“You sure? I got some of them tests in the bathroom. Accu … Accuknocked-up, something, I don’t know what they call it. But you can take one. Go ahead, check yourself out.”

“You have pregnancy tests in your bathroom?”

“Sure do.”

“Why?”

“Why you think? I thought you’s a nurse.”

I don’t know what to say. You never really know anyone.

“You in love, right?”

I look up sharply.

“Bingo. Give that man a cigar.”

I sigh, stare at the wall.

“He don’t love you back, is that what you think?”

I nod.

“Maybe he don’t know you love him.”

“It wouldn’t matter.”

“You got to try. Hell, girl, you got to try!”

“Oh, DeWitt, you say that like …”

“Like what?”

Like I would have a chance. Like I am an attractive woman who can decide to go after something she wants with some sense of confidence. “He’s one of my patients, DeWitt. And he’s a dying man.”

He nods slowly, blinks. Then he says, “We all dyin’, baby.”

“Yes, but some of us have longer than others.”

“You got an agreement with somebody important? You got some guarantee you won’t step out in the street and get run over by a city bus? Happened yesterday. Downtown Detroit. Some guy tear-assing across the street, going back to the office after his workout. Carrying his gym clothes, thinking ’bout how his body in such great shape. Now what is he? A memory.”

“Oh, I know. I know what you’re saying. Well, anyway. Thank you.” I stand, pick up my bag. Frank hops off the bed and heads for the front door. He’s ready for the next patient. Grace, who believes that there’s something wrong with her baby’s scrotum.

“Why don’t you bring this chump over, let me size him up?”

“Bring him here?”

“Yeah. I want to meet him. What’s his name, anyway?”

“Chip Reardon.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No.”

“His name is Chip?”

“Yes.”

“What the hell kind of name is that?”

“I don’t know. A white name.”

He grins. “You said it, not me. But anyway, bring him on by. Tomorrow. I’ll help him find a new name for himself. Give that boy some dignity.”

“Maybe I will.”

Only yesterday, Chip asked if he could come to work with me some time. Said he’d wait outside during the visits, that he’d just like to see where I go.

On the way down the steps outside DeWitt’s apartment, I ask Frank, “Do you want to bring Chip here tomorrow?”

He looks up at me, wags his tail.

“Should I ask him?”

He barks, happily. “You’re a good boy,” I tell him. “Smart.”

* * *

“Look,” Grace says. “See how it’s all swollen?”

She points to her baby’s scrotum, which is completely normal. Nonetheless, I look carefully before I tell her that.

“Are you sure?” she says.