A Five-Minute Life

“But what?” Dr. Milton prompted.

“But… I don’t know. I feel like…” She shook her head, confusion filling her gaze.

A few days ago, I’d panic but now I immediately knew what she was up to. I put my palm on the top of the broom and settled in to watch the performance.

“I… I’m… my…” She worked her jaw as if it had suddenly become stiff.

There she goes…

“My… may…” She glanced around in a panic. “Mais, qu’est-ce qui m’arrive?”1

Dr. Milton gave a start. “Beg your pardon?”

I stifled a laugh in my shoulder as Thea’s eyes widened and her hands flew to her throat.

“Je ne peux pas m’arrêter de parler français!”2

Dr. Milton stared at Thea, his jaw opening and closing. Dr. Chen, however, crossed her arms and mutely shook her head at an intern to stop taking notes.

“C’est normal?” Thea begged of Dr. Milton. “Qu’est ce qui cloche chez moi?”

“There is nothing wrong with you,” Dr. Chen answered, a bemused smirk on her face. “Nice try. Four years of French, here. Et vous?”

“Six,” Thea said with a giggle.

“What…?” Delia stared in alarm, then slumped in her seat. “Honestly, Thea, there is something wrong with you. Very wrong.”

Thea burst out laughing. “Couldn’t help myself. I finally found a good use for it.”

Dr. Milton chuckled. “Quite a prankster.”

“It gets old, trust me,” Delia said.

“If we could get back to our evaluation?” Dr. Chen said.

Thea shot me another smile and a sheepish shrug. I held up both hands, giving a ten-out-of-ten score, then the doctors closed in around her.

Rita meandered over to me, her hands behind her back and a shit-eating grin on her face.

“What?”

“Can’t say,” she said. “Girl code. I can’t say that Thea talked about you at the mall.”

“She did?”

“And at the risk of sounding like we’re back in junior high, I also can’t say the words drop, dead, and gorgeous were thrown around quite liberally.”

I inhaled the possibilities, then sighed them out. “Chapter three of the employee handbook, Rita. You know nothing can happen.”

Between Thea and me. Us. Whatever that might be.

“I do,” she said. “But if Thea continues to do well, she won’t be a resident much longer.”

“Really? It’s only been a few days.”

“I know and the doctors—not to mention Delia—are going to want to keep her for observation.”

“Is it dangerous for Thea to leave Blue Ridge?” I asked.