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In the ten years that she has known Charles, he has progressed through the following titles: Dr. Xavier, one of the many doctors looking after her at the hospital; Dr. Xavier, Daddy's childhood friend; Charles, Dad's boyfriend; and Charles, Dad's husband.
It’s still weird to think that the man who has known her since she was eight is now just as much her parent as Daddy and Mommy are. But it feels right at the same time; Charles was one of the team who kept her healthy.
She’s always grateful to him for that, in the ways she can be, and tries to watch him as he talks about work when they sit at the dinner table.
“Charles,” she says over one such dinner, “do you think I could shadow you one day this week? I’m thinking about being a doctor and wanted to watch from your perspective.”
Dad turns his head, pulls a face that is equal parts shock and awe, and looks at her. “When did this come up?”
“It doesn’t matter when it came up, dear; it only matters that Anya wants to see a day in the hospital. I’d be happy to take you in tomorrow. It’s Spring Break isn’t it?”
Anya nods, and looks back down at her plate of roasted chicken, rice pilaf and broccoli. She avoids Dad’s stare, and only has the vague impression that Charles is talking to Dad mentally about what she wants to do.
-
In her room, she feels smaller and more like the girl Charles first met than the young woman she really is.
She rarely asks for Charles’ time as she’s doing now, but she knows that if she doesn’t see a hospital from the other side, she might have no clue if pre-med is for her.
Don’t worry, Charles says mentally as she curls herself again one of her older bears. Dad’s fine with it. He’s just unsure where the idea came from.
That’s Dad, she knows and so she lets it go. Thank you, she sends back, and turns back to her bear and the packets of college acceptance materials. Decisions are all around her, and all she wants is a little comfort.
The materials blur together as she looks at them all before drifting off into a sleep she hadn’t seen coming.
-
She wakes to a crick in her neck and sore muscles from sleeping half curled around her bear and avoiding all the papers.
Couldn’t you have let me crush the papers? she asks Charles, still sore and rolling her shoulders.
I did more than enough by putting you to sleep. Just don’t let Dad know.
Of course Charles worries about what Dad would say to such a strange use of Charles’ power.
She says nothing else and gets ready for the day, eager to follow Charles back into the ward where she hasn’t been in years. She still remembers the way that everything was on her last visit, but she’s equally sure that something will have changed in the last seven years.
When they arrive, she walks side by side with Charles and smiles as a new receptionist gives her a visitors’ badge. She desperately wants to take a selfie as she and Charles enter the elevator, but remembers that phones aren’t part of hospital policy.
I won’t tell if you take it, Charles says mentally. She pulls out her phone and takes it before the doors open.
Stepping back here and not being a child is odd; she feels too old on one side and not old enough on the other to be here.
Just follow me, Charles says as he takes her by the elbow and leads her into his office.
-
The hours at Charles’ side fly by too quickly for Anya to properly catalog everything that he does on a regular basis, but as they settle back into his office after rounds and a few hours with the children, it is so much clearer that she wants to do what Charles does.
“I assume you went into medicine because of what happened to you,” she says quietly as she watches him leaf through paperwork.
“I did, but it was hard to know what I knew and not sound disingenuous. That’s the hardest part.”
She nods, because it makes sense. She’s never asked him, or Dad, about their time together as boys, but she knows it was not easy for either of them.
As if on cue, Dad’s head pops into the room along with the aroma of Italian food.
“Up for lunch?” he asks as he walks all the way into Charles’ office. Anya nods as Charles shuffles papers, making room for aluminum containers.
Dad says nothing, unusual for him, but Anya lets the silence fill the room and is content to think about what her life holds in the future.
She may have not met her best friend in a hospital, but there’s no telling what will happen next. Dad has found a chair and is almost curled into Charles’ space as they share a large portion of eggplant parmigiana.
Stranger things happen every day.