The Water Running At Three In The Morning

The espresso machine hissed, filling the large kitchen with the dark, bitter scent of roasted beans while I finished the food on the plate. Every movement felt magnified in the quiet room. Moretti poured his coffee into a heavy ceramic mug, took a single measured sip, and walked out through the side archway toward his private study, leaving me alone with the dirty skillet and the echo of his commands.

I waited a full two minutes after his footsteps faded down the hall before I untied my black-and-white apron, folding it neatly and placing it on the stool. My reflection in the dark glass of the oven door showed a pale, haunted face marred by the purple shadow around my eye. The directive to visit the medical wing sat heavily in my mind. In a place like this, nothing stayed private for long; seeking medical attention meant creating an official record, and an official record meant questions I wasn't ready to answer.

Pushing open the heavy fire door at the back of the kitchen, I stepped into the concrete stairwell leading down to the service and administrative levels. The air down here was cooler, smelling faintly of commercial cleaning supplies and old paper. The lower hallway was dimly lit by recessed yellow lights every twenty paces, casting long, wavering shadows against the cinder-block walls.

I kept my head down, my soft-soled shoes making no sound on the polished concrete. Dr. Vance’s office was located past the linen storage and the staff breakroom, marked by a frosted glass door with a small brass plaque. A thin strip of light shone beneath the door, indicating that the night physician was either awake or had left the lights burning in anticipation.

I paused with my knuckles raised an inch from the frosted glass, my breath coming in shallow, uneven gasps. If I knocked, I was stepping onto a path that would force Moretti’s hand, dragging whatever secret violence had landed me in this uniform out into the open light. But as I looked down at my bruised arm in the dim hallway light, I realized the choice had already been made for me the moment Mr. Moretti stepped into that kitchen at 3:00 a.m.