Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Stairwell

On my thirteenth day out, I went back to the hospital lobby and waited by the elevators for Dr. Ellerker.

I had been renting a room over a laundromat for ninety dollars a week.

It had a mattress, a sink and a window that didn't open.

I had spent the first nights lying on that mattress with a towel against my nose, and the towel was never white by morning.

By the thirteenth day I could not climb a flight of stairs without stopping halfway.

The elevator doors opened at ten past four, and Dr. Ellerker stepped out with a coffee in his hand.

He saw me and stopped so suddenly that the coffee slopped over the lid.

"Please," he said. "Not here."

"Here is the only place you'll stand still," I said.

My voice was a rasp.

"You told me I had five years if I found a donor. You wrote it on my chart. I watched you."

"Mr. Thurlow."

"Who paid you? Was it Corbin?"

His face went gray.

People in the lobby had turned to look at us, a nurse and an old man with a walker and a woman holding a child's hand.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, louder than he needed to.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not asking for money. I'm asking you to put me back on the drip."

"I can't."

"You can. You're the only one who can."

He glanced at the door, and I saw him measuring how many steps it was.

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