The Hole in the Wall - Lisa Rowe Fraustino [65]
I was afraid of that! “All right, but don’t look.”
She smiled a little and turned her back. When I said I was ready, Dr. Mills pressed a button. With a ringing sound, the glass wall opened wide. “Step inside, please.”
The scanner’s insides looked like a fancy shower with lots of doodads and gadgets on the walls and ceiling. “Cool!” I pressed my nose against the glass and made faces.
“Very attractive,” said Dr. Mills. “Now stand in the middle and hold still, please.” I heard her like she was talking in my ear.
I did as she asked, and Dr. Mills started the machinery. It sounded kind of like a band playing slow music. Beams of all different colors came at me from every direction, something like the disco ball that sends light bouncing all over the Skate Away, except this light was warm. With my eyes closed I pretended I was at the seashore. Surfing. Uh-oh, wipeout! Dragged in the undercurrent. Up for air just in the nick of time. What happened to the beach? It’s gone—nothing in sight but water water everywhere. And sharks! Aaaahhhh!
“Sebastian, could you please hold still,” said a voice.
Whoops, there went my brain making stuff up. I should have pretended I was a rock at the beach. “Sorry, doc,” I said, and smiled apologetically.
“Oh, my! Could you open your mouth wider, Sebastian? A little more? Yes, and tip your head back. A little to the right. Yes, that’s perfect—hold, please.” The scanning machine clicked and whirred and played some more dance music as colors came beaming out of the light jets into my mouth. It made my eyes cross trying to watch until the doctor asked me a question.
“Sebby, have you been to the dentist recently?”
“No, but interesting you should ask. My teeth have been killing me. I didn’t tell you before because my grandmother said it wasn’t a mysterious debilitating illness. She said I was getting my twelve-year molars.”
“Indeed, you have those and your wisdom teeth.”
“What? I can’t have my wisdom teeth yet. I’m still a dumb kid.” I knew a little about wisdom teeth because Jed had just gotten his first one shortly before he disappeared.
“Oh, you’re not dumb,” the doctor said. She kept asking me to pose this way, then that way. It seemed to take forever before she finally said, “Okay, finished,” and the door slid open.
As I jumped into my clothes I asked, “Doc, what were you looking for? What’s wrong with me? Besides wisdom? It’s my bones, isn’t it. I’ve grown, like, six inches since Thursday.”
“That is an unusual growth spurt, isn’t it,” she said.
“Does it have anything to do with the raw cookie dough I shouldn’t have eaten?” I asked. She didn’t respond. “I’d really like to know, doc. They’re my bones.”
“I’m sorry, Sebby, but I’m not at liberty to discuss the situation with you at this time.”
She escorted me to the seating area and invited Barbie in for a scan. Ma jumped up. “Wait, Dr. Mills—aren’t you going to tell me if my son is all right?”
Hey, yeah! Maybe the doctor would be at liberty to discuss my situation with the Higher Power of Ma.
With her hand on the door, the doctor turned to Ma. “Please be patient for a while longer, Mrs. Daniels, while I complete the scans of your daughter and yourself. Mr. Odum will discuss the results with you after we have had a chance to analyze the data.”
“Stan will discuss it with me? You’re the doctor, aren’t you?”
Dr. Mills smiled. “Try not to worry, Mrs. Daniels.” Then she made eye contact with Jed and flashed him a quick smile. That must have meant something to him, because he took Ma’s hand and whispered, “It’s okay, Ma, Sebby will be all right.”
All right, maybe, but completely wiped out from the colored-light attack and posing. I flopped down onto the row of chairs next to Ma and put my head on her lap. As she ran her fingers through my curls I fell into a sound sleep. When I woke up, her lap had slipped out from under me, and Barbie stood over me with her hand across my mouth.
I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked around. Jed stood behind the counter where the doctor had washed her hands. The