Chapter One
Matthew Farrell stumped onto the stage of the Medical School
amphitheater, folded his six-foot-plus frame, and sat on the chair
opposite me. He clutched a near-empty Evian bottle in both hands.
His Save the Whales sweatshirt gaped around his thin neck as he
glanced quickly at the screen behind us on the raised stage. The
electric blue of the slide background reflected off his face, turning
the pimples on his forehead purple. He didn't seem to read the
canary-yellow words. Asperger's Syndrome.
He stared down at the bottle, squeezing it and releasing it in a
slow, steady rhythm. He avoided eye contact with me or the second-year
students who filled the hall, all squeaky clean in their shirts
and ties, sweaters and ponytails.
"Dr. Zak," my colleague, Dr. Kwan Liu, stage-whispered to me
from the side of the stage, pointing to his Rolex. I checked my
Timex. We'd finished with the lecture portion of our presentation,
and it was time to get on with the clinical interview. We had only
about fifteen minutes before our audience would summarily abandon
us to their various obligations.
I cleared my throat and waited for the whispering in the h ... read full excerpt from Addiction ebook
