……………………….

“Mrs. Wilkins?” Dr. Morales asked to gain her attention again as she entered the room with her colleague. Dr. Morales had purposely chosen an older doctor to appease Tina’s need for an experience looking doctor.  Tina’s eyes were slow to take in the figures before her, because she was dreading the sound of the ‘Mrs.’ before her name anymore. “This is Dr. Porter, she’ll talk you through the procedure she’s going to perform.” before she could feel the cold withdrawn look any further from Tina, Dr. Morales left the room. Alice had left a long time ago, she couldn’t handle looking at the person who was going to destroy the last part of the gift her cousin had left with them.

“Mrs. Wilkins, I see th…”

“Tina.”  she said with her eyes closed at the painful use of the surname again.  “Please, just call me Tina.”

“Ok, Tina. I see that you’re going through the procedure of a willful abortion of an otherwise healthy fetus, correct?” she asked looking over the clipboard at the patient. She saw the way Tina was looking at her and chose to ignore addressing it, and waited for her answer instead.

“Yes.” she answered emotionless.

“And Dr. Morales has explained all of the options available to you , correct?”

“Yes.” again with no emotion as she stared ahead at this tall woman who talked to her like she was a wall with a monosyllabic answer for everything.

“Has she explained the side effects of the procedure to you as well?”

“No.”

Dr. Porter gripped the clipboard with both hands to her chest as she squared her feet with her shoulders and began to speak to Tina, “If you want we can sedate you for the procedure but, it’s generally not necessary.  And after the procedure sometimes up to four weeks you may have some discomfort. Like Nausea, Vomiting, abdominal cramping or pain in the stomach area and even spotting or bleeding.” she spoke without any indication that Tina cared or was even affected by the list of symptoms. “Also I should warn you that there are some emotional side effects.”

“Emotional?” she scoffed with a sad smile as she looked at her thumb rolling her wedding ring round and round on her thin finger. Tina lifted her head and looked at the doctor for the first time and spoke without a guard on her thoughts. “Dr. Porter, three weeks ago I was married woman and this procedure would’ve gone like any other surgery in your book. But today, standing there you’re telling me that getting rid of this thing in me is going to make me emotional?” Dr. Porter released a big breath and continued to listen as she now felt that another tirade was about to hit just as it did Carmen earlier. The only difference was that she was use to people yelling at her and that she rarely, if ever, buckled under anyone’s scrutiny.  “The fact that my husband is gone and I’m sitting here in a hospital bed alone making this decision is enough to make me emotional again.” her voice cracked trying to hold back the tears. “So unless this abortion can make me sublimely happy and make me forget my dead husband, there will be no change in my emotional state, I assure you.” she said with a stone face and lifeless eyes that cast nothing but grief through them instead of the light and joy they use to portray.