Free The French Girl by Felicia Donovan Page A

half the books Jean brought home for her,” Giselle said.
    Eppy laughed.  “Spoken like a proud Mamma,” she said. “I’m sure Jean’s thrilled.”
    “Yes,” Giselle answered.
    “And no period yet, right?”
    I looked over at the picture of the bears and shook my head.
    Eppy touched my knee.  “Isn’t that a great picture?  Your cousin is so talented.”
    “You did this?” I said turning to Giselle, who smiled.  Looking more closely, I saw “Giselle” painted in the lower right-hand corner.
    “The children who come in all love it.  Several of them have written stories about what happened next,” Eppy said.
    “What did they write?”
    “In one story, the reading bear trips and falls and ends up right here in this room, but is fine.  Nothing broken and the turtle’s hard shell saves it from being hurt.  In another story, the bear reaching for the leaf drags the reading bear over to help her catch more leaves and the turtle crosses unharmed.  But that’s not my favorite.”
    “What is your favorite?”
    “One patient wrote that the two bears stop and stare at each other for a few minutes because they are so in love, giving the turtle plenty of time to cross.”
    I liked that ending.  “Is that how it goes?” I asked Giselle, but she shrugged.
    “The story is whatever you want it to be,” Giselle said.
    “And what do you like to eat?” Eppy asked as she felt around my neck.
    “I ate everything Giselle made last night.”
    “Yes, but her tummy did not like it so much,” Giselle added.  “I should not have made so much food.”
    “Oh?” Eppy said.  She had me lie down and felt my stomach and listened to it with a stethoscope.  “Do you get tummy aches often?”
    “Only when I…” I began to say.
    “Only when you what?” she asked sitting me back up.
    “Sometimes, if I get …upset.”
    “Hop on down,” she said smiling.  “I think you’re fine.”
    “Really?” Giselle asked.
    “She looks great,” Eppy said as she made notes on my chart.  “Her ears, eyes, lungs, everything looks fine.  My only concern is her weight.”
    ***
    I had been leaning down tying my shoe and stopped as the words floated down to me. I suddenly felt the breakfast eggs stirring around in my stomach.
    Eppy turned a chart around for us both to look at. “She’s in the sixtieth percentile for her height, but only the thirtieth percentile for her weight.”
    “Meaning what?” Giselle asked.
    “Meaning,” Eppy said as she leaned over and poked me in the belly, “that you need to gain some weight.  But I’m quite confident that staying with Giselle will take care of that.”
    ***
    Gain weight?  This could not be true.  I could not believe my ears.
    “Are you sure?” I asked her.  “Because Maman …”
    “Because Maman what?” Giselle asked.
    I shook my head. “Nothing.”
    “I’m quite sure,” Eppy said.  “Remember, I’m the doctor.  We’ll check it again in a few weeks.  Eat whatever Giselle asks you to and you’ll be fine.  Now the only other thing we need to do is get your immunizations up to date.  The records they gave you,” she said speaking to Giselle, “are a bit incomplete.  She’ll need a quick booster to enroll in the school.”
    Giselle glanced anxiously at me.  “But I thought…” she said pulling me closer to her.  “I told her…”
    “It will be just a quick pinch, Etoile,” she said as she took a long needle from a tray.
    “Oh, Eppy, does she have to have that today?  I told her she did not…”
    “She does to get into school.  They can’t let her in without record of her immunizations being up-to-date.  Come on, Etoile; let’s roll up that sleeve…”
    “Eppy, is there anyway…”
    Eppy stopped, looked at Giselle and laughed.  “Etoile, do you see what’s happening here?”
    I shook my head.
    “Your cousin is afraid, but I bet you are very brave.  Maybe you need to hold Giselle’s hand while I give you this.”
    “Oh Eppy,