There was a hard smack. Sharp pain—such sharp pain in the center of her face—radiated across her cheeks and brow. Her nose hurt. So much. Tears sprang to her eyes, their warmth trickling down her cheeks and nose. Joseph’s slippered footsteps rushed toward her. “Yobo, yobo, yobo!” he cried. Her head had planted straight down on the table. The meat sizzled in the pan, and all Leah could think of was that the stove was still on and the meat would burn. It would be such a waste of money. How could she turn off the stove? But she had lost her words. A thin trail of blood streamed across the white table. Everything darkened with smoke.
Douglas Shim hovered over her. “Deaconess, Deaconess. . .”
Somehow she was in bed, the bib of her nightgown covered in blood. She remembered the kitchen. She had fallen, hadn’t she?
“Is this okay?” she asked Elder Shim. It hurt to talk.
“Your husband called my pager. I was only a few blocks away at Elder Chung’s.” He smiled knowingly at her. Elder Chung was ninety-three years old and bedridden. He lived with his childless son and daughter-in-law in Maspeth. The visits were more social than spiritual. Elder Chung loved to talk more than anything, and the hospitality committee always visited him last, because he might cry at short visits. “You saved me, actually. He was about to tell the one about the freckled Japanese soldier who had fallen in love with his sister. You know that one.”
Leah nodded. “He’s okay?”
“Of course. Elder Chung’s doing much better than you.”
Douglas was talking mostly to see how clear Leah was. Her nose might’ve been broken.
“I’m sorry to be so much trouble.” Elder Shim was staring at her nose. Leah touched it. She winced in pain.
“Don’t do that.”
Leah folded her hands together and laid them above her stomach.
“Maybe you wanted me to come back because you felt like singing.”
Leah smiled. How long had it been since someone had teased her? Chul-ho opa used to call her Nightingale. Her dead brother, the second oldest, had given her this pet name when she was little, and she had forgotten about it till now. Nightingale. Was she going to die, too? Would she see her two dead brothers again in heaven? What would they look like? And her mother. Oh God, oh God. . . Leah wanted to see her mother again. Death would mean nothing if she could see her mother again. God could take her now, and it wouldn’t be anything but relief. But who would care for Joseph? She had to get better so she could take care of him. Her husband was standing in the corner of the bedroom looking impassive, but she could sense that he was frightened. He must have been—to call Elder Shim on his pager.
Douglas came closer, raising his hands gently as if he were asking for permission. He touched her cheeks first, then her nose as gently as possible. Leah kept herself from flinching at his touch. It hurt so much.
“I think you broke it,” Douglas declared. He stepped back two paces, then studied her face again, trying to remember the shape of her nose. “But I don’t think it’s misaligned. Maybe just a hairline fracture. You could still be on television.”
Leah stifled a laugh because it would cause pain. She touched her nose again lightly. There was a tiny bit of swelling on the bridge.
“Joseph was cooking. . .” Her eyes crinkled in confusion.
“You fainted and fell facefirst onto the table. Joseph carried you here. He called me. Now it’s time for you to sing.”
Joseph smiled. He had always disliked the elder’s joking, but he appreciated how it lightened things for others. He could see how the doctor relaxed his wife, let her talk.
Douglas motioned to Joseph and asked him for a few cubes of ice wrapped in a dish towel. Joseph went to the kitchen.
“How old are you?”
“Forty-three.”
“When was your last period?”
“I don’t remember. I don’t get it every month,” she said, unable to look him in the eye. These were things she didn’t discuss with anyone. She’d gotten her period at fourteen, later than most, she found out later, and her periods didn’t come every month as they did with other girls. Sometimes she got them every two months and they lasted for ten days or more. Except for when she was pregnant, she hadn’t seen a gynecologist. There had never been any real problems as far as she could tell. Tina was always telling her to get tests, but where was there time for those things? It also cost so much money.
“Maybe several weeks ago?” Leah tried to recall, but it wasn’t clear. More than two months ago.