Lucky Number Eleven

Chapter Thirteen

Layla

"Right this way."

A tall, thin woman with beautiful jet-black hair leads me down a hall. The walls are adorned with red and black paintings that have flecks of gold glitter on them in what appears to be a random fashion. Something tells me it's not random at all.

I'm taken into a cozy room with seafoam green walls with buttery yellow accents. A grey pillow lays on the end of a long table covered with a fitted white sheet. There are two pictures hanging on the walls of the human body, one from the front and the other from the back.

"Please have a seat on the table and Bai will be in to see you shortly."

"Um," I stammer. "Do I leave my clothes on?"

"Yes," she says sweetly. "For now, Bai will determine your diagnosis. She may treat you today, but often times she gets to know you first."

"Okay."

Once I'm alone, I peek around the room. It's set up to feel relaxing and soothing, but I can't help but feel I'm at some kind of gyno appointment.

My heart is racing, my palms sweaty, when a soft knock raps against the door and a short woman with the shiniest hair I've ever seen walks in. She has a sweet, simple smile and a notepad in her hand.

"You are Ms. Miller?" she asks, extending a hand. "I'm Bai. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you. Poppy Quinn made the appointment for me."

"Oh, Poppy. She's one of my favorites. I've worked with her for a couple of years now."

"She speaks very highly of you," I tell her, my nerves quieting just a bit.

"I hope she doesn't use that crude language of hers when she does so. That girl needs a bar of soap."

"That she does."

Bai gets settled at the little desk and grabs an ink pen. "Tell me why you're here."

"I have a little kink in my neck. There's a knot," I say, rubbing the top of my spine. "The pain has started to spread down my back and even around into my stomach some today."

"Okay. Got it. Do you know how you arrived at this condition?"

Yes. My head was rammed into a stainless steel refrigerator while a stallion of a man buried himself in me from behind.

"No."

"Okay. Very good." She looks up from her scribblings. "The first thing we will do every appointment is check your pulse and your tongue. In Chinese medicine, we learn so much about your health from these two points. I'm just telling you this beforehand because sometimes it makes people think I've lost my mind."

Laughing, I nod. "I understand."

"Let's start with the tongue. Can you stick it out for me?"

Following her instructions, I watch as she stands and gets closer with a little light. "I'm not telling you what I'm looking for because it would be really confusing, but it looks good. You can close your mouth now."

She jots a few notes on the pad and then comes back to me. "Now your pulse."

She touches me above the left wrist, then on one of my fingers. Her face is passive and I can't tell a thing about what she's feeling. She moves to the right side and does the same series of touches down my arm to my fingers.