The Pelican

Part 1

Outside the window of Ocean Hospital, it was all sunshine and free time, nothing like the deluge that awaited Nassrin Fahadi inside. By the end of the day, she was going to hand in her resignation and rejoin the sunshine. Inside was a jungle of patients and problems. Outside was freedom. Inside, the company thanked her for her work by handing her more work. Outside there was no company. There was a man she called Tallahassee. She kept him tucked away in another town (the name of which you can likely deduce). He was the slice of her life she was going to run to.

Nassrin turned from the patient's window and buttoned her white coat. She liked being a doctor, and liked the patients, too. This was the part she was going to miss. She smiled at the elderly man in the bed--the patient with heart failure. He squeezed her hand, and she told him she would see him tomorrow. A lie. No matter how many patients she cured or how much revenue she pulled in, Nassrin would always be an outsider to Doctors Inc. She had sung and danced without acknowledgment for too long. Nassrin dashed across the hallway, past the sailboat picture to the lady's room. Time to practice.

The lady's room was humid, something wrong with the ventilation. Nassrin took a deep breath and steadied herself with her hands on the porcelain sink. "Dr. Aberdeen," she said to her reflection. "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work at Doctors Inc. You run the loveliest hospital I've ever had the pleasure to work in, but I'm going in another direction."

Nassrin swallowed and frowned at her reflection. Disingenuous. She studied her reflection, looking for truth. She had been born beautiful. Some said it was the warm shade of her cashew skin and hair the color of midnight. It wasn't her hair, though; it was her eyes--the way they could morph from green with flecks of gold to a rich chocolate brown. Try again.

"Dr. Aberdeen, the patients at Ocean Hospital are lovely, but Doctors Inc is a monster." This brought a twinkle to the eyes of her reflection. She pictured herself away from here, at bar on the beach with Tallahassee. Aberdeen hired two more doctors to lighten the load, but Nassrin still felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. Again.

"Dr. Aberdeen, I'm tired of your stupid hospital! Your new doctors are a bust, your leadership stinks, and I quit!" Nassrin shouted.

A woman crashed through the door; her arms laden with a large box. The woman dropped the box at Nassrin's feet with a thwomp. Nassrin jumped and covered her mouth with her hands. She was at a loss for words. The woman was Dr. Aberdeen's wife, Isabelle.

"How much of that did you hear?" Nassrin asked. She looked down at the older woman whose thin lips were set in a tight scowl.

"It would be a shame for you to quit now, dear," Isabelle answered. "Look inside the box."

Nassrin knelt down and pulled back a flap. She couldn't allow Isabelle to derail her resignation. Tallahassee and her new life were waiting for her. She had to get to Dr. Aberdeen. "How did you find me?" Nassrin asked.

Isabelle snickered. "I just followed your emphatic diatribe on this stupid hospital. Hand me one of those," she said, pointing to the contents of the cardboard box.

Nassrin pulled a glossy magazine from a stack in the box. "What is this?" she asked, handing Isabelle the copy.

"Le Crème de Gilbert," Isabelle replied holding up the magazine. Le Crème de Gilbert was not as preposterous as it sounded. The magazine title could have been if Isabelle pronounced it like the outsiders. Gill-Bert. Le crème de Gill-Bert sounded like a redneck moniker gone bad. No. It was pronounced Jill-Bear. It was French, like the roots of the town. Not that the town had much to offer. Gill-Bert would be a name more befitting of the strip mall laden, fast food-loving town. Gilbert did have a few miles of coastline, but its coast was made of rugged sand along the Gulf of Mexico that was muddy, and algae infested. Gilbert wasn't taking any tourists away from Clearwater or Panama City, to be sure.