AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Glad to be able to abandon the boring paperwork, I make my way to the emergency room.
As I arrive, there’s the usual chaos—the patient is lying on the table, as their relatives hover around making lots of noise, asking questions, and giving advice they saw on TikTok.
Just an ordinary day.
I adjust my gloves and step through the examination room door.
But my heart stops at the sight—my breath gets caught in my throat.
As a doctor in the emergency room, there are many things I wish I’d never have to see, but this is, by far, the one I dread the most.
On the table, clearly in pain and babbling, is my best friend, Emmy.
She’s surrounded by Larisa, Jo, and a third woman I don’t recognize. They all look terrified and try to help, but the nurses pull them back.
I take a few steps forward and everything seems to happen at the same time.
Emmy spots me and reaches out her hand for me, while her friends immediately surround me trying to tell me what happened, but all I can hear is a mess of jumbled words and sentences. The third woman smiles and puts out her hand as well, trying to make my acquaintance as if we’re in a bar, not an emergency room.
“Alright! I need everyone to stay quiet and take a few steps back so I can examine the patient,” I call out.
They obey my demands.
Well, all of them except for the third woman who lingers around me, smiling and staring. “Hi, Evan. I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure, but I’ve heard so many incredible things about you. I’m Carol, by the way, and I’m…”
“Emmy, how do you feel?” I ignore the woman and step closer to Emmy.
She looks up at me, and I can see that she’s frightened. “Aa … aa … pain … arm … hurts … help me … Evan…”
“That’s alright. Don’t worry. I’ve got you now. You know very well I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She squeezes my hand while I caress her hair gently.
“What’s the patient’s status?” I ask the nurse.
“Female, twenty-eight-years old, broken left arm, possible concussion at the back of her head. No prior diseases or ailments that we know of. According to her and her friends here, she slipped and fell. She’s not on any medications, according to her statements, and she wasn’t drinking when she broke her arm.”
“Of course, she wasn’t drunk.”
The nurse gives me an odd look, as if to ask how I could possibly be so sure.
“I know the patient. She’s my … best friend,” I add.
Emmy looks into my eyes and tries to smile, but the pain is obviously overwhelming her.
This woman, that I’ve known since I was a thirteen-year-old boy, is now lying in pain on a table in my emergency room. And somehow, I can feel it in my own body, coursing through me in waves. It’s like I can feel her suffering—her angst and exhaustion, her misery and fear.
“That’s alright. This will all be over soon, Dolly,” I tell her, nearly overcome with the urge to lean down and kiss her forehead. Both for her sake and my own.
But I know I can’t.
Even though we’ve been best friends since middle school, I’m still her doctor.
I need to act professionally.
“Nurse, please order a set of x-rays. Let’s see exactly where and how she broke her left arm. And let’s also see what’s going on with her head. I suppose she hit her head when she fell, but we need to know the details.”
“Yes, doctor, right away,” she says.
