“Could you find my mom or my dad for me?” she asked. She knew she didn’t sound half as brave as she had earlier.
“Of course. I’ll tell them to come by as soon as your meeting with Lacy is over,” the doctor promised. “It’s very nice to meet you, Annie. I think we’re going to make a lot of progress together.”
Annie watched her leave the room, then closed her eyes again. There had to be some mistake, she told herself. There had to be. But somewhere deep inside, she knew that Dr. McDaniels had been telling the truth.
Without even realizing it could happen, Annie had almost killed herself.
* * *
When the door to her room opened again, Annie was hoping it would be her mom and dad. Instead, the woman who walked in, wearing white slacks, a brightly flowered uniform top and thick-soled white shoes, had spiked black hair and a pierced eyebrow. The uniform and name tag gave away the fact that she was a hospital employee. Otherwise Annie would have thought she was a college student or maybe a member of some rock band.
“Hi, Annie,” she said cheerfully. “I’m Lacy Reynolds.”
“The nutritionist,” Annie said, surprised.
“Ah, I see Dr. McDaniels told you about me.”
“Not that you’d be so young and cool-looking,” Annie said candidly. “I wish my mom would let me pierce something.”
“When you’re my age, you can do whatever you want. See? There’s something to look forward to.” The woman grinned at her. “Doesn’t mean I’m not tough, though, so watch out. When it comes to what goes into your mouth in this place, I’m in charge, and believe me, there’s nothing that happens that I don’t find out about.”
Despite the warning, Annie couldn’t help liking her. At least she laid everything out there so you understood the rules.
“Dr. McDaniels said you were going to talk to me about food,” Annie said. “My mom knows all kinds of stuff about food and I hang out at her restaurant a lot.”
“Then you know something about food, too,” Lacy said. She took a small notebook out of her pocket. “Let’s talk about what you’ve been eating lately.”
Annie squirmed.
The nutritionist continued to wait, her pen poised above her pad of paper. “Well?” she prodded.
“I eat a lot of different stuff,” Annie claimed eventually.
Lacy gave her a disappointed look. “Here’s the first rule with me, Annie. You have to be honest. If I don’t know where you are, then I don’t know how far we have to go. Let’s be specific. What did you have to eat the day you wound up in here?”
Annie tried to think back. She’d skipped breakfast that day except for a few sips of water. At school she’d bought a salad in the cafeteria and eaten a few shreds of the carrot on the top. When her friends had come over, she’d made a pretense of eating the pizza her mom had ordered for them, but one bite had made her feel sick.
“I wasn’t feeling hungry that day,” she said eventually.
“Come on, Annie. Just be straight with me.”
“I had a salad for lunch and pizza when my friends came over,” she said, embellishing the truth.
Lacy didn’t make a single note, just kept gazing at her until Annie blinked and looked away.
“Okay, I ate some of the shredded carrot on the salad and a bite of pizza.”
Lacy nodded and finally made a note. “Any idea how many calories that is?”
She shrugged. “I told you, I wasn’t hungry.”
“A hundred at most, and that’s if you’re even being honest with me. Nobody can survive on that, Annie. You do understand that, don’t you?” She waited until Annie nodded before going on. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. You and I are going to work out a plan. While you’re here, you’re going to have three meals and three snacks a day. At first these will be very small, just a couple of hundred calories more than you were eating, but we’ll increase the amount until you’re up to the number of calories you should be eating.”
“No way,” Annie protested. The thought of all that food made her feel physically ill.
“Here’s the alternative, then,” Lacy said, her tone unyielding. “You’re not going to starve yourself on my watch, so we’ll insert a feeding tube to make sure you get the nutrition you need. You need to think of food as medicine for now. It’s the thing that will make you well and allow you to go back home and live a full and happy life. I know that’s what you want, and it’s my goal to make sure you get it. It’s up to you to decide which way we go with this.”
The thought of a feeding tube made Annie cringe. “What kind of food?” she finally asked.
“You and I will decide that together, along with some input from your folks. At first it will be really simple, basic things. Maybe some fruit or crackers and juice, part of a turkey sandwich. Someone on staff will be here when you eat to make sure you eat everything you’re supposed to for each meal or snack. If there’s something you can’t eat or can’t finish, we have a nutrition shake you can have to replace the calories. You might only need an ounce or two, depending on how much of the meal you don’t eat.”
Annie was appalled by the regimen. She was going to feel like some kind of animal in a zoo with people watching every bite she put in her mouth. “How long does this go on?”
“For as long as it takes to get your lab work normal and your heart rate back up. Your whole team will make that decision. That’s Dr. Lane, Dr. McDaniels and me. The monitoring of your food will go on even after you leave here. I’ll work with your folks to see that they understand the food plan.”
Annie felt tears welling up in
