Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 40: Leaving City D

Chapter 40: Leaving City D

The next three and half years seemed to fly by for everyone else, but I felt like I was stuck in one of those montage moments where everyone was on fast forward but me.

While Bai Long Qiang thrived in the military, I only saw him maybe once a year, if I was lucky. Only the little red dot on my phone app let me know he was alive when I needed a little reassurance.

The idea of an eight year old in medical school quickly wore off and I was seen as nothing more than competition... and a punching bag. Internships came and went, and as I predicted, no one wanted a child in their hospital "playing dress up as a doctor."

By the time I was twelve, I had been turned down by all of the major hospitals in Country K and most of the minor ones, too. I might have had the best marks in the university, but no one was willing to take a chance on me in the real world.

Except one...

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" asked Mom for the hundredth time as she paced back and forth in front of the gate. "City Z is on the other side of the country, and I haven’t even heard of this... Mercy Hospital before. Why don’t I talk to your grandfather and see what we can do? Between him and Patriarch Bai, I am sure that at least one hospital would take you."

"I’ll be fine," I answered as I patted her hand. "And at least the City is big enough to have an airport, so that has to be a good thing, right?"

"I still don’t like it," she muttered under her breath. "I will tell you right now that we will be withdrawing any of the funds that we normally send to the hospitals around the city. If they are too good to take my girl as a doctor, they are too good to take my money."

"Don’t do that," I replied hurriedly. With all my luck, I would be single handedly responsible for a few hospitals going out of business. I know Grandfather alone donates a few million dollars every year to the major ones in City A and City D.

Besides, no matter how good a hospital is, if they run out of funding, it’s not them who suffer at the end of the day, but the patients.

Mom gave me a side eyed look and let out a little huff of air. Yeah, I didn’t think that my plea would work either. But I was pretty happy to at least be going to one hospital. This way I didn’t have to do a four year psych degree while I waited.

"Now boarding flight CZ193 heading for City Z. Once again, we are now boarding flight CZ193 for City Z. Passengers with children, or those needing extra time to board, please make your way to gate 153 for boarding. Thank you." The cheerful voice over the airport intercom was enough to send Mom off in yet another tizzy as she looked all around us to see if we had dropped something or we missed something.

"Do I still count as a kid if I am on my way to work in a hospital?" I asked with a smirk on my face, trying to get her to stop panicking.

She spun around and looked at me. "Ha ha," she said as she picked up her small purse and handed me my backpack. "You could be 50 years old, and you will still be my child."

I blinked at her statement, trying to hold back my tears. Something inside of me had told me that this was my only option. And it was more than the fact that this was the only acceptance letter that I had gotten. I needed to go to City Z, but leaving my family was proving to be harder than I anticipated.

"I better be," I said, the smile on my face brighter than the tears in my eyes.

"Well, let’s get going," sighed Mom as she gripped her carry-on bag. "There is no point in dragging our feet when we know that I won’t change the outcome."

"I’ll be fine," I assured her for what seemed to be the hundredth time since I got the acceptance letter. To say that I applied for every hospital in the country would not be an understatement.

"Oh sure, you’ll be fine. Did you ever consider how I was going to be?" she snipped, but the smirk on her face let me know she was only kidding. Somewhat.

"I think that you are going to do just fine with Dad and the grandparents. Probably raising hell wherever you go and might only think of me on days that end in ’y’," I replied as I handed the agent my boarding pass and ID.

Mom did the same before we were walking down the corridor to the plane. "As long as you are aware," she sniffed. "Do you have enough warm clothes? City Z is close to the desert, so the nights are going to be cold."

"I promise, I have enough warm clothes. And even if I don’t, there is this wonderful thing called shopping that I can do when I need to. Anything that I need or forgot can easily be purchased."

"Yeah, yeah, smartass," grumbled Mom as we found our seats and got comfortable. "Remember. If you ever need to come home, for any reason, come home. There is nothing more important for us than your happiness. If you aren’t happy there. Come home. We can send you back to medical school when you get older if it is a matter of age."

"I know, Mom. But I need to do this. Everyone else seems to be moving forward but me... and it’s been stressful," I admitted.

"You are twelve, not 32. Your entire life is not going to pass you by. You still have at least eighty more years before you need to worry about that," answered Mom, but she understood where I was coming from. And I loved her for that.