A sweet volunteer gives me a self-sticking VISITOR badge. Please follow me. January in New England. I stick the badge on my LL Bean puffy coat. Which I shed because suddenly I'm hot.
My gentle volunteer leads me though the maze of an overtaxed urban hospital; he'll be a doctor himself in a decade. He introduces me to Jeff, the upbeat ER nurse overseeing Simone.
@ 1 PM, I'm holding Sim One's hand. She's in and out.
A young doctor with dark red hair arrives; there's another nurse and an X-ray technician. Doctor asks me to wait outside for a few minutes. I disappear. The ER entry is full of uniforms: EMTs, fire fighters, police, hospital staff. No place to rest your eyes. Patients moan on gurneys.
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Then the tests are done. I have her hand again. Nothing to it; might as well be a latex mitten. Simone's in a lofty, windowless room with lots of equipment jammed in; charming as an oil-change garage. It's all business. And busy. She's on a drip. Small, clear pearls of pain relief shuttle down the tubing. Things simplify. Beautify. Headache? Jeff says she's on something called a "migraine cocktail." It's a "try everything, see what happens, adjust" cocktail.
I'm in the corner where they drop the mop. Us: a couple. The patient with her other. Without super powers. The patient pees a lot. I'm just there to nod. Spousal unit; there, to sign forms as needed.