Airel - Aaron Patterson [29]
I pushed on the brakes just in time to throw my door open and lean out to lose my school lunch. Weird, it didn’t look much different then when it was served to me a few hours earlier. That’s what a buck-fifty buys ya—it looks like barf.
And with that, my mind was made up. Time to call the doctor. Doctor Gee had been my doctor since forever. He had white-blond hair and the brightest blue eyes I’d ever seen. I flipped open my phone and called his office. I hoped I could get in. It wasn’t flu season yet so I didn’t think it would be a problem.
“Doctor Gee’s office,” the chipper secretary said.
“Yeah, Hi. This is Airel—”
“Airel, oh, how nice to hear from you!” She cut me off. I knew it was Mrs. Birch, a sweet woman who had been with the office for longer than I had been alive. “Are you feeling alright? Oh, that’s silly of me. You must not be or else you wouldn’t be calling.”
“I’ve been pretty sick... ” I croaked, “and I was wondering if I could get in to see the doc.” I tried to sound happier then I was feeling, not that it mattered. She didn’t care if I muttered and complained about how I was feeling.
“You know, we just had a no-show. If you like, he can see you right away. Can you be here in ten minutes?”
I was only five minutes away so I told her I would be there. I managed to hold in the next round of queasy feelings on the way over, and as soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I started to feel much better. Murphy’s Law, I guess. You feel sick until you get to the doctor’s office. Then, miracle of miracles, you’re healed.
Mrs. Birch’s mess of silvering hair was all 1982 and her glasses were tethered with a thin gold chain draped around her neck. She smiled and looked up at me as I came in.
“Oh, sweetie, come on back. He’s waiting for you. My, my! How you have changed…so beautiful!”
I blushed and turned my face away. “Thank you, but it’s just me…the same Airel as always.” She squeezed my shoulder and showed me into a small room with a table and a counter. In the corner next to the sink there was a jar of tongue depressors.
“He'll be just one minute.” She smiled and closed the door, leaving me alone. I felt just a little scared, even though I was in my family doctor’s office. I went to the table and sat down, making the paper on the table crackle. My feet hung over the side and I felt like a little kid again. I sure hoped he could find out what was wrong with me. I didn’t know how much more of this weird sickness I could take.
Chapter XVI
“So, Ariel, I've been told that you’re feeling a little under the weather.” Dr. Gee smiled with his bright white teeth all showing, which made him look like he should be on the set of a soap opera rather than in front of me in a dress shirt and a tie.
“You could say that! I think I might be dying.” I smiled back and faked a cough just to try to make myself feel better than I really was. Not that I was feeling like death at the moment, on the contrary, I was feeling great. That was what made it all so much worse. It was like never having a chance meeting with a cute boy when you were ready to. No, girls like me only ever met cute boys over breakfast, without makeup, wearing sweats and a t-shirt, and with our hair totally beyond help. Nothing ever worked out the way it was supposed to.
“Well, tell me what’s going on—don’t butter it up for me. And tell me what you think it might be as well.” He looked at me with his blue eyes and I felt like I was looking straight into a cold sky in the dead of winter. I think I even shivered a little.
Dr. Gee listened to my breathing through his stethoscope and looked into my ears as I began to explain the past few weeks in as much detail as I could, without explaining what each chunk of barf looked like.
“And no—I know what you’re thinking—it’s not possible.”
He nodded and grinned with just the left half of his face. “No boyfriend?”
“No. Besides, I’m partial to waiting until marriage, if you know what I mean. I’ve