Page 56 of Time for You
“I am less concerned about his character than his abilities,” Henry said darkly.
“Oh, she said he’s a super good pilot.”
“Super good,” Henry echoed disbelievingly.
Daphne squeezed his hand. “We don’t need to do this,” she offered.
“But according to you, without identification I cannot get on a larger aeroplane, and in order to get that, I would need to commit, and I quote, ‘several federal crimes, probably,’ so if Iwantto experience the wonder of flight, this is my only option.”
“Airplane, notaeroplane,” Daphne interjected.
“I’ll call it what I damn well please, woman,” Henry grumbled.
“My cousin is totally trustworthy,” Brittany promised. “Just because she dumped him doesn’t mean he’s bad at his job.”
In front of them, the small plane Brittany’s cousin’s ex-boyfriend owned puttered to a stop. “You must be Brittany,” he said, standing in front of them on the tarmac. “I’m Chad. Who all is going up?”
“All three of us,” she explained.
“And you must be the friend with the interesting background,” Chad said with his hands on his hips. They had told him Henry was from an off-the-grid commune and hadn’t had much experiencewith the world. When Chad had suggested to Brittany that perhaps a commercial flight would be a little less intense for him, Brittany had had to come up with an explanation for his lack of ID on the spot.His parents didn’t believe in filing government paperwork, so he doesn’t have a birth certificate or anything,she had said.
“That would be me.”
Chad straightened the blue baseball hat on his head and nodded toward the single-engine plane. “You ready?”
Henry tightened his grip on Daphne’s hand, but his face didn’t show any apprehension. “I am indeed.”
As it turned out, single-engine airplanes wereloud. Their headsets allowed them to talk, but Henry appeared taken aback by the noise even before they began taxiing toward the runway. He was quieter than usual, and as the plane began accelerating, Daphne heard a sibilant hiss as he inhaled sharply. His jaw was tight, a muscle twitching, and Daphne wished she could sit next to him, rather than behind Chad.
But then the wheels left the ground, and his face transformed. He went from tense and anxious to staring around, agape at the world. There wasn’t much to see, no mountains or oceans or even any of the Great Lakes, just cornfields and small blue-green ponds dotting the countryside, with the Minneapolis skyline off in the distance.
But the sky was crystal clear, a bright, almost-summery blue, and the fields were a promising spring green. And the smile on Henry’s face was brighter than the sun.
He looked around in awe, too absorbed in what he saw to even speak. When they landed he helped open the door and held out his hand, first to Brittany and then to Daphne. For a split second, Daphne wondered if this was what it would be like if she lived in the past with him: Henry holding his hand out to help her down from a horse-drawn carriage. She wondered if he saw it too, a flash of what their lives could be like together, because for a moment he lookedsad. But then he brightened and kissed her cheek, thanking her for showing hima wonder I never even dreamed of seeing.
But his smile was thanks enough.
Daphne had never been this happy. Not when she got into her first-choice medical school, or matched with her dream residency program. She had always vaguely assumed having a boyfriend of some sort would be a net-neutral move, with the added joy of having a partner being somewhat canceled out by that partner finding her too serious or too committed to her job.
But Henry didn’t seem bothered by any of it. He had decamped from Helen’s, on account of her returning soon from Florida, and after a brief, only-slightly-awkward conversation about propriety, norms, and morals, moved into Daphne’s room. He knew she would sometimes have to work overnight, and on those days, he cheerfully did any sort of housework she and Ellie had fallen behind on and spent his time either trying to learn more about the world or perfecting his cooking.
And really, he was getting to be very good. With Michelle’s help, he had created a bucket list of food he wanted to make while he had access to modern cooking equipment and was methodically working his way through the list, starting with South Asia. It meant every day for Daphne started in Henry’s arms and ended with her eating something delicious, and she was practically floating.
Everything was perfect, except for the one big thing that wasn’t. Daphne’s heart wasn’t in her work, and people were starting to notice. Dr. Gupta had even pulled her aside for a chat after a particularly rough set of rounds.
“What’s wrong, Daphne?” Dr. Gupta had asked, her face creased with concern. Daphne had panicked, worried she’d screwed up, and quickly reviewed everything she’d said during rounds, but nothing stuck out to her as a glaring error. That panicked her even more, until Dr. Gupta heldup her hand. “You’re not in trouble; I’m just worried. You don’t seem like yourself lately. Is everything okay?”
“I—uh—yeah, I’m okay,” Daphne stammered. Ellie and Vibol walked past her and bugged their eyes out at her, which definitely didn’t help. “I’m sorry if I screwed something up.”
“You didn’t, and I think you know you didn’t,” she said kindly. “But lately I’ve been feeling like you’re, how should I put it, less than committed to this residency.”
I want to quit.The words floated to the tip of her tongue, and she just barely managed to snatch them back. Daphne fought against her instinct to smooth it all away, however, and settled for something approaching the truth. “I’ve been struggling,” she admitted. “It’s overwhelming sometimes.”
“Of course it is, but you’re a bright student and a good doctor,” Dr. Gupta reassured her. “But this is what we signed up for when we decided on emergency medicine, so whatever it is that’s bothering you, part of our job as doctors is to figure it out and put it aside for the duration of your shift. Understood?”
“Understood, Dr. Gupta,” Daphne confirmed.
Vibol and Ellie cornered her as Dr. Gupta walked away, both of them looking anxious.
