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“Flonia Rugova?”
I thought that Flonia had stopped midsentence because Nurse Wayman had called her name, but she hadn’t made any move to get up or acknowledge the sound of her name and when I looked down I saw that she had actually fallen asleep.
“Flonia?” I laid my hand on her bare forearm. Her skin was cold to the touch. “I think it’s your turn.”
“Oh!” she cried, startling awake. The color in her cheeks darkened and she stared at me as if she didn’t know who I was.
“Miss Rugova?” The nurse was standing over us. “Dr. Mondello will see you now.”
Flonia smiled at me and got up. The book of poems fell tothe floor. I picked it up and handed it to her. “Czeslaw Milosz!” she exclaimed, as if she’d never seen the book before. “I love him. Thanks!”
Dr. Kathy Mondello, a tall woman with closely cropped gray hair and large serious eyes, listened as attentively to my symptoms as she did to my heart and lungs. She peered into my throat and ears, palpated my glands, and took my blood. She asked me the standard questions.
“Any shortness of breath?”
“No,” I answered, recalling the gasps I made while making love to Liam.
“Heart palpitations?”
“I don’t think so.” My heart felt like it was racing right then as I thought about Liam.
“Dizziness?”
“Not really.” I didn’t think the swoony feeling I got when I looked into Liam’s eyes counted.
“Weight loss?”
“I wish! I’ve been eating like a truck driver.”
“Really? Because I noticed your pants are loose. Have you weighed yourself lately?”
I admitted I hadn’t and she asked me to step on the scale. I was five pounds lighter than when I’d weighed myself last, which was just before Christmas.
“Do you eat at the cafeteria?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Why? Do you think this is some kind of food poisoning?”
“No, there’s been no stomach involvement, but I am seeing a lot of anemia. I wondered if there was some food at the cafeteria that leached iron from the blood. Certain foods are iron absorption inhibitors—red wine, coffee, tea, spinach, chard, sweet potatoes, whole grains, and soy. Have you been eating large quantities of any of those foods?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I answered.
She sighed. “Neither have any of the others who have anemia. I’m afraid it was a bit of a screwball idea.” She laughed good-naturedly at herself. “But not as screwball as my first thought.”
“And what was that?” I asked.
“Vampires,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows in mock horror. “Honestly, when I started seeing all this anemia my first thought was it’s like all these kids are being drained of their blood.”
