Page 50 of The Hitchhikers
She’d been angry, thinking his pain wasn’t as deep. He hadn’t carried the baby in his belly. He hadn’t felt the movements, the tiny secret thing that was all hers. He hadn’t felt the aching in her breasts, full of milk to feed a baby who no longer needed her. But maybe he’d felt other things that she didn’t know about. He’d lost his son, and for many months, his wife too.
Simon didn’t ask Alice to make lunch this time and instead passed around the stolen snacks. Alice didn’t want to eat the ill-gotten gains, but unfortunately, anxiety didn’t stop her appetite. She ate two chocolate bars and fed another to Tom, along with a bag of chips.
When it was time, they drove back downtown and parked the RV on a side street. As Alice and Jenny walked down the sidewalk, German music played from speakers, and when they reached the center of Main Street, calledThe Platzle, tourists slid coins into the giant cuckoo clock, laughing when a toy man popped out of the shutters and sang from the balcony.
Jenny didn’t seem to notice any of it. She stared straight ahead, her face grim, and her purse clutched in front of her stomach.
The doctor’s clinic was on the lower floor of one of the German houses. Jenny checked in with the nurse at the front desk, using the name Ocean, and Alice had a moment of bitter resentment when she remembered her first meeting with the couple, how she’d smiled at their charming, made-up names. They couldn’t be further from the peaceful hippies she’d imagined.
While they sat in the waiting room, Alice flipped through magazines and Jenny picked at her nails. She’d catch herself, and stop, only to begin again a few moments later.
They were alone, which was disappointing because the more people who saw Jenny, especially close-up, the better chance someone might recognize her. Mentally, Alice tried to will the nurse to study their faces, but she was focused on a task behind the front desk.
The phone pealed out a sharp ring that made Alice jump. The nurse answered it, then dropped it into the cradle, and got to her feet. “The doctor will see you now.”
They followed her down a hallway into an office that was painted soft green and decorated with plants hanging in macrame baskets and colorful abstract paintings. It was more cheerful than any doctor’s office Alice had seen before, but it still had the usual items—a large desk, three chairs, a scale, a small sink, and an exam table, which Jenny was staring at.
The nurse weighed Jenny and recorded her height in a file that she left on the desk.
“He’ll be along in a minute.”
After the nurse left, Alice gestured to the chair closest to the doctor’s desk. “You should sit there.” While Jenny settled, somewhat stiffly, into the chair, Alice took one across the room.
The doctor entered with a quick knock and a pleasant smile. He was maybe in his early thirties, with short blond hair that curled so tightly Alice was reminded of a cupid. Except instead of a bow and arrows, he carried a clipboard, wore a stethoscope around his neck, and his crisp white doctor’s coat was open to show a sky-blue paisley shirt. He moved in an energetic way, like he was excited for whatever the day was going to bring him. Despite herself, Alice couldn’t help feeling glad for Jenny—a younger doctor was less apt to shame her.
“Good afternoon, ladies, I’m Dr. Halverson.” He droppedinto the chair in front of his desk and spun it around, so he was facing Jenny.
“This is my aunt. I want her to stay.” Jenny blurted the words so fast Alice was surprised the force didn’t send the doctor spinning back around in his chair.
“That’s fine.” He nodded. “So, Ocean, I hear you’ve had some bleeding. Can you tell me when it started? Any pain?”
In a halting voice, Jenny went over what she had already told Alice and Simon. The doctor asked more detailed questions, like the color of the blood, quantity, if she was still bleeding. Jenny stared at her feet as she answered and fiddled with the strap on her purse.
“Okay, it doesn’t sound too alarming, but I’ll have a listen and check your vitals.” The doctor got to his feet. “I’ll give you a moment to get comfortable.”
He closed the door of the office, and Alice was left staring at Jenny, who was staring back at her with big blue eyes that shimmered with tears. She looked like a child, Alice thought, not for the first time, but as Jenny twisted the strap on her purse Alice remembered the hunting knife that she carried with her—and the crime she had fled from.
Childlike, maybe, but that didn’t mean she was innocent.
CHAPTER 19ALICE
“Do I have to takeallmy clothes off?”
Jenny said the words with such terror that Alice had the feeling that if she said yes, Jenny might faint on the spot.
“No.” Alice pointed toward the exam table. “Get onto the table and pull your top up a little, so he can see your belly.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” Alice waited until Jenny moved, then stood and grabbed the privacy curtain bundled against the wall, and slid it across its tracks, hiding Jenny.
Alice sat in the chair that Jenny had been using. The doctor’s desk was a mess of files and forms. In the background, paper crinkled as Jenny moved onto the exam table.
“Do I sit or lie down?” Jenny whispered.
“Lie down,” Alice said. “Just, you know, stare at the ceiling.” Where was the doctor’s pen? He didn’t seem to have a pen holder anywhere. They were probably in the top drawer. Alice was debating about whether she could open the drawer quietly when the doctor knocked and entered the office. He nodded at Alice, still with his friendly smile, so Alice assumed he hadn’t discovered in the last couple of minutes that he was about to examine a criminal.
“All right then, Ocean, are you ready?” He set his clipboard down—and on top, a pen.
