Lance the Tennis Player gives the Hamiltons a brief tour of the clinic, but it culminates in finding Skye, who has apparently recently been sick and is now conversing with an elderly lady in a wheelchair. Skye is delighted to see the Hamiltons.
“Oh, I’m getting better. Dr. Rozak said it was the influenza. I never got my Swine Flu vaccine. Oink, oink! Now that you’re here, I’m sooooo excited. Dad, ‘member when Jessie kept jumping up trying to get our attention,” she replied in her perky voice.GAH. I have not missed this girl at all. I hope her perky voice gets laryngitis and all she can do is bounce and wiggle and not say any of these obnoxiously cutesy things ever again.
She and Morgan ramble about dolphins for a bit, she expresses a wish that humans would always smile (uh, okay), and then the Hamiltons attempt to talk to her about her loss.
“[N]ow it’s better because you’re here. I consider you my parents, too. You’re my mom and dad.”Of course she does. Frankly, if I had parents like hers who were so eager to pawn me off on the people around me, I'd consider anyone more attentive than them my parents, too.
Skye announces she's going to give them a more intense tour of the clinic.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is where I almost give up on writing this chapter because Skye is so annoying and obnoxious and cheerfully embodying EVERYTHING I HATE about fictional children that it was beginning to make me a little nauseous. I couldn't even come up with anything funny to say about it, I hated her so much.
THAT'S RIGHT, J. L. ROTHDIENER. Your book is so bad it MADE ME PHYSICALLY SICK.
But fortunately this is a very short chapter, so I determined I could keep going.
Skye introduces them to another doctor at the clinic, Dr. Rozak, who she proclaims to be her favorite. Dr. Rozak, like everyone else in this bizarre world where medical prowess is not built on actual accomplishments, is a little bit in awe to meet the Hamiltons:
“The privilege is mine. I’ve heard a lot about you, and I’ve read what you’ve written in the medical journals. Are you going to join our staff? I certainly could use some help from professionals of your caliber.”Does he not already have people on staff who think rare childhood diseases are bad? If not, he's right, he should get some.
“I’m not sure we’ll be here tomorrow morning.” Tammy spoke without thinking.
Skye’s face saddened. “You can’t leave. You have to give it a chance! Give me a chance! I don’t want you to leave.” A tear came to the little girl’s eyes— something the couple had never seen.I am pretty sure my first reaction to this is not supposed to be, "YAY SKYE IS SAD," but that's what it was. Tammy hugs her for awhile while Dr. Rozak whispers to Morgan that they have to be very gentle with Skye because she's been through a lot. He then tries to convince them to join the clinic staff some more.
“I’ve heard that you’re one of the top administrators in the medical world.”"You're so brilliant, you even included a video chat option on your website so people could talk to you face-to-face if they googled the name of your clinic - and you did all this without even knowing it!"
Skye broke the silence. “Let’s get a move on!”
The Hamiltons were amazed by the girl’s resilience and her ability to bounce back after tragedy, heartache.First of all, yeah, Skye's resilience and the extravagant praise lavished upon her for it is really going to continue to annoy me me. But secondly, could Rothdiener not decide which word he wanted to use at the end of that sentence so he just included both?
The chapter ends with Skye proclaiming the island a great place to live and then oh-so-subtly says she hopes the Hamiltons will live there with her some day.
Hey, I made it through the chapter without being sick! Now to make it through the rest of the book... One chapter at a time, Hannah, one chapter at a time.
(Chapter 19.)
"Better thee than me!" :P
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