her forehead and a few scratches from the accident. But, when you took them away, there was something there.
Part of the allure, he thought, was how her personality played out on her face, because they seemed to complement each other perfectly. In her looks, he could feel a certain reticence—a sort of reluctance to let go and shine brightly. Her face was holding something back. And a similar theme seemed to run through her disposition. Both girls appeared nervous. But while Carrie revealed her tension with a steady stream of chatter, Kristen sat back and listened and kept her comments to a minimum, even though Cogan sensed she had strong opinions. Every time she made a comment, he felt her retreat, fearing she’d embarrassed herself. And he saw the same movement in her face and eyes.
“Is it true she almost died?” Carrie asked.
“Well, if we hadn’t operated on her, yes, she would have died,” he explained. “But we figured out pretty quickly what was wrong and took care of it.”
Carrie seemed impressed. She looked at Kristen, and Kristen gave her a look like See, I told you.
“I have to ask you a couple of questions,” he said, cutting off the small talk. “This may seem silly, but have you passed gas?”
Kristen blushed. Her friend, meanwhile, had to look away and cover her face to keep from laughing.
“I told you it would sound silly, but it’s actually very important. You see, when you have an operation like the one you had, where we go into your belly, your bowels and stomach go to sleep. They literally turn off. So it’s very important for me to know whether you passed gas because that means they’re back—”
“Yes,” she said before he could finish, “I did.”
Carrie started laughing.
“Stop it,” Kristen told her friend, barely keeping a straight face herself. “It’s not funny. It’s important. You heard him.”
“I’m sorry,” Carrie said.
He told her she’d probably be able to start eating “clears” by the next morning. Clears were Jell-O, soup, and ginger ale.
“Is that something I should be trying to do?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, should I be trying to pass gas?”
“No, you don’t have to. Just be aware whether it’s happening or not, that’s all.”
“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.”
He could have told her she was lucky, he could have been asking her a lot more embarrassing questions. He could have told her about the woman whom he’d just seen who was obsessed with her hemorrhoids. But he didn’t. Instead, he said, “I think the most important thing for you to do now is to try to get out of bed and walk around a little bit. I’m going to tell the nurse to decrease your fluids, and we’ll probably take you off the IV. We’ll switch your pain medication over from the morphine drip to Percoset, which is a milder painkiller but still very strong. And we’ll take it from there. I won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon but Dr. Kim, the other doctor who came to see you, will be around, and the nurses have my pager number if you need anything.”
“OK,” the girl said.
“I think that’s it for now.”
Just as he was about to go he looked down and saw a blue backpack sitting on the floor next to Carrie’s chair. An emblem caught his eye. It was the head of a bear, the mascot of Menlo-Atherton High.
“Do you guys go to MA?” he asked.
“Yeah, uh-huh,” Carrie said. “We’re both juniors.”
Months later, Cogan would look back on this moment, this minor act of recognition, and regret it more than almost any other. He’d wish he could turn back time and walk out of the room without saying another word. But instead, he said: “My next-door neighbor’s kid goes there. Josh Stein. Do you know him?”
The girls looked at each other questioningly.
“Dark hair,” Cogan said, helping them. “Pretty tall. Glasses.”
“Yeah,” Carrie said after a moment. “I think I know who you mean.” Then, turning to Kristen, “Remember that kid in our history class last year? Josh.” Then, back to Cogan, “A little bit geeky, right? He has a laptop he carries around. He and his friends are always playing computer games.”
“That’s him.”
“We don’t really know him,” Carrie said a little snobbishly. “But we know who you’re talking about.”
“Well, be nice to him. He may be a little geeky now, but when he shows up at your tenth reunion you’re going to be surprised. Believe me, I know how these things