Read Online The Healing Quilt by Lauraine Snelling - Free Book Online

the front of her white cotton camp shirt. “You know, I've got some questions if you have a minute.”
    “Sure do.” Marcy snapped off the viewer and removed the films, sliding them into a folder in one smooth motion. “Now, how can I help you?” She perched on a wheeled stool and faced the tall casual woman who leaned against the wall.
    Kit searched her mind for the right way to bring up a subject growing more painful by the day and more confusing. Just jump in. Why do anything other than normal?The voice in her mind sounded exasperated.
    “Why…?” She rolled her lower lip, rubbing it with the tip of her tongue. “Now, Marcy, please don't take this personally, okay?”
    “Me? Take something personally? Come on, Kit, think who you're talking to.” Marcy's eyes crinkled at the corners.
    “You're right. You know Annie Nelson has advanced-stage breast cancer?” The nurse nodded. “But yet she had her yearly mammogram less than six months ago. And she was always faithful about that, especially after the previous mastectomy.” Kit felt a flicker of anger somewhere in her middle. “Her mammogram came back clear.” No way should Annie have had cancer. Or at least not to such a degree. Kit thought about her neighbor several doors down, a young woman with two school-age children and a husband who looked as though he'd been given a terminal sentence himself with the news. They were talking radical mastectomy again with certainty now that the cancer had metastasized.
    “I know.” Marcy glared at the hulking machine that took up most of the room. “That's the reason right there. This machine is so old, Noah might have had it on the ark. It just doesn't pick up the minute clusters of cells that the newer, state-of-the-art machines do. And…” She paused as if considering how to continue. “Now mind, if you ever tell anyone I said this, I'll deny it till I die. These old machines use so much radiation that they can be harmful.” She stared down at her clasped hands. “I'm sorry.”
    “So why didn't someone tell us this before? Why do we have to learn about it in the newspaper? Why don't we have one of the new ones? It's not like we're close to a major teaching hospital or anything. We count on Jefferson Memorial Hospital to take care of us in this town.” Kit paced to the window and stared out. “So why is there no new machine here when we've had so many breast cancer reports? I've even heard the word cluster bandied about.” She stopped pacing to look directly at the nurse. “You read the articles in the paper.”
    “Of course.” Marcy stood, taking a step back, and ducked her chin. “Same old, same old. Money or lack thereof. And something most people don't know, Medicare and other insurances have cut back on what they pay for mammograms and the radiologist to read them, so our department has become a serious drain on the operating budget.”
    “But it's so important!”
    “Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you what I know.”
    “Sorry.” Kit resumed her pacing. “Then why the new look? That hospital refurbishing cost thousands of dollars.”
    “More than you know. While the start-up money was donated, they went way over budget, and now all the departments must cut back to pay the bills.”
    Kit shook her head. “This doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Who was the nitwit that authorized all that?” Her mind leaped onto a treadmill and upped the speed to the max.
    “Why, Jefferson City's own golden boy.” Sarcasm dripped from Marcy's tone. “None other than our new head of the hospital board, Winston Henry Jefferson IV. Now that he has returned home, he is using his money and clout to get things done the way he wants.”
    “And paint, new carpets, and the other things are visible.”
    “Right on, honey.” Marcy rubbed her scalp, setting her short hair on end. “Makes me so mad I could sizzle. But what can you do? He offered money to start the refurbishing, and it's not like it