The ground floor of the building was a roofed courtyard that looked like a mall. The spotless white tiling reflected Ethan's image as he walked across it. Small stores lined themselves in aisles on the ground floor forming a path to the back of the building. People gathered in mass at the elevators waiting patiently. At every elevator, there was a security check to ensure that your possessions were safe for teleporting and that your access card was valid.
Ethan walked through the small market, people calling for him to visit their store. He would often buy something for his lunch from the market in the morning before heading for work. He approached one of the shops selling fresh fruit.
"You're back early from work, aren't you?" joked the old lady sarcastically behind the counter.
Ethan returned a half-hearted laugh before turning his gaze to the assortment of fruit before him. He picked up three deep red apples examining their ripeness before weighing them on the scale next to him.
"That'll be twenty Rand," the old lady said placing the apples in a transparent plastic bag and handing them over to Ethan.
Ethan slipped out a note from his wallet and handed it over to the owner.
"Thank you," he said taking the bag of apples from her hand and leaving. He walked through the aisle to the end of the market, shoving his way through the crowds of people rushing toward him. Ethan emerged from the chaos, fixing his hair so that he looked presentable at the least. He jogged over to Sarah who leaned against a wall adjacent to the elevator.
"Hey," Ethan greeted picking an apple out of his bag and throwing it to Sarah.
"You're back early from work?" she asked in disbelief, taking a bite into the apple. "That's probably rarer than Halley's comet."
Ethan laughed nervously. "First time for everything, am I right?"
She shot a suspicious look at Ethan, her eyes squinting. Ethan returned it with a wry smile before quickening his pace ever so slightly. Sarah looked a little relaxed that evening. Her shoulders weren't tense, and her forehead wasn't wrinkled as it always was after a long day of work. It seemed as if a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
"Well, you don't have a wi-fi bar on your forehead," Ethan teased. "That's probably rarer than Halley's comet."
"A what?" she asked.
"A wi-fi bar. When you're stressed your forehead gets wrinkles. It looks like the wi-fi icon...or something like that."
Sarah's brows furrowed, "How on earth did you manage to compare a wrinkled forehead to a wi-fi bar?"
"Saw it on Reddit," Ethan shrugged.
"Well, I'm usually stressed because I'm the only doctor in our ward but we finally got another doctor in the ward today. He knows his stuff, so things should be getting less stressful for me now."
"So you won't have a short temper when you come back from work anymore? That's great!"
"Shut up, would you? I do not have a short temper."
"I take that back," Ethan said.
Sarah reached her apartment and walked up the steps, Ethan trailing closely behind her. She hesitated before unlocking the door and turning around to face Ethan.
"Um, may I help you?" she asked furrowing her eyebrows.
Deep breaths, Ethan. Deep breaths, he told himself. "Do you have a minute?"
"Um, Sure…" she hesitated.
She opened the door. Her apartment was a two-bedroom unit for when her sister would visit for business. Even though her apartment was larger than Ethan's, the untidiness of the place made it feel smaller than his. The door opened into a living room and a kitchen similar to his only the kitchen was far smaller. The walls were painted an avocado green which contrasted with the maroon couch and TV cabinet on either side of the room.
There was a long hallway–too long, in fact–which was decorated with various frames of ancient coins. Sarah was a coin collector ever since she began earning a salary. She always told her sister that if she hadn't become a doctor, she'd be a historian traveling the world. On the sides of the hallway were the entrances to the two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Ethan resisted the urge to clean up the crumbs on the couch and put away the out-of-place wash basket randomly sitting in the middle of the living room. It wasn't too untidy but to Ethan, it was borderline unbearable. He clenched his jaw as he turned his face away from it. It's her apartment, not yours, Ethan reminded himself.
He heard the door close gently behind him. Ethan stood at the door; he wasn't planning on staying for long.
"Okay," she huffed. "What is it you wanted to tell me?"
"I had another incident today. I'm going to see a specialist. I think the dizziness and the headaches aren't just random. They've been getting worse over the past two to three months," Ethan said.
"Thank goodness you're finally seeing one. I've been nagging you to go for months. Which specialist are you going to see?"
Ethan rubbed his forehead. "Dr. Xavier."
Sarah's smile vanished in an instant and her face went pale. "Dr. Xavier? He's an oncologist, though. Why would you want to see..."
Ethan closed his eyes for a moment and dropped his head. He'd been foolish not to see the symptoms earlier. Not many doctors knew of the disease he might have since it was linked to Secronium, an illegal substance banned years ago. Dr. Xavier had plenty of experience as an oncologist. He'd diagnosed patients with that disease during the war so if there was anyone who could confirm if Ethan was positive, it would be him.
"Yeah, Cancer. Leukemia, to be specific," Ethan lied. "There's a small chance I have it and an even smaller chance that it's terminal, but I have to get it checked out."
"Okay, I'm taking leave from work tomorrow and I'm coming with you," she said.
"Sarah, you have an operation to oversee tomorrow. You can't."
"It's always recommended, to have someone with you when you see an oncologist. If things come out looking bad, at least you've got someone there to immediately support you."
"As I said, there's a really small chance it's something major. The last thing I want is to drag you away from a crucial operation on a critical patient only for the results to come out normal."
"So then why tell me if you didn't want me to come with you?" she asked.
"Because you kept nagging me to see one. If I didn't tell you, you would've kept nagging."
"Okay, fine. But you have to call me and let me know if everything is okay. Deal?"
Ethan opened the door and turned to leave. "Deal."