The Dragon Tree Read Free

nodded and looked out the window at Aidan climbing into his BMW. He waved goodbye one last time. She raised her hand to wave back, but felt a stinging pain in her wrist where he had grabbed it.
    Rosa waved for her.
     
    ***
     
                  Billy spent about an hour sitting in the lobby of the Alpine medical clinic. He pressed tissue after tissue to the cuts on his cheek and eyebrow before a nurse finally ushered him into an examination room. He spent another twenty minutes lying on an uncomfortable bed, flipping through a women’s magazine, before an Asian woman in a powder blue uniform entered his room with a clipboard in hand.
    “You’re a doctor?” Billy asked, oblivious to the offense in her eyes at his brazen question. She was slim, in her mid-forties. Her dark hair was cut pixie short but her eyes were large and very feminine. “I never had a woman doctor before.”
    “It’s not the 1950’s. There are countless female doctors. As it happens, I’m a nurse practitioner. You can call me Nurse Reiko,” she said. Her English was perfect, but her voice retained a subtle accent. She stooped to take a closer look at Billy’s face and used rubber gloves to open his cuts.
    “Aghh, you’re making it worse!”
    “I have to see how deep they are,” she scolded.
    “Just for kicks? That’s a weird job you got, where you pick at people’s wounds and they pay you for it.”
    “Am I getting paid for this? I was told you have no health insurance.” Reiko continued to probe Billy’s face. She reached for a tube of antiseptic cream and applied it to her gloved finger, then to the cut on Billy’s cheek. “Only the cut on your eyebrow requires stitches, and only a few.”
              “Maybe we should have a real doctor take a look, huh?”
    She shook her head. “I can’t tell if you’re unintelligent or just impolite. Either way, I can see why someone punched you.”
    Billy’s eyes went wide. “Are you allowed to talk to me like that?”
    Reiko shrugged and pulled out an array of needles. “This will take about five minutes, and it will hurt. Shall I have Jackie up front call your parents to come pick you up?”
    “No! Don’t call anybody.”
    Reiko eyed Billy for a long beat, a hint of concern in her eye, and fed thread through her needle.
     
    ***
     
    Hiroki arrived at the medical clinic where his mother was working her usual late shift. It was raining, so Hiroki huddled under an umbrella as he jogged across the parking lot with a plastic grocery bag in hand.
    And then Hiroki saw… the boy from the fight!
                  Billy was shivering under the awning of the medical clinic, warily watching the rain. It looked like he was working up the courage to walk out into it… and keep walking.
    Hiroki jogged up to Billy, trying not to look too excited. “It’s you,” he said.
    “I know you?” Billy asked, eyeing Hiroki suspiciously.
    “Yes, you know me. I mean, no. Not really,” Hiroki chuckled nervously. “I was at the race. I know you .”
    “Did you know that men don’t use umbrellas?” said Billy with a sneer. He eyed Hiroki for a long beat, looking him up and down. “You look like an idiot under that thing.”
    “And you look like you’re about to get wet. It’s a long walk back to… where are you from, anyway? Hudson?” asked Hiroki.
    “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Billy demanded.
    “Nothing! Just… wait here.”
    “Wait here why ?”
    “Two minutes! Just wait,” said Hiroki. He bounded across the parking lot and disappeared inside the medical clinic.
    Hiroki dripped rainwater all over the lobby carpet as he made his way to the counter. Jackie gave him a quick wave, then disappeared in back to fetch his mother. When Reiko emerged, she looked weary. But when her eyes landed on her son and the bag he had set on the counter, her weariness quickly faded. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she beamed.
    “I got pastrami,”