Page 84 of The Unraveling of Julia

“It’s not for a job.”

“How will you pay, then?”

“A credit card.”

“Fine. Take a number.” The nurse gestured to a red plastic number dispenser next to the desk. “Find a seat. It won’t be long. You pay when tested.”

“When do I get the results?”

“Usually in an hour. If you can wait a day or two, it’s cheaper.”

“That’s okay. I’m curious, if someone took a drug two days ago, would it still show in their urine or blood?”

“What type of drug?”

“A psychedelic. Ibogaine.”

The nurse didn’t blink. “I’m not a doctor, but most psychedelics are present for one to three days after intake, at a minimum. It depends on the dosage and the individual. It would show in a urine test, and a urine test is cheaper than a blood test.”

“How long could somebody expect the effects to last? One to three days?”

“That depends on the individual, too. The effects may last longer. There may be traces in the system that are not detectable but still produce effects in the user.”

Oh no.“I see.”

“So. Are you testing today or will you come back another day?”

Julia realized the nurse assumed Julia wanted a clean test. “Today is fine, thanks.”

POSITIVO, read the test result, for which Julia didn’t need a translation. The results of her urine test were positive for ibogaine. She stood in the waiting room, staring at the sheet. Seeing it verified shook her to her foundations. It made everything that had been happening—that she’d been followed, that Gianluca had been in an accident—so real. There could no longer be doubt. She held proof that she was being drugged. She just didn’t know why.

She folded the paper, put it in her bag, and left the testing center. She headed through the hospital lobby, her thoughts churning. Sunlight flooded through the windows at the exit, and she went that way. She reached the door and left, then headed for the parking lot.

I want Thy Heart.

Julia heard a voice and stopped in her tracks. She didn’t know where the voice had come from. She’d heard it clearly and recognized it instantly. It was Gianluca’s. She remembered the words from their dinner, when he’d told her the story about divine love.

Julia wondered if it was just the effects of the ibogaine. If the drug could induce a visual hallucination, then it could induce an auditory one.

But sheknewotherwise.

She just didn’t knowhowshe knew. Or if she was right, or drugged, or crazy.

She turned around and went back inside.

47

Julia got off the elevator and slowed her step. She didn’t want to make another scene with his family, for their sake. She spotted a floor map posted next to the elevator and took a minute to orient herself, wondering if there was a way she could see Gianluca without his family seeing her. Downstairs she’d learned that his room number was three, though they wouldn’t give her any other information.

She eyed the map. The floor was laid out in a rectangle, with rooms lining the perimeter. There were ten rooms in all, with three rooms on the unit’s long sides and two on the shorter. In the center was a large workstation and behind it was a small room labeledSALA RISERVATA, or waiting room.

Julia figured that his family would be in the waiting room or his room. There was no way she could get in, but she felt driven to lay eyes on him. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t questioning her impulses any longer.

She located room three on the map, but it was at the near end of the unit toward the elevator, the north side of the floor. If his sister or anybody else decided to leave or look around, they would see her. She consulted themap again. It showed another elevator on the south side, and if she entered the unit from there, she could avoid being seen. She hit the Down button and got back in the elevator. She reached the ground floor, navigated to the south side, and located the elevator bank and went up.

The elevator opened on the intensive care floor, and she got out, breathing a relieved sigh. She was on the far side of the waiting room, and she walked to the door, which had a window in the top half. The layout was as she suspected, and all the rooms had glass walls.

She opened the unit door to find a nurse coming in her direction, carrying a clipboard. The nurse had patterned blue scrubs, a stethoscope around her neck, with a plastic flower clip and wisps of dark hair escaping her scrub cap.