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People waved to them from their small houses, and there were a few hoots and catcalls, but Jessie ignored them valiantly, only stopping to smile at the odd child or two. It had finally stopped raining, but the ground was still slippery. Luckily they reached their destination before one of them slipped and fell into a puddle.
Jessie followed Aryan into the Anganwadi building - the first point of contact for anyone who wished to help the community - without comment.
She looked around and Aryan knew what she saw - a small, crowded waiting area separated from the doctor’s cabin by a plywood partition. It was a far cry from the clean and posh hospital that her family had endowed. There was only one nurse who did double duty inside the cabin and outside.
They were understaffed and overworked, as was evident by the frustration on the faces of everyone in the room, including the nurse.
“You’re late, doctor,” she scolded.
The waiting women juggled their children on their hips, as they added their voices to hers.
Aryan had hoped to drive Jessie home after this reality check, but he realised that he couldn’t leave now. Or for the next couple of hours. She was going to be hopping mad. That wasn’t his problem, he decided. If she was so desperate to leave, she could arrange to be airlifted from the end of the lane.
He rubbed his eyes, exhausted from being up for most of the night with a preemie in the NICU, followed by a full OPD in the morning. And now, he had a full clinic to look forward to before getting back to his evening OPD and hospital rounds. He had no time for this crap.
But he had wanted to teach Jessie a lesson, even though he knew well that engaging with her was toxic for him. He had wanted to scare her and make her say sorry for being such a pain in the ass. He hadn’t expected her to be so calm about it. She didn’t seem uncomfortable at all.
He took a deep breath and turned to her.
“I’m sorry, Jessie. As you can see, you can’t stay here. Here’s my phone. Call the palace and arrange for someone to pick you up. The nurse will give them directions if you like. Until then, you can wait in my car.”
“Umm, that’s okay, but why can’t I wait here?”
Aryan looked around the tiny waiting room pointedly.
“This is the only waiting area, Your Highness, and these are some seriously sick babies. If you catch an infection here, your mother will kill me. So take my phone and my car keys, and just wait in the car,” he ordered.
Aryan turned away, his mind already on the outbreak of viral diarrhoea in the community.
He took one step towards his cabin and was mobbed by yelling women, all of whom claimed to have got there first. He tried to reason with them, but he knew from experience that there was no reasoning with a mother who had been up all night with a child who hadn’t stopped throwing up and pooping for more than twenty-four hours. Each felt that her baby deserved to be seen first, and they said so loudly. And his nurse was of no help as she was busy cleaning up poop and vomit.
At first, he thought he imagined the whistle because the room was too noisy for the sound to register properly. But the second one was louder and longer and very, very piercing. It shocked everyone into silence.
As one, they turned to stare at Jessie, who pulled her fingers out of her mouth sheepishly.
She flashed them a sweet smile as if she hadn’t just silenced a roomful of quarrelsome women with two loud whistles. But when the woman standing next to her opened her mouth to say something, Jessie held up one hand imperiously.
“Please, let’s not have any more shouting. Dr Sharma, don’t you have a patient register of some sort?”
Aryan rolled his eyes. Trust the princess to waltz in here and act like they were a bunch of idiots.
“Of course, we do. We also hand out token numbers to the patients on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis. But we’re in the middle of a bad outbreak of viral diarrhoea, and all the mothers are worried about their children. This happens, Jessie. Sister will deal with it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down her nose at him.
“Yeah, well. Sister is busy doing things that she’s grossly overqualified for,” she said, wrinkling her nose at a puddle on the floor.
“We’re doing our best here, and Sister is cleaning up because we don’t have the budget to take on any more helpers,” snapped Aryan.
Jessie put her hands on her hip and surveyed the room thoughtfully.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Sister, please leave the cleaning up, and start sending the patients in by token number. I’ll organise the cleanup.”
Aryan and the nurse looked at each other helplessly.
“Jessie, please, just get out and leave us to do our job. You’re wasting our time,” said Aryan wearily.
“You really are Dr Clueless, aren’t you? I’m trying to help you, dumbass,” snapped Jessie.
