Cresseida was a medical resident who took great pride in seeing her patients make progress. She had a lot of patients on her rounds of course, and as a resident, she was worked to the bone for nearly 24 hours at a time. She tried to never let her patients see how much it took out of her, and she knew it was all for the greater goal. She tried to make a doctor patient connection with all of them. Some worked out better than others. Some would make snide and bitter comments about 'the one they got stuck with', but she found them fewer than she anticipated, and she never let it interfere with trying to give them the best care she was able.
Over the next few days she found a friendship began to form between her and Ira. They got comfortable with one another little by little, and while Ira still was withdrawn and wary of revealing personal details, Cresseida never let it bother her. She answered enough of her questions to be able to treat her ailments effectively, and in the end that's all Cresseida needed to know. As a doctor she respected her right to privacy, and considering her implied circumstances before she came into her care at St. Olga's, she couldn't say she blamed her for not wanting to dwell on any unpleasant or painful times.
Still she found a bit of a kindred spirit in Ira, and she was a unique patient she found of particular interest. She reminded her of someone she used to know, and it made her all the more determined to see her get well. The new doctor didn't often get to examine and treat individuals outside a certain income bracket at St. Olga's, so she felt it all the more important to get the most experience she could out of it.
This morning when she went to visit Ira on rounds, she found her with a particularly despondent look in her eyes. Usually she would be waking up or reading her book, but today she hugged her knees and stared off into space as she was lost in thought.
"Knock knock," Cresseida announced herself as she walked through the door with her cart. Ira noticed and tried to shake off her expression with a polite smile and greet her in kind, like she hadn't just been spiraling in thought.
"So, how are you feeling today?" Cresseida asked, her tone conveying she had noticed her mood being low, as she began her routine checks.
"I'm… alright. Just.. about at the end of my book and I don't wanna be done with it yet," She replied, speaking a half truth.
"What were you thinking about just now?" Cresseida asked directly.
"I.. Don't wanna talk about it… I just had a bad dream, that's all.." She answered after a moment, withdrawing back into herself.
"Do you have nightmares often?" The doctor asked but Ira just shrugged.
"I'm used to them.." The words hung in the air with an unintended heavy implication.
"Are they about things that you have been through before?" She asked but Ira looked away and didn't reply. Cresseida's face, while still remaining kind, spoke with a tone that honored the weight of the pain she carried. "It's okay to talk about these things. There's nothing wrong with it, there's lots of people who have gone through very traumatic things and carry a heavy burden, but you don't have to go through it alone,"
"-I do when I can't afford a shrink," Ira replied quickly in a barbed tone that she instantly regretted. She withdrew even more, nervously lacing her fingers together and tightening them until her knuckles turned white. Cresseida's face fell with understanding toward Ira and resentment of the way things were. How high a price was put on medical care and peace of mind. She thought about it and knew it far better than Ira could have ever realized. Still she had to bide her time as she came up with a better plan.
Cresseida took a meal tray from her cart and sat it on the side arm table before Ira. "It's macaroni and cheese today!" She offered, trying to soften the conversation, realizing that prying would only stonewall her further, at least for now. This seemed to make Ira relax a bit and she nodded looking relieved.
The med student worked on her charting as she checked her IV and the notes from nightshift, furrowing her brow as she read about an outburst last night, where the patient woke in a cold sweat, screaming. She glanced back at her patient who had become very fixated on her golden pasta savior that allowed her to divert from the discomfort of her conversation. Suddenly, Cresseida had an idea, and she smiled.
"You know, my husband did the funniest thing the other day?" Dr. Noatak began, her demeanor shifting into a very warm bright smile as she stifled a giggle as she thought of the story she was about to tell. Ira listened in between bites of macaroni, intrigued.
"So we're getting ready for Candlenights right? I'm at work because I'm in residency, and I pretty much live at the hospital right now, right? So he's put off decorating till the last minute, like always," she rolled her eyes and smirked thinking of her husband. "He's been talking up this recipe for garlic and rosemary chicken all week, this is gonna be my first night home in a couple days so he wants to make it special. So he's finally finished up his music lessons for the day, which he has been pretty busy with cause he's volunteering to lead the caroling choir that's making charity donations for the food bank-, oh by the way he teaches music lessons," she added as an after thought, but tries to keep her story on track. "He finally got the chicken in the oven, and he for the life of him can not find the decorations! He checks the attic, the shed, the closet, under the bed,everywhere! And he's sweating cause he knows I told him that if it's not up by that night, I was gonna do it when I got home, and he was just not having that, because it's a matter of pride at this point," She shook her head and stifled a chuckle.
"So he's sweating cause for the life of him, he can not find these decorations anywhere, he gets so flustered he grabs our son Tian, he's 3 so he can't be left alone- not important," She waves away the tangent before continuing, "He goes to our neighbor Abram to see if he's got any garlands or anything!! And Abram's like 'ehhh, no, his husband really already took care of all their decorating days ago and really doesn't like messing with his vision," Cresseida giggled as she put up air quotes as she said it, and then continued. "But he says that maybe our neighbor Miriam has some," She begins miming out what she's describing in a comically animated fashion, and begins moving her arms like she's powerwalking while remaining seated in her spinny doctor's chair. "So now they're walking down the block to sweet old Miriam's house to ask her, and she's that kind of lady who will talk your ear off for an hour and you just can not rush her no matter how hard you try, and she's too old to give a care," She shakes her head and laughs. "She's a spitfire too, but anyways, She says, 'Oh yes, I think I got a box in my closet,' and Eddie- That's my husband's name- he's smiling and nodding but his eyes are glued to the clock cause he know's I'm gonna be back at 7:30, and it's getting pretty close to 6:50. And she slowly, carefully comes back with this little box of ooooold dusty paper chain decorations and crafts her kid made like 20 years ago, and he's like oh lord, but he can't not take it now, and he and Abram are looking at each other like what are we gonna do now?? And she's trying to get them to sit down and have a cup of coffee, she's getting snacks, but there's no time! So Eddie's like hey sorry, I have a chicken in the oven-! And his eyes go huge, cause he remembers 'Oh shit I ACTUALLY HAVE A CHICKEN IN THE OVEN!!' and they thank her for the box, snag it under one arm, holding our son in the other, and haul ass down the street! And ditsy Miriam is following them with a plate of cookies!! Where'd she get 'em from so fast? Who knows! Why is she following them?? Why is Abram still with him? I guess he's invested now!! Anybody's guess!" Dr. Noatak starts cracking up already.
"So basically, I come home, and my house is in chaos!! I'm smelling smoke, I see two of my elderly neighbors, one is haphazardly throwing up dusty decorations made by 10 year old 20 years ago, one is feeding my son bits of cookie and telling him about when an ice cream cost a nickel, and I'm looking for my husband, I notice the carpet is soaked, and I peek in the kitchen, and the sink is overflowing, the oven is wide open and still on, and my husband is trying desperately to salvage this charcoal chicken dinner he was making, and I'm just standing in the doorway of the kitchen and I ask him, what the heck is going on!" She stifles a snicker.
"He turns back at me wide eyed, overwhelmed, muttering half sentences about decorations, music lessons, ginger snaps, losing the decorations box and fossilized glitter glue and at the end he just shouts 'AND I REMEMBERED THE ROSEMARY CHICKEN!!!'
She bursts into laughter.
"My god, I didn't think he could mess up that bad if he TRIED." She still kept snickering. "And, you wanna know the best part??"
Ira was listening intently with the most baffled and amused look on her face. "What??" She was on the edge of her proverbial seat.
"I came up to him, gave him a hug and a kiss before I said, 'Uh… Honey?? What's that?' And I point to a big box sitting on one of the chairs by the kitchen table…. It was the Candlenights decorations! He had literally found and set out specifically so he would be able to find them!!" She bursts into laughter, and Ira, after staring aghast a moment, before joining in the laughter. "The look on that little man's face, I swear he was gonna pop, I kid you not!" She glowed with good humor.
"So… who ended up putting up the decorations?" Ira asked with a curious smirk.
"I did!!" She laughed. "And I ain't ever gonna let him live that down!!" she snickered, and looked back at Ira who seemed to giggle at the mental image of her exasperated husband, which made her smile.
The two women finished up the visit with a good humor, and it did Cresseida quite a bit of good to see her novel patient at ease, even just a little bit. With a grin still on her face, the young doctor grabbed two new books from off her cart and handed them to her bedridden ward. New to Ira, at least. The woman in bed raised her dark eyebrows in surprise and examined the covers of them. One of them said Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus and the other was The Journey To The West.
"More thoughtful donations from my mysterious benefactor?" She queried.
"It seems so," the doctor shrugged with a smile. "They look good to you?"
"Actually… yeah," Ira's face shifted to a soft reserved smile, as she flipped through the new volumes with great interest. "I was really not looking forward to not having anything else to take my mind off of sitting in bed here, and these look good,"
"Then good, I'm glad," Cresseida nodded. "I have to get going, but I hope you enjoy those,"
"Thanks I will," the infirm friend nodded back with a smile as her caregiver left and she returned her attention to the new books with a slight excitement.
She had begun reading for a while, having decided on Frankenstein after finishing Treasure Island. Many times she had to slightly slow her pace to properly decipher the archaic language used in the test, but she came to enjoy the slight difficulty, as it made her slow down and make the story last. As well as making her feel challenged and engaged. This made her flip back and forth through the pages as she compared unfamiliar words that showed up in different sentences, which provided greater context clues to hint at the meaning of the word. Grabbing a notepad on the side table, she began jotting down the newly decoded words and definitions, not noticing the slight smile on her face, having fun for the first time in a while.
In her study of the text, flipping through and examining the pages with detail, the leaves of paper once slipped from under her thumb accidentally as she turned to write something down, and she caught the book from falling by the front cover, dangling the whole weight of the volume on its spine, straining the aged brittle glue with a creak that made her cringe. The book seemed old, albeit in good condition, but she grimaced, not wanting to take any chances in damaging it. She halted and looked over the crease closely for tears or separation, when she noticed a smudge on the inside of the cover. Studying it closely, she rotated the book in the light as she made out the smudge to be an eraser mark. Tilting the book in the light just a bit more she could barely make out the indentations where it had once read in pencil, D. Baltimore
Her curiosity was piqued, as she then set the book down and wrote down, D. Baltimore on her notepad. She stared at the notepad with wonder, at what she guessed could be a clue to the origin of not only these oddly engaging books, but the benefactor of her hospital stay.
"D. Baltimore…." She spoke the words aloud, as if to make them real, staring into space with curiosity.