Getting dressed, I couldn’t get over how pleasant everyone was here.
Approaching the front desk, the receptionist looked up from her paperwork. Handing her the file, she scanned it quickly, signed the bottom of the page and then made out a check in my name.
“Here you go,” she began as she handed me the check. “Thank you again. Will you be back tomorrow?”
“We’ll see,” I responded while stifling a yawn, “depends on what they’ll do to me. Being a guinea pig is harder than I thought.” I winked and she laughed.
All in all, it was an easy way to make $250. I was going to have to endure a whole lot more poking and prodding if I wanted to pay my tuition though.
“Cassia!” Amy pushed her short, plump legs to go faster as she ran to catch up to me. Lunch bag in hand and back pack over her shoulder, she huffed and puffed as she asked, “How did…the testing…go?”
I slowed down to meet her pace. “Good, thanks. Can’t say I’m crazy about getting my blood taken though.”
Laughing out loud, she nodded in agreement. “I think that’s a pretty universal loathing.”
Smiling in spite of myself, I always enjoyed Amy’s twist on vocabulary. Amy Gates, my friend for the last two years in university. I was grateful to have found such a wonderful human being.
“Are you going back tomorrow?” She inquired throwing a fresh piece of gum in her mouth. Offering me a piece, I declined with a polite wave of my hand.
“Yah, I have to if I want to make my tuition next week.” My heart sank as I thought of the possibility of not making enough. Archeology was my dream, if I couldn’t finish school, I’d be devastated.
“How much more do you need?” Amy looked up at me with a worried frown.
“Only $500, so if I go two more times that should cover it.” I rolled my eyes as I added, “Of course, that means I don’t have any money for food this week, but who needs food right?”
Amy didn’t appear to see the humor in my statement as she clutched her lunch bag a little closer to her chest.
“What tests did they do on you?”
“Just blood test and MRI this time. Who knows what other crazy things they have in store for me?” Wrapping my sweater tightly around me as a gust of fall wind swept by, I sighed. “At least it helps the students learn, right?”
“What sort of things are they looking for…with your blood I mean.” Long strands of her blonde hair whipped at her cherubic cheeks as she gave me an inquisitive glance.
“Everything I guess. I had to sign a waiver before I started and it said something about red and white blood cell count and DNA evaluation…whatever the students in the lab need to learn I guess.” I shrugged as I watched a flock of robins suddenly dart into the sky from a nearby maple tree. The campus was littered with trees shifting from summer to fall, the school sat stoic amongst the golden and copper shades of autumn.
“A waiver? What kind of waiver?” Amy’s professional alter ego sprang forth with suspicion. As a second year law student, she was trained like a bloodhound to sniff out shady contracts.
Realizing I shouldn’t have said anything, I sighed, “Just a paper saying that if I fall down dead from their tests, I won’t sue. Oh, and that I give them permission to send my results to some government census project.” I mumbled the last part in hopes that she might not be paying attention. I was wrong.
“What?!” Her lunch landed on the ground with a thud as she spun to face me. Her eyes wild, she was obviously appalled. “Haven’t I taught you anything?! The government! Cassia…” She held me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes. “The government is corrupt; they could use your own blood against you.”
I fought hard not to roll my eyes and I bit my lip to prevent the smirk that wanted to spread across my face. She was a big conspiracy nut and according to her; the government was out to get everyone.
Bending over, picking up her lunch and handing it to her, I shook my head, linked my arm in hers and started walking again. “Amy, honey, you have to learn how to relax.”
Chapter 2
“Ahh, back for more, huh?” The receptionist at the front desk gave me a teasing grin.
“Yah.” I shrugged. “I guess I enjoy a little torture first thing in the morning.”
“Haha, just take this sheet down to admitting and they’ll get you started.” She smiled sweetly as she handed me a sheet of paper.
“Thanks.”
I wandered through the corridor of the university, passing several students along the way. Each smiled warmly at me as we passed one another.
“Friendly bunch.” I mumbled as I walked to the admitting booth.
“Hi there.” A bubbly young woman greeted me.
“Hi.” I replied as I handed her the sheet.
“Wonderful, just head down to x-ray and they’ll get you prepped for the mammogram.”
“What?!” I’d heard those were terribly painful, what was I getting myself into?
Cringing as I walked down the hallway toward x-ray, I imagined my poor breasts being squashed between two metal plates that slowly moved closer and closer together like a present day torture device.
“Money for my tuition…money for my tuition.” I reminded myself, gritting my teeth.
Turning into the lab, I walked up to a young woman dressed in a lab coat. Cheerily, she nodded as she greeted me hello. “I’m Deborah, do you have your waiver with you?” Handing her the paper that would give her permission to inflict pain and suffering upon me, she guided me to the back to change.
Slipping once again into a gown and tying it in the back, I wandered out into the waiting area. Spotting me, Deborah walked quickly to retrieve me.
“Follow me, please.” She smiled and directed me with her pointer finger as she led me down a hallway. Turning into a dimly lit room, she instructed me to have a seat near an enormous piece of technology.
Warily, I searched for the little window that the students usually stood behind and watched their specimens from. Exhaling a sigh of relief as I didn’t see one, I could feel my shoulders relax a little.
“Please remove your gown and place your left breast on the plate.” The young student asked politely. Standing beside me as I took off my gown, I heard a quiet gasp escape her. Looking at her face, I saw that her eyes were firmly focused on the anomaly between my breasts. “What…?” She began with a bizarre mixture of fascination and disbelief painted on her face.
“It’s a birthmark, weird huh?” I could feel the burn of embarrassment reach the tips of my ears. Making a mental note to have my freakish birthmark covered with a garish tattoo after all of this, I turned my front torso away from her gawking stare and placed my left breast onto the cold plate of the mammogram machine.
Silently, Deborah turned and walked to the control room to begin the test.
After twenty minutes of torture and having my breasts squashed like pancakes, I wandered back to the change room. Closing the curtain behind me, I massaged my aching chest and then proceeded to get dressed.
“Thanks again.” The happy receptionist handed me my money and I left the building clutching my throbbing bosom.
“This had better be worth it!” I muttered as I headed back to my dorm room.
The hard noodles clinked against the sides of the pot of boiling water as I built myself a bowl of macaroni and cheese. As steam rose above the pot, I was reminded of the smoke that swirled up into the sky from the huge bonfires on the reservation.
I missed my home. Well, my foster home anyways. No one, not even the Hopi elders, seemed to know where I came from. My So’o, adopted grandmother, raised me from infancy after she found me abandoned in a cave near the village.