The elevator stopped at four. A Hispanic woman in her fifties and a boy of around ten got on. The boy was short, stocky, bespectacled.
His blunt face bore the unmistakable cast of Down's syndrome. Chip smiled at them. The boy didn't appear to notice him.
The woman looked very tired. No one talked. The two of them got off at three.
When the door closed, Chip kept staring at it. As we resumed our descent he said, 'Take that poor woman. She didn't expect thatchild of her old age and now she has to take care of him forever.
Something like that'll shake up your entire worldview. That's what's happened to me-the whole child-rearing thing. No more assumptions about happy endings.'
He turned to me. The slate eyes were fierce. 'I really hope you can help Cassandra. As long as she has to go through this shit, let her be spared some of the pain.'
The elevator landed. The moment the door opened, he was out and gone.
When I got back to the General Peds clinic, Stephanie was in one of the exam rooms. I waited outside until she came out a few minutes later, followed by a huge black woman and a girl of around five. The girl wore a red polka-dot dress and had coal-black skin, cornrows, and beautiful African features. One of her hands gripped Stephanie's; the other held a lollipop. A tear stream striped her cheek, lacquer on ebony. A round pink Band-Aid dotted the crook of one arm.
Stephanie was saying, 'You did great, Tonya.' She saw me and mouthed, 'My office,' before returning her attention to the girl.
I went to her consult room. The Byron book was back on the shelf, its gilded spine conspicuous among the texts.
I thumbed through a recent copy of Pediatrics. Not long after, Stephanie came in, closed the door, and sank into her desk chair.
'So,' she said, 'how'd it go?'
'Fine, outside of Ms. Bottomley's continuing antagonism.
'She get in the way?'
'No, just more of the same.' I told her about the scene with the nurse and Chip. 'Trying to get on his good side but it probably backfired.
He sees her as a shameless ass-kisser, though he does think she takes good care of Cassie. And his analysis of why she resents me is probably right-on: competing for the attentions of the VIP patient.'
Attention seeking, huh? There's a bit of Munchausen symptomology.'
'Yup. In addition, she did visit the home. But only a couple of times, a while back. So it still doesn't seem likely she could have caused anything. But let's keep our eyes on her.'
'I already started, Alex. Asked around about her. The nursing office thinks she's tops. She gets consistently good ratings, no complaints.
And as far as I can tell there's been no unusual pattern of illness in any of her patients. But my offer's still open-she causes too much hassle, she's transferred.'
'Let me see if I can work things out with her. Cindy and Chip like her.'
'Even though she's an ass-kisser.'
'Even though. Incidentally, he feels that way about the entire hospital. Doesn't like getting special treatment.'
'In what way?'
'No specific complaints, and he made a point of saying he likes you.
He's just got a general concern that something could be missed because of who his father is. More than anything, he looks weary.
