It's a goddamned Wednesday. I'm at this shit clinic before school, bright and early. Well, not so bright, but definitely early.

My kidneys are failing. I'm on a transplant list, and don't know when I may receive such a blessing. For now, I go to the clinic three days per week, three and a half hours at a time. It's a squat, rectangular building behind a shopping mall, the inside lacquered with the stuff painted on so many waiting rooms, absolute mediocrity.

At least the staff are friendly. I know every nurse's name. Every technician. All of their shifts. They tell me these things, about their vacations and spouses and small things, things close to home. I just wish they didn't pity me so much.

So many times they've hooked me up to the machine that filters waste from my blood. My body won't do it. It can't. A machine has to suck it out and spit it back into me. Two pricks, two tubes, every single time.

Barely conscious, I still know the woman who entered the room where the magic happens wasn't a regular. She didn't move right, she didn't move like any of the rest.

"Hello, dear!" She said almost too enthusiastically.

"I don't know you." It probably wasn't the most polite I could have been, but like I said it was early and I had stayed up the night before anyway.

"I'm Nurse Ann."

"Alright, Ann. Nice to meet you I guess. Can we get on with it?"

"It's Nurse Ann, Miss." Fucking seriously. "Nurse Ann" None of the others had ever done that. We were all on a first-name basis.

"I'm no Miss, then, Nurse Ann." She looked at me and then back to the chart in her hand.

"Of course, of course young sir."

She did her job efficiently enough. I was pierced and ready to get my blood flowing.

Usually, the staff have better shit to do than sit with me, but that's just what Nurse Ann was up to.

"You fucking mind?" I asked.

"Language!" she cried. All I could do is twist my face and look at her in disbelief. Who the fuck is this woman? "You won't be speaking like that much longer, dear."

"The hell you mean by that?" I retorted.

"Watch," she instructed. She pointed to my arm, where the tubes connected.

I started sweating immediately. The blood coming out of me was tar black. My eyes widened and fixed on it. Coming back in it was red, but what was the black?

"You vile, vile girl. We'll make you right again." I had enough of this shit. I was old enough to drive my skinny ass out of there, and I meant to.

But she put her hands on my shoulders and I felt calm suddenly, like my discontent had evaporated.

"Are you happy now, dear?" Nurse Ann asked.

"Yes, Nurse Ann!" I reply happily.