The Second Heart by K. K. Eaton

asked, “Can
you show me where you feel the most pain?”
    Meredith gestured toward her midsection,
saying, “But it’s not my appendix. I had that taken out a couple of
years ago ‘cause it looked at me funny.”
    Ignoring the joke, Eleanor continued, “Okay,
well there are a lot of different reasons why you could be hurting
right now. I’m going to give you some contrast dye to drink, and
then the doc wants us to take some pictures to see what’s going on
in there. Sound like a plan?”
    Meredith nodded and Eleanor left, returning
after a moment with a Styrofoam cup full of blue liquid. A straw
bobbed up and down in the cup. Meredith looked at the concoction
dubiously.
    “It’s Gatorade with the contrast dye in it,
so it’ll taste a little metallic,” Eleanor explained. “Drink it all
up, and we’ll be back soon to take you back for your scan.”
    Meredith took a sip of the drink, making a
sour face. “Ugh, it tastes awful,” she whined. She took a deep
breath and then drank the rest of the cup down in several large
gulps, getting it over with.
    “Good girl,” Eleanor said. “Now don’t eat or
drink anything else.” She took the empty cup from Meredith and left
them alone.
    A little while later, a hospital worker came
in and showed them how to use the TV that pulled out on an arm from
the wall. He told them it could be an hour wait for the scan, and
to make themselves comfortable. Rob decided to go home and get
changes of clothes for himself and Amelia, and Meredith asked him
to get her cell phone as well.
    After he left, Amelia fished around in her
purse and pulled out a small spiral bound notebook and a pen. She
thought for a moment and then drew something on a blank page,
holding it up for Meredith to see.
    Meredith smiled. Her mother had drawn out a
game of Hangman, which was a game they used to play in various
waiting rooms when Meredith was younger. The puzzle Amelia had
drawn had two words, four and five letters long. Meredith guessed a
few letters, earning some filled spaces along with a head and
shoulders dangling from the stick gallows. After a few more tries,
she guessed the puzzle. “This sucks!” She said triumphantly,
laughing.
    Amelia grinned and handed Meredith the
notebook. “Your turn.”
    They went back and forth, playing several
more rounds of the familiar game while they waited. After a while,
an orderly came in with a wheelchair to take Meredith for her scan.
The morphine had started to wear off, so Meredith began to feel
increasingly uncomfortable again as she was wheeled away.
    For the test, Meredith lay down on a slab
that moved her inside a long tube. The technician told her to lie
perfectly still for the scan, which Meredith found very difficult
to do as her stomach cramped intensely. Fortunately, she was only
in the machine for a few minutes, and then she was taken back to
the curtained area where Amelia waited.
    Back in the bed, Meredith wished they would
come back with more morphine for her. She closed her eyes and lay
silently, hoping she might fall asleep or have some other escape
from the pain.
    As if she had read Meredith’s mind, Eleanor
came back into the room to check on her. “How are you doing,
pain-wise?”
    Meredith gave her a weak
I’m-trying-to-be-a-trooper smile. “Not so great.”
    “Well we don’t want that. Let me check with
the doc to see if I can make you more comfortable. Have they come
to get you for your scan yet?”
    Meredith nodded, closing her eyes and
clamping down her jaw in response to another wave of pain.
    “Good. The doc should be able to have a look
at the pictures shortly, and then she will come in to talk to you.”
Eleanor turned to leave, but changed her mind after taking another
glance at Meredith’s drawn face. She added, “It’s good you came in.
We’ll take good care of you.”
    After Eleanor left, Amelia commented, “I
wonder if that’s the warmest thing she’s ever said.”
    Meredith snickered through the ache in