Family Ties Read Online Free PDF Page A

answers, then sticks her tongue out at me.
    I look around, remembering her fight with Father yesterday. I head to the bar where he tackled her. The keys are fanned out from the keyring on the floor. I pick them up and take them to her.
    She snatches them from my hand and scoffs as if she owes me some monumental favor she doesn’t want to fulfill. Like she’d ever do me a favor. “Let’s go,” she says.
    We arrive at the doctor’s office and they make no move to get out.
    “You’re not coming with me?” I ask.
    “Are you a baby?” Mother asks. “We’ll come back when we’re done.”
    Soft music plays over the sound system as I enter the office. Young kids sit in front of the large fish tank in the wall, pointing at the fish as they spot them. I head to the reception desk to check in and explain to the woman in scrubs behind the desk why I don’t have an appointment.
    “Hold on a minute and let me talk to Dr. Bannister.” She leaves her seat while I sit and stare at the fish tank.
    “Sara.” A nurse holds the door open. She takes my vitals at a small station, then ushers me into an exam room. “Dr. B will be right with you.”
    I climb the step stool, the paper crinkling as I settle on the exam table. The door opens a few minutes later and Dr. Bannister saunters in while reading my chart. 
    His grey eyes brighten as he smiles under short, golden hair. “Good morning, Sara.”
    “Morning, Dr. B.” 
    “So how did you hurt your arm?”
    “I slipped and fell in some broken glass while cleaning the kitchen. A sharp pain shot from my elbow when my hands hit the floor.”
    The truth wrapped in a lie. Everyone buys the lie so they don’t have to face the ugly truth.
    “Let’s take a look at the source of your troubles,” he says.
    I offer up my arm, wrenching my face in agony and biting my lips together as he tests my range of motion.
    “How did you get these cuts?” he asks.
    “There was broken glass on the floor.”
    “Hm.” He appears to consider the validity of my response as his brow furrows. “I want to get some x-rays.” 
    He leads me to a big room at the end of the hall. I remain in the doorway as he sets a plastic chair for me next to the long table of the giant x-ray machine.
    “You’re not pregnant, are you?” he asks, draping a heavy blue apron over me and one over himself.
    I stare at him, dumbfounded.
    He laughs, breaking the tension. “I have to ask. It’s a standard question for females. Arm up on the table.” He arranges it the way he wants with the inside of my elbow facing up. “So are you?” He moves the big metal x-ray over the table to my elbow.  
    “No.”
    “That’s what I thought. Don’t move,” he says once the shadow of an X marks my elbow. Mechanical punching, whirring, and clicking fills the room after he steps behind a wall. He returns, putting me through the same process with two more positions.
    Dr. B walks me back to the exam room and helps me back up on the table before leaving.
    I’m curled up, on the brink of sleep, when the old woman comes in, covering me with a warm blanket. I’m out before she finishes tucking it around me.
    “Sara,” a quiet male voice wakes me. “I have your x-rays.”
    “Is my mother here yet?” I ask groggy, pushing myself up.
    Dr. B frowns. “I’m afraid not.”
    She’s too busy for me.
    He turns on the light board, sliding the x-rays into it. “It looks like you have a fractured elbow.” He taps his finger on the middle x-ray. “You’ll need to wear a cast for six weeks.
    “I need to let your mom know before I put the cast on. Do you know where she is?”
    “She dropped me off and went somewhere with my sister. You can try her cell phone or my father. He should be at home.”
    He returns after talking to my father and sets my arm in a yellow cast, handing me a prescription when he finishes.
    I step outside and position myself on the curb for a long wait.
     
    My parents allow me to spend the night at