Momentarily

Gigi-Claire Choi; Ms. Choi

Lawrence-Matt Chang; Dr. Chang

Bernice Liu-Dr. Liu (guest)

Moses Chan-Dr. Yuen (guest)

Eddie Kwan-Dr. Chow (guest)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1998

An intercom sounded through the hospital. “Dr. Chang, Dr. Liu, emergency room please!”

As the intercom repeated itself twice, a tall, light skinned doctor in blue uniforms hurried to the elevator with a doctor-in training. The two caught an elevator down to the emergency room.

Dr. Chang shoved the turquoise curtains to one side and Dr. Liu closed them after she entered. They both slipped on white plastic gloves before examining the patient.

Dr. Yuen was already in the room. “He was driving a truck when he collided into another truck on the freeway.” The doctor clamped his hands together to perform a CPR procedure.

“Name?”

“Kit Lai.”

“He’s unconscious. Give him 200.” Dr. Chang watched Dr. Liu pumped the patient. “Not working. Give him 400.” The crowd retreated back as Dr. Liu pumped the volts into the patient again. Once the patient reacted to the voltage, Dr. Chang continued with his task. “Blood pressure?”

A nurse opposite from Dr. Liu answered after glancing at a machine. “147/80.”

“Heart pulse?” Dr. Liu started to exam for any bone fractures.

“68 pulse/min.”

Dr. Chang held onto the man’s cheeks and bent forward. “Kit Lai, do you know where you are?”

The man’s eyes rolled lazily and didn’t respond.

Dr. Chang caught a glimpse at the blood pressure machine and shook his head. “This man has a systolic blood pressure problem.”

“No bone fractures. Except his dislocated neck.” Dr. Liu replied after she examined the man.

Dr. Yuen started wrapping the man’s neck up with a neck cast to hold it in place. The nurses cleaned the cuts on the man’s face and bandaged them.

“No internal injury. Ok, transfer him upstairs. Dr. Chow will follow up on his case.” Dr. Chang assisted the nurses as he disposed the used gloves. He lifted his sleeves for the time and found that his shift had ended. The next shift had reinstalled. He quickly went to change into his pair of gray slacks, a white dress shirt, and slipped his glasses on before leaving the hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A slim figure with perfect complexion and a face of an angel, paced up and down the aisles of desks as she lectured from a Calculus book. She then strolled over to a white board and casually settled her delicate free hand on a black pen while she balanced the book on the other hand. She neatly scribbled a mathematical problem on the white board before looking up at her class.

“Turn to page 423 and you’ll find problem 6.” She paused and waited for the entire class to join her on the same page before continuing, “I will demonstrate how to solve this volume problem with a formula.” The teacher pointed her pen to a word problem written on the board. “Find the volume of the solid formed by revolving the region bounded by the graphs of y=2x^2, y=0, and x=2 about the x-axis. I’ll give everyone a few minute to solve the problem before I answer it.”

The slim figure then proceeded to her desk to exchange a pen since the black one was running out of ink. Afterwards, she returned to the board. “Does anyone want to volunteer?” Assuming that none would be that quick at solving a new chapter’s problem yet.

A hand rose from behind the class. “Ms. Choi, I think I have the answer.” A fair girl politely made her way up to the board and took the pen from the teacher.

“Thank you, Jennie. Please solve this.” Ms. Choi stepped back to watch her student with joy.

While the girl wrote the solution, Ms. Choi had called on another fellow student to explain the problem. Paige explained the math problem thoroughly as the teacher had wanted.

“V= Pi*integral from 0 to 2*(2x^2)^2 dx.

= Pi*integral from 0 to 2*4x^4dx

=Pi(4x^5/5)]0 to 2

=128Pi/5” *=0( sorry, I couldn’t find the right symbols. Hope you’ll know what I’m talking about.*

The student finished writing the problem on the board and returned to her seat.

Ms. Choi stepped up and drew a graph, x-axis and y-axis intersected forming a cross and a thin isosceles triangle in the first and fourth quadrant on the coordinate. She then drew a slice in the triangle and labeled it ‘dx’.

“Well done Jennie, Paige. Jennie, you’ve covered pretty much everything, but remember to draw a picture before solving or evaluating the problem. It would help you visualize what is going on…” Mid-way through her sentence, the school bell rang, indicating that school was out. “and I’ll see everyone tomorrow. Read the assigned pages and I’ll continue our lecture tomorrow.” Once Claire had dismissed the class, all the students left and she began to gather her things together. She organized her notebooks and books neatly on her desk, and stacked her pens in a cup.

Claire then noticed a lingering shadow at her door, she lifted her head and met Matt’s eyes.

“Matt!” Claire cried excitedly. “I thought you were still at the hospital.”

Matt smiled as he stepped forward and stood in front of Claire. “Work is work. I should always have time for my family.” He took the handbag from Claire’s hand and guided her free hand. “What are you cooking for dinner tonight?”

She reached to turn off the lights before closing and locking up the door. “What do you want to eat? Let’s go to the market then.”

The couple continued chatting as they made their way out of the school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt smiled as he pushed a shopping cart alongside with Claire as she picked up fresh mint leaves. “I wish we can do this everyday.”

Claire turned to face him. “I would too, but you’re always busy. It’s rare that we can shop together. Most of the times, you can’t even come home for dinner.”

“Sorry.” He kept his left hand on the cart and held Claire’s shoulders with his right arm. “You know my work is an E.R. doctor, that takes a lot of time away, but I’ve been trying to be an ideal husband.” He tilted his head and widened his smile.

Claire couldn’t resist, but fell into a fit of laughter at his face. “Dork. Who needs an ideal husband?”

“Alright, if not ideal, then wonderful.”

She smiled and picked out a can of chicken broth as they strolled down the can aisle. “Ok, wonderful then. Let’s see what else we need.”

Matt took the can from Claire and puts it in the cart. “Do you want to go get some dessert afterwards? We can catch a late night movie.”

“Sure. That sounds great.”

As they reentered the fresh produce line again, Claire pondered whether they should have soup or not. “Matt, should we have asparagus and crab meat soup? I can’t think of other soups we haven’t eaten this week.”

“Anything you cook would be fine with me. That’s one of the reasons why I married you for.” He grinned proudly.

Claire lifted her head high. “Hmmph. So I was just a maid and a chef? That sounds terrible!”

He pulled her closer. “You know I don’t mean it that way. Well, a little, but for the most part, I do love you to death. I was considered picky when it came to girls.” He smiled wide again. “You know, the long line of girls who were waiting to be married fainted when they heard I asked to marry you. Aren‘t you glad?”

“Liar. I thought you said you were a school boy? None of the girls were interested in you?” Claire crossed her arms.

“Right, but college came along, and somehow every girl there was interested in me. I couldn’t help. You were too.”

Claire waved a hand to dismiss the notion Matt gave. “Sure, sure. I didn’t meet you until I had that stomach pain. You treated me in the emergency room and then followed me after that. You said you wanted to nourish me back to health. How scandalous for a doctor. Such a good excuse to meet a girl.”

“Well, look at what I’ve accomplished? You’re all fine now and even ended up marrying me? Wasn’t that such a nice package?” He started counting his fingers. “Fine husband, dream house next to a park, abundant love, a long-term occupation making plenty of money, and a great sense of humor and attitude. Where else could you find a man like that?” He threw up his arms.

Claire pretends to sigh at his arrogance and puts a hand on Matt. “Great advertisement, dear. You’re mine now. No need to market your good side anymore, because I know your bad side too.”

“What bad side? I’m an all good-quality person.” Matt looked at Claire with disbeliefs.

“Let me start from the simplest.” She began uncurling her fingers after every reason. “You snore, eat a lot, sleep a lot, stubborn, have no time…”

Matt captured her hand and smile. “Wait, I don’t snore, do I?”

Claire nodded as she stared at him. “You snore plus plus. When I first moved in, I thought I was going to move back to my house, because I couldn’t sleep.”

He rubbed his chin and knitted his brows. “I never knew that, but snoring varies. I don’t snore constantly every night.”

“Well, you don’t, but for the most part, you do.” Claire pretends to sigh again and puts a hand up to her forehead. “Don’t know how I kept up with you for two years now.”

They promenaded through the entire market chatting for the next 30 minutes before driving down the street to get desserts.