Epilogue

I stared at the TV across from me that was mounted on the wall. I had probably been sitting there watching the Discovery Channel special on sea turtles for what felt like five hours. Saturday afternoon, I found myself stuck waiting at the hospital. Luhan occupied the seat beside mine, impatiently tapping his foot while he read over the comics on the newspaper for the millionth time.

“Hey, I’m really sorry… again,” Luhan’s voice broke through the sounds of coughing and a machine buzzing in the distance.

I glanced at my left wrist that was temporarily wrapped up in a towel with ice. “It’s okay. It doesn’t really hurt anymore.”

Still, Luhan frowned, telling himself that we were spending our weekend in the hospital because of him.  “Do you want me to get you a snack?” Luhan made the motion to stand, but I held him down by his shoulder.

“No, just stay with me. I’m fine.” I offered him an assuring smile. My wrist honestly didn’t feel that bad anymore. Maybe the guilt written all over his face got me used to ignoring some of the pain.

The nurse with a clipboard went through the door and stood to face the waiting room. “Mrs. Lu? A doctor is ready to see you now.”

I stood up abruptly, relieved that my name had finally been called. “That’s me.”

“Follow me please.”

Luhan gave me an encouraging thumbs up before I trailed behind the nurse and entered through the doors. She kept herself busy, always scribbling something down on her clipboard as she led us through the many halls.

“So can we go over what happened again?” she asked without looking up at me. “With the form that you filled out earlier, I read something about… pizza?”

“I’m here about two things actually. About my wrist, um,” I hesitated, not knowing where to even begin explaining the story of how I messed up my wrist without sounding like a total idiot. “My husband went to go look for a birthday present for a friend. He brought home rollerblades and we laughed because it had sparkly wheels. And…”

The nurse nodded along, writing the something down and I wondered if she included sparkly wheels.

“I tried them on, but I don’t know how to roller blade or anything—”

She cut in. “Wait, so you put on the rollerblades even though you don’t know how to rollerblade?”

“Yes. But I know, not very smart.” In embarrassment, I couldn’t even look at her in the eyes. “Luhan—my husband—he told me he’d keep me steady so I wouldn’t fall and I was wheeling around the house… But Luhan had pizza in the microwave. And I guess he got so excited that it was done microwaving that he ran to the kitchen to get it.”

“He abandoned you for the pizza and you fell on your wrist, didn’t you?” she finished.

I nodded sadly. “Hearing it that way makes him sound really bad,but he said sorry a lot! It’s okay.” I held out my arm like evidence. I could feel the ice melting inside my make-shift cast.

The nurse shook her head slowly and clicked her tongue.

“About the second thing I’m here for,” I continued, just so that maybe she could forget about the roller blades for now. “I got food poisoning, I think, from bad sushi. I’m vomiting a lot lately. Also nausea. I’m usually healthy,” I explained. It was weird that I was sick at all. I felt like I needed to point that out to the nurse. Fevers and diseases were more scared of me than I was of them.

She glanced at the towel around my arm, scribbled something down quickly before turning to a new page on her clipboard. “We’ll look into your food poisoning and nausea also. First I’ll have the doctor get your x-ray in case you broke any bones in your wrist.”

“That sounds good.”

We stopped in front of a thick double door with a sign reading X-RAY FACILITY that hovered above the entrance. “I need to know if you hurt your head during your fall in the case of a concussion.”

“I didn’t hit my head, no.”

“Are you pregnant?”

Her question threw me off guard. “What?”

“X-rays aren’t healthy for the baby.” The nurse glanced up warily at me, assuming I didn’t understand. “It doesn’t cause miscarriages, however the radiation can damage a baby’s cells.”

There was a pause and I stared. I didn’t even think about that. “I don’t think I am.”

So far she seemed highly unamused about everything in my situation. “It’s a yes or no question, Mrs. Lu. Is there any chance that you’re pregnant?”

I shrugged, twiddling with my fingers. “Maybe?”

“How often do you and your husband get ‘physical’ with each other without any protection?”

“Most of the time?” I found it hilarious that she used air quotations with her fingers to the word physical, but kept myself from laughing to save me some embarrassment.

“When was the most recent time?”

“Thursday, I think. I don’t know.” I wondered if my face was red.

“And you said you were throwing up recently, correct?” The nurse was pointing to something on her sheet that I couldn’t really read. “And the nausea.”

“Yes, from food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning…” she mumbled to herself. Placing a hand on my shoulder, she led me further down the hall and away from the X-ray Facility. “Move along. We might as well get you tested for that while you’re already here.”

After more time had passed, I was released into the waiting room. Luhan stood from his chair as soon as he spotted me walking out and carelessly tossed away the newspaper he was sifting through. He eyed the bandages that were wrapped around my left wrist.<