He was nervous, and anyone with eyes could see it. His hands were clasped too tightly. His voice shook on the first few answers. But then he settled into the truth. He described waking up in pain just after midnight, the worsening stabbing sensation in the lower right side of his abdomen, the vomiting, the fever, the decision to go to Mercy General because it was the closest hospital, the wait, the brief exam, the doctor’s questions about drugs, the skepticism, the humiliation. He described the growing panic of being in severe pain while a physician looked at him as though he were wasting everyone’s time.
“He looked at me like I was trash,” Ethan said quietly. “Like I wasn’t worth listening to. I kept trying to explain that something was really wrong, but it felt like he had already decided who I was before I ever opened my mouth.”