Impuls

Aster

The corridors change to an operating room – glass doors, the smell of disinfectants, silence, a big sign with the surgeon's name and the number of the operating room.

She seems to be taking a good chance this time, or maybe it's just Charlie dropping in without knocking, bringing in more magic; but Clark, taken aback by the insolence, just nods and switches to her brother.

It's like hitting the jackpot.

Winning the lottery.

This time Emily is smart enough not to elaborate on why the answer is exactly that, and a quarter of an hour later she's already tailing Harmon, barely able to remember so much information.

– Clark has two nurses on the team: Sarah and you, yes; also Demp, the anesthesiologist, and the surgeon, who is Gilmore; and that's it, she's had enough – two nurses, Demp and Gilmore, remembered…? The second team, yes, Neal has the first.

He shows the sterile area through the clear glass: cabinets with sterilizers, a drying oven with envelopes, a safe with chemicals, a huge autoclave; you can also see the next room, the pre-op room: two sinks with elbow taps, dispensers, an iron safe. He tells us: this is all a super-clean operating room, where sterile air is constantly pressurized with a laminar flow through a bacterial filter.

– The cleaning of the operating room is all on the orderlies," Harmon repeats. – You only turn on the U.V. flashbulb, okay? Sarah and you have tools on, yes, processing; and paperwork. Lots of paper. Nothing extra, don't get your hopes up, at best she'll let you hold the drainage, at worst you'll be counting tampons afterwards, yeah, like a nurse. And what did you want, Johnson, you're not a surgical assistant, no, just a nurse, yeah. With a lot of new responsibilities.

– How long have they been working together? – Emily asks, while Harmon rummages through her closet, looking for clothes. – The whole crew.

– Nah," the resident shakes his head, going through hundreds of bags. – Demp didn't come in till January before last, and Sarah was right behind him; but the surgeon and he had been together for over three years, even before Moss…

– How long ago did Moss come?

– I wouldn't say," says Harmon, astonished, as he takes out a black hirsute suit. – Maybe two years ago, maybe three. Three, right? This is for you.

The dense black cotton pulls nicely on his hands; it smells sterile and new fabric. A simple, basic uniform: two sets of T-shirts and pants with an elastic band, but Emily holds the package in her hands in awe, afraid to move.

She's never been this close to a dream before.

– You have stars in your eyes, yes, stars," Harmon smiles.

She flashes, biting her lips, but she can't stop glowing; and the sun in her pocket, long forgotten, almost petrified, shines brighter than usual.

Harmon takes care of her – unexpectedly and pleasantly – once again briefly recounting all kinds of materials, from sutures to dressings, makes her practice on him by tying and untying her robe, gives her a smack when Emily mislays her optics, and laughs with her afterward.

– Let's do it again, come on, yes, do it again.

– Hands," says Emily, "hands to standard, dress herself, cover with Mayo covers, dress the others, treat the field, then incise film…

A smack.

– Ow! What for?!

– What tape," Harmon shakes his head, "you're not transplanting a kidney, so you won't have a field there, others will do it for you, yes, and Sarah helps you dress, yes, and then you help her, remember, so no tape, Sarah does.

Emily rolls her eyes.

– Okay, got it. Next up, stand to the right of Clark…

She successfully dodges the next smack.

– From the chief surgeon," Johnson corrects herself. – I remember: instruments, swabs, absorbent cotton, drainage…

After a couple of hours, she begins to feel dizzy from hunger, worry, and information; Harmon is a real resident – he beats the crap out of her intelligently, with a little effort, sometimes laughing, sometimes shouting; and Emily pauses between sequences to get a closer look at him: high cheekbones, wide chin, narrow lips with several scars, short dark hair the color of his eyes-the same brown-black hair; a tattoo can be seen from under his robe-a part of the pattern, not covered by his shirt, covers his neck. The same scar on his right cheek, the same tiny round glasses that made him look like an outlandish bird.

She didn't think he could be easy: Harmon seemed aloof to her, intimidating; but his laugh was infectious as hell, and you got used to the way he spoke, and he spoke as if he were repeating important points on purpose, which you wouldn't want to understand and remember.

James explains: change in the same place as always; locker is the same, key coming soon. Laughs: the previous one never did. The entrance to neurology is different, not through the main one, and should be forgotten about – and not to be seen by Olivia, because Moss is sleeping with her, and it doesn't matter what they talk about there. He's not going to let Moss see her either, and if she does, she's going to run like hell; Harmon repeats that Moss can't fire her, because she's in the Clark crew, and only the neurosurgeon herself is contracted to move her team; but she can make a lot of trouble for her life.

Stay out of anyone's sight, Emily just remembers.

– You'll get just over fifteen hundred pounds a month in a lump sum," Harmon informs her.

Emily coughs, catching air in her mouth.

lb1,500.

That's the most money she's ever touched in her life!

– How much?

– Sometimes it'll be as much as two," the resident went on, "if Clark puts you on duty with another brigade; and it probably will be-you need more experience, yes. With the other brigade, then; and then you'll come back. While you stand by her and watch, do all the basic, stand and watch, remember? Don't go anywhere, so no-here; then maybe something more serious, if she so chooses, of course, yes.

And then comes the moment she's been trying to avoid for so long.

– You need to buy a robe. No synthetics, cotton and polyester, you can have linen; but best of all, of course, satori or extraflex, remember, yes, satori, you can have linen, a robe, so.

– And what is Dr. Clark's robe made of? It's so beautiful. – Emily makes puppy dog eyes.

– Cotton, silk, polyester," the resident grins. – Liked it, too, didn't she? She takes it to the cleaners every two or three days, yeah, I've seen it myself, so it's a lot of trouble, yeah. But it's nice, though. And it costs a lot," Harmon grumbled.