Blink 7
May 9th
Elsie wasn't there because she wanted to be. She was there to be a R & D medical specialist, but…
So what? she was there, Kate was in no position to have the thought count.
She didn't have to.
Elsie was gorgeous! Beautiful enough to do anything be anywhere.
The good being that Kate got to stare at a super model, every day who sat silently at her side reading. But in a weird way, there were rules to being human. That meant a certain level of being… well, social.
No seventeen-year-old teenage girl was an island. Kate felt like one.
Kate wasn't the only island. There was a green patch over the ocean in the form of the strange girl there. She eyed a large screen, bent in half in the shape of a book which she twitched every few seconds as if reading super-fast.
Suddenly she stopped and looked Kate right in the eye.
"What?" Elsie demanded.
Yup, Kate had just human'd wrong. She likely should have said something as a justification to stare.
"Why are you here?" Was what she managed.
Elsie's brow rose, Kate had done something terrible again. But so what? She wanted to know.
Elsie was still making a show of looking at her before making a show of looking back at the door.
"You know, this hospital is fancy. Sponsored by the Happy Tug. But as a town we're actually not really that big. We're no New York, no Miami, no Dallas or Phoenix. But we have some genuinely good surgeons. And this is a private room Kate."
Kate blinked, and actually stared at her little home. Blue walls, stripes of color mixed in and a perfectly clean floor but the set up of wiring suggested there were only supposed to be two beds at most, even the ceiling where the curtains would be only had two points of division.
Kate had to remind herself that the family wasn't working some gig, because they were done with that. Which meant…
"This is someone's special request isn't it?"
Elsie shrugged.
"How would I know?"
"I know you have access to my files."
"I'm a student."
"And I've worked jobs before."
"Look, I actually can't. And wouldn't even if you begged. I won't call the real nurses or doctors so you can try finding out from them."
"Why?"
"Because someone's doing something for you, likely using their own insurance package or they've put you on an impressive group insurance program."
Kate thought about that for a moment.
"Would one of Sakura's fancy chat groups have some level of insurance package?"
Elsie shrugged, "Most likely."
"On purpose?" Kate asked.
Elsie shrugged.
"Don't you know Sakura?"
"I know her."
"As a friend?"
Elsie's stared at her again, a bit of a smile forming.
"The way you knew her?" She asked.
The amounts of innuendo exhausted Kate immediately.
"Yes. Elsie. Would that make you jealous?"
"Absolutely! Have you seen Sakura?" Elsie said fake gushing.
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Kate and Elsie laughed until the air thinned,
jokes about diapers and heroes dissolving into something heavier.
A lipstick stain revealed Mother's fleeting visit,
and Kate's grin masked a sigh she hadn't known she carried.
Was Elsie teasing, comforting, or pulling her into therapy?
Kate couldn't tell—only that she needed the attention.
Next time on Zenith:
When banter turns into confession, will Kate find healing—or another wound?