5.
“We can’t put you under because you have a cold,” the doctor said, almost on a side note, in answer to her question. “But you will get local anesthesia, so you will only feel slight discomfort, nothing more.”
She shuddered. She lay there on the hospital bed, her thin, small body shivering, even under the blanket. She was frightened and thought: if only she’d let someone accompany her, if only someone she loved were here to hold her hand and tell her, don’t be afraid, everything will be alright. But the pot-bellied doctor was the only one who peered down at her, and she wanted to scream: Get him away from me! I want to go home! Don’t let this man touch me! But instead, she lay under the hospital blanket, naked from the waist down. This was the moment when she understood what it meant t
