First week of May

I’m just going to do it, thought Gab, as she crossed the campus between classes. After all, Mr. C. had given her his number when she’d left and had invited her to call anytime. Of course, she hadn’t. It felt like crossing some invisible boundary. Still, Gab wasn’t the same person as she had been only three months before. So she dialled, not even thinking that it was during school hours and that Mr. Cheng would be teaching—until she got his voicemail. It caught her off-guard and she hung up quickly.

***

“Gab, I’m worried about you. You’ve been feeling sick for a month,” Freya said.

“Yeah,” said Gab, sitting on her bed in her pyjamas and hugging her knees to her chest. “It sucks. I hate it.”

“Do you think maybe … Is it worth going to the doctor?” asked Freya.

“Don’t like doctors,” muttered Gab, breathing in slowly through her nose, and trying to ignore the acrid taste of bile seeping up the back of her throat. Then she realised what she’d said. “I mean, … sorry Freya. I don’t have anything against doctors. I just don’t like going to them.”

“Don’t you?” asked Freya. Gab shook her head.

“Mum’s a hypochondriac,” she explained. “She’s always afraid of what’s happening in her own body. It’s like it’s a stranger to her. She takes twenty pills every morning, calls out for painkillers at the drop of a hat, and I’ve lost hours of my life listening to detailed weather reports on the state of her bowels.”

Freya could’t help grinning at Gab’s narrative flair.

“Plus,” added Gab, “why would I want to go tell a stranger such personal things? And why would I want them to touch me?” The thought of telling someone how she was feeling and then being treated flippantly or patronisingly squeezed Gab into a tiny place. Freya wanted to explain why it might be a good idea after all but then caught herself. Instead, she said,

“I know what you mean. But, if you like, I could take you to see my mum at her clinic? I know you haven’t met her before,” she added quickly, “but you and I get on pretty well—and you’re adopted as an extra sister now, remember?”

Gab thought about it. She didn’t mind the idea of talking to Freya’s mum so much actually. And, she had been curious for a while about meeting her.

“I guess that sounds okay,” agreed Gab. “I’ll see your mum … if … she won’t mind? Will she?”

“Course she won’t,” Freya reassured her. She hid her relief well, but Gab wouldn’t have noticed it anyhow—because she felt relieved herself.