“I hate needles” Melanie complained as they followed the nurse’s directions to the room to draw her blood.
“It won’t be that bad dear” her mom said, looking around as they walked down the dimly lit, gray hall.
“Won’t be that bad? Won’t be that bad! Do you know what happened last time someone told me getting my flu shot won’t be that bad,”Melanie said, looking at her mother as if she were crazy, “I ended up with a bruise half the size of a grapefruit on my arm!”
“It wasn’t that big Melanie” her mother said glancing at her glaring daughter.
“Oh yes it was” Melanie muttered under her breath. She had gotten little sleep last night and was in a bad mood because of the situation, plus, she was missing school because of this dumb DNA testing thing. Any ordinary day Melanie would have loved to miss a day of school, but right now school was the only normal part of her life where she could pretend everything was normal.
“Good morning!” a nurse who’s name tag read Cathy greeted them pleasantly. Melanie glared at her, she was in no mood to be pleasant. “If you’ll take your shoes off and hop right over there on the scale we’ll weigh you.” the nurse said, writing some stuff on a form. Melanie reluctantly took off her shoes, walking to the scale, she knew the reading would be less than her normal weight, she had been stressed lately and unable to eat because of it.
“Do you eat much?” the nurse asked, looking at the numbers on the conversion chart with a wrinkle of concern in her brow.
“Plenty” Melanie said with a hint of edge in her voice. Her mother shot her a look
“she normal weighs more than that,” her mother explained, “she hasn’t been able to eat well lately because she’s been stressed” the nurse nodded. Motioning for Melanie to step to the bar on the wall to measure her height. Melanie did as directed, then hurriedly put her shoes back on when she was finished, ready to get it over with, and get away from this place that might reveal a secret that she didn’t need to know, yet was dying to.
“Blood draw time” the nurse said after a few more routine things with a smile, Melanie let out a groan, and cursing under her breath where she couldn’t be heard, followed the nurse to a small room, where she sat in a chair to wait. Moments later a doctor walked in.
“Ok Melanie, this will only take a moment” he said putting the tourniquet on her arm. she closed her eyes, waiting to feel the prick. Moments later she was squenching her eyes in pain.
“There we go” the doc said, pulling the needle out. Melanie cried out, tears in her eyes. She never knew where her fear of needles came from, yet it had always been there. She dried her eyes as she slid off the bed.

“I’m home!” Melanie yelled, busting through the front door. “Mom, daddy!” she wondered why the house was quiet as she walked through it looking for a note or something “Nancy!” The maid appeared, not saying anything, but pointing into the living room. Melanie followed the point and saw her parents sitting on the couch as she entered the living room.
“Melanie, we have the results” her mother said quietly, her eyes filling with tears “and. . . they’re. . . Melanie. . .”
“you’re their child” her father finished quietly, his eyes tearing up.
Those words marked the beginning of Melanie’s world crumbling as she stood there stunned.

2000 Sparkie

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