Page 24 of Finding Wonderland

“My tummy hurts.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” Isla scooped Mason up into her arms and noticed her wincing. “Where does it hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Mason whined, but she was clutching her right side. Isla didn’t know much about medicine, but she knew that wasn’t the side to have hurting.

Rushing out to the car, Isla buckled Mason in and headed straight to the hospital. She made a beeline for the reception desk in the emergency room.

“Is Dr. Forsyth here?”

“Yes,” a concerned nurse stood at the nurse’s station, “is everything okay?”

“I just really need to see her. Please. Tell her it’s Isla.” She shook her head as the nurse picked up the phone. “No, tell her it’s Mason.”

The nurse paged Vera, who came running around a corner a few moments later. She had on the standard blue scrubs and a stethoscope was loosely hanging around her neck. Vera placed her hand on Isla’s back as she led her over to an exam room.

“Hey, what happened?”

“I don’t know. The school nurse called saying she had a fever and a stomach ache but she’s clutching her right side so I thought…”

“Appendicitis,” Vera finished her sentence for her. “It could be, or it might not be. Lay her down here and let me examine her.”

Isla did as she was told, and Mason held tightly onto her hand. “It’s okay, baby. I promise.”

“Hey, Mason,” Vera gently tucked her hair behind her ear, “it’s Vera. You remember me, right?”

Mason nodded.

“So, you’re not feeling good, huh?”

“My tummy hurts.”

“It does? Hmm. Well, is it okay if I take a look at it?”

Mason nodded again, and Vera carefully lifted up her My Little Pony shirt and began palpating her abdomen. And just like Isla had feared, Mason cried out in pain when Vera was near her appendix.

“Yeah, that’s her appendix,” Vera looked up at her with sympathetic eyes. “But the good news, this is a common procedure and she’ll recover great. I know it.”

“Okay,” Isla nodded, trying to prepare herself for Mason to go under the knife.

“But I can’t do the procedure, so I’m going to get a doctor that can, okay? I’ll be right back.”

Isla nodded again as Vera left the room. Sitting beside Mason, Isla kept running her hands through her hair as she prayed over her. Religion wasn’t something Isla was in the habit of practicing, but she’d found herself praying more and more over the last year. Not that she had to think about why that was.

After a few minutes, Vera and another doctor along with several nurses came into the room. They explained the procedure to her and gave her forms to fill out as Vera changed Mason into a gown with dinosaurs on it. As they wheeled her out of the room, Isla held on to Mason’s hand down the hallway. When they arrived at the point when Isla couldn’t follow, she leaned down and kissed Mason’s cheek.

“I love you, Mason. It’s going to be okay.”

“I love you too, Mommy.” Mason’s smile was all she needed to let her know things were going to be okay.

As they wheeled Mason back to surgery, Isla grabbed onto Vera’s hand. She hadn’t fully registered that Vera had stayed right by her side until that moment.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“I know,” Isla exhaled for what felt like the first time in hours. “Can you go with her?”

“What?”

“Please,” Isla almost begged. “You’re a doctor. Can you be in the room with her?”

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