder.

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