Scars Of A Phoenix

Chapter 4: A Friendly Face

Thanksgiving came and went and as per the past several years, the day went exactly as I expected. The day of gratitude was marked with a turkey breast and a can of Ocean Spray cranberry jelly with my parents, Tanya and I. I missed my grandmother more than ever. Thanksgiving simply was not the same without her and unfortunately the holiday will not have the same magic ever again.

And work was pure drudgery. With the holidays came lots of hospital trips resulting from food allergies, drunken incidents and end of year physical appointments.

I slaved away at my desk on yet another database report, my eyes only half open when I heard, "Ms. Erikkson." I was jolted into a fully awake state by the harshness in her voice.

Ugh, what did I do wrong now? What does she want to blame me for this time? Nurse Henderson came waddling over to my desk, munching on her Krispy Kreme donut, brushing crumbs off her scrub top.

"Yes Ma'am?"

"Pack up your things. You and Ms. Mueller are being moved to PT."

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but what is PT?"

Nurse Henderson rolled her eyes and, with the unfortunate donut still languishing in her mouth, replied, "It's the physical therapy department."

As she waddled away, Ms. Mueller and I exchanged confused expressions.

"Ms. Mueller, any idea what this is all about?"

"It's probably because a few of the Physical Therapy Department's admins are leaving soon. Shelby and Zoe were doing internships here for school and I guess they're finished."
Ms. Mueller was busily moving her things into the big cardboard box under her desk in addition to loading up some of my things as well. "And the best news is we will have a new reporting physician. No more Dr. Jennings!" Ms. Mueller wore an expression of sheer elation at the thought of no longer answering to him.

"Who is it?" I carefully packed the smiling cactus with the googly eyes I had made in college away into the box.

"I believe his name is Dr. Mikelos. I don't know much about him but maybe that's a good thing. I don't hear about horror stories where he stars as the villain unlike certain people." She wagged her head in the direction of Dr. Jennings' office with a scowl.

At lunchtime in the hospital cafeteria, I spotted a familiar face. Chestnut hair, grey eyes, it was Jacqueline; the girl I met at the fundraiser. She must have spotted me first because no sooner did I hear, "Hey! You're that girl that I killed time with waiting on my daft brother to show up a few weeks ago."

"Hey! It was Jacqueline, right? I feel so silly. We talked for such a long time and I never properly introduced myself. My name is Sarah-Mae."

"Well, lovely to put a name to a face. By the way, you can just call me Jacqui."

"So, how was the fundraiser?"

Jacqui opened up her Cosmic Brownie with delight. "It was pretty good. We had several people come up to the podium and tell us their stories and what they overcame. Very inspiring. We had one gentleman tell us about how he became a firefighter despite his injuries when his childhood home burned down."

I looked at her hands as she opened her milk carton and again couldn't help but feel the curiosity rising to the surface once again.

"I'm so glad this hospital goes above and beyond for its patients. I come in a few times a week for physical therapy exercises for my hands. I know I would exactly make the perfect ring model," she giggled.

Curiosity got the better of me. "I don't mean to pry and you don't have to explain if you don't feel comfortable, but what happened to your hands?"

Jacqui's brow furrowed, giggles suddenly ceasing. "About a year and a half ago, my little sister, Hayley was starting university. This is when my family and I lived in England. My mum and dad decided to take her to uni and help with the move-in. Well, we also had three beautiful dogs that we had to babysit as mum and dad would be gone for a few days."