03-29-2019, 07:13 PM
What had been puzzlement and suspicion had now turned. The man stiffened and growled, hulking his back like a fighting bull. Nina was brought up sharply by Soren’s fierce muttering in her ear. She had an ear for such things. She didn’t need to be told. Nina felt it (and without a doubt, it was an insult) quiver her diaphragm.
She knew she had been insulted, but she wasn’t quite sure how. She admired sounds he made, so alien in origin. Insults of being outsiders/foreigners were the first things she knew, just by hearing the tone of it, when her romani parents immigrated here; she liked to know exactly where she was in relation to other people. A foible, perhaps.
His voice was full of accent, of otherworld accent. In the extremity of the moment, it had become hard for Soren to maintain his civilized veneer. She stared into the man’s face. It was sloped and angular like a mountain cliff, but he looked at her with eyes rendered alive by pain. For a moment, Nina felt a brief connection to this person who was trying to hide his pain: another foreigner on the peripheries of Moscow society, judging by the language, his name was probably hard to say!
Just thirty-four, a nimble-fingered woman with a nimble mind, Nina took her job seriously, so seriously that it had already cost her a relationship and most of her circle of friends. Women were only just beginning to advance in the behemoth of the Guardian, and no female had ever held a post so ambitious as Nina Siwak, or Meera Alam—or Soren’s acquaintance who Nina doesn’t know!—without working twice as hard and twice as good as her male counterpart. It took tenacity and drive to overturn old, hidebound attitudes to gender and profession, and even now the rules had changed, and female advancement was won and recognized by all.
Nina knew she could simply ignore him, that was in her power. She could ignore anything she didn’t want to be bothered with.
But she’d not won her position in the world by ignoring people who needed her unsolicited help. She knew that some problems simply couldn’t be ignored, even if it seemed daft. Just because somebody didn’t or couldn’t pay for treatment didn’t mean it wasn’t still important to treat.
With a sour look that suggested she thought the man was being less than entirely helpful, Nina grasped his arm and steadied him. Her grip was like a bear trap, entirely encircling the man’s wrist.
Then she smiled, “Please, call me Nina. I’m a doctor. And I need to know what you know, if I’m going to help. I can make that assessment if I can help you. Or refer you to specialists. The best, you might say.”
When she spoke again, in that sun-lit narrow alley, it was to ask the other question that had been gnawing away at the edge of her thoughts.
“Hnn. I see. That’s all right.” Nina smiled again and nodded. “Well, you’re clearly a much more learned, cosmopolitan person than I am … and you bear the finest and most modern eye replacement that I’ve ever seen. Very excellent in quality bio-tech material, so I’m curious why it gives you pain. Ah, that is what’s hurting you, yes?”
Nina guided them down a space almost built into the corroding walls and perched next to him. She reached down and took out a cooper flask banded with leather straps from her pack. She unstoppered it and gave it to him, “before you talk can I trouble you to have a drink of water, first?”
Nina
She knew she had been insulted, but she wasn’t quite sure how. She admired sounds he made, so alien in origin. Insults of being outsiders/foreigners were the first things she knew, just by hearing the tone of it, when her romani parents immigrated here; she liked to know exactly where she was in relation to other people. A foible, perhaps.
His voice was full of accent, of otherworld accent. In the extremity of the moment, it had become hard for Soren to maintain his civilized veneer. She stared into the man’s face. It was sloped and angular like a mountain cliff, but he looked at her with eyes rendered alive by pain. For a moment, Nina felt a brief connection to this person who was trying to hide his pain: another foreigner on the peripheries of Moscow society, judging by the language, his name was probably hard to say!
Just thirty-four, a nimble-fingered woman with a nimble mind, Nina took her job seriously, so seriously that it had already cost her a relationship and most of her circle of friends. Women were only just beginning to advance in the behemoth of the Guardian, and no female had ever held a post so ambitious as Nina Siwak, or Meera Alam—or Soren’s acquaintance who Nina doesn’t know!—without working twice as hard and twice as good as her male counterpart. It took tenacity and drive to overturn old, hidebound attitudes to gender and profession, and even now the rules had changed, and female advancement was won and recognized by all.
Nina knew she could simply ignore him, that was in her power. She could ignore anything she didn’t want to be bothered with.
But she’d not won her position in the world by ignoring people who needed her unsolicited help. She knew that some problems simply couldn’t be ignored, even if it seemed daft. Just because somebody didn’t or couldn’t pay for treatment didn’t mean it wasn’t still important to treat.
With a sour look that suggested she thought the man was being less than entirely helpful, Nina grasped his arm and steadied him. Her grip was like a bear trap, entirely encircling the man’s wrist.
Then she smiled, “Please, call me Nina. I’m a doctor. And I need to know what you know, if I’m going to help. I can make that assessment if I can help you. Or refer you to specialists. The best, you might say.”
When she spoke again, in that sun-lit narrow alley, it was to ask the other question that had been gnawing away at the edge of her thoughts.
“Hnn. I see. That’s all right.” Nina smiled again and nodded. “Well, you’re clearly a much more learned, cosmopolitan person than I am … and you bear the finest and most modern eye replacement that I’ve ever seen. Very excellent in quality bio-tech material, so I’m curious why it gives you pain. Ah, that is what’s hurting you, yes?”
Nina guided them down a space almost built into the corroding walls and perched next to him. She reached down and took out a cooper flask banded with leather straps from her pack. She unstoppered it and gave it to him, “before you talk can I trouble you to have a drink of water, first?”
Nina
Nina