The Girl With Nine Wigs by Sophie van der Stap

Author:Sophie van der Stap
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466853706
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

FRIDAY, JUNE 10

“JOINING US FOR DINNER TONIGHT? We’re ordering takeout.” Nurse Esther pops her head around the curtain. She’s come to rescue me from the shared room. I’m fed up with the sour faces of my neighbors, and a single room became available down the hall. Good news for me, but not for the family of the empty bed. An ugly thought comes to mind: “One person’s dead is someone else’s bread.”

Esther isn’t like the other nurses. All the nurses are nice, but Esther is nice and beautiful, and most important, young. I can talk to Esther about everything I’m interested in outside the hospital. Things like favorite nightspots, music, and romances. Her life is more than just working in a hospital. She usually only works on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but this week she’s working Friday as well. On the weekends she spins in clubs all around Amsterdam, her wild hair blazing in the spotlights. Just like me, she watches Desperate Housewives on Tuesday evenings, which means we can enjoy our shared TV passion together. I wish that all the other hospital residents were fans of the show too. Maybe then they would stop ringing for the nurses and interrupting the sound on the telly when it’s on. Unfortunately, it’s always rush hour during the show, and Esther has to run around juggling chemo bags.

Esther takes a seat on my bed. She tells me about last weekend’s party at Paradiso; I tell her about dancing and kissing Tie Boy.

“Got a picture?”

“No.”

“Shame. Which wig were you wearing?”

“Sue. He didn’t notice a thing.”

“You think you’re going to see him again?”

“No. Can’t have him asking me too many questions.”

“Why not?”

“Who wants to date a girl with cancer?”

“Sophie, you shouldn’t think like that.”

“Besides, I might feel more like Uma or Daisy when I see him, and then what do I tell him?”

Esther gives me a smile. “So are you having dinner or not?”

“Yes, I’d love to. Are you ordering now?”

“No, not until five.” She puts down the menu on my bed and unplugs me from the wall socket. In hospitals people eat at six P.M. In the end we are in a home for the elderly.

We’re off to room 2. Nurse Betty is taking care of the rest of the move, bringing my slippers and books and other things. It’s a quarter to four, a strange time of day in the hospital. Esther has only just started her shift, but I already have the longest part of my day behind me. Most of my visitors come in the evenings. Tonight my parents and Oma are coming, and then Annabel and Rob. Until then it’s just me, my IV pole, and the clock tower through the window. Until then I’ll be on my island. As I don’t like being on my island, I don’t write about it. Nothing happens here anyway, except for drowning in dreadful thoughts.

* * *

“So tell me about this boy.” Rob sits next to my bed, his legs stretched. It’s after dinner time, but the evening still has to start.

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.