It was the end of a 12-hour shift and Penelope was afraid that if she closed her eyes for a minute, she might fall asleep standing up. Her hair was a tangled mess, which she had pulled back at some point during the day, and her scrubs felt like they were sticking to her skin. She was attempting to listen to the woman sitting in front of her who was disclosing details about her husband's affair, her out of control teenaged daughter with an eating disorder, and some sort of vaginal discomfort that wouldn't go away. In her mind, Penelope was trying to piece the details together so that she could come up with one diagnosis and prescribe one pill that would handle all three problems at the same time. She just couldn't think straight anymore.
She excused herself and walked into the lab where one of the nurses was taking a break. "You look beat", said Leila.
"Yea," replied Penelope, as her back slid down the wall of the lab and she found herself sitting on the floor. "Tell me something, Leila," she continued, "is there a cure for a wandering husband, a skinny daughter, and an itchy vagina? "
Leila took another bite of her sandwich and scrunched up her face, like she was pondering the correct answer. They sat in silence, and Penelope closed her eyes and thought she might start to cry. When she opened them, she looked at Leila who was snickering under her breath. "What's so funny?"
Leila didn't answer. And as if on cue, they both started laughing, loud and hard--so hard that it felt like they would never be able to stop. There were pauses, where they barely caught their breath, but brief eye contact with each other would get them started all over again. Tears ran down her face, and her stomach hurt, but when she finally pulled herself together enough to go back and finish up with her patient, she felt compassion again.