Felicity Napier
The Appointment
She stared at the blue between the strips of blinds
while the good-looking, grey-haired surgeon
washed and washed his hands. He kept her talking
so that when he turned he could look at her eyes
and not at her bare and nervous breasts.
‘I love gardening’ he said ‘I’ve cut my grass
already’. She wished she could smell it -
new mown - in the room. She climbed on the bed
and her shoes made marks on the paper sheet.
His fingers probed her flesh with expertise
and she thought about her armpits growing moist.
‘Sit up now, please’. Hands stole upon her
from behind and all she wanted was to close
her eyes and lean back slowly in his arms.
A button flew off her blouse and both of them
dived to pick it up. She smiled at his offer
of surgical thread. ‘We don’t need to see you again’
he said, putting down the file and offering his hand.
She shifted the button from her palm to meet
the fingers that had touched her, then out
she lurched, longing for the street, for air,
for the litter and clutter of ordinary people
going about their lives. She must have pushed
the wrong swing doors. On either side of her
exhausted faces stared from pillows, high and white,
like clouds. She fixed her eyes on the neon EXIT
sign at the end of the long grey corridor, not daring
to look down at the tightrope she was walking on.
Page(s) 138
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