Reaching the still-crowded street, Raj hailed an auto rickshaw, and it wasn’t until the Aesculapian Medical Center faded from view out the small rear window that he could begin to relax. Facing forward in a near trance, Raj terrorized himself by rehashing the whole unfortunate episode. He was afraid to tell the others, but he was more afraid not to tell them, unsure of what the ultimate fallout was going to be.

After passing through the front door of the bungalow, Raj stopped to listen. He could feel the vibration of the large sub-woofer of the video system pumping out the bass in the formal living room, so he headed in that direction. He found Cal, Durell, Petra, and Santana, along with Veena, Samira, and two other nurses, watching a taut action DVD. Durell was enthusiastically into it and cheering on the protagonists, who were facing insurmountable odds.

Raj went up behind Cal, and after a moment’s hesitation gently shook his shoulder.

Tense from the movie, Cal jumped when he felt the nudge, took one look at who’d caught his attention, and then paused the movie. “Raj! We’re glad to see you back. How did it go?”

“I’m afraid it did not go well at all,” Raj admitted, and dropped his eyes from Cal’s to the floor. “It was a disaster.”

There was a moment of silence as all eyes regarded Raj.

“I thought we shouldn’t have gone ahead with another so soon,” Veena blurted out. “You should have listened to me!”

Cal raised his hand to quiet her. “I think we should hear from Raj before we jump to any conclusions. Tell us what happened, Raj. Don’t spare the details.”

Without much embellishment, Raj told the whole story, from colliding with the doctor to being thanked by the doctor in the hospital corridor after the failed resuscitation attempt. When he was finished he fell silent, still looking down at the floor and avoiding eye contact with anyone.

“That was it?” Cal asked, after a brief silence. Cal was relieved. He and everyone else had expected something a lot worse, like Raj being accused of doing what he in reality did do. “And let me review. The working diagnosis was heart attack and stroke of some sort. That’s what will be on the death certificate?”

Raj nodded. “That’s my understanding.”

“And you heard nothing about an inquest, an autopsy, or any investigation?”

“No. Nothing like that. What I did overhear from the surgeon was that an e-mail had come out that obligated him to call the hospital CEO and report the death immediately. Apparently there’s concern because of the two deaths at the Queen Victoria Hospital causing international attention. They are going to want to suppress any attention toward tonight’s death.”