The Outlier

Anita was sitting in her room on her bed, unable to get Rasha out of her head. The way she looked on that stretcher and the sound of her whispers in her head, begging for help. But there was nothing Anita could do. As far as she knew, Rasha was going to die.

A quiet tapping on her door frame made her jump a little, causing her to spin around quickly to see Dr. Walsh standing there.

“Sorry,” he said quietly, looking and sounding completely exhausted. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to see how you were holding up.”

Anita shrugged. She had no words for what she was feeling.

“It must’ve been a long couple of hours,” he continued. “That must’ve been...I don’t even know how to begin describing what you must’ve felt during that.”

“A couple hours?” she muttered in disbelief. “It’s been that long?”

Dr. Walsh nodded. “Yeah, it has been. She’s down in the ICU right now. We’re not sure if she sustained any brain damage.”

“Do you think she’s going to be okay?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t lie to you, Anita. I honestly don’t know what going to happen to her. If she makes it through the night, she’ll live. But that doesn’t mean she won’t have some kind of lasting damage. She might have memory loss, seizures, or she may not even wake up.”

“What do you mean?”

“She might slip into a coma, depending on the damage.”

Anita felt her heart sink. “Oh,” she breathed.

“This is all Bennett’s fault,” he muttered, kicking the door frame as he did so. “If that little bastard hadn’t tried to butt in for a show….” the doctor trailed off into a frustrated sigh.

“Why was it such a big deal for him?” Anita asked suddenly.

“It’s how the facilities get money,” he replied. “Sponsors and such.”

The teen nodded slowing, deciding to to keep what Rasha had said to herself.

“But that’s not really a big priority right now,” he said suddenly, straightening up. “I’m gonna go check up on Rasha. Do you need or want anything?”

Anita shrugged. “Can I call my parents?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll have Louise stop by to take you to the phones in a little bit, okay?”

Anita nodded, giving a small smile. “Thank you, Dr. Walsh.”

“Hey, call me Vincent from now on, okay? We’re all friends here.”

****

“How’re things going there, sweetpea?”

Anita shrugged and adjusted the phone. “I don’t know, dad,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve been here awhile and everyone’s nice and all, but there’ve been some...weird stuff over the past week.”

“What kind of weird things?”

Anita sighed and looked around, making sure nobody was listening in. “I made friends with this Egyptian woman named Rasha and she has the same thing I do. But a couple days ago, she went through this procedure and now she’s in a coma.”

“What happened? Did something go wrong, or was that the point of the procedure?”

“No, no. Some idiot came into the room and flipped the switch too early. It was a huge mistake.”

Caden was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment. “Were you there when it happened?”

“Yeah,” she replied quietly, trying to push the memories from her mind. “Yeah, I was.”

“How are you holding up after something like that? Have you talked to anyone about it?”

“I mean, yeah,” the teen added, adjusting her position nervously. “I’ve talked Vin-- Dr. Walsh.”

“Is he actually helping?”

“Yeah, he is. It’s nice. He’s really easy to talk to.”

“Just don’t get too used to it, okay, sweetpea? You do eventually need to come home.”

“Honestly, I can’t wait,” the teen admitted hesitantly. “As interesting and worthwhile as this experience has been, I really miss home. I miss you and mom and Inga and Russ.”

“Speaking of Inga and Russ, they’ve been coming over and looking for you and wondering why you’re not at school.”

“What’ve you been telling them?”

“Just that you’re not well and you’re getting help.”

“So they don’t know the extent of my...condition?”

“Anita, even your mother and I don’t know the extent of your condition. Has Dr. Walsh told you when you can tell us?”

“I think he’s gonna have you guys come in sometime soon. He wants to talk to you guys about something important.”

“I take it he’s going to call us some other time?”

Anita nodded to herself. “Yeah. I just...I really wanted to talk to you and mom for a little bit. I’ve been a little homesick lately.”

“That’s okay, sweetpea. We miss you too.”

“Hey, can I talk to mom for a bit? Is she there?”

Caden sighed. “She’s busy right now, but I can let her know that you called and maybe she can call you back.”

Anita sighed too, leaning against the wall. “No, I don’t think she can. I’m pretty busy and I don’t even know what number you can call.”

“Well maybe when Dr. Walsh calls-”

“Honestly dad, it’s fine,” she lied. “I know that you and mom are busy people and I can’t expect you guys to be there everytime I call, ya know?”

“You’ve been trying to reach us for days, Anita. I feel bad that we’re not there everytime you call.”

“Well, I gotta go,” she said quietly.

“Okay, Anita. I love you, sweetpea, and your mom and I miss you a lot.”

Anita paused, trying to hold back tears. “I miss you too, dad. But I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Of course you will. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Thanks, dad. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetpea.”

With that, Anita hung up and sighed.

“Everything okay?”

Anita jumped at the sound of Louise’s voice.

“Jesus, Louise,” the teen muttered. She sighed and threw her hands up. “I don’t know if everything’s okay.”

Louise sat down against the wall next to Anita. She adjusted her glasses and looked at the freckle-faced teen. “Miss your family?”

Anita nodded. “With everything that happened to Rasha, I’m scared that I’m never gonna see them again. Has only told her family? Does she even have family?”

“Of course she does. But that doesn't mean she wants them to know what’s been going on with her.”

“But she’s in a coma. Don’t you think they should know?”

“Of course I do,” she replied quietly. “But I don’t have the power to do anything about it. If I intervene, I could lose my job.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Louise added, smile breaking across her face. “You’re still a kid. You shouldn’t have to worry about the affairs of adults yet. And you shouldn’t have to answer for them, either.”

Anita felt her heart grow heavy. “You heard?”

Louise nodded. “You don’t need to answer for your parents’ behavior. You’ve been trying to talk to them for a long time, and there is no excuse for a parent to not talk to their child.”

“Louise, you’re so wise,” Anita replied, smiling through her silent tears. “Why are you a nurse?”

“Hey now, I ain’t a nurse. I’m an assistant.”

“Oh my god, you’re so ridiculous!”

“You gotta get it right, though! I will not be mistaken for the other girls around here!”

Anita and Louise burst out into bright, happy laughter, practically falling over each other.