Chapter 4 - The Hospital Men
The next morning I drove Maya to school.
Vanessa usually did it.
She protested.
“You have work.”
“So do you.”
“I enjoy taking her.”
“So do I.”
Maya sat silently in the back seat.
Halfway there I asked:
“Who are the hospital men?”
Her face changed.
“Mom says I’m not supposed to talk about them.”
“She won’t know.”
Maya hesitated.
“One came here.”
“When?”
“Lots of sleeps ago.”
“What did he look like?”
“Gray hair.”
“Did Mom say his name?”
Maya thought carefully.
“Doctor Rain.”
Rainer.
“What did he do?”
“He asked Mom questions about you.”
“What questions?”
“If you forget things.”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“What did Mom say?”
“She said yes.”
“Did he ask you?”
Maya nodded.
“What did you say?”
“I said you forgot my purple lunch box once.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
One forgotten lunch box.
That could be transformed into “memory problems.”
“What else?”
“He asked if you sleep a lot.”
“I told him sometimes on Sunday.”
Normal parenting.
Turned into symptoms.
Maya whispered:
“Mom got mad after he left.”
“Why?”
“Because I said you still take me bike riding.”
Of course.
Evidence that I was functioning normally.
“What happened?”
“She said I made her look stupid.”
I pulled into the school parking lot.
“Maya.”
She looked at me.
“You never have to help anybody prove I’m sick.”
“But what if you get sick?”
“Then real doctors will help me.”
“And the house?”
“The house is safe.”
Her face crumpled slightly.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
She hugged me.
May you like
This time she didn’t flinch.
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