Page 73 of Sky Song
Cricket swallowed, feeling like an absolute traitor. “Yes, Dr. Ragberg.”
She wished him a good day and slunk out of his office.
The hallway was deserted except for a lone figure of Yanet heading her way. A door closed to Yanet’s back - Dr. Nura’s quarters. A new onslaught of suspicions swamped Cricket, chasing away the guilt. What business did Yanet have with Dr. Nura?
On the heels of that thought, came a tide of weariness. Yanet was known to help various doctors; all nurses rotated. She had to stop jumping at every shadow. Her brain now saw clandestine stuff where there was none. It was exhausting.
At the lab, Terrance bounced up and down. “Congratulations!” “Thanks.” Cricket kept it to a minimum.
“I mean, it’s good news! You’resomuch better than Kim.”
“I’m glad you think so, Terrance.”
Arms crossed against her chest, Salty jutted her pointy chin. “I wonder why Dr. Ragberg finds you so deserving. Could it be all those one-on-one sessions in his exam room paying off?”
“Shut up, Salty,” Cricket said, stung by the woman’s baseless accusations and surprised that Salty still had the power to offend her. She briskly put on her protective gear. If she were a smaller person, she could now make Salty's life at the lab miserable. Rather, more so, seeing as Salty was already miserable, all on her own and without outside interference. “It’s only temporary.”
“Yeah, till Kim returns. Which is never gonna happen.”
“Right. Because Kim’s been put away, promoted without earning it, working at a cushy job she doesn’t deserve.”
Salty’s watery eyes got sly. “Who said she was far away?”
Cricket whirled around. “Why do you say that?”
“Oh, only because there are places here, at this hospital, where people can disappear to.”
“What places? What do you know?” Without realizing it, Cricket advanced on Salty.
“I don’t know anything. Kim knew.Theyknow.”
“Who’s they?”
“The doctors, stupid! Ask your Dr. Ragberg next time you’re alone with him where they stash people they no longer need.”
Cricket saw red. Why did these miserable people always spoil everything they touched, everything that was good and cherished in her life?
“Don’t youeverspread lies around here with Dr. Ragberg’s name in them. Do you hear me, Salty?”
Salty laughed and a defiant glint lit up her eyes. “Or what? What can you do, Miss Unfairly Promoted? You can’t even fire me, that’s up to the doctors.”
Helpless, frustrated, and angry, Cricket went to her piss samples. She wasn’t having a good day.
She had been having fewer and fewer of them lately.
Hi, mama!
I hope you’re doing fine there on Earth.
Summer is here at last. Is it getting any warmer at home? We’re on such different season patterns, and I hate that. I think of you often, and miss you, and worry that someone may be treating you wrong. I wish we could save money faster. The uncertainty of ‘when’ you will come is the worst. But I know, I know, we need to be patient, you taught me that.
My health is truly great, I have never been better in my entire life. Meeus’ air is so clean and wonderful, and Dr. Ragberg is a god. There is not a day when I don’t think about the luck of the draw that I had with Gemma gifting that passage to you and asking him to care for me.
I’m shocked about the news of the lab being named after Dr, Delano. Wasn’t he the doctor who tortured Simon and harvested his genes for illegal research? How can that be that no one was aware of his dark side? This is terrible, and I’m afraid Gemma would be very upset if she knew, after what her alien mate had to endure.
Speaking about the aliens, we’ve had an interesting development at the hospital with an alien delegation coming to visit. Dr. Ragberg asked for my assistance with translating, which task I aced, thanks to all those jobs at the docks I held as a teenager - they really improved my Universal. And I want to bet you that now I’ve seen more alien species in the flesh than you, see if I haven’t. Have you ever met a Gaorz? I want to say no, but you tell me. And also, I’ve now met a Rix alien. Only this one looks very different from Simon. I remember you said Simon had white hair in a long braid, and he was very tall andrather pale-skinned. Or did I make up this image of him like some evil white wizard? Moreover, I can’t believe his real name is Simon. It sounds too human for someone like… Simon. Will wait for you to confirm. In other news…
Cricket finished her letter with a high-level recount of things at the lab and re-read the beginning of her letter critically, testing the tone. Yes, it sounded normal. It should lull mama into thinking there was little more to this missive besides the usual. And there was that, sincerely, but also a question she wanted to ask without revealing that she was asking it.
