Page 68 of The Heat of Us

The chair made an awful screech as Patty rushed to pull it out and plonked down. “Honey, you are in for a treat.”

I gave Ben a grateful look and he gave me an understanding nod in return.

I sat my grandma down in Willowbrook’s waiting room and went up to the front desk.

“I’m here for Yelena Sokolova’s intake today,” I told the receptionist.

A clipboard of forms was handed to me and I sat down to fill everything out.

She was a little confused about what was happening which made me feel even more awful.

“Is this another scan? I already had one yesterday.”

She didn’t.

“No, babulya,” I told her gently. “This is where you’ll be living from now on.”

“Oh.” She crossed her hands over each other and her eyes went distant. I wasn’t sure she fully understood. “The green is very nice,” she said, glancing at the Willowbrook branding everywhere.

“Yes, it’s very calming,” I said, half-listening as I continued to write.

“But blue would be better,” she sniffed.

I chuckled lightly in spite of myself.

“Yelena!” a familiar voice called out.

My grandma beamed. “Dr. Lewis!” She started to try and stand up and he immediately rushed over to stop her, sitting in the empty seat beside us. We’d seen a lot of doctors and specialists over the years but Dr. Lewis was by far her favourite.

He also had a moustache. It was bordering on porn-stache levels of indecency.

No wonder my grandma loved him.

“I’m so glad I made it in time to help you get settled in,” Dr. Lewis and his moustache informed us.

“Alyosha. Look who it is!” I had not seen my grandma smile like that in…well, maybe ever.

This had to have been Ben’s doing.

Thoughtful fucker.

My grandma was much more lucid when she was given a tour of the place and shown her room. Leaning on Dr. Lewis’ arm a little too heavily, like the opportunistic lady I knew and loved.

I suddenly wondered what she would think of Hazel.

I thanked Dr. Lewis profusely when he apologised and said he needed to get back to another patient. It was priceless, what he’d done.

The heaviness in my gut returned when I realised it was my time to leave.

I couldn’t do it. But it wasn’t like I could stay.

So there I remained, stuck in the chair in her room staring at the door.

“It’s ok, Alyosha.”

I turned to her, surprised.

“This is for the best,” she told me firmly.

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