Page 68 of RomeAntically Challenged
Annie gave Lynn an apologetic look as her friend escaped into the main room. Annie tried some escaping of her own. She got as far as the door when the other nurse said, “Cháui!” and while the term was usually a Vietnamese endearment, Nurse Tran did not look endeared with Annie right then.
Annie turned and Nurse Tran rapidly smacked the back of one hand against her other palm.
“No more dillydallying, got it.” With a salute, Annie scurried out into the infusion room and took shelter behind the patients. Not even wanting to think about how awkward home would be tonight, she handed out the hot cocoas, then brought the pillows to the little redheaded girl.
“Here you go,” she said, propping her up and making her as cozy as possible. “How about I grab you one of the tablets that have movies. I think we even haveTinker Bell.”
“I don’t need one, but Rosetta might.” Penny held up her doll, a red-haired fairy who had a bandage in the same place Penny’s port would be, and Annie’s chest squeezed.
Every week Penny came in for her platelet infusions, and every week she sat in a too-big chair, hooked up to more IV bags than years she’d been alive, and smiled at everyone who passed. Both of her parents always came and sat in the waiting room, holding hands, their love too strong to give up.
Not for the first time, Annie wondered about her birth parents, her birth mother mostly—and if she’d given Annie up out of love or rejection. She didn’t know a lot about her birth family, only that Annie had been the third child of a married couple. She had two older sisters somewhere in the world whom she’d never met but thought about daily.
Not that she’d remember even if she had met them. Annie had been given up at birth, but she liked to think that if they’d been there when she was born, maybe her sisters thought about her every once in a while. She wondered if they were aware she’d been raised in America or that her favorite color was yellow, because that was the color of the blanket she’d left the hospital with.
She still had that blanket. It was in a keepsake box Annie brought with her everywhere she went. Lying between the adoption photo album her mom had made for her and her grandmother’s quilt, it was one of her most valuable treasures.
She might never know the why, but every time a ladybug landed on her, she liked to think it was her birth mother sending her love.
“Would Rosetta like a hot cocoa too?” Annie asked.
Penny whispered something in her dolly’s ear, then nodded. “Extra sprinkles?”
“Extra sprinkles it is.”
After she got Penny and Rosetta settled in, Annie worked her way around to the other side of the room. She fluffed pillows, started drips, and even gave Mr. Parson a little back rub. She had just grabbed a new supply of warm blankets—because the room was as frigid as an ice bar—when she saw Mr. Jacobs hobble past the window, his cane overhead like a pitchfork.
Annie set down the towels and dashed after him. She finally caught up with him at the welcome center where he was slumped low in a chair, with sweat beading his forehead, and his cane resting against his leg.
“Mr. Jacobs,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“Mr. Jacobs was my dad. Call me Les,” he said, managing to sound surly even though he was breathing like he’d just run a 10k. “And no, everything is not okay. I remembered I had an appointment today with my doctor, one I’d made a few months back, before all this ovary nonsense. So I came to face my impostor and tell her I want my identity back.”
She bit back a smile. “They still haven’t fixed the problem? Did you call the number I gave you?”
“Six times. Wasted a whole day being on hold, transferred, or hung up on. People in customer service don’t know a thing about their customers or good service, so I came in person to handle things my way.”
“With a cane?”
“If that’s what it takes. Only I dozed off while sitting in the waiting room. I woke up to the nurse say my name. And that’s when I saw her, my impostor. She was spitting mad, storming out of the office and making a ruckus. She was fast, but I did see she was a redhead, and you know how fiery they can get.”
“I wouldn’t lead with that if you ever meet her.” Annie sat down and placed her fingers on his wrist to take his heart rate. “And as soon as you catch your breath, we’ll get this taken care of.”
“Waste of time, I tell you.” He waved off the offer with his free hand. “They don’t have more than three brain cells among the lot of them.”
“I graduated top of my class, so I can assure you we will get to the bottom of this.”
He considered this, then nodded. “But only if you hold my hand while we walk there. Cuz we can get Dottie—she’s the only one old enough to vote over there—to take our picture and I can show the guys at bingo what a pretty lady my doctor is.”
“Physician’s assistant.” She took his elbow and helped him up, holding his hand the whole way. And he wouldn’t even give Dottie his insurance card until she took the picture.
“She was just in here,” Dottie said. “Talk about a mix-up. What are the odds of two people with the same name, and insurance numbers one digit off?”
“Pretty good, it looks like,” Les grumbled under his breath.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told her. I have to take this to my boss, but I promise it will be straightened out by Monday.”
“Better be, or me and my you-know-what are going to find another hospital.”
