The Popstar & Me

Chapter 10 - Oddly Romantic

Chapter 10

I can't believe I got to second base with Calvin over soup-dumplings last night! It's all I can think about the next day. I'm giddy as I follow my preceptor around, pretending to take notes about acupuncture points of the knee. 

She is so busy that she makes me interview new patients before she sees them to save time. I quickly discover that interviewing patients is not as straightforwards as asking them a list of questions about their surgical history and what is ailing them. None of the old ladies I speak to that morning can name what medications they are on. Some of them show me a picture of a green pill that they dig out of their back pocket and tell me it is for "good health."

I download an app that helps me to identify medications by size and shape. By noon I already know what all the hypertension pills look like. I may not be much of an acupuncturist, but I can consider myself a guru of shades of pill colors.

During my lunch hour, I can't focus at all on eating the lukewarm dish of duck blood and cellophane noodle soup, even though it is my favorite among the dishes in the hospital cafeteria. I toss some bits of my scallion pancake to the sparrows that swooped down from the rafters. There was something oddly romantic about this place, with its ancient wooden lockers growing soft and chipped with age.

 The crisp light from the windows seemed to filter in and leave dappled paintings of sunshine on the chipped tiles of the cafeteria. I didn't know anyone here, so I usually spent my lunch hours studying the sparrows.

Although I was alone, I felt strangely at home here. It's so odd to be somewhere where everyone ate noodles during lunch. It's not Chinese culture week at school or anything; this is just what people here ate all the time. It's like breathing a sigh of relief that I didn't have to force myself to eat that cardboard pizza where the cheese lifted off like a sheet of oilpaper that our public school usually served.

Finally, I decide to go outside for a walk in the courtyard. I could see the tin boxes of used acupuncture needles sticking out in the air like some medical version of the Iron Throne from the windows. The windows are open, and I could see glimpses of patients behind dark blue curtains. As I walk, I breathe in the dusty air from the nearby construction site. The air feels hot and warm against my skin; my Zara denim jacket feels wet and heavy against my skin. There's a downtrodden romance about this place like it's a gothic wonderland both familiar and strange, perhaps from a past life which I couldn't remember.

I replay in my mind my last words with Calvin before heading for my subway station.

"You're cool, Sara," he had hollered at me with a rakish smile on his face. "Let's have some fun, okay?"

Yeah, fun. This is fun. I'm a cool girl.

I don't need any defined relationships. I don't care about exclusivity. No, that's for the not-cool-girls. I'm one of the good ones.

Yeah, I think to myself, this is perfect. This is exactly what I want. Who wants to be Calvin's girlfriend anyway?

Maybe I do. . .

"Xiao Yishen Mèimei," a voice comes from the doorway leading into the stairwell. There's a man smoking a cigarette who is holding the door open with his foot. I recognize him even though he has sunglasses on. Also, he's the only one who would call me "little doctor" because my acupuncture patients all know that I'm most definitely not a doctor. It is that superstar Fang Yao who everyone seems to think is a big deal around here. 

No wonder he's hunched over, wearing giant sunglasses and smoking in an abandoned stairwell.

"Mr. Yao, you're here to see Dr. Su again?" I ask, in my best attempt at sounding professional. I'm lucky that he spoke to me in Shanghainese. I'm sure my Mandarin would give me away instantly as something who didn't have much schooling around these parts (I'm sure that's the common language in school).