I shrugged by shoulders; I honestly didn’t care about the polar bears. I cared moreabout my daddy rejecting me.
“Well, one season when they woke up they saw that all of the ice around them hadmelted away. At first, they worked together to try and find food, but found that it wasway too difficult to swim in the large pools of water with small cubs.”
I looked back at her; for some odd reason, she was holding my interest.
“They were all starving because they hadn’t eaten anything all season, but the risingtemperatures made it difficult for them to find seals. Do you know what happened?”
I shook my head.
“The family of polar bears broke apart. The momma bear stayed to protect the cubs,but the papa bear went off to fend for his own.” I inhaled deeply, my heart started tothrob from pain. I could relate to this story.
“Well, he didn’t find any seals. He swam and swam, until he reached a point ofexhaustion. Then, out of pure hunger and desperation, he tried to attack a baby walrus.”
Our eyes met, and I didn’t drop mine.
“He couldn’t even come close to that baby walrus because all of the big walrusescame to protect him and killed him for trying to attack their young.”
“What happened to the momma and her cubs?” I asked.
“The momma and the cubs survived because they stayed together, but it was difficultfor them to get by, without the protection of the papa bear.”
I ripped my eyes away and focused again on my hands in my lap.
“Nelly, they survived because they understand the power of family, of stayingtogether for protection and support. The papa bear lost his way, and eventually, he paidthe price.”
I still wasn’t getting it. She looked at me and leaned over and gently kissed myforehead.
“The papa bear thought that love was conditional and limited, and so he gave up onthe very thing that he needed most to survive.”
“Love.” I replied slowly. She shook her head.
“Don’t ever stop believing in the power of the family and don’t ever lose your way,”she said pointing her forefinger, and then she was gone. Just like that.
I blinked a couple of times. I heard the tittering of voices and laughter on the otherside of me. There was a huge blue curtain with giant size ringlets that was wrappedaround my resting station. I tried to move, but my body stiffened from a shard of painthat sliced through my lower leg and calf.
“Hey, you want to take it easy. Try and keep the leg still until Dr.
Vaskin comes in to put the cast on.”
“What? I thought my leg was already in a cast?”
The nurse just stopped and looked at me, like I had two heads. Then, he just stoodthere, motionless. He looked confused. He was a short stumpy man with big clown feetand huge Dumbo like ears.
“No, Dr. Vaskin will be here right after I take your vitals,” he said while clumsilyrolling over a blood pressure machine. He pulled out the thermostat and hurriedly placedit into my mouth and under my tongue before I got a chance to say anything. Just then, aman in his early forties walked in. He was holding a silver clipboard and flipping throughthe pages.
“Nelandez Reyes,” he said as he walked over to a computer that was nestled in thecorner of the room. He placed his hand over the mouse as he scanned over some darkskeletal images. His eyes jumped back and forth from the screen to the clipboard. Hetook his pen out of his front pocket and began jotting down some notes.
“It looks like you have a comminuted fracture in your lower right leg. If you lookhere you can see where the bone has been completely shattered,” he said while pointingto a dark area on the computer screen. He drew back and examined the image as if it werea modern-day masterpiece. The nurse pulled the thermostat out of my mouth anddiscarded the plastic cover in the trashcan.
“Where’s the other lady?” I asked. Dr. Vaskin turned around. He and the nurseexchanged clandestine looks, like two secret agents on a top-secret mission. They knewsomething that I didn’t know. Were they holding information back from me? Dr. Vaskinraised his eyebrows, rippling the age lines in his forehead.
“What other woman?” Dr. Vaskin asked.
“An elderly Elack woman. She helped me to adjust my cast. She told me the storyabout the polar bears.”
Dr. Vaskin sent another look to the nurse, who in turn rolled his eyes and proceededto wrap a blood pressure cuff around my arm. I looked at him; he worked hard to avoidmy gaze. I could only imagine what he was thinking. I ain’t getting involved in this shit. Idon’t get paid to babysit and deal with psychos. There was a long silence, almost likethey were both waiting it out to see who would answer me first. Dr. Vaskin, the higherpaid of the two cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Mr. Johnson is the only nurse assigned to this hall,” he said while adjusting hiseyeglasses and then looking back at his clipboard. There was a long empty silence. Then,an explosion of laughter erupted from the family who was on the other side of me. I heardthe beats from the heart pressure monitor; Nurse Johnson kept his eyes on the machine ashe squeezed the valve. My right arm swelled up like a helium balloon. Someone’s cellphone rang. I looked over and saw Dr. Vaskin pull the little gadget out of his backpocket. He checked the number on the front before he excused himself and walked intothe hallway.
“She was here,” I said, trying to convince both Mr. Johnson and myself that I wasn’tseeing things, imagining things. No! She was real. I needed her to be real. Nurse Johnsongot up and rolled the machine over to the corner, walked over
