I Queued Three Hours for Her, But They Didn't Wait Three Minutes for Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Fast Track

No one will drive Bianca to the hospital, so she walks on her bleeding heels, where a nurse named Eli dresses them and says he is going to the same university; back at the villa a photo shows her boyfriend and cousin eating at a taco truck while she stood in the line.

The villa had three bedrooms and a pool, and I had paid the $640 deposit myself in October.

Tony took the first bedroom, Marty took the second, and Gabe carried Dani's bag into the third.

"It's quieter at the back," Gabe told me. "Dani's head is killing her."

I was left with the couch.

I sat on its arm and peeled one sock off.

The blood had dried to the cloth, and it came away with a strip of skin.

"I need to get to urgent care," I said. "I can't walk on these."

Nobody looked up from the menu they were passing around.

"Everyone's stuck on the interstate," Tony said. "No driver's going to come out here tonight."

"You could take me."

"I'm ordering dinner, Bee. Get an Uber."

I opened the app.

No cars were available in the whole valley.

Gabe finally glanced over, and for a second I thought he would stand up.

"It's like a mile," he said. "Walk it slow and you'll be fine."

So I put my feet back in the bloody sneakers and walked it.

It took me almost an hour.

The hospital's emergency entrance was crowded with people from wrecks on the pass.

The triage nurse took one look at my feet and put me at the bottom of the list.

"Fast track. Could be a while," she said. "Sit tight."

I sat tight for two hours.

At nine, a tall man in navy scrubs called my name.

"Bianca? I'm Eli. Come on back."

He sat me on a gurney and looked at my heels, and his mouth went flat.

"How far did you walk on these?"

"Two miles on the highway shoulder," I said. "Then about a mile just now."

"Who let you do that?"

"Nobody," I said. "That's the point."

He raised his eyes to mine for a moment.

Then he went and got a basin of warm water, and he knelt on the floor to wash my feet.

I had never had anyone kneel to take care of me.

I didn't know where to look, so I looked at the clipboard.

"Intake form," Eli said, without glancing up. "You skipped the occupation line."

"I'm a vet tech. Receptionist and tech, at an animal clinic."

"Not for long, it says here." He tapped the margin. "You wrote: starting at Edinburgh in January."

I had written it without noticing.

I had never said it out loud to anyone.

"It's a master's in conservation biology," I said. "I accepted it six hours ago."

His hands paused on my ankle.

"I start at Edinburgh on January 12," he said. "Global health."

I stared at him.

"You're joking."

"I wish. My mother thinks I'm moving to the moon."

He laughed, and I laughed too, a real one that cracked in my dry throat.

It was the first time anyone had laughed with me all day.

He peeled open a pack of thick gel bandages and pressed one over each heel, slowly, and held each in place until it stuck.

"Stay off them for two days," he said. "Wear shoes with a back that doesn't rub."

"I don't have any shoes with a back that doesn't rub."

"Then you'll have to buy some. Today's the day to treat yourself." He wrote a number on the back of a discharge sheet. "If it opens up, text me. It goes straight to my phone."

"You're not supposed to give patients your number."

"I'm not supposed to let patients walk three miles on a highway either," he said.

I took the paper.

I limped back through the dark to the villa, because it was the only place with my suitcase in it.

Gabe was on the patio with a beer.

"There you are," he said, and kissed my forehead. "You were gone forever."

"I was in the waiting room for two hours."

"We were worried." He held me by the shoulders. "We circled the rest area twice looking for you, Bee. Twice. You weren't in the line."

"I was in the line the whole time."

"Well, we couldn't see you."

He said it in his reasonable voice, and for a moment I almost let it stand.

Then I went inside and plugged in my phone.

The shared family photo album had a new picture at the top.

Dani and Gabe were laughing next to a taco truck parked on the ramp, each of them holding a paper boat of tacos.

The caption said: Dani feeling better!

The time stamp said 1:41 p.m.

At 1:41, I was standing in that line with my phone in my hand, and Gabe had promised me they would be right there.

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