Under the Elms

Antidote

Prince pulled to a stop at a stop sign and flexed his fingers. They were  starting to cramp, as he was clutching the steering wheel too tightly. How could he leave knowing she’d lost her lunch on the side of the road! He should have stayed and called from there. Now she’s on her way to the hospital without me.

Driving quickly but carefully to the hospital, he continued to fret at the fact that he’d had such a bad feeling about this party without acting on it. He began praying to Jehovah, asking, begging for her protection in this terrible circumstance. Arriving, he parked, pulled his hat down over his eyes, jammed his shaking fingers in his coat pocket, and walked straight in the emergency ward. He wished for the first time that he had a cell phone, so Kirk could tell him where they were. He didn’t have to look far; Kirk and Auntie Vi were sitting in an empty waiting area. Oblivious to the unusual circumstance of an empty waiting area, Prince rushed to her side, asking, ‘Where is she? Is she all right? What did the doctor say?’

‘Slow down, baby! If you’ve been praying as hard as I have, you know she’s in Jehovah’s hands, and there’s nothing better on this planet. She’s in the back, I don’t know how she is, because no doctor has come out just yet. I can tell you that she didn’t come to in the ambulance, and the EMS people were very serious in their asking about what she ate.’

That was all Prince needed to hear. He was up and through the doors labeled ‘Hospital Staff Only’ before she finished talking, glancing at curtained cubicles, trying to ascertain where Sofia lay. As he was rounding the corner where the nurses’ station was, the nurse behind the counter stood, smiling broadly, and called out, ‘Aren’t you Prince? THE Prince ?’

‘Yes, ma’am, I don’t have time right now. I’m looking for Sofia Brown.’

‘She’s right here,’ said a young woman in scrubs, hair pulled back in a no nonsense ponytail. ‘I’m Doctor Washington, and I’d love to ask you some questions. Come with me, I’m sure you want to see her.’

Pulling a sliding door open, she revealed a very wan Sofia, looking like a slightly green Sleeping Beauty. Prince’s first thought was to climb in the bed and wrap his arms around her, but the doctor’s voice as she enclosed the three of them inside the cubicle pulled his attention away from his love. Pulling the privacy curtain closed, she relayed the information he was desperate to hear.

‘We just got the bloodwork back-we did a rush on it, and my hunch was right. Your fiancee was poisoned somehow. Congratulations, by the way, and please know that information doesn’t leave my lips for anyone else. The antidote is on its way from the pharmacy, and she should be all right in a few days. Coincidentally, I was reading a medical journal on accidental poisoning and treatment just last week, and Sofia presented with all the signs of mild arsenic poisoning. Do you know of anyone who is an enemy of hers, or do you think this was a weird accident; or, does she have a history of self-harm?’

‘What do you mean, mild?’ Prince hadn't heard anything past poison. He was struggling to keep his composure with the news; he really wanted to shout and throw things.

‘If she’d had more arsenic, she wouldn’t have made it,’ the doctor stated bluntly. ‘Here, sit down next to her.’ Doctor Washington was afraid she was going to have two patients, as all the color had drained from Prince’s face. She winced internally. I could have worded that last part more tactfully.

Prince took Sofia’s right hand, the one that didn’t have tubes or leads attached to it, and turned back to the doctor after gazing at his beloved’s still face. His own face was set as stone. He regroups quickly. I thought he was going to pass out; now I think he'd like to kill someone.

‘To my knowledge, she has no enemies. She’s a public school teacher of over ten years, with no actions taken against her. There was a party today in her honor, and she became ill immediately after.’

‘Yes, her aunt filled me in. It sounds accidental on the face of it, and stranger things have happened. We’ll leave it at that for now, but it would be a good idea to keep a list going in your head of anyone you think might be suspicious. Thankfully, it wasn’t a large dose, and the antidote will work just fine. However, I wouldn’t tell anyone that this happened.’

As the doctor finished speaking, a nurse entered with a large syringe and a vial of clear liquid. ‘May I see that?’ asked the doctor, obviously using an abundance of caution. Looking carefully, she nodded to the nurse. ‘This is exactly what I ordered,’ she stated in a placating tone, as the nurse pushed the medication into the IV line. She felt he needed all the reassurance she could give at this point. ‘They’re getting a VIP private room ready for your fiancee, and will take her up there when I think she’s stable enough to move. It shouldn’t take long. I’ll be sure and tell her Aunt, as well. Or, she can come back here if you like.’

‘If you’d send her and the gentleman with her back here, I’d like to give some instructions to my bodyguard, which we can do in the hallway while her aunt sits with her. I don’t want her unattended at all.’

‘Understood,’ the doctor said, nodding. ‘I’ll go get them, and I can fill her aunt in while you speak with your bodyguard.’ She turned toward the door, then turned back. ‘Somebody up there must be looking out for you two,’ she remarked with a brief smile. Then she walked purposefully out the door.