Behind The Church

XLIV

Audrey

I take off my dark blue scrubs to put on my normal clothes. I've just come out of a long surgery and I could do with some rest. I'm hoping Ruth and Zoey will understand that. I'm looking after them tonight. And they wanted to have a sleep over with their favourite Auntie, so they're staying the night too.

"Today was rough." one of my colleagues say.

"I heard there were quite a few traumas." I reply, zipping up my jeans.

"Yeah. At least four MVCs. There was a mass crash on the highway. Absolutely crazy." she huffed.

"Are you regretting choosing trauma yet?"

"Yes and no. Yes, because I am tired as hell, no, because I get to save people."

"You save people no matter what specialty go into." I shrug.

"You were in surgery today, right?"

"Yeah. I just had a six hour Craniectomy. And now I have my five year old nieces to look after." I roll my eyes.

"You love your nieces really." my colleagues reminds me.

"I do. I just hope they're not wired today."

"They're kids. Of course, they'll be wired." My coworker scoffs as she puts her jacket on. "I'll see you later, Rogerstone."

"Bye." I reply as I put my jacket on, grab my bag and head straight for the door.

Once I've clocked out, I head straight for my car and drive to the school. I'm sure the girls will be thrilled to see me. They like to hear about the surgeries I do. Especially, Ruth. I think she'll be a doctor someday.

I pull up to the school and get out so I can go and greet the cutest little girls I've ever seen. I'm waiting outside of the school for about five minutes before I see the children start flooding out. In all of the chaos and the swarm of children, I see my nieces come running out to see me.

"Auntie Audrey!" they scream.

"Hi! How are you two lovely girls?" I ask as they hug my legs.

"Good!" they both reply.

"That's great. Shall we go back to my place, then?"

"Wait! Miss Tyler said she wants to speak to you."

"Who is Miss Tyler?" I question.

"My emotional support teacher!" Zoey giggled.

"Those are big words, Zoey! I'm impressed." I tell the girl.

"Thanks." she smiled.

I look up to see a dark haired woman staring at me. I asked Zoey if that was Miss Tyler and she said it was. I took their hands in mine and walked over to the woman.

"Hi." I greet her.

"Hi. Can I take you inside for a sec?" she asked.

"Sure." I nod. I follow her inside and she leads me into a classroom. The woman tells the girls to go pick a book and they do so immediately, running to the book corner and looking through the books.

"Hi." she smiled as she took off her mask.

"Hey." I reply. I refuse to take my mask off because we are still very much in a pandemic and I need to keep myself safe since I am a doctor. And doctors are dropping like flies where I'm working, and across the country.

"It's Khrystyna. We went to high school together."

I remember Khrystyna very well.

"Yeah, I remember you." I nod.