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Ben had absolutely no idea what to say. That sounded expensive. He nodded at the doctor, not sure if he’d be able to fill the prescriptions, but he didn’t say that out loud to the doctor.
“Excellent. Alicia here,” he gestured to the nurse beside him, “will get you ready, then I think we’ll discharge you. Do you have a way home?”
He did not, in fact, have a ride home, but he’d figure it out somehow. He was fairly sure the hospital was close to the Red Line. Again, he nodded, then bolstered his courage to ask, “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Dr. Perez patted Ben’s blanket-covered knee. “Well, I want you to follow up with your regular doctor as soon as possible. Other than that, take care of yourself. You need to make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep and based on your iron levels, that needs to be increased as well. Are you vegetarian? Or vegan?”
“Um… sort of.” That was easier than saying he didn’t like meat very much and even if he had, it was too expensive to buy on a regular basis.
“Alright. I’ll write you a prescription for iron supplements as well. Alicia, see that he gets the pamphlet on nutrition for vegetarians.” He turned back to Ben. “There are ways to get iron in your diet that don’t involve eating meat. We’ll give you a list of foods to add to your diet, okay?”
Ben kept on nodding his head. He had no other answer. He ate what he did because it was what he could afford. But maybe the pamphlet would give him some alternatives he hadn’t thought of. His knowledge of cooking was sparse, at best.
“Good, good,” Dr. Perez said. “Hopefully I won’t see you soon, okay?”
“Okay,” Ben agreed. Everything felt intensely overwhelming to him. As much as he wanted to leave the hospital, due to the astronomical expense, he also wanted to stay. There was so much to do and Ben felt weary down to his bones.
The doctor and nurse left shortly after that. Ben expected it to take a long time to get out of the hospital but he’d been incorrect. Matt and Alicia came back a short time afterward to start getting him ready to leave. The IV was taken out, tape was removed, and Matt helped him get to the shower where mercifully, he was allowed to wash on his own.
He was given his clothes and wallet back in a clear plastic bag, as well as a set of new gray sweats by Matt before he’d vacated the bathroom. He wondered at the sweats, but perhaps they were the winter version of sending someone home in scrubs because the clothes they’d gone to the hospital in weren’t fit to wear. He pulled his pants out of the bag and saw that there was, in fact, a rip in the knee of one leg and a seam torn in the inside thigh of the other leg. The pants had been on their last legs, so to speak, for months now, but Ben had been hoping to make them last until at least January or February. That was a good time to thrift stores because people often cleaned their closets out after the first of the year. Maybe they could be patched. Ben sewed slightly better than he cooked, but the repairs didn’t need to look perfect. Ben was far beyond expecting anything in his life to be perfect.
Dressed, and holding his plastic bag full of belongings, Ben was placed in a wheelchair and taken to the hospital lobby. “Do you have a ride waiting for you?” Matt asked.
Ben hated lying but he didn’t see any help for it. “Um, yes. They said it might take a little while, though, because they’re in the middle of doing something. Is it okay for me to wait down here?”
“Sure,” Matt said. “That’s no problem at all.”
“Um. You can just leave me here,” Ben said hopefully. “I’m sure you have a lot of work to do.”
Matt laughed. “There’s always a lot of work to do, but right now that work is you. I’m sticking around until your ride gets here and I can pass you off.”
Damn.Ben was going to have to come up with some excuse for why his ride never arrived. His belly clenched with anxiety. What was he going to do? There had to be other people who didn’t have rides home. He couldn’t possibly be the only one. Ben was on the point of asking Matt what to do if his (completely fictional) ride never came, but he never got a chance to get the words out.
“Ben! There you are! Thank god. I thought I’d missed you when the nurse said you’d been discharged.”
He didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know who spoke, but Ben looked anyway. He couldn’t help himself. Simon had come back for him after all.
“Oh, good, there you are,” Matt said. “Okay, Ben, your ride’s here. Feel better, okay?”
Ben couldn’t believe his luck. He could talk with Simon, say a final goodbye and thanks, and then he’d be free to go on his own. There was a bus stop right across the street that would take him to an L stop and that he could take back home. It would most likely take more than an hour, and all Ben wanted to do was fall asleep immediately, but it would be far cheaper than having to pay for a ride share, let alone a taxi. Ben nodded at Matt, who turned around and headed for the bank of elevators, leaving Ben alone with Simon. The spasms in his gut moved up to his chest. His heart fluttered behind his ribs like a caged bird.
“Hi,” he said, his mind going completely blank.
“I see you got the clothes. That’s good.”
Ben looked down at his bag. “Yeah. I mean they kinda have to give them back, right?”
Simon smiled all the way to his eyes. “They do, yes, but I was referring to what you’re wearing now. I had them purchased and delivered here. I guessed on the size but they don’t look too bad. Besides, no one thinks it’s odd to have sweats that are a bit big.”
“I thought…” Ben stopped speaking. Simon had bought the clothes for him. That was completely unexpected.
“Yes, Benny?”
“I thought they were from the hospital. Because my pants ripped when I fell. You didn’t have to do this. I already owe you so much.”
Simon frowned down at Ben and he quailed a little inside. He didn’t want Simon mad at him. Ben looked down at the bag on his lap. His real clothes.
“Ben,” Simon said, his voice stern, but not loud. Ben was grateful for that. He didn’t want to be yelled at where everyone would see. “Ben, please look at me.”
