Marie paled slightly at that. “Oh doctor, you don’t think—”
“I’m not here to make wild guesses and conjectures, Mrs. Quinn.” Dr. Kreuter raised a weathered hand. “I’m just here to make a diagnosis. Now, it says here that you noticed the baby convulsing? How long ago was that?”
“About an hour ago,” Marie replied, offering no further information.
Stanley forced down the lump in his throat. “W-Well, you see, doctor, it was very odd. My wife was sitting next to the baby at our home when she – the baby, that is – began to go all rigid, like this,” he straightened his arms at his sides to show the doctor. “And then she got this blank expression on her face and started to shake. But the craziest thing of all—”
“Doctor, we’re concerned that Lilah may have some form of epilepsy,” Marie cut in, giving her husband a pointed look. “She appeared to be having a seizure earlier this morning and we’d like you to perform any and all necessary tests to determine whether that’s the case. Now, she obviously doesn’t have any insurance that we know of, but we’ll personally cover any costs that might be incurred. Isn’t that right, dear?”
Stanley nodded helplessly.
The doctor pulled a small flashlight from his breast pocket. He gently lifted one of Lilah’s closed eyelids and shone the light first in her right pupil, then in her left. The baby let out a big yawn when he was finished, then nestled back against Marie’s bosom, falling right back to sleep.
“Pupils look fine.” Dr. Kreuter clicked his pen against the clipboard to write down notes as he spoke. “She seems a bit thin, but there are no obvious signs of malnourishment or neglect. Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to tell me whether she’s been ill recently, but she doesn’t appear febrile. We’ll take some images of her brain and perform an electroencephalogram to verify your concerns.” When he saw Stanley and Marie exchange anxious looks, he added, “That just involves putting some electrodes on her scalp to monitor the electrical activity in her brain.”
“Will she be in any discomfort?” Marie asked, reaching behind her shoulder to squeeze her husband’s hand.
“No, no, the test is quite harmless. We can monitor her brainwaves while she sleeps. It won’t bother her a whit. It’s common for epileptics to have changes in the normal brainwave pattern, even when they’re not having a seizure. In other words, we should be able to get a diagnosis shortly, whether or not she has another episode here at the hospital. In the meantime, I’ll have the nurses come in to give her a sponge bath and a bottle, and I’ll personally perform a head to toe physical to make sure she’s otherwise in tip-top shape.”
“Thank you, doctor, that’s comforting to hear,” Marie smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Dear?” She looked up at her husband. “Would you mind getting me a soda from the vending machine while I tell Dr. Kreuter a little more about Lilah’s episode? I’m parched.”
Stanley bit his lip. He desperately wanted to tell the doctor about the other matter that had occurred that morning – the far more pressing matter, in his mind – but for whatever reason, Marie wasn’t having any of it. He sighed in resignation.
“Of course,” he replied, kissing the top of her head. The scent of her shampoo reminded him of how she had looked without any hair, her lovely, heart-shaped face all at once wasted and sickly. Before she or the doctor could see the tears gathering in his eyes, he bolted for the door, feeling around his pocket for a loose quarter.
Marie waited until her husband was out of the room before she spoke again. “Doctor,” she said, keeping her voice low, “there’s something else I’d like you to do for me, while we’re here.”
“Hmm?” His nose was in his clipboard as he jotted down some final notes.
“I’d like to be screened for uterine cancer.”
The doctor looked up from his clipboard, his brow furrowed. “Mrs. Quinn, you appear to be a perfectly healthy young lady. Why in the world would you think you have cancer?”
Marie regarded the baby in her arms, her thoughts wandering to certain uncomfortable details, details she’d been ignoring rather diligently for some time now: the scores of negative pregnancy tests, the weight loss, the recurring pains she’d been hiding from Stanley.
“Call it a mother’s intuition,” she replied, giving Lilah a wistful smile.
Chapter 5
Great Expectations
Lilah sat in the back of the classroom, glancing over the top of the book she was supposed to be reading while her homeroom teacher, Mrs. Cameron, sat at her computer at the front of the classroom, pretending to enter test scores. (In fact, she was becoming rather adept at playing virtual Blackjack.) Lilah’s eyes kept trying to read the last two chapters of Great Expectations, but her brain kept tearing them away to admire the perfect head of blond hair that sat two rows up and one seat over. She couldn’t help but marvel that not one single hair on the back of Jace McKinnon’s head was out of place. And when he raised his arms over his head to stretch and a bit of tanned skin showed from between his jeans and form-fitting black sweater, Lilah’s breath caught in her throat.
She’d known Jace since grade school, where they had always been friendly on the playground – in fourth grade, he even gave her an Indian penny he had found beneath the swing set. But once puberty hit and he became the middle school heart-throb, things got… awkward. He had his place at the top of the popularity food chain and she had hers.
Still, she’d been trying to build up the courage to talk to him for two and a half years now, ever since they’d been seated next to one another in American Government on the first day of ninth grade. But where Lilah was gawky and sarcastic and always seemed to have her foot dangling from her mouth, Jace was cool and confident and aloof; every time he opened his mouth to speak, the words he uttered were like something from a movie – a movie in which he was the leading heartthrob. Whenever a teacher would call on him, he would sigh to himself, as if the act of gracing them with an answer was an inconvenience in and of itself. But when he did answer, it was always a perfect answer, as though it came straight out of the textbook – not the main passage of the chapter, but the italicized annotated notes at the bottom of the page that always provided thoughtful and interesting insights.
As Jace knelt to fish his headphones from his backpack, his eyes caught Lilah’s and he gave a little tilt of his head, as if to say, Hey. Lilah felt a hot shiver run down her back. Was he saying hi to her? No, she shook her head, trying to clear the nonsensical thought. He couldn’t have been. But dear Lord, his eyes were so blue! How could anyone’s eyes be that blue? Her own eyes darted back to her book as she felt her face flush hotly. A moment later, she watched from the corner of her eye as he rose from his desk, passing right by her to throw something in the wastebasket. Was he wearing cologne? She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. He smelled incredible; like some combination of citrus fruit and fresh sage and something totally intoxicating that she couldn’t quite put her finger on – but the scent was divine, whatever it was.