OCR Text |
Show 198 "You go to a lot of trouble," she said. "We like to minimize the risks," he said. She cringed when he took the plastic-sheathed needle out of his white breast pocket. "Don't worry," he said, "it's really not that bad." He removed the needle from its sheath and connected it to the tubing over her arm. "Everyone keeps saying that," said the woman, "but you know it's exactly as bad as I think it is." "If you don't want me to," said the man in white, "I won't do it." He was already poised over her vein with the needle. "Just don't tell me it's not that bad," she said. He did it. Her blood curved up through the tube, traveled across the cot in an arc and disappeared down toward the floor. "Pump," said the man in white. "What?" Her eyes were closed now. "Pump your fist. It makes the blood go faster." She pumped her fist and the man in white placed a large "X" of adhesive tape over the needle, securing it firmly into the crook of her arm. "I'm starved," said the man from cot twenty-three after his arm too had been punctured and the man in white had disappeared. "How about you? Hungry yet at all?" "No," she said. "I feel like my stomach is full of ice." "You'll feel better when you get your blood back," he said. |