Page 17 of Love Hollow at Last
Her voice sounded terrible.Aya looked up.“Can’t you just go to bed and sleep it off?”
“This level of… shortness of breath could be dangerous,” said Emi.“It could be a PE.”
Aya’s face must have been blank.She could tell her mom didn’t know the term either.
“Pulmonary embolism,” said Emi.“In other words, serious.”
She was leaning over, her head practically on her knees, and Aya blinked.“Pulmonary embolism?What are we supposed to do for that?”
“In the city, I would say ambulance,” said Emi.“But we’re so close to the hospital.Maybe you could just drive me.”
Aya’s mother drove them both.She was worried, her hands shaking as she parked right at the entrance.Aya walked in with her friend.Emi was rushed right back as soon as they arrived at the Love Hollow United Hospital emergency room, which made Aya feel even worse.She held Emi’s arm throughout the triage process.Emi had to shake her off in order to get her blood pressure taken, and the nurse tutted at the numbers.
“It’s a little high, probably because I’m stressed,” said Emi.
The nurse nodded.“Well, let’s get you into a room.”
It must have been the wrong thing to say.Aya thought Emi looked a little paler.And after they were shown to a room, Emi leaned back on the hospital bed.
“What’s going to happen now?”Aya asked as soon as the nurse had left.It seemed like nobody was explaining anything to her, but she didn’t want to ask.Everyone seemed to agree with Emi that she might be having a so-called “PE,” and that was sending Aya into a doom spiral.“They can do something soon, right?”
It appeared her questions were still not going to be answered.
“Aya,” said Emi.“I love you.But your panic right now?It’s not helping.”
Aya’s face fell.“I’m sorry,” she said.“I hate hospitals.”
Emi’s breathing was ragged, but she squeezed Aya’s hand.She had been right by Aya’s side as Aya’s dad suffered through cancer treatment, a harsh and devastating regime that hadn’t ended up working.She understood.
“I know hospitals,” she managed.“So go to the cafeteria, and don’t come back until you’ve gotten some work done.”
“Work?I can’t work.”
“Pilgrimage,” said Emi, and she coughed.“Don’t you have more hotel rooms to fix?”
Aya did have various things she could have fixed.But she had brought only her phone, not a computer, so she found herself in the hospital cafeteria half an hour later, staring at a piece of pumpkin pie.It put her in mind of Thanksgiving.She hadn’t been thankful for much of anything lately, she realized.Whatever the opposite of gratitude was seemed to have taken over her life, so much so that she had been sent away from the bedside of her best friend.
Emi had said she wanted to text Charles herself, so Aya didn’t even have that task to distract her.She flicked through different national news sites, feeling progressively worse with each one.But without something else to read, she didn’t know what she would do.
“Hey,” said Noah.“What’s going on?”
Aya almost jumped out of her seat.He was there, wearing black pants and a mauve jacket that must have been borrowed from his brother, concern etched across his face.“Has the doctor seen Emi yet?”
“No,” said Aya.“Though I guess she’s seen herself.”
He smiled.“It’s still so weird to think of her as a doctor.It’s like she went on that trip to China then came back with this crazy obsession with knocking out life milestones all at once.”
Out of loyalty, Aya didn’t say anything, but she had noticed the same thing.When Emi came back from China, she’d definitely seemed depressed.But shortly after, she started looking at property, married Charles, and decided to spend her last days of freedom volunteering for the Pilgrimage.
“She’s worried it might be a lung problem,” said Aya.“How did you know she was here anyway?”
He shrugged.“I could just say Love Hollow, but it’s actually more than that.I owed Twyla a phone call, and she said you guys were here.So now I owe her a favor too.”
Aya touched her pie with a fork and caught Noah looking at her.
“Do you want to talk about some new terms now that we’re both here?”he asked.“Honestly, I really think we can make it work.I just need a little more time.”
She recoiled.Talking with Noah had been such a relief, so peaceful, that it had lulled her into believing they were back in high school.They used to sit together at lunch every day, sneaking off to eat in different parts of the building.She knew there were rumors that they did more than eat bento boxes together, but there was nothing to those rumors.Just being in the same room as Noah had been a balm to her soul and also so electrifying that she could hardly think straight.
