asses.'
Valerie nodded, reaching for the papers. He held it back to read the last page. He looked up at the receptionist.
'What's this `waiver of claim to any tissues removed' part?' The receptionist eyed him with bored weariness. 'If you want to take it home with you, hon, you'll have to ask the doctor.'
It took a moment for Ron to realize what she meant. Valerie had already turned white at the thought of the nurse's sugges-tion. She seized the papers from his hands and signed them.
'Thanks, honey.' The receptionist's tone was flat, almost mechanical.
'What a gross-' Ron began to whisper before Valerie shushed him.
'You do that every time I have to sign something,' she said in a low, clipped tone. 'This is a university hospital, for God's sake. They're not going to have me sign my soul away.'
'You haven't heard about as many malpractice cases as I have.' He looked up at the receptionist. Her gray-blue hair shimmered oddly in the fluorescent lights. 'Excuse me,' he said in a commanding lawyer's voice.
'Yes?'
'We'd like a copy of this.' He handed her the form.
'Sure, hon,' she said without looking up.
They sat in the waiting room. No one else was there. Occa-sionally, an elevator door would open somewhere nearby, and an orderly or resident would come around the corner to pass through wordlessly. Valerie felt strange, as if she were moving through her paces in some sort of low-grade horror film set in a hospital. Everything seemed to acquire altered meanings. The glance of an orderly, the clatter of gurney wheels against linoleum, the smell of Lysol and formaldehyde. She put her arm through Ron's and held tightly. His other hand stroked her blond head. A tan, leggy nurse entered through a doorway. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties, with deep auburn hair and hazel eyes. She looked as if she should have been in some vaudeville skit as a beautiful yet brainless comic foil. She carried herself with grace and dignity, though, and her icepick gaze belied any sense of vacuity.
She picked up a folder from the receptionist and said, in a voice with just the barest trace of a European accent, 'Valerie Dalton, please follow me.'
'May I be there?' Ron asked, standing.
'I'm sorry, sir. The doctor doesn't allow that.'
Valerie rose, paused, then hugged Ron as hard as she could. 'I love you,' she said.
'I love you, too, sweetheart. I'll be right here.'
'And I'll be right back.'
He nodded, a sudden look of concern on his face. He tried to smile. 'You do that.' She turned to join the woman. The pair disappeared behind the light green door.
'They never let the man in there, hon,' the receptionist said in her tobacco-scoured voice. 'You guys just keep fainting.'
He gave her a withering glance that went nowhere, since she wasn't looking up at the moment. He sat back and picked through the magazines on the table. If men spend their time out here, he thought, how come all they have is Redbook and Cosmopolitan?
The outer doors opened. Another couple walked in. The woman was in her twenties, brown haired, sweet looking. She wore a loose-fitting kaftan in a natural beige tone. Her purse was a leather hobo sack that hung lightly from her shoulder. She was about Valerie's height and seemed imbued with a nervous good cheer. She kept an arm around her escort.
The man she was with was a sort of sandy blond. His skin was sunburned pink, with the characteristic white zone around his eyes that marked him as a skier recently returned from the slopes. An aquamarine cotton windbreaker covered a blue shirt and jeans. He was muscular without being husky and radiated a ready enthusiasm.
Probably do this all the time, Ron thought with minimal char-ity.
The receptionist looked up and smiled. 'Head right in. Nurse Dyer will get you ready.' He frowned, his suspicion confirmed. Preferred customers. The blond man sat at the far side of the room, pulled a paper-back novel from his jacket, and calmly started to read. Ron shook his head. Some people could be too cavalier about it. ' Valerie followed the nurse into a larger than normal exami-nation room containing white enamel cabinets and medical
