“Yes, but we’re lucky that my work is fairly flexible.” Naomi returned to dance position with him and they started revolving again.
“What do you do again?”
“I’m a psychiatrist.”
I hesitated. I wanted to get back to Jason, but to be polite, I asked, “How does that actually work?”
“I basically try to treat people’s mental problems. And my specialty is something that’s even less well known, which is conversion disorder: people who develop physical problems because of a mental issue they have. Maybe you’ve heard of hysteria? That’s what it used to be called.”
“I think I remember a bit from school. Isn’t that people making things up?”
“Oh no, it’s very real. For example, you see people having actual seizures, only if you can manage to scan their brains at the same time, you find that there is a lack of neurological activity. People run the gamut of physical tests before turning to us. It drives the insurance companies crazy because it’s expensive to do all of those medical tests, and nothing will help until the underlying psychological problem is treated. But we have to be sure there is no physical cause.”
This was getting close to what I truly wanted to know. “Jason, how about trying a balance step now? Good.” He stumbled, then recovered. “How does health insurance work anyway?” I tried to sound nonchalant. “If I were to want to get some, for example?”
“Well, luckily, you look young and healthy. It’s not such a problem then to get a fairly inexpensive policy.”
“What happens if someone already has a problem?” I asked, again still trying to seem as if I didn’t really care.
He paused a moment, like he was trying to figure out how to say something difficult. “Insurance companies won’t cover pre-existing conditions. They’ll charge a hefty premium or put conditions on the payout. It’s like someone trying to buy fire insurance while their house is burning down. Although the law is changing and it may soon be possible, the reality is that it’s not right now.”
I took the plunge. “I know an eleven-year-old girl. She’s got headaches, dizziness, nightmares, wetting the bed at night, and the thing that really scared her family was she lost control of her legs for a minute or two.”
He stopped dead. “That could be serious. You need to get her diagnosed. Sounds like she needs an MRI scan. There are so many reasons she could be having those symptoms. I’d need to see her first, see how much she can do, before I know which tests she’d need. Take a family history. There are so many different diseases it could be. You’d want to rule out a brain tumor or multiple sclerosis, which is often overlooked in children but can do very serious damage.”
My stomach clenched so hard, I felt like doubling over. Lisa could have something very serious. This confirmed it. It was like the nightmare with Ma all over again. I tried to keep them talking and reverted to a standard combination. “All right, let’s try two basic boxes, an underarm turn, two more basic boxes and then a balance step.”
Jason blew his hair out of his eyes and started.
During his boxes, I said, “If she didn’t or couldn’t get insurance, about how much would it cost to get her diagnosed?
Jason completely forgot the combination and only did the basic box step while he answered me. I could tell from Naomi’s smile that she noticed, but she didn’t say anything. “I don’t normally treat children so I’m not an expert on health laws concerning them. But if you’re just asking about the fees, it’s not just the cost of the consultation, which is usually at least around two hundred and fifty dollars, but you’d also need to cover any tests that needed to be done: MRI, EEG, CAT scan. It can all easily run into the thousands. But if you get her to me, I’ll help you as much as I can. I give you my word.”
Naomi nodded. “You can count on Jason.”
Thousands? How could I ever get that much money? It made the Vision look cheap by comparison; no wonder Pa stuck with our own kind. But I could have kissed Jason for his kindness. “I appreciate that so much. Now try the combination and I won’t distract you with more questions.”
After they’d left, I found myself pacing around the reception area, unable to concentrate enough even to practice. Maybe Lisa had cancer. She could even die. My mind flinched away from the thought of a world without my little sister in it. I remembered a man who was one of Uncle Henry’s patients in the brief period I worked there. He’d had a tumor on the skin of his shoulder and didn’t have any insurance so he couldn’t get it treated. The tumor was already huge by the time he came to Uncle Henry. One day, he’d run into the office with his shirt wet and bleeding, clutching a towel against it, because the tumor had burst. I didn’t know what happened to him but I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything good, and all because he wasn’t insured.
Why was Pa wasting all of our money on Uncle Henry and the Vision? But deep inside, I knew the truth. Even if we’d saved everything he’d spent so far, we wouldn’t have enough. At least I had Jason now, who would be able to narrow down the tests so we had a chance of affording the treatment. I wondered how much more I could start saving, how quickly I might have enough. It could take years.
—
Much as I enjoyed watching Mateo give Cuban motion lessons to Ryan, I was usually being taught by Nina at the same time. Now that all of the choreography had been set, Nina went over every bit of it with me, step by step. After Dominic finished teaching us the number, my head had been spinning. It was only for a few minutes of dance but the amount of information we had to remember was tremendous. For every second we danced, I had to make so many notes to myself: keep the shoulders down, neck long, arms out, turn the hips more to the side, arch the back, get ready for the next step. The mambo was beautiful: romantic, sexy and very difficult. But the lifts—which now included several different approaches as well as lifted turns—were a struggle.
Nina alternated between doing my part and Ryan’s, depending on what I needed to work on, although she didn’t lift me. At the beginning, she’d given me tips throughout the entire lesson but sometimes, like today, we started chatting while we practiced.
“So, you’re never going to date again? Stay alone the rest of your life?” My voice was interrupted by my head whipping from side to side as she led me into a series of double-speed crossovers.
“What’s wrong with that?”
We froze into a holding position for a few beats, both hands down while the music pulsed behind us.
“Look at me, I have a list of issues a mile long.” Nina spun around and turned me at the same time so that we both did spiral turns, ending up side by side. On the beat, we began a series of forward walks parallel to each other, hips swiveling. “No regular guy’s going to come near me. I’m a single mother, I’m constantly gnawing on something. If I ever got my hands on chewing tobacco, I’d probably be spitting it out on the ballroom floor. I’m the most manlike girl there is.”
I laughed out loud. “Ridiculous. You’re gorgeous. When I first met you, I couldn’t stop staring at you because of the way you looked.”
She made a face. “Come on. You were amazed by my sagging titties. Take a look.” Nina stopped dancing and pulled down the elastic neckline of her peasant shirt, revealing her black lacy bra.
“Nina!” I looked around. Ryan and Mateo were now both staring at us. Even Dominic, Simone and Keith had stopped their coaching session to watch. Dominic made a little tsking motion with his hands at Nina, although he was smiling. “Can’t you take a compliment?”
Mateo slapped Ryan on the side of his head and they started working again. It seemed like they were talking about positioning for lifts now, which looked pretty funny since Mateo found plenty of reasons for Ryan to be the girl so Mateo could put his hands all over him. Still, I had the feeling they were becoming friends.