White Coated Superhero

by Slawka G. Scarso

Whenever he walked into the playroom of the haematology ward, the new children were in awe: he wore a white doctor’s coat and a fluorescent stethoscope, his name tag read Dr. Jack and he was unbeatable at Uno. I was playing with Sarah before her first check-up when he came by, so I invited him to join us in a quick game, to which he replied that he only had twenty minutes, but it would be a pleasure to get to know Sarah. We played and chatted about sports, TV and the Christmas play rehearsals, Sarah all the while eyeing him in that way I knew well. Twenty minutes later, Jack looked at his watch again, stood up and said he had to join Dr. Canali in Room 40B, apologising for disrupting the game — he used these exact words. Sarah leaned forward and whispered Is he a doctor? in the now empty room. He’s ten, like you, I smiled.

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Slawka G. Scarso has published several books on wine in Italy and works as a copywriter and translator. Her stories have appeared in Mslexia, Ellipsis Zine, Bending Genres, Necessary Fiction and Spelk, among others. She lives between Rome and Geneva with her husband and her dog, Tessa. Follow her or Twitter and visit her website.