The Beginning of After

leaning together against a wall with their hands in each other’s back pockets, which I thought was just sickening. Sometimes I pictured myself and Joe standing there with them, doing the same thing, and that made it even harder.
    Fortunately, I was scheduled to be at Ashland that day. Meg’s face fell when I reminded her, as if she really wanted me to watch her French-kiss in the back row of the school auditorium. I knew she was trying to pull me back into my old activities ever since I’d reduced my hours at the hospital to just two afternoons a week. I needed the time to keep up with class work, but I missed the daily rhythm of the hospital, and being surrounded by people who didn’t know anything about me. Now when I went, after a day of school and people staring sideways at me, it was almost more of a break than being at home.
    Sometimes, when it was slow, I’d take a few minutes to sit on the rabbit bench out front and think of that day with David. Wondering where he was and when I’d hear from him next.
    When I got to Ashland, all was chaos. A family had brought in their dog after he’d gotten into a fight. He was pretty beat up and bleeding, and Dr. B had been working on him for an hour. Which meant that the regularly scheduled appointments got delayed, and people were pissed. “He just pooped in his own carrier!” said a woman with a cat who was howling low and constantly.
    “The doctor is handling an emergency at the moment,” said Eve calmly. “You’re welcome to reschedule, and we’ll give you a discount on the office visit fee.”
    This placated the woman and Eve turned to me, made a face. “He’s got to get another doctor in here full-time,” she whispered. “There are just too many days like this.”
    I made myself as useful as I could. Dr. B and Robert got the injured dog stabilized, and we were able to start getting appointments in. After an hour, a man in a paint-covered jumpsuit walked in holding a dirty duffel bag with both hands. I saw Eve stiffen and found myself doing the same thing.
    “Can I help you?” she said politely as he stepped up to the desk.
    “I hope so. My crew was painting an empty apartment and we found this kitty in a closet. She seems sick or something.”
    Eve stood up and opened the duffel, peering inside. After a few moments she turned to me. “Get Robert ASAP.”
    I did what I was told, and Robert swooped in and took the bag as Eve whispered something to him. After he disappeared with it, Eve composed her face again and turned back to the man.
    “You don’t know where she came from?”
    “I called the owner and he said the tenants who just moved out had a cat. Maybe it was theirs?”
    Eve bit her lip. “We’ll take care of her.”
    “Will she be okay?” he asked. “I’d . . . I’d take her, but my wife’s allergic. . . .”
    “I think she’s about to give birth, actually.” She leaned over and touched the man’s arm. “You brought her to the right place.” Then, when he didn’t move, Eve added, “Do you want your duffel back?”
    He shook his head, then looked around the waiting room where three clients sat, having watched the whole exchange, staring at him. He bowed his head quickly to Eve and left.
    After the remaining clients had been seen, Eve and I went in to check on the cat. Robert had set her up in a bottom cage and hung a towel over the front of it. Eve pulled the towel up gently and peeked in.
    The cat looked up at us, a skinny, coal-black thing with haunting yellow eyes, still on her guard. She looked tired and spent as she nursed a mass of squirmy newborn kittens. Dr. B came in and Eve dropped the towel back into place. “So we have a new mom?” he asked wearily. “That’s what, six weeks of that cage being occupied, until the kittens are weaned and you can place them?”
    “I’m out of foster homes,” said Eve with a pleading edge to her voice. “What am I supposed to do? Take her to the shelter?”
    Dr. B just shrugged. “It’s an option.”
    “She can’t go to the shelter. She’s already been dumped once, and if you bothered to look at her, you’d see how malnourished she is. They’d all get sick and die there.”
    Dr. B sighed. “Then you take her.”
    “My parents will kill me if I bring home any more.” Eve was tearing up. She pulled up the towel again, hoping to force something in Dr. B. “Look at how depressed she is. All she wants is her family back.”
    As soon as Eve said that, I could