He turned and stared in their direction, then smiled and waved. Next he walked to a microphone near the center of the room and clicked it on.
"I'll be with you in a minute. Can you please wait in the receiving room? And Ellen, can you start getting them ready?"
"Of course." She nodded then clicked off the microphone and turned. "Receiving is just down at the end of the hall. Next to his office. Please come with me."
She led them through a large wooden door, into a room with a retractable metal table covered in white paper and several chairs. It was a typical examination room, with a device on the wall to monitor blood pressure, a stethoscope, and other examination paraphernalia.
"If you'll kindly take a seat," Ellen said, "I'm sure he'll be here as soon as he can, in a few minutes at most. But while we wait, I need to take your temperature and blood pressure, and start a chart."
"Ally, where are we?" Nina asked. Her face was becoming alarmed, and Maria reached to comfort her. "Are we in a hospital somewhere?"
"Yes, Mom, it's actually the institute I told you about last night The doctor here wants to see if he can do anything to... help you."
"Oh," she said, "is he the one you told me about? I thought that was just a dream."
"No, he's real. Whether he can help you or not that part is what’s still a dream. But we're all praying."
She looked around at the pure white walls and wondered again what she was getting into. Meeting a new specialist in the sterile white cold of an examination room, could be frightening in itself. God, how many times before had she done this as she trudged through HMO hell? Maria was so unsettled she was deathly pale.