Arranged by the Stars by Kamy Chetty Page B

Maybe Stuart
couldn’t stay away from the local cuisine?”
    Ash shrugged and went to
the door. “It’s probably that tie salesman pleading poverty.” So
she noticed he hadn’t been wearing his suits. She hadn’t said
anything.
    The reception area was
empty except for a fifteen-year-old girl with a limp caramel
coloured baby in her arms. Her tear stained eyes turned towards
Kieran and Ash. “Please help. My baby is sick and I don’t know what
to do.”
    The numbness in Kieran’s
arm returned with a vengeance. Such vengeance he had forgotten he
had an arm before then. He turned in desperation to Ash. Could she
run out and look for a real doctor? Call an ambulance. Do
something, not stand there and look at him like he had the
answers.
    “ Kieran!” the
sound of her voice pierced his subconscious.
    He stepped back as the
sharpness of the sound rattled him. Only when she pulled the child
out of the mother’s arms and took her into the consulting room did
he realise that it was him that was standing there. Like a marble
statue.
    This time when she said
his name he rushed to her side. She must have seen Jessie or
watched it on television before because she was already two steps
ahead of him, and was placing oxygen on the baby’s face. He could
hear Jessie call for the ambulance. He looked down at the little
girl and wiped off the dripping sweat from his forehead. Was the
air-conditioning on?
    “ You can turn
the oxygen up a little. Maybe up to eight,” he looked at the little
gauge. Ash’s fingers shook as her hand moved toward the oxygen
valve. “That’s good Ash. Well done on getting the oxygen
on.”
    He turned to the
teenager. His thoughts were a jumble. “What happened?”
    The girl was rubbing her
arms frantically, moving her weight from one foot to the other.
“She’d been sick for a few days. I thought it would be okay to wait
till next week to bring her in. She’s always had a problem with her
chest.”
    Kieran took in the
undernourished state of the child and the bluish tinge of the
child’s lips as he picked up her wrist. “Ash, bring the thermal
blanket from the drawer over there.” The child’s hands were
cold.
    “ Thermal
blanket?” Ash opened the drawer and looked at him
blankly.
    He peered into the
drawer. “That’s the blanket there. It looks like foil. We usually
don’t need it in this heat but dad always insists on a fully
equipped clinic and now I know why.”
    Ash removed the silver
blanket from the plastic and handed it to him. “That doesn’t look
like a blanket.”
    “ It will warm
her up. There is a nebuliser set in the second drawer, could you
get that for me?” He was about to explain when she opened the
drawer and took out the clearly labelled pack and handed it to
him.
    “ You will
need some sort of stuff to go with this. Should I call Jessie to
come get it?” she asked.
    The thought of having her
leave made the numbness in his arm return. “No, open the medication
cupboard and take out some adrenaline for me. I need to nebulise
her with it.”
    This time his hand shook
and Ash focused her gaze on his. “Kieran, her lips aren’t as
blue.”
    He followed her gaze. The
child’s lips had lost the bluish haze. Her skin was less grey. In a
flash he saw Johnny. On the ground and in his arms. More dead than
alive and he remembered trying to save him. He remembered trying so
many things but nothing worked.
    Ash lifted the child’s
blouse. Pigeon chest. The child was struggling to breathe. She was
sucking in air and he could hear the wheeze. Even as he watched
her, he knew, she was more dead than alive.
    Like he was fixing an
error in one of the many programmes he worked on, he connected the
nebuliser and squirted the adrenaline into the little bowl. Then he
swapped the oxygen mask for the nebuliser and waited.
    This time he watched the
clock and each time the second hand ticked along, he felt like he’d
been running the last mile of a marathon. The child’s