The call sliced the operating room in two. I was inside a brain\u2014slick and ruby under a cathedral of light\u2014easing a plane between two arteries that pulsed like red silk thread. Betadine hung in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The monitor ticked in 70s, end\u2011tidal where I wanted it. I was steady; I\u2019m always steady. Then my circulating nurse leaned in close enough for her breath to fog her shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDr. Reynolds, urgent call from Westridge Academy. They say it can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTake a message,\u201d I said, eyes on the seam where tumor gave way to self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey said it\u2019s about your grandson. He\u2019s been expelled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tip of my scalpel hovered a hair above living brain. Outside, no one would have noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside, a floor fell away. \u201cI don\u2019t have a grandson,\u201d I said evenly. \u201cThey were\u2026 insistent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBovie.\u201d I sealed a capillary ooze, irrigated, watched the pink rawness blanch and settle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClip,\u201d I told the resident. \u201cHold your retractor like it owes you rent.\u201d A PVC blipped on the EKG and vanished. \u201cWe\u2019re fine,\u201d anesthesia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten minutes later, while silk drew skin together in perfect little bites, the nurse returned. \u201cThey called back. The principal asked for you by name\u2014\u2018Dr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eliza Reynolds, Chief of Neurosurgery at Memorial.\u2019 Exact words. \u2018Your grandson is in my office. You need to come now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cName?\u201d I asked, because the mind wants facts when reality refuses to cooperate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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