“Madam Lily, I want you to run a test for Mrs. Marino here,” Felix said to the middle-aged woman who was glaring hard at Gina in the office. Felix had called her after his horrendous chat with the mentally ill woman. He sighed in exasperation, recalling that the two women were never on good terms but no one understood Gina’s condition better than Lily. She was the only staff retained after an incident and she was the oldest of them all.
He inhaled deeply and added, “The test should be run immediately and sent to my office for review” his gaze averted to meet with Gina’s. “You should go with her now, I’ll see you later”
“Alright, darling” Gina replied in a cheesy manner to irritate Madame Lily. “I’ll be back. We do have a lot of things to talk about, later”
Felix was embarrassed by her words, feeling uncomfortable as he tried to avoid the scrutinizing gaze from Lily. She was one of those who had warned him concerning Gina, the one person who remained with him through thick and thin. Even when his hospital was almost shut down from the incident that occurred that year.
Gina and Lily walked out of the office, with the latter leading the way. A storm was brewing and there was no way they could keep silent without throwing shades. Gina was never the one to come last.
“Madame Lily” Gina called with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “You…”
“What do you want this time?”Lily interjected, clearly irritated by the fact that she was walking close to the woman she loathed deeply. “be fast about it”
“What’s keeping you on your toes?… Chill, dear. There’s a lot of time for chitchat” Gina replied, chuckling slightly, playfulness clearly in her tone. “I was going to ask, how many kids do you have now?”
Madame Lily could easily detect the mockery in her voice, her anger was about to be unleashed but she clenched her teeth, ignoring her. While she was still young, she was always shamed for her body shape- plump and chubby, which made her kind of shapeless. Ruthless remarks about her remaining single for the rest of her life had caused her to feel inferior to herself, thereby pushing her into a cage that had bound her till her youthful days were over. Now, she was too old to start a family of her own. She knew Gina planned to spite her but she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing her lose it…. But who would have thought that the exact opposite was going to occur?
Gina was annoyed by Lily’s silence but wasn’t ready to give up. The thrill she felt in the past when they had to bicker, was suddenly rising in her heart, she desperately wanted to feel it again.
“I thought you had a crush on Doctor Felix before?.. what changed?” Gina asked again, her voice filled with disdain. “He’s still single, you know. You can still try your luck”
“Why don’t you just come in and let’s see how punctured your brain is” Lily retorted with a calm demeanour, the moment she stood in front of a door with the word ‘laboratory’ written on it. “From what I’m seeing, you would soon be on the streets disrupting the peace of the community. Might be better, if we curb it now before it escalates”
Gina was greatly upset by her insults and decided to lay low for a while. She reluctantly walked into the laboratory and followed Lily’s direction.
“Lie on that” Lily directed, pointing towards a machine in the middle of the lab.
Gina was wary and asked cautiously,” What’s that?… I’ve never seen it before”
“Well, your condition never required its use,” Lily replied, her voice laced with an underlying meaning in it. “That’s a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI). It will be used to measure your brain activities and functions”
“Oh!” Gina exclaimed in realization, carefully pulling her shoes and laying on the machine with an unsettling expression on her face. “Don’t do anything stupid to harm me or you’ll regret it”
****
One hour after the test was concluded, Gina sat down impatiently waiting for Lily to bring the test results, her feet tapping endlessly on the floor.
“What is there?” She questioned as soon as she saw Lily walk out of an inner room with a sealed file in her hands. “Let me have it”
“No, you can’t have it” Lily refused outright. “What sort of nurse allows a patient to see his test results before the doctor does? That’s quite unprofessional, you better compose yourself” Lily scolded her as she walked out of the laboratory with Gina right on her trail. She was disgusted and also stunned by the result she had gotten. She subconsciously glanced at Gina, marveling at how she could remain calm all this while.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” Gina berated her in annoyance. “You better not be thinking of anything stupid in that thick skull of yours”
A throaty chuckle escaped Lily’s lips as she entered the doctor’s office but didn’t forget to stop Gina from entering. “You have to wait outside first. I’ll call you when I’m done talking to him” she declared, slamming the door in Gina’s face.
Lily walked into the office to see Felix pacing frantically around, obviously waiting for the test results. His pacing came to an abrupt stop when he noticed her presence.
“What is the result?” He asked with caution in his voice and a great sense of apprehension in his heart.
Lily inhaled deeply, her gaze wavering as she handed the report over to Felix, examining his facial expression. “Doctor, she has Severe Schizophrenia” She dropped the bombshell to Felix who was frozen, visibly shaken by the unfortunate news.
“Gina was suffering from Severe Schizophrenia, meaning she had become a danger to herself and the people around her,” Felix thought to himself. “She needed to be kept indoors, under close monitoring”
After much deliberation on whether to see Gina or let Lily attend to her herself, he decided to choose the first option. So he ordered Lily,” Let her in.. we don’t have a choice”