Free Donor 23 by Cate Beatty Page B

status.
    “That’s fine,” Melnick replied. “We have everything we need.”
    As the treadmill came to a stop, Joan collapsed on the floor. Melnick and Garcia remained intent on the readout. Chin went to Joan’s aid.
    “I’m fine,” Joan panted. She pulled herself up.
    Melnick walked over to her. “Did you say you’re fine, 23? You’re quite strong, you know. You have the heart of a lion. Doesn’t she, Dean?”
    Joan was taken aback. He couldn’t have known her last name was Lion. Indeed, he did not. Yet the coincidence unnerved her.
    After the tests were completed and Joan dressed, she realized she didn’t have the rose. She went back into the first exam room. Chin stood there, looking at an x-ray. Joan hesitated.
    Chin smiled at her, “Yes, is there something I can do for you?”
    “I forgot something…it’s on the floor over there.”
    “The flower?” Chin bent and picked it up. “It’s beautiful,” she commented, as she handed it to Joan.
    Feeling confident, Joan mustered up the courage to ask her, “How did I do on the tests?”
    Chin gritted her teeth, “Very good.”
    “So I don’t have anything to worry about?” Joan said with optimism.
    Chin averted her eyes from Joan’s. Looking at the flower, she said, “A present from someone?”
    Joan blushed, “It’s from a…friend.”
    Chin watched Joan leave the room, grief evident in her eyes. After the tests, she had seen what Melnick wrote in the girl’s chart. He scribbled his recommendation for a heart and lung transplant and placed the chart in an envelope. Then he looked intently at his watch for a moment, as a doctor does when noting a patient’s time of death. When he sealed the envelope, he sealed Joan’s fate, too.
    A minute later, Ellie walked into the room.
    Chin looked at the nurse reproachfully, “I’m supposed to just forget about it? Don’t keep count? Really?!”

9
    J oan smelled the rose, oblivious to Chin’s discontent, as she walked down the hallway to the stairwell. On a whim she decided to take the power lift, and she walked into one as it was closing, along with a crowd. After a few minutes of stops with people getting on and off, she realized the power lift was going up. She exited at the next floor. Back to the safety of the stairs, Joan laughed to herself. She strolled, concentrating on the rose, when she realized the stairs were not where they should have been. This floor was laid out differently than the others. She wasn’t sure which way to go.
    Down the hall, she saw the pink-haired nurse handing a sealed manila folder to someone behind a counter. Joan walked over to her to ask her for directions, coming up to stand right behind her.
    “Just see this gets to Dr. Oxman. It’s important,” the pink-haired nurse instructed.
    “Right,” Oxman’s receptionist said, rolling her eyes.
    “No kidding. This’s important. It has to do with Our Governor.”
    At the mention of the Governor, the receptionist perked up. Joan, standing behind the nurse, heard everything.
    “Well, really it’s about his daughter.”
    The receptionist looked interested now.
    “Yeah,” the nurse continued, “they’re gonna want Oxman to operate on Tegan Gates. A heart and lung tax from some donor.”
    Joan’s legs almost gave out from under her.
    “Exciting, huh?” the pink-haired nurse continued, as she began to walk away from the counter with her back still toward Joan. “I’m going to request to assist at the operation. Cool, huh?”
    Joan stood there, a few feet away from the counter, speechless.
    The receptionist looked at her questioningly, “Can I help you? What a pretty flower!”
    Moments later, Joan burst out the medical center doors—the same doors she had admired hours earlier. She ran, not knowing where she was going. The tests had taken hours, and it was early dusk. She ended up at the Fitness Center, a place she felt safe. Hurrying to the field, she went into the stands and curled up under the seats. She