World of Glass by Jocelyne Dubois Page A

under a tree. I am calm. Dr. Killer comes in and sits on my bed.
    â€œYou wouldn’t live in the same place with the Inuit girl or Henry, would you?”
    â€œYes, I would. I’d probably take care of Henry,” I say. Dr. Killer gets up. He leaves a black leather briefcase behind. I open it. It is empty, except for a sandwich and a ski magazine. I close the bag and take it to the nurses’ quarters.
    â€œDr. Killer forgot his bag in my room. Please give it back to him.”
    Today, I am told that I can leave. Don, the nurse, shouts, “I hope I never see you here again!” I kiss the aboriginal girl goodbye.
    â€œDo you have a quarter?” she asks. I give her fifty cents. I ask an orderly for my street clothes. He takes me into a back room filled with huge stuffed garbage bags.
    â€œFind your things,” he says. I spend an hour going through bags looking for my grey sweater, black jeans, beige pumps. Finally I find them. I take the bag to the washroom, change and call Mark.
    â€œCan you pick me up? I’ve been released.” I kiss Henry goodbye. He rubs his cheeks as if I had left lipstick on him. I wait in a plastic chair for Mark. My books, magazines and paper in a Concordia Bookstore bag. Then I remember I don’t have my Medicare card. I go to the nurses’ quarters, politely ask them for my card. I put it in my wallet. A $50 bill is still in my wallet. A woman in her fifties with no teeth smiles and brings me coffee. She tries to sell me her gold earrings for $20.
    â€œNo thanks.”
    â€œHow about my rings then?”
    I sip the coffee black. Mark opens the door. He’s here to pick me up in his Communauto. He wraps his arm around me and escorts me to the parking lot filled with Porshes and BMW’s. We drive back to our apartment in silence. Then he says, “At first, I was relieved, bummed out. But then I started to miss you. How are you?”
    â€œI’m glad to be back.” My body feels fragile. My legs wobble like jelly, exhausted from the hospital, but I am clear-headed.
    â€œI hope we can make it together,” Mark says.
    â€œI’ll do everything in my power to make this happen,” I say.

CHAPTER VI
    M ARK HAS KEPT OUR place tidy while I was away. Plants have been watered. Cat fed. It feels good to be home. Mark goes to the corner store to buy milk and chocolates. I sit in a plastic chair on our front balcony and my eyes follow him along the sidewalk until he disappears around the corner. I clip my fingernails and breathe in the wind. Our neighbour who lives on the third floor opens her door. She is elderly and Polish.
    â€œWe not see you for a while,” she says.
    â€œI was out of town for a few weeks,” I say.
    â€œGlad you back,” she says as she holds onto the railing and steps carefully down the stairs to the sidewalk.
    â€œI buy coffee,” she says and smiles revealing her straight, white dentures. I wave at her then turn my head and see Mark slowly strolling up towards me. He is holding a bouquet of orchids, his nose in the air. I wonder what he is thinking. He approaches the steps to our apartment.
    â€œThat’s so sweet,” I say as he hands me the mauve flowers and I walk into our kitchen to put them in a white glass vase I fill with water.
    â€œI need to get my hair cut. I’m beginning to look like Einstein, or Frankenstein or maybe Gertrude Stein,” he says. I laugh until I cry.
    â€œI want to make love tonight,” he says. “It’s been a long time.”
    â€œYes,” I say. I do not feel attractive. The drugs take away my desires. But I take a bubble bath, shave my legs andarmpits, dry my body with a large soft yellow towel and spray Healing Garden mandarin scent on my elbows and neck. I wear my black lace top. I still don’t feel sexy but I want to offer my body to Mark. I want to please him. I walk out of the bathroom. He wraps his arms around me, kisses