Are You Positive?
Page 29
Chapter Eighteen
Sarah is sitting on the sofa trying to wrap her mind around everything she had heard so far in this trial. She thought about all those people over the years who had been diagnosed HIV-Positive as a result of tests that seem now to be extremely inaccurate and unreliable. She can’t imagine the pain and anguish they might feel once this information was made public on a grand scale, and angry – enraged, even – that they had lost so many years of their lives so needlessly. How in God’s name did our scientists and medical doctors get so far off the track so easily?
Suddenly she remembers a TV program she watched with Bill a few months ago, aired by GNN during the AIDS trial. She picks up her cell phone and dials.
“Hi. It’s Sarah. Could I speak to Dr. Meadows, please?... Bill?... Hi, honey…. I know. Sorry to interrupt you…. Do you remember the GNN program we watched about Dr. Robert Gallo a few months ago?... Did we TIVO it?... I sure hope so. When you get home tonight, could you please check and see if it’s still there?... Well, if it’s possible, I’d like you to transfer it to a DVD and send it to me…. Yeh, I want to watch it again…. I think it might have some answers for me, and I know so much more about all of this now that I probably missed some things the first time around…. Thank you, sweetheart. I’ll let you get back to your patient and we can talk later…. Love you, too. Bye.”
Gwen had joined Sarah on the sofa but waited for her to finish the call.
“Gwen, if Bill can send that to me, you’ve got to watch it, too.”
“What is it?”
“It’s an hour special GNN did about Dr. Robert Gallo, the man who started all this HIV stuff.”
“That should be interesting.”
“I remember it shocked me the first time I saw it. Really gave a good picture of the man we have believed for thirty years about HIV and these tests that are turning out to be so… I don’t even know the best word… crazy?”
“I’ll look forward to it.” Gwen sets her wine glass down. “Which reminds me, I made that appointment for you at the lab this Thursday for the viral load test you wanted to take.”
“Thursday? Perfect. You didn’t tell them anything else, did you?”
“Just that you needed the test; that was all.”
“Thanks, Gwen. It will be interesting to see what they say when they find out I’m HIV-Negative.”
“Wish I could go with you just to see their faces, but I’m teaching at that time. You sure you can leave court for that – it’s at three p.m.?”
“That’s why I said it was perfect. We just found out court will not be in session Thursday or Friday.”
Gwen gets a big smile on her face. “I don’t have to teach on Friday, either. And Monday is a holiday. We’ve got a four-day weekend! What do you want to do?”
“I hadn’t thought about it. Of course, I’ve got my weekly column to send to Sam, but otherwise, I don’t know.”
Jumping up to grab her phone, Gwen suggests excitedly, “Let’s take a road trip! Let’s go to Atlanta to visit my friend Kate, who teaches at Life Chiropractic College. We can go downtown in Atlanta, stroll around, do some interesting things, but mainly kick back and have fun. You’ll like Kate. She’s one of us.”
“You mean…”
Gwen stops before dialing Kate. “No, I didn’t mean that. I don’t know what Kate thinks about HIV and AIDS, or whether she’s had any personal experience with it. But that’s even better, because this weekend you should forget all about that stuff and take a real break from everything. We don’t even have to mention AIDS the entire time.”
“Sounds wonderful!” And Sarah means it. She needs a vacation, from the trial, from the emotions, and from her constant focus on HIV.
Gwen has dialed Kate and is waiting for her to answer. “Why don’t we leave on Friday around noon, and plan on coming home sometime on Monday?”
Sarah thinks for just a minute. “Sure. I can get my column done on Thursday morning and send it to Sam early. I’ve already interviewed the person I want to feature this week, so it’s just a matter of transcribing the tapes and making it readable.”
Gwen picks up her wine again and offers a toast. “To the weekend warriors!” As they clink glasses, she adds, “I’m so excited about this. What fun we’ll have! Hello, Kate? It’s Gwen….”