"As for you," Dr. Hansen said, turning to Su Wei, "you look like you need an examination more than she does. Just get back from a battlefield?"
"I just came out of the mountains," Su Wei replied.
"A hunter?"
"Yes."
Dr. Hansen nodded and asked no more.
In Kodiak, hunting was hardly an unusual profession.
He wrote up the order and had a nurse take Emily to radiology in a wheelchair.
Su Wei followed behind, looking at Emily's pale profile. She still seemed uncomfortable about the doctor's joke about her "boyfriend."
The wait wasn't long.
The X-ray results came back quickly. Just as Dr. Hansen had said, there was no obvious fracture, but the torn ligaments and bone bruise were severe.
The treatment was straightforward, too.
A plaster splint to immobilize the ankle, plus a pair of crutches.
By the time Emily returned to the examination room on crutches, supported by Su Wei, Dr. Hansen had finished writing up her medical record.
"No weight on it for a month, and apply ice regularly. I've prescribed her some painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication." The doctor handed the prescription to Su Wei. "Young man, take good care of your girl. Don't let her go wandering around in the snowy mountains again."
"Thank you, doctor," Emily said, blushing.
Su Wei took the prescription and asked directly, "How much?"
"The examination, X-rays, splint and medication come to seven hundred and thirty dollars," Dr. Hansen said.
Even though she had braced herself, the figure still made Emily's breath stop for a moment.
Medical care was just that expensive in America.
He should even count himself lucky.
Kodiak Town wasn't large, and it had only a handful of clinics.
This clinic had always been popular.
People came and went, and nearly everyone knew one another.
Hansen was experienced and skilled.
Most importantly, he didn't charge people arbitrarily.
That was also why the people of the Town of Kodiak respected him.
Doctors like him were rare in America.
But even so, the bill was substantial.
Su Wei didn't hesitate. He helped Emily settle on a bench and walked over to the front desk.
"I'll pay by card."
He pulled a bank card from his old wallet.
"No... Su Wei, I should pay for my own injury."
Emily hurried to stop him, reaching out to hold him back.
Su Wei looked back and asked, "Do you have that kind of money on you now?"
Emily was a little embarrassed. She really didn't have it with her.
But she could ask her father for help.
Su Wei knew that, so he simply turned around and handed the card to the nurse.
"I'll cover it for now. You can pay me back later."
Emily said nothing more and just nodded.
The nurse at the front desk took the card, ran it, and had him sign. Su Wei's expression remained unchanged throughout, as though the sizable expense was nothing.
But only Su Wei himself knew that the seven hundred and thirty dollars was most of the money he had.
Though perhaps he would soon be able to sell things for more than ten thousand dollars.
Even so, it still wasn't enough.
He was a long way from paying off his debt of a hundred and sixty thousand.
After collecting the medication, Su Wei helped Emily slowly out of the clinic.
The cold air outside cleared both their heads a little.
Su Wei opened the pickup's door for Emily. After she struggled into the seat, he put the crutches and the fox inside as well.
Warm air filled the cab once more.
The pickup started up and joined the traffic in town.
"I'll take you home. Are you still living at the old place?" Su Wei asked as he drove.
Emily was silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"We... moved." She took a note from her backpack and handed it to Su Wei. "I'm staying here for now."
Su Wei took it with one hand and glanced at it. It was an apartment address in the center of Kodiak Town.
"Your mom and dad..."
"They moved to Anchorage last year." Emily's voice grew quieter. "You know, the town's economy has never been very good."
Su Wei nodded.
The detached house he remembered, always so lively, with a yard full of flowers, stood empty now.
They soon arrived at the apartment building.
It was an ordinary building, with peeling paint on its exterior walls. It looked like it had been there for years.
Su Wei parked, came around to open Emily's door, and helped her out.
"Thank you, Su Wei." Emily steadied herself on her crutches. "Would you like to... come up and sit for a while? Have a cup of coffee?"
Su Wei looked at her, then shook his head.
"No, I still have things to do."
Emily lowered her head and murmured, "Oh."
"I still have a whole deer and a pile of medicinal herbs in my garage that I haven't dealt with," Su Wei explained. "They'll spoil if I leave them too long."
Emily looked up and smiled. "I see, great hunter. Your spoils come first."
"Yeah," Su Wei answered.
"Then... will you have time later?" Emily asked. "I'm staying here for another two weeks. Once my foot gets better, will you take me out somewhere? Like we used to when we were kids."
Su Wei looked at her, and after a moment, he smiled too.
The smile dispelled the cold hardness that had long marked his face, making him look like the boy in her memories.
"Sure."
"We don't have each other's contact information yet." Emily took out her phone.
They added each other as contacts again. Emily's profile picture was a photo of her with a sea otter, smiling brightly.
Su Wei's, on the other hand, was a gray default icon.
"I'll head up, then." Emily waved to him.
"Be careful."
Su Wei watched Emily limp through the apartment entrance. Only when she disappeared into the hallway did he turn and return to the truck.
He didn't drive off immediately.
Her faint fragrance still lingered in the cab, mingling with the smell of blood and coniferous forest on him to form a strange scent.
Su Wei leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
Cotton Candy got up from the floor mat on the passenger side, jumped onto his lap, and rubbed her little head against his chin.
Su Wei opened his eyes and stroked the fox's smooth fur.
He sat quietly for a while, his thoughts returning to the question of money.
The debt of a hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and the bank repayment due this month.
Su Wei started the pickup, turned around, and drove toward the docks at the other end of town.
The venison, deerskin, and valuable devil's claw had to be turned into cash as soon as possible.
He swiped open his phone and searched through a list of contacts he almost never called, finding a number saved as "Old Jack."
The biggest buyer of furs, catches, and mountain goods in Kodiak Town.
A famously crafty old profiteer, but reasonably good at keeping his word.
Su Wei looked at the number and called it straight away.