Chương 7
Before they crossed the emergency department doors, her phone rang inside the evidence bag an officer had sent with the paramedics.
Everyone looked at it.
The paramedic lifted the clear bag enough to see the screen.
The caller identification showed Daniel’s mother.
Emily stared at the name.
The phone rang until it stopped.
Ten seconds later, it began ringing again.
The paramedic looked at Emily for permission before silencing the call.
Emily nodded.
The ringing stopped.
Noah kept staring at the bag.
“She knows?”
“Maybe.”
“How?”
Emily looked toward the emergency department doors.
Daniel’s mother, Carol, lived forty minutes away and called Daniel almost every evening.
If he had been allowed one phone call, Emily knew exactly whom he would choose.
“I don’t know yet.”
Noah looked unconvinced.
The paramedic handed the evidence bag to a nurse at intake and explained that police wanted the phone preserved.
The nurse placed it in a plastic bin beneath the counter.
Emily watched it disappear from sight.
She had spent years keeping that phone within reach.
Messages from school.
Bank alerts.
Daniel checking where she was.
Noah sending her pictures from the next room because he thought it was funny.
Now she felt lighter without it and terrified without it at the same time.
A nurse fastened a hospital bracelet around Emily’s wrist.
Another bracelet went around Noah’s.
He turned his wrist over and read the printed letters.
“Why does mine say pediatric?”
“Because you’re a kid.”
“I know what it means.”
Emily almost smiled.
“Then why’d you ask?”
Noah shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
The nurse glanced between them and pretended not to hear.
Emily understood the courtesy.
People in emergency rooms learned when ordinary conversation was not ordinary at all.
They were taken through double doors into a treatment bay divided from the next bed by a blue curtain.
Noah sat in a chair while Emily changed into a hospital gown behind the curtain.
Taking off her sweater hurt.
The fabric dragged across her neck and pulled at her shoulder.
She had to stop halfway.
A nurse helped without making a fuss.
Emily folded the sweater afterward.
Then she unfolded it because the sleeves were uneven.
Then she realized what she was doing.
She put it on the chair.
Her hands had always searched for small jobs when the larger problem was unbearable.
Fold laundry.
Wipe counters.
Answer email.
Pack lunches.
Daniel could be furious in the garage, and Emily would reorganize a kitchen drawer until every measuring spoon faced the same direction.
The habit embarrassed her now.
A physician came in wearing dark green scrubs and introduced herself as Dr. Patel.
She spoke directly to Emily first and then to Noah.
She explained that they needed to evaluate Emily’s airway and neck because strangulation could cause swelling or internal injury that was not immediately obvious.
Emily nodded.
Noah listened harder than she did.
Dr. Patel asked whether Emily felt dizzy.
“A little.”
“Nauseated?”
“Yes.”
“Any changes in your voice?”
Emily gave a weak laugh.
“I sound like this.”
Dr. Patel nodded.
“Any trouble swallowing?”
“Yes.”
Noah looked at her.
Emily had not told him that.
She wished he were somewhere else.
She wished he were nowhere else.
Dr. Patel examined her pupils, neck, jaw, and the back of her head.
When she pressed beneath Emily’s left ear, pain shot downward.
Emily flinched.
Noah stood halfway out of his chair.
“I’m okay.”
He sat again.
Dr. Patel did not tell him not to worry.
Emily appreciated that.
Worry was reasonable.
A social worker would come by, Dr. Patel said.
Police would probably want another statement.
They also wanted blood and urine tests because of the reported sudden drowsiness after dinner.
Emily stared at the blanket over her knees.
“So they think there was something in the food?”
“We don’t know.”
The doctor’s answer was careful.
“We test first.”
Noah spoke from the chair.
“Can they tell what?”
“Sometimes.”
Dr. Patel looked at him without talking down to him.
“It depends on what it was, when it happened, and how much was taken.”
Noah nodded.
Emily saw him filing the answer away.
She wished he would forget it.
A nurse came to draw blood.
Noah hated needles and had since he was five.
When the nurse said she wanted a sample from him too, his whole face changed.
“No.”
Emily turned toward him.
“Noah.”
“I’m not doing it.”
The nurse remained still.
“That’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
Emily heard the impatience in her own voice and hated it instantly.
Noah folded his arms.
“I said no.”
Emily almost told him not to be difficult.
Daniel’s phrase.
She swallowed it.
The nurse asked whether Noah wanted to watch his mother go first.
He shook his head.
“Do you want to look away?”
Another shake.
“What would make it less bad?”
He stared at the floor.
“Nothing.”
The nurse nodded.
“Fair answer.”
Something about that made him glance up.
She told him she could use numbing spray, but it would still feel like a pinch.
No promises that it would not hurt.
No pretending.
Noah considered this.
“Can Mom hold my other hand?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Emily.
She reached for him.
“All right.”
The nurse drew Emily’s blood first.
When it was Noah’s turn, he squeezed her hand so hard her knuckles hurt.
He stared directly at the needle.
Emily looked away.
That made him laugh once.
“You’re worse than me.”
“Apparently.”
The sound of their laughter was small and strange in the treatment bay.
It disappeared quickly.
But it existed.
Afterward, Noah inspected the bandage on his arm.
“Do I get juice?”
The nurse smiled.
“You absolutely get juice.”
“Apple?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
When she left, Noah leaned toward Emily.
“I like her.”
“Because she bribed you.”
“She was honest.”
The words struck harder than he intended.
Emily looked at him.
May you like
Noah was studying the little square of tape over the cotton ball on his arm.
He did not notice her reaction.
