"Almost ready," Joanna answered. Her hair was giving her more trouble than usual, with loose ends dangling in her face. She'd had bangs in high school that she'd grown out in college. After a last check in the mirror, she finally opened the changing room door. Deborah rewarded her with an exasperated expression.
"I hurried," Joanna said.
"Sure you did," Deborah said as she got to her feet. "You should try short hair like mine. You'll save yourself a lot of grief; it's ten times easier."
"Never," Joanna said jokingly, but she meant it. Despite the difficulties, she treasured her long hair.
The two women called out a thank you to Cynthia, and she waved in acknowledgment. The women sitting on the couch and the chairs looked up, several smiled, but all had returned to their reading before Joanna and Deborah had passed through the swinging doors.
"I just realized there's something we forgot to ask about," Deborah said as they walked down the main hallway.
"Do I have to ask, or are you just going to tell me?" Joanna said with a sigh, when Deborah failed to complete her thought. She found it mildly irksome that Deborah had a tendency not to finish a thought unless prompted.
"We forgot to ask how or when we were going to be paid."
"It's certainly not going to be in cash," Joanna said.
"I know that!" Deborah grumbled.
"It will be by check or wire," Joanna said.
"All right, but when?"
"The contracts we signed stipulated we would be paid when we had performed our service, which we've now done. So they'll pay us now."
"You seem to be more trusting than I," Deborah said. "I think we should inquire about it before we leave."
"That goes without saying," Joanna said. "I think we should page Dr. Donaldson if she's not out in the main waiting room."
The two women came to the threshold of the waiting room and glanced around the generous space. Nearly every seat was taken. There were spotty areas of hushed conversation but in general the room was surprisingly quiet for being so crowded.
"Well, no Dr. Donaldson," Deborah said. Her eyes swept the room once again to be certain.
"So, let's have her paged," Joanna said.
Together they approached the central desk. The receptionist was an attractive, young, amply endowed redhead. She had pouty, full lips like many of the women gracing the covers of the magazines displayed in the grocery checkout line. Her nameplate said ROCHELLE MILLARD.
"Excuse me," Joanna said to get the woman's attention. She was surreptitiously reading a paperback book cradled in her lap.
The book disappeared as if by magic. "Can I help you?" Rochelle asked.
Joanna asked for Dr. Donaldson to be paged.
"Are you Joanna Meissner?" Rochelle questioned.
Joanna nodded.
Rochelle's eyes switched to Deborah. "Are you Miss Cochrane?"
"I am," Deborah said.
"I have something for each of you from Margaret Lambert, the comptroller." Rochelle opened a drawer to her right and pulled out two envelopes with cellophane windows. Neither was sealed. She handed them to the surprised women.
After exchanging a covert, conspiratorial smile, the two women peeked inside their respective envelopes. A moment later their eyes met with new smiles.
"Bingo!" Deborah said to Joanna. She laughed. Then she turned to the receptionist and said: "Mille grazie, signorina. Partiamo a Italia."
"The first part means a thousand thanks in Italian," Joanna said. "The rest I'm not sure about. And forget about paging Dr. Donaldson. It's not necessary."
Leaving the confused receptionist, Joanna and Deborah started for the door.
"I feel a little like a thief taking this kind of money out of here," Deborah said sotto voce as they wended through the crowded room. Like Joanna she was clutching her envelope in her hand. She avoided eye contact with anyone, fearing she might be forced to face someone who'd had to mortgage her home to pay for infertility treatment.
"With this many patients here I think the Wingate can afford it," Joanna responded. "I'm getting the distinct feeling this business is a virtual money machine. Besides, it's the prospective clients who are actually paying us, not the clinic."
"That's just the point," Deborah said. "Although I suppose those people choosey enough to demand a Harvard coed's egg can't be hurting for cash."
"Exactly," Joanna said. "Concentrate on the idea that we are helping people, and they, in their gratitude, are helping us."
"It's hard to feel altruistic getting a check for forty-five thousand dollars," Deborah said. "Maybe I feel more like a prostitute of sorts than a thief, but don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining."
"When the couples get their children, they'll be thinking they got the better deal by a long shot."
"You know, I think you are right," Deborah said. "I'm going to stop feeling guilty."
They emerged into the crisp New England morning. Deborah was about to descend the stairs when she became aware that Joanna was hesitating. Glancing at her friend's face she noticed that Joanna was grimacing.
"What's the matter?" Deborah asked with concern.
"I just had a pang down here in my lower abdomen," Joanna said. She gestured with her left hand over the area. "I even felt a twinge in my shoulder, of all places."
"Do you still feel it?"
"Yes, but it's better."
"Do you want to go back and see Dr. Donaldson?"
Joanna tentatively pushed against her lower belly just in from the crest of her left hip. There was a mild degree of discomfort until she let go. Then she got another stab of pain. A whimper escaped from her lips.
"Are you all right, Joanna?"
Joanna nodded. Like the first spasm, the pain had been fleeting except for a remaining mild ache.
"Let's go page Dr. Donaldson,' Deborah said. She grasped Joanna's arm with the intention of leading her back into the Wingate Clinic, but Joanna resisted.
"It doesn't feel that bad," Joanna said. "Let's go to the car."
"Are you sure?"
Joanna nodded again, gently extracted her arm from Deborah's grip, and started down the steps. At first it felt decidedly better to walk slightly bent over, but after a half dozen steps she was able to straighten up and walk relatively normally.
"How does it feel now?" Deborah questioned.
"Pretty good," Joanna asserted.
"Don't you think it would be a better idea to go back in and see Dr. Donaldson, just to be on the safe side?"
"I want to get home," Joanna said. "Besides, Dr. Smith specifically warned me about having the kind of pain I'm experiencing, so it's not as if it's unexpected."
"He warned you about pain?" Deborah asked with surprise.
Joanna nodded. "He wasn't sure which side I would feel it on, but he said I'd have a deep ache with some stabs of sharp pain which is right on the money. The surprise for me is that I didn't feel it until now."
"Did he have any suggestions for what to do for it?"
"He thought ibuprofen would suffice, but he said that if it didn't, I could have a pharmacist call him through the clinic's telephone number. He said he's available twenty-four hours a day."
"That's strange they gave you a warning about pain," Deborah said. "Nobody warned me, and I haven't had any. I think maybe you should have insisted on local anesthesia like I did."
"Very funny," Joanna said. "I liked being asleep through the ordeal. It was worth a bit of pain and the mild inconvenience of having to get three stitches removed."