J: Giving it Away

Mary went into the clinic with more than a little trepidation. It
was her friend Stella who was supposed to be here after all. Still,
what are friends for if not to get you into all sorts of different
trouble? Last time Stella had got her into trouble it was on more
familiar territory - a stitch up with an ugly blind date. God he was
horrible. Right now she'd rather have been back on the date.

Stella had been doing it for years. Mary knew about it, but they never
really talked about it, it was just something Stella did now and then.
Mary hadn't even really thought about why Stella did it, what made her
want to do it in the first place. Mary didn't really believe in
charity, which was what this was after all, making a donation. She'd
just about been talked into buying a red nose, but under protest. She
couldn't really think of when she'd actually given something away, for
nothing.

Stella had phoned her last night sounding awful. She had a real stinker
of a cold and cancelled their rendezvous at the wine bar. They'd
gossiped a bit, mainly about the woman who managed the wine bar, then
Stella had suddenly come out with it. She couldn't donate with a cold,
it wasn't allowed. She was really upset, she'd never missed before,
ever. She asked her to go in her place. At first Mary refused point
blank, she got squeamish about plucking her eyebrows, never mind this.
But Stella was so good at talking her round. She made it into a
challenge. She knew Mary hated turning down a challenge.

The 'clinic' was actually set up for the day in the local sports
centre. As she walked in Mary could see several people on trolley beds,
tubes sticking out of their arms. She nearly fainted before she got to
the registration desk. After the usual details they asked her if she
knew her group. She didn't of course, just vaguely remembered doing
something about it at school - she'd got it mixed up with vitamins in
her homework, said she was group 'C', an easy mistake to make. Then
they pricked her finger and told her to sit down. Her finger hurt. She
began to quake at the thought of the main event. If her finger hurt,
how was her arm going to feel? She was right on the verge of doing a
runner when they called her name.

The nurse told her to sit on the bed. 'Is this your first time?, she
asked. Mary made a short series of rapid nods. 'Okay, you can sit up if
you want to watch, lie down if you don't.' In a split second she was on
her back. 'Now, you'll feel a bit of a sting, then we'll be up and
running.' Mary wondered if the nurse had read her mind. The sting came,
to Mary it felt more like something hot on her arm, but not burning.
'Was that it?' she asked the nurse, but there was no reply. She opened
one eye, the one furthest away from her punctured arm. The nurse had
gone. She opened the other eye and raised her head. The nurse was
attending to someone else. She saw her punctured arm. There was the
tube going down into a bag which was already filling up quite quickly.
She stared at it fascinated, it didn't seem like hers at all, and what
a deep dark red colour, much deeper than it looks when you cut
yourself. She carefully pulled herself up and sat up properly. A pint
they said they'd take, how many do I have altogether? She dimly
recalled the number eight from somewhere. Eight pints - it didn't seem
much, how many boyfriends had she had who could drink more than that in
an hour? How do they get it back into someone, they must have to pump
it in. Then the question that everyone wonders, who's going to get
mine? The nurse looked over at her, 'Are you okay? 'Yes, fine.' Mary
replied. 'I'll be over in a sec, you're nearly done.'

A couple of minutes later she was sitting sipping at a cup of tea that
she didn't particularly want, but somehow felt obliged to drink. She
looked down at her arm, now sporting a plaster on the inside of the
elbow which she smoothed over partly to get rid of a crease and partly
to check on how much it hurt. She couldn't really believe she'd done
it. She couldn't wait to get outside and phone Stella, tell her how
brave she'd been, what a doddle it was, and pretend she'd had a fit
male nurse looking after her. When she got outside she felt
differently. She'd just given a piece of herself for nothing for the
first time in her life and she felt higher than when she'd had half a
dozen Breezers on a Friday night. She didn't even know who was going to
get the stuff, but she felt amazing and amazed. Why hadn't Stella told
her about this before? She looked at her mobile for a second, then
switched it off and half walked, half ran straight round to the house
of her cold ridden friend.