“Smoking in here?”
“I didn’t think anyone would notice. I’ll put it out.”
“No!” Cynthia said. “I don’t mind. I could use one myself.”
A body appeared at the bedside. A female body. Extending a lit cigarette.
“Will you settle for a puff on this?” she asked. “I don’t want you falling asleep again with a lit cigarette.”
Cynthia had trouble finding the hand holding the cigarette. But finally she got the cigarette to her lips and took a puff.
“You’re right,” the woman said. “I shouldn’t be smoking in here. But it’s been a long day, and I’m a nice girl, and I figured, what the hell?”
Cynthia chuckled and took another puff on the cigarette, and in its glow saw that the woman was young, and wore a simple cotton blouse and a skirt, with a sweater over her shoulders.
“Would you like something to drink?” the young woman asked. “There’s water and 7-Up.”
“Oh, yes, please, 7-Up,” Cynthia said.
“Would it bother you if I put the lights on?” the young woman said. “I don’t want to spill 7-Up all over you.”
“Go ahead,” Cynthia said. “Who are you?”
“My name is Amy Payne.”
“You’re a nurse?”
“No.”
“I was wondering where your uniform was,” Cynthia said.
The lights came on, painfully bright. It took what seemed to be a long time for her eyes to adjust to them.
When she finally had everything in focus, she saw that Amy—attractive, but no real beauty—was extending a paper cup to her.
Cynthia quickly drank it all, and held out the cup for a refill.
“If you promise not to gulp it down the way you did that one,” Amy Payne said. “I don’t want you to toss your cookies.”
Cynthia chuckled. She liked this woman.
“Funny, that sounded like a nurse talking,” she said. “But okay. I promise.”
“Not to gulp? Girl Scout’s honor?”
“I said I promised,” Cynthia said, and added: “Actu ally, I was a Girl Scout.”
“So was I. I hated it.”
“Me, too,” Cynthia said.
Amy gave her another glass of 7-Up. Cynthia took a sip.
“If you’re not a nurse, what are you doing in here?” she asked.
“Actually, I’m a doctor.”
“You’re putting me on.”