"theres a lady who knows
all that glitters is gold . . ."
in which a wannabe hero leaves the safety of her own life to help a girl
with a very strange problem.
...
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THERE ARE A LOT OF MOMENTS IN A PERSON'S LIFE WHEN THEY THANK GOD THEY DON'T HAVE KIDS.
Conner had been excessively asking questions about the concept of an MRI for at least ten minutes straight, and DJ had been picturing the one line on that pregnancy test to keep herself sane. She forced herself to answer every single one of his questions with no annoyance in her voice, not wanting to make him feel bad or think he was a burden.
The sun shone down on them with low intensity, granting them the peace of a warm day without uncomfortable heat that was normally present on a summer day. While DJ was a native Californian, who grew up on the beach, she was still a complete recluse who opted to stay inside for most of her teenage years. So she was thankful for the soft breeze blowing her hair around her head.
They had only just left the Tower for the doctor's office, where DJ was bringing the other two occupants of the Tower along with her to her MRI. She was, frankly, terrified for her first time being slowly whisked into a metal tube. Thanks to Gar, who stayed up late reading medical horror stories about the kinds of mistakes that could happen in that environment. The night before, when DJ had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, Gar found her in the hallway and told her about how metal isn't allowed in the MRI room because it could be drawn to the machine and kill whoever was inside. He had only just started to give her a real example of this happening when DJ heartily told him to fuck off.
Conner was unintentionally not helping, as his questions were ones that DJ didn't have many answers to and forced her to have her phone open on Google. After almost every search came a whole mess of warnings and possibilities and symptoms, and DJ was pretty sure she was going to have a panic attack.
Luckily, Gar noticed the scared look in her eyes and decided to come up with a new topic that would surely be more confusing to Conner and open up even more questions. The other boy took the bait and he and Gar were sent into a rousing discussion on plumbing.
DJ still wasn't completely calmed and decided to stop and drink some of the water she was advised to drink plenty of. Gar was in the middle of trying to explain what happens to what's in the sink after it goes down the drain to Conner, who was intently following. She sat down on a park bench and took a few deep breaths while chugging down her water, eyes jumping from spot to spot.
The thing that finally brought a wave of peace to wash over her was the small group of robins jumping around a foot away. A smile settled on her face as she watched them scavenge for crumbs dropped from the passing strangers.
DJ whistled lowly and held out one of her fingers, patiently waiting for one of the birds to fly over. Which one did, spreading it's brown wings and revealing an underside of red as it flew from the ground and placed itself on DJ's finger.
"Y-you-you remind m-m-me of so-om-m-meone." She whispered to the bird, even though it couldn't understand her.
"Woah." Conner said. He was staring with wide and amazed eyes at the bird.
