13
Elijah sat in the passenger’s seat of Dr. Leonard’s car as the doctor droned on about chronic heart failure.
“It’s extremely important for patients to take all of their medications as prescribed,” he said as Elijah stared out the window, half-listening. They were returning from a house call across town, and Elijah could only think of Angela. He wondered if she had been taking the penicillin he gave her.
“One dose of hydrochlorothiazide can be the difference between life and death; I’ve seen it many times,” the doctor continued.
Elijah imagined the little red dot on Angela’s finger. Antibiotics might have been overkill for something so small.
“Which segment of the nephron does hydrochlorathiazide act on?”
It had looked like it would go away on his own. Maybe the penicillin was a mistake. He recalled a lecture he’d gotten during his first year of medical school about bacterial resistance mechanisms, his pupils bouncing back and forth as he watched the trees blur past.
“Elijah?”
He felt his attention snap into place and turned toward Dr. Leonard. He tried to recall what Dr. Leonard had asked him.
“The, um,” he said, wondering why the car ride couldn’t just be silent. “Proximal convoluted tubule?”
“Distal,” Dr. Leonard said flatly.
The car slowed down as they approached Dr. Leonard’s house, and as it came into view, Elijah saw a woman sitting on the porch steps. It didn’t take long before he recognized the red hair as Angela’s.
“No fucking way,” Elijah said under his breath.
“What was that?” Dr. Leonard said.
“Um,” Elijah said, trying to stifle his panic. “Do you think the heart failure patient is gonna be compliant with her meds?”
The penicillin wasn’t working. Why else would she have come back? He contemplated grabbing the steering wheel and wrapping the car around a tree.
“Who knows,” said Dr. Leonard. “Maybe she’ll drop dead before she even picks up the prescription.”
He pulled the car into his driveway.
“Who’s that?” he said, pointing at Angela.
“Hmm,” Elijah said. “I’ll go see what she wants.”
Elijah had already opened his door by the time Dr. Leonard parked the car. He fast-walked over to Angela, trying to stay calm.
She watched him as he walked down the driveway and to the front steps.
“It’s not working,” she said, brandishing her finger at him.
Elijah responded in a hushed voice: “I’m so sorry about this, ma’am, but I haven’t told the doctor about you.”
“You what?” she said loudly.
Elijah threw his hands out, trembling, and looked back at the car to see if Dr. Leonard had heard anything. He was getting his bag out of the trunk.
“I promise I can explain. Can you please just cover for me for a sec and pretend we don’t know each other?”
She looked at him, jaw agape.
“Please? Can we please just start over and pretend the other day didn’t happen?” he said, his voice getting higher in pitch with each word.
She stared at him for another moment, then looked down at her finger.
“I don’t have time to care about how insane this is. I just need you to help me,” she said. Elijah heard a note of desperation in her voice.
“I will, Angela, I promise. I promise we’ll take care of you. Why don’t you go inside and we’ll come see you in a second.”
She looked at him, then back at Dr. Leonard, who was still digging through his trunk, then back at Elijah one more time.
“You promise?” she said, narrowing her eyes.
“Yes,” Elijah said insistently.
She walked into the house without saying another word.
Elijah was sweating. He didn’t know what to do, but he didn’t have time to think about it. He walked back to the car. His mind had gone completely blank, for what might have been the first time in his life.
“What’s going on?” Dr. Leonard said, slinging a backpack over his shoulder.
Elijah looked at the ground. “It’s just this lady with a pimple on her finger. Looks like it’s infected.”
He looked up at Dr. Leonard, scanning his face for signs of suspicion.
“Fine,” Dr. Leonard said, seeming to lose interest instantly. He closed his trunk, then looked at Elijah expectantly. “You gonna move?”
“Sorry,” Elijah said, and started walking toward the house.
“Why are you acting slow today?” Dr. Leonard said, following Elijah down the driveway. Elijah said nothing.
When they went inside, Angela was already sitting on the couch, the same one they’d sat in when Elijah told her the finger was infected.
“Hello, ma’am,” Dr. Leonard said in his doctor voice. “My apprentice tells me you have a problem with your finger.”
“Yes, I do,” Angela said, looking at Elijah. He looked at the floor. She extended her arm out to the doctor, and Elijah couldn’t help noticing that her finger was pointed at him.
“I see,” Dr. Leonard said, taking her hand in his. He looked at it thoughtfully.
“It seems to be infected,” he continued. “Don’t worry; we see this all the time. We’ll have to lance it, though.”
“Lance it?” she said, her eyes widening.
“Yes. Just a small incision to drain the pus.”
Elijah’s stomach dropped. He was sure that Dr. Leonard would just give her more penicillin.
Angela shot a glance at Elijah and cocked her head, eyes widening. Nobody said anything for a moment. Elijah froze and thawed himself out in the same instant.
“Do you really think that’s necessary?” Angela said, looking at her finger. “It isn’t that bad, is it?”
“A little needle-shy, are you?” Dr. Leonard said, smiling at her.
“I just think it feels a little extreme,” she said. “Isn’t there a pill I can take?”
“My recommendation is incision and drainage, but if you’re really opposed to it, I can put you on an antibiotic.”
“Yes, please,” Angela said, shooting a glance at Elijah.
“Unless....” Elijah said. “You’re not allergic to penicillin, are you?”
Dr. Leonard looked at Elijah with furrowed brows.
“What does penicillin have to do with anything?” he said. “We don’t use penicillin for skin infections, Elijah. You should know that by now.”
Elijah felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He couldn’t bear to look at Angela, so he looked back at the floor.
Dr. Leonard cleared his throat and said, “I’ll put you on trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.”
Elijah looked at Angela, expecting to see fury on her face. All he saw was fear.
“Trimetho...,” Angela repeated.
“Also known as Bactrim,” Dr. Leonard said, smiling. “I’ll go get some now.”
Dr. Leonard walked down the hallway, leaving Elijah and Angela in a profoundly awkward silence.
“This one should work,” Elijah said finally.
“I hope so,” Angela said.
Dr. Leonard came back with a bottle of pills and handed it to Angela.
“Take one in the morning and one at night for seven days,” he said. “Do you have insurance?”
“So, you don’t think it’s that bad?” Angela said.
“Well, it’s not exactly good,” Dr. Leonard said, “but these things happen. The antibiotics should help.”
“And if they don’t?” she shot back before he had finished the sentence.
“Then we’ll have to lance it. And if you really don’t want me to do that, then you’d probably have better luck going to the hospital.” He looked at Elijah. “They still have an infectious disease doc, right?”
Elijah’s heart pounded as he said, “I think so.”
“You mean the hospital that’s an hour away from here?” Angela said.
“Is it really an hour away?” Dr. Leonard said.
“I wouldn’t be able to go. It’s too far,” she said. She looked down at her finger again.
“Don’t worry. I don’t think it’s going to come to that,” Dr. Leonard said. “So, insurance?”
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