I could feel my anger starting to rise. Ivan squeezed my hand tighter. I looked at the good doctor, very seriously. “I don’t have at fu cking uterus, doc. There’s no go ddamn chance. Can we get the x-ray now, please?”
He looked stunned, but his medical curiosity got the better of him. “You’re so young. Why?”
Ivan said, his voice strained, “it was not by choice. One of your kind took it against her will.” I almost laughed when Tvan said “your kind” to the doctor, like he and all other doctors were a completely different species. In his mind, they likely were.
The doctor looked at both of us, his face dropped. He glanced to the open door. “Are those other two men coming back?”
“Eventually, yes,” Ivan said.
Dr. Williams got up quickly and shut the door. He sat down in front of us again. “Tell me what happened. It was a back-room procedure for cash, no? I’ve been hearing stories like this for years. I’ve been trying to find this doctor, but he moves around to different parts of the city, so it’s been impossible to track him down. He has an entire unit of police dedicated to finding him.”
I looked at Ivan, my eyes wide. He squeezed my hand, his face softer. He nodded toward the doctor, indicating I should tell him what happened. I sighed. i told the doctor the short version of the story about my uncle and what happened that night. When I finished, Dr. Williams had tears in his eyes.
“I remember you told me that doctors were the reason for his reactions in the operating room. I had no idea that you also had reason to ha te us. It makes what you did that day even more poignant,” he said, looking at me with pure sympathy in his eyes,
“To be clear, I did it for him, not you,” I said. Ivan let go of my hand and wrapped his good arm around my shoulders.
“Do you remember anything about the doctor? Where he was when this happened? A name? A physical description? It’s hard for most of the people he’s worked on to remember what he looks like. I’m not sure what cocktail he uses on people, but it seems like he wipes their memory,” he asked.
“Oh, I remember,” I said.
Ivan looked at me, then at Dr. Williams. “Whatever drugs he used on her likely didn’t work the same on her as other people. Redheads are different. She said she remembers being out for a really long time after the procedure. He probably had to change his cocktail for her.”
Dr. Williams looked at Ivan, completely surprised. “How do you know that redheads are different? There are doctors that don’t even know that.”
“You don’t want to know, Doc. Trust me,” I said.
He nodded. “We’ll abandon that line of questioning, no problem.
“I don’t remember the doctor’s name. I don’t think they ever said his name. They just called him “doctor” the whole time. But I’ll never forget what he looks like,” I said. I shuddered, thinking about his face.
“Can you give a description to a sketch artist you think? I’ve talked to hundreds of people that have been traumatized by this man over the years and not a single one of them can remember his face. You are the only one I’ve found so far,” he said.
I looked at Ivan. He could see the fear plainly on my face. He said to me, in Russian, “I’ve been looking for this guy, too. Ever since you told me what happened. That’s why Stephen and Viktor left. They’re asking the other doctors what they know about this guy. It might be useful to find out what the police know about him, but you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
I felt the shaking start in my body as I looked at him, answering in Russian, “I’ll do it, but we need to get on with this or won’t be able to walk out of here.”
Ivan pulled his phone out of his pocket, called a number, let it ring once then ended the call. Within two minutes, Viktor and Stephen were back in the room with us. Ivan looked at the doctor. “Give us the information for the police unit you’re working with. We’ll make sure she gives the description of him, but we need to get that x-ray so we can get out of here. If she goes, I go and nobody wants that,” he had a sense of urgency to his voice that made it clear to Dr. Williams that we needed to move fast.
He nodded his head. He stood up, “follow me.”
As we walked to the x-ray room, Ivan explained what was happening to Viktor and Stephen. I still had a hold of Ivan’s hand, but Viktor reached down and grabbed my other hand as we walked down the hallway. Dr. Williams set Ivan up in front of the x-ray machine. He had a lead vest that he gave me to put on so I could stand next to Ivan. He took a few x-rays, then walked back and adjusted Ivan’s arm to get a different perspective. The entire process was over in just a few minutes.
“It takes around 10 minutes to get the films, but I’ll hurry it along as much as I can,” Dr. Williams sald as he led us back to the original room we were in. He left us, telling us he would be back as quickly as he could be.
I still had a hold of Ivan’s hand, both of our hands in my lap. He could feel the shaking in my legs starting to get worse the longer we stayed. He looked to Stephen, asking, “any tricks to help make this better until we get out of here?”
Sephie
Stephen thought for a moment. “Boss is the only thing I’ve seen stop it for her. His touch seems to calm it down.”
I looked at both of them. “I’ll be okay. It goes away after a while, but I never know how bad it will get first. Sometimes I lose control of my body when it gets really bad. That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
Viktor moved behind me, his giant hands on my shoulders. He didn’t say a word, he just calmly stood there like he was willing my trauma to calm down. I took a deep breath. It did actually help. Dr. Williams walked back into the room with the x-ray films in his hand. He handed Stephen a card, as well. “That’s the police unit I’m working with. Each time I hear of a new person who’s come in contact with that doctor, I send them there,” he said as he clipped the films on the wall to look at them. He looked at them, looked at Ivan, then looked at the films again. He scratched his head, then turned to look at Ivan. “Your break is completely healed. Not only that, but I can’t even tell where it was to start with. That’s virtually unheard of except in very young children.” He looked to me, grabbing scissors from a drawer at the side of the room. He sat on a stool and rolled himself to Ivan. “Let’s get the stitches out so you can leave.”
He worked quickly, telling Ivan that he still needed to be careful with his arm. “Have you had any pain in your arm lately?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.