The Hunger Read Online Free PDF Page A

you been making yourself throw up?
    Paula yanked her hands away from him as if she had touched something hot. “What are you talking about?”
    “Paula, you exhibit all of the classic signs of an anorexic with bulimic tendencies. Take a look at your hands and you tell me how you got bite marks on your knuckles.”
    She held them, knuckle up, in front of her and stared. Her traitor hands! The knuckle above each index finger was an angry red, the curved lines of tooth marks clearly visible. “I … I... fell.”
    “You fell on a pair of teeth, did you?” The doctor asked dryly. “There is only one way that you can pull that particular muscle in your back and that’s from vomiting. This is a chronic condition associated with bulimia.”
    Paula was stunned. How could a doctor who looked like he was barely out of medical school be so wise to her tricks? As she sat there clutching her armsclose to her body, he flipped through the older pages of her chart.
    “Can you get up on the scales for me please?”
    Paula did as she was asked, painfully aware of those extra two pounds. Dr. Tavish balanced the sliding weights just as she had done moments before, arriving at the same conclusion. Now he knew how fat she was.
    “Paula, since last June, your weight has dropped by twenty pounds!”
    “That’s because I’ve been dieting,” she replied with impatience.
    Doctor T took a step back, and with furrowed blond brows, he eyeballed Paula from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. “You’re already bordering on a dangerously low body weight.”
    Paula almost laughed out loud. His scales had just declared that she’d gained two pounds since yesterday! His stupidity didn’t even deserve a reply. She stared angrily at his well-manicured index finger as it tapped thoughtfully on the top page of her chart.
    “Paula, this isn’t a joke.” Doctor T put the chart down on the desk and crossed his arms. Paula stared at the number on the scales. “Would you like me to contact your parents about your problem, or do you think that we might be able to work together to make sure you stay healthy?”
    At the mention of her parents, Paula’s head jerked up. “You cannot tell my parents about this!”

    “Everything all right in here, Doctor T?” The nurse popped her head through the door and looked from Paula to the doctor with a worried expression on her face. “Everything’s under control, Nancy,” he replied. “I’ll be out shortly.”
    Paula got off the scales and sat down on a chair, her eyes downcast. She felt his finger under her chin. He gently lifted her face until their eyes met. “What will it be?” he asked. “Will we work together?”
    What choice did she have? “What do you want me to do?” Paula asked, working hard to control her anger.
    “I want to set up a regular weekly appointment with you so we can talk about your problems,” he said. “And I want to weigh you once each week to make sure you don’t lose any more weight.”
    Paula watched angrily as Doctor Tavish left the examining room. Now she was supposed to come to this office once a week? And to do what? Talk about her problems? Paula had one problem—and it was that she now had this doctor on her back.
    She headed out the door, passing the nurses’ desk without making an appointment.
    Paula had intended to go to the library from the doctor’s office in order to do some research on Armenians, but the confrontation with the doctor had aggravated her so much that she had an urge to eat. She headed home. Unlocking the front door she called out, “Anybody here?” even though she knew that it wasonly 3:30 and far too early for anyone else to be there. Erik had fliers to deliver right after school every Friday and wouldn’t be home for another hour. Her mother was rarely home before six, and even if her father were early, he wouldn’t be home much before five.
    She opened up the refrigerator and gazed in, but it was filled with her