Juvenal

Chapter 05

Mabel bit her lips in worry. The older man in front of her was staring at the reports which Edwin had handed over to him. She turned to look at Edwin, her eyebrows raised in question. Mabel had not understood why, but as soon as she had woken up, Edwin had placed an appointment for a neurosurgeon.

"Neurosurgeon?" Mabel had asked.

Edwin had nodded, biting his lips.

"Why?"

Edwin had sighed.

"Mabe, Dr. Brown thinks that it's better to consult a neurosurgeon with your father's reports." He had said, omitting the exact truth. Mabel had looked unconvincingly at him but had just nodded when he had looked at her with his eyes pleading in silence.

"Doctor, is something wrong with my dad?" Mabel asked, once the older man had placed the reports on the table in front of him. He placed his hands on the table and removed his glasses and wiped them with his handkerchief.

"Doctor..."

Mabel said once more, as she started to grow restless. Dr. Johnston took his own time to look at her and put on his glasses.

"Is it the first time that your father had a cardiac arrest?" he asked. Mabel nodded.

"Has he had a stroke?" he asked again. Mabel squinted her nose and shook her head.

"No doctor." She said. The older man nodded slowly.

"Has he shown any different behaviors since recently?"

Mabel turned to look at Edwin with her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. He closed his eyes and nodded slowly, asking her to go on.

"What sort of difference are you asking about, doctor? I don't understand."

The doctor looked at Edwin and turned slowly towards Mabel.

"Did he have blurred vision, nausea, problems with his balance, coordination, speech or memory?" the doctor explained his question.

Mabel looked at Edwin again and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Er..." Mabel wondered. She does not remember her father having nausea. But she remembered her father wiping his glasses and rubbing his eyes tight, more than frequently whenever he had read his newspaper. She had thought that it was due to his glasses being dusty but was it because he had blurred vision? She had never thought of that.

"He did not have nausea, doctor. But I am not sure about his vision. He said that he had had headaches constantly, but he had not complained much about it, so I thought that it was alright." Mabel said in a small voice.

The doctor nodded in slow motion.

"Was your father born as a premature baby?" he asked again. Mabel shook her head, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't know, doctor." She said. Her father had never talked anything about his birth to her.

She saw the doctor glance at Edwin.

"Doctor, is something wrong with my dad? Is everything alright?" she asked, leaning forward.

The doctor did not reply at once. She wanted to hold the old man by his collars and shook him back and forth. He was taking too long to answer a single question, and it was driving her mad. She was trying her best to maintain her sanity.

"Miss, we can't be sure of anything at the moment."

Mabel squinted her eyes as she looked at the doctor.