Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News

Words cannot describe how much Tiffany absolutely, positively, without a doubt loathes being alone in South Korea, as it only serves to highlight just how little she actually knows of the language. Her father would roll his eyes at her and sigh that she should have studied, but (and Tiffany has told him this multiple times) there is a difference between speaking Korean in a classroom, and even with family, and speaking Korean in Korea. Worse, there is a difference between speaking Korean with family and with native speakers, who hear her accent and write her off as incomprehensible. Her father would say that she’s imagining things, but Tiffany knows better.

“Hello?” Tiffany calls, craning her neck to try to see out the door. She’s long given up trying to be understood in Korean, maybe she’ll have better luck with English. “Hello, is anyone out there? Can I have some water?” Silence. “Hello!” She fairly yells, wincing as aches. She wishes her sister could have stayed with her, but family aren’t allowed to spend the night. Tiffany sinks down in her bed, plucking at the standardized hospital gown and eyeing the IV stand with distaste. Her surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, and she’s already had her last meal, but she thinks she’s allowed to have water. She should be, they haven’t stuck her with the IV yet and she could get dehydrated at this rate.

There’s a commotion outside and Tiffany thinks she’s finally going to get someone to listen to her, but instead the nurses are wheeling a young girl into what was formerly just Tiffany’s room. It is a double room, but Tiffany was told she wouldn’t be getting roommate for a few days yet. She tries not to stare, but it’s difficult when she’s so bored that watching grass grow would sound like fun. The new girl is really pretty, with a sharp jawline and large eyes, her hair bleached to a light caramel brown. Unlike Tiffany this girl has her IV in, and the nurses are careful not to jostle her arm as they help her into the bed. The girl looks to be about Tiffany’s age, probably a little more polite if the way she keeps her voice lowered and her eyes fixed on the task at hand is any indication. Their beds aren’t that far apart, Tiffany thinks if they both stretched their arms out, their hands could touch—and this too makes it difficult not to eavesdrop on the conversation. In the mixture of quiet Korean being spoken, Tiffany thinks she hears her name, but nobody looks her way.

Once the girl is settled, the nurses make to leave and Tiffany realizes that she’s still parched.

“아가씨,” She calls, holding her hand out and waving, “Miss, excuse me!”

A few nurses turn to her, and one approaches. “Yes?” She asks cautiously, as though expecting Tiffany to leap out of bed and pounce on her.

“Can I have some water?” She asks.

The nurse looks at her blankly.

“Water,” Tiffany repeats, stuttering a little, feeling the stares of the other nurses on her. She taps . “Um, 물?”

The nurses eyes widen. “Ah!” She cries, and then descends into speech too rapid for Tiffany to understand, ending with a smile and a bow before she hurries out of the room, the other nurses following on her heels.

Tiffany stares at the spot where the nurse vanished, and she hears a soft giggle from the corner. Tiffany glances over to see her new roommate smiling at her. “From what I can understand, she said she’ll bring you something to drink.”

“You speak English!” Tiffany cries, “And you speak Korean too, oh wow thank god you are here!”

The girl laughs again, louder this time. “I take it you’ve been having a communication problem?”

“You have no idea,” Tiffany groans as she shifts in her bed so that she’s turned towards her roommate. “My whole family speaks more than I do, but it’s not like I don’t try! My doctor speaks English, he said that there would be people here who understand me, and so far all I’ve gotten is blank looks!” She pauses, trying to catch her breath. “Contrary to what you may have been told, my name is Tiffany, not Stephanie or Tip-pany.”

The girl laughs a third time and Tiffany thinks she must be on a roll. “I’m Jessica, it’s nice to meet you Tiffany.”

Tiffany gives the girl a sympathetic look. “Jessica…that can’t be an easy name for the nurses.”

Jessica shrugs. “It isn’t, but I’ve gotten kind of used to it.”

“I haven’t,” Tiffany sighs. “I’m starting to miss my name.” She laughs a little sadly. “Of all the things I thought I would miss, I didn’t think my name would be one of them.”

Jessica nods, looking down and picking at her sheets. “How long have you been…away from home?” she asks.

“Only a month,” Tiffany says. “I won’t be going home for another six, I think.”

Jessica flinches. “Ouch, that’s a long time. I’ve been here for five weeks, but I might get to go home in three months.”

Lucky, Tiffany thinks. The nurse reappears and hands Tiffany a glass of water.

“Done before midnight,” she says sternly, “Then, no more.”

Tiffany nods and thanks the nurse, slowly sipping the water. When the nurse leaves, she puts her cup down and turns back to her roommate.

“So, where is home for you?” Tiffany asks.

Jessica grins. “California!”

Tiffany gasps. “Oh my gosh, me too!”

Jessica’s eyes widen in shock. “No way,” she cries, “That’s so cool! Wow, that must be why they put us together! Hey, how old are you?”

“I’m nineteen.”

“Me too!”

Tiffany claps her hand over . “What are the odds?” She cries.

“This is way too weird,” Jessica agrees, sitting up further, shoving a pillow behind her back for support.

Tiffany shifts closer to the edge of her bed. “I’d get up and go over to you,” she says, “But it’s kind of hard for me to walk right now.”

Jessica gasps. “Why? What happened to you?”

Tiffany laughs flatly. “My knees are shot, they have been for the last five years but it’s only gotten really freaking bad this year. I have so many muscular problems, it’s to the point where I really can’t walk anymore. I have tears in my ligaments and meniscus and…and just I don’t even know what else!”

Jessica leans closer. “Do you…have arthritis?” She asks.

“No,” Tiffany says, “But I could have had it really bad in the future without this surgery.”

Jessica nods sadly. “I have it, I’ve had it since I was twelve.”

Tiffany sits straight up, one hand pressed to her heart. “Oh my god,” she gasps. “Where?”

“In my hips,” Jessica says simply, with the air of one who has long stopped being moved by her own plight. “So I also have a lot of trouble getting around.”

“Are you having surgery?” Tiffany asks.

Jessica nods. “I already had one a few weeks ago, and I’m having another tomorrow. It should help with…ah, the placement of my bones. Keep them from rubbing against each other and all that jazz.”

“Oh,” Tiffany says weakly. “You’ve already had surgery?” At Jessica’s nod, Tiffany presses, “What was it like?”

Jessica gasps. “Oh! You haven’t had any surgeries yet?”

Tiffany shakes her head.

“It’s really not bad,” Jessica assures, “You barely remember even going to sleep, and when you wake up—”

“Does it hurt?” Tiffany interrupts.

Jessica hesitates. “Yeah, but you only feel it for a few minutes. They’ll pump you with painkillers before you even know what’s going on.” She eyes Tiffany sadly. “You must be really nervous, going in for your first operation in a foreign country.”

“Of course I am,” Tiffany mutters, “But it’s cheaper here than in America. My dad says it would have been impossible for me to get insurance if I had this kind of major surgery on my record.”

“That’s what my parents said too,” Jessica sighs. “It absolutely , and it even more that you have to stay for so long.” She pauses. “Not to pry, but do you have family here?”

Tiffany shakes her head. “My whole family lives in California. My dad won’t even be able to stay with me the whole time since he has to go back to California for work, he’s only here for the operation. My sister managed to get into a study abroad program for this year, so she’ll be close by, but that’s it.”

Jessica gapes at her. “Wow,” she says weakly. “My mom’s family lives here, I’m…I’ll be staying with them once I’m released. Are you going to stay at the hospital?”

“Oh no,” Tiffany says, “Well, sort of…I’ll be going to a rehabilitation clinic, I’ll need a lot of physical therapy after my surgery.”

“That’s just horrible,” Jessica grumps. “You poor thing. This is why I hate the American health care system!”

Tiffany giggles. “You’re preaching to the choir,” she says cheekily. “But enough about that, where in California were you born?”

Jessica flows with the change in subject. “San Francisco, at the city hospital.”

Tiffany’s jaw drops, and she flaps her hands in excitement before clapping them over to muffle her scream.

“What?” Jessica gasps, “What is it?”

Tiffany pulls her hands away from . “THAT’S WHERE I WAS BORN!” She shrieks, and Jessica screams too.

“What are the odds?!” Jessica cries.

“We’re so meant to be!” Tiffany exclaims, “Words cannot describe how much I am freaking out, this is so weird and awesome!”

A nurse pokes her head into their room. Tiffany only hears the botched pronunciation of her name before she zones out. Tiffany, Tiffany, for heaven’s sake, could her mother have picked out an easier name for people of her native language to pronounce? Even Stephanie was too much! Shouldn’t both her parents have known better than to pick a name with sounds that simply didn’t exist in their own language? Tiffany would have loved to ask. The nurse back out and Jessica turns to Tiffany.

“She said we need to be quiet,” Jessica sighs.

“I figured as much,” Tiffany says with a shrug, “But like, how can we keep calm when we found out that we’re basically soul mates?”

Jessica laughs and claps her hands. “Soul mates? Really?”

Tiffany nods enthusiastically. “How else could we be the same nationality, have been born in the same hospital and wound up together in the hospital again, in the same room, both of us having life changing surgery?”

Jessica blushes a little and giggles. “Well, when you put it like that…” She trails off and gives Tiffany a bright smile. “I’m so glad to have met you,” she says sincerely, “This…this is going to make the next few months a lot more fun.”

“Definitely,” Tiffany agrees, “And hey, do you still live in Cali?”

“Yep,” Jessica says, “In San Fran.”

“I’m in Diamond Bar now,” Tiffany says, “But I think that when we go home, we can still meet up, right?”

Jessica’s smile is brighter than the Seoul city lights. “Just try to keep me away from you!”

Tiffany feels warmth bubbling up in her chest. Without thinking she reaches her hand out, leaning just slightly over the side of her bed, Jessica catches her drift and stretches her hand out as well, and just as Tiffany suspected, the distance between them isn’t that much. Tiffany clasps Jessica’s hand and flashes her famous eye-smile. She has a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be a lot more fun than she first anticipated.

Title from Robert Palmer's song "Bad Case of Loving You"

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