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I dropped the towel and got under the covers, her smell all around me. The sheets were burning me, scraping lightly on my sensitive skin. She took a few steps towards me, eyeing me warily. She looked concerned. I was sure this was only a cold, but she was treating it like it was life-or-death.
“Why are you so concerned?” I croaked, my voice raspy and my throat on fire. “It’s just a cold.”
“Yeah, well…” she replied while setting everything down on the side table by the bed.
She pushed lightly on my shoulder, the movement making me lie flat on my back, my eyes closed towards the ceiling. The mattress dipped to my side, and a second later there was a cold feeling on my forehead. The relief was immediate.
“You are burning up,” she added, her soft fingers roaming my face, touching my neck, then the top of my head, pulling lightly on my hair. I groaned from the sensation, the sound obscener than what I intended. I could feel her attention on me, so I turned slightly to look at her. Her hair was up in that tight ponytail now. Her doctor hair.
“In all these years, I never thought I would become your patient,” I blurted. Clearly an idiotic, fever-inducedcomment. She scrunched her eyebrows in question but later relaxed her face. She stretched towards the nightstand and grabbed the glass of water and the medicine, then handed me a few capsules to take.
After I was done with the water, I settled back down on the bed, the washcloth now hot to the touch. She grabbed it and walked to the bathroom again, running it under the tap for a few seconds. My eyes were heavy, but I could still track her movements across the room. She looked tense, her shoulders tight and her body stiff, those loose limbs from the summer days gone.
“Come over here,” I said, barely audible over the rush of my blood. Everything hurt, and I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. “I need you close.”
There was a small sound from her direction, and then I heard her steps. She lay down on the other side of me, draping the washcloth over my forehead again, her hand caressing down to the back of my neck.
“That feels so good.” I was drowsy, a small smile forming on my lips despite how fucking awful I felt. I closed my eyes, then said, “You feel so good.” All of this was clearly fever-induced. I was loose with my tongue, saying things I would never say to her because she didn’t remember me. She wasn’t saying anything back, just idling there next to me, concern all over her face.
The mattress dipped again, and I felt her skin next to mine under the covers, her cold hand reaching out for mine, fingers linking together. Then my world went dark, thefever finally taking over and making me fall asleep, holding on to her tightly.
The door to Jazmín’s room had been left ajar that night. Usually when doctors or nurses were in with her, they would close the door behind them, giving them privacy with the patient. I could hear murmuring coming from inside, the dim light of the bedside lamp spilling out into the hallway.
“Yes.” Lucía laughed. I leaned on the door frame, looking into the room but hiding in the shadows. I was confident that they weren’t able to see me from where I stood. “That’s right.”
I squished my eyebrows together, wondering what they were talking about.
“So med school is six years,” she continued, lifting her hand and using her fingers to count. Jazmín’s eyes were rapt with attention, looking at her like she hung the moon. Like she was her idol. “And then pediatrics is four.”
“What?” my sister squealed. She moved under the covers, pulling her legs towards her body and sitting cross-legged on the bed. She leaned her torso and placed her elbows on her thighs, hanging on to every word the doctor was saying. “That’s a ton of time.”
Lucía snorted, and the sound was followed by a deep-chested laugh, airy and carefree around the edges. “Yeah.” She scrunched her nose. “But I really like it.”
“And what made you want to be a doctor?”
“Oh, it’s not one single thing,” she dismissed, almost like she was slightly hesitant about telling Jazmín the full story. “But my whole family are lawyers. I always knew that was definitely not for me. So boring.” She rolled her eyes, and Jaz giggled in return, leaning back against the pillows. Lucía reached behind my sister and wiggled one of them, making sure her head was resting comfortably.
“Yeah, but, like, there has to be a specific moment, no?”
Lucía smiled at her and gave her a little side eye, then said, “Alright, lady, time to go to sleep.”
“No,pluh-easeeeeee, stay with me until my brother gets here.”
I chuckled from my spot. That was such a Jazmín thing to say. She was desperate to be around people, as her days were long and boring. She never got along with other kids but favored grown-ups instead, so I understood where this affinity was coming from. She was curious about this kind woman. Hell, I was curious too.
“Okay,” Lucía whispered and stood from the bed, tucking the covers under Jazmín’s chin and smiling wide at her. She walked the few steps to the chair on the side and sat back down, tucking her legs under her and turning to face my sister. She blinked a few times, the silence stretching in the room, but her smile followed, and Jazmín’s face lit up. Expectant.
“When I was about your age, I had a friend that got sick,” she started, looking down at her nails and then back up at my sister. Her voice was even, like she’d practiced this multiple times. Her official narrative. Whatshe told everyone about her journey to becoming a doctor. “And she died before even having a chance to get treatment.”
Jazmín’s gaze snapped to hers, and they looked at each other for a beat. I couldn’t see my sister’s face well enough from my angle, but I was sure she was even more curious now. Curious to know if it had been at all like her. Pediatric leukemia wreaking havoc on her body.
“And I was still young, but it really made me wonder how those things happened, you know?” Lucía added, tugging at the stethoscope that was draped around her neck. “And it got a tad obsessive, but here I am.”
She winked and smiled, making a little joke of what had to have been a stressful moment. Or maybe not. She lifted her head and looked towards the door, and our gazes met. There was something behind her eyes, something I couldn’t quite place. Maybe concern, maybe familiarity or intimacy. But the lighthearted woman I was just listening to disappeared in a flash of a second. Her chin dipped, and she smiled, then turned to my sister and sighed.
“He’s here.” She spoke quietly, her movements cautious around her patient. Those words she uttered got lodged in my throat, stuck behind my heart for me to treasure. I was there; of course I was.
I startled awake, shaking those memories away. I was draped around Lucía, her body flush against mine in the bed. It was still dark outside, so I tightened my hold on her and went back to sleep, relishing in the moment.
