"Dr. Charles! Can I see you for a minute?" I called out seeing him round the corner of the clinic; he turned as he heard my voice.
"Of course Bella, how can I help?" he asked me with a smile. I always liked Dr. Charles, I had been here in Kosovo for just over a year with the Peace Corps and I had worked with him that whole time.
"Slava came into the clinic this morning with a fever, I wanted to ask your advice." I showed him the chart with her information and he looked it over.
"Her brother came in a few days ago with the same symptoms, it looks like typhoid," he said with a disappointed face. Everyone here in the village loved Slava.
"What do you recommend? The antibiotics are still stuck at the border," the Republic of Kosovo had declared its independence in 2008 and its relations with Serbia had been anything but good. It seemed the truck carrying our normal shipment of antibiotics and other supplies wasn't being allowed to cross the border into Kosovo.
"Fluids try and keep down her fever. If the antibiotics still haven't by tomorrow I'll see about working something out on my way home." He advised.
"You're going home?" I was truly disappointed, he was an amazing doctor.
"Yes tomorrow actually, I'm sorry Bella I thought I had told you." He explained, walking with me back to the clinic.
"That's alright; I am going to miss you. It's truly been a pleasure working with you." I said giving him a hug.
"I'll miss you as well Bella, but I know my wife will be happy to have me back. Two years is a long time to be so far away from home." He smiled down at me; I had met his wife and one of his children this past December when they came to visit him. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out I understood why they were together, they were a perfect match.
"I don't know what the clinic is going to do without you," I told him honestly.
"Well there is a little get together tonight wishing me off, it's also a welcome for the new doctor that will be taking over for me. I hope to see you there," we said our goodbyes and I got back to work in the clinic.
It had been a hectic day; several workers from the fields had come down with tick-borne encephalitis or TBE. There was a group of Peace Corps volunteers teaching the natives about agriculture, and the types of plants they could farm. We were coming out of the coldest months; ticks were a common problem this time of year. The volunteers had been vaccinated against this kind of thing before they left the U.S. but we didn't have the kind of resources to do the same for the natives.
I spent the rest of my day and into the night helping people in the clinic. By the time I had finished for the day I was much too tired to go to Dr. Charles going away party.
I caught up with Dr. Charles luckily and gave him another goodbye privately and apologized for not coming to the party. I told him again what an honor it was working with him, he really was a great doctor and he had made me better at what I did.
I walked back to my host family's house exhausted from the day. I had been staying with a family for a little over a year now; it was a mother and her two children. They had actually been pretty lucky compared to some of the other families in the village. Their father had been lost; he was a solider fighting for the independence of their country. The family he left behind had gotten some money from him which gave them more than many other families.
I let myself into the house quietly knowing everyone was surely asleep. I went to my room and turned on a small light I kept over my bed and pulled out my small notebook, I kept it with me at all times. I jotted down a few things from my day, notes about patients and things I needed to do tomorrow.
I was about to put my notebook away when I saw a name flash across one of the pages, a page that I hadn't looked at in weeks. I turned to the page and ran my finger across the name at the very top. Memories of conversations ran through my mind like a freight train. I had written down everything I could remember about them but one in particular. I felt the old feelings squeeze my heart making it hard to breathe.
I skimmed over everything I had written on the page before running my finger over the name again. I let out a shaky breath looking at the name one last time. 'Dr. Carlisle Cullen' the name I wrote on the top of the page.
I closed my book not wanting the dwell on things I couldn't change. I switched off my light and lied down. I had dreams of vampires, hooded figures, and stone castles. When I woke I was still tired, I hadn't slept well with all the strange things in my dreams. I went into the minimal kitchen to start some breakfast for myself when Yasen, an 8 year old boy how was part of my host family, came into the kitchen and gave me a hug.
"Dobré ráno Yasen!" I greeted him good morning, he had grown quiet found of me the past 14 months, which I loved, his sister who was 13 didn't share his feelings but I was working on it.
"Môj Bella," he smiled up at me, I really did love him like a little brother.
"Did you have breakfast yet?" I asked him, he shook his head no so I started pulling out more food to make for him.
"Wouldn't you walk me to me classes today?" He smiled up at me.
"Would you walk me to my classes today," I corrected him. "And I would be happy to, but doesn't your mother want to do that?" Yasen's mother was amazing; she would walk Yasen and his sister to their classes that were taught by other Peace Corps volunteers before she went to work with the other women making clothes and blankets in the village.
"Matka is sleeping, she was late to come home last night," he told me watching me make börek, a pastry that was a staple in their lives.
Yasen was learning English at one of the school we had set up a few years ago. I hadn't been here when it first opened but in the time I was here it had turned into an amazing school. I made Yasen breakfast as we talked about what he was learning in school. I hadn't seen Jasna, Yasen's sister, yet this morning but that wasn't unusual, she had a very hard time losing her father. Yasen had been 9 when she lost her father her brother was only 4, she still remembered him. She spent a lot of time away from the house, possibly with her friends, I wasn't really sure.
After we had finished our breakfast, I walked him to the school and wished him a good day before I walked to the clinic to start my day.
As I pushed open the door to the clinic I was met with a little boy running up to me wrapping his arms around my legs.
"Miss. Bella!" he greeted me laughing.
"How are you feeling today Vuk?" I asked him. Vuk was a 5 year old boy who had contracted Hepatitis A. This was a disease I hadn't seen very often, everyone in the U.S. was vaccinated but children here didn't have that luxury.
"I am good Miss. Bella," he smiled up at me still wrapped around my legs. I smiled back down at him, we were lucky to have caught that he even had it. It was very hard to diagnose in children but it didn't cause prolonged health problems which I was more than thankful for.
"How about we go sit down so I can look at you?" I asked him, he nodded his head and ran to his bed jumping up on it. I laughed, it was good to see him up just a week ago he was vomiting almost every hour.
I walked over to his bed and started going over his vitals, asking him questions about how he was feeling, and how he slept. I was almost done with Vuk when Charlotte, another volunteer at the clinic, came over.
"Hey Bella, how's Vuk doing?" she asked smiling down at him. I liked Charlotte a lot. We had gotten close my first month here and had spent most of our days off together.
"He's doing great, I think he'll be able to go back home in a couple days," I told her. "What's up?" she normally went to work with her own patients, not that I minded her checking up on mine. I always welcomed her advice on everything.
"I just wanted to introduce you to the new doctor he got here last night," she told me turning towards him. I looked up to his face when my heart stopped; a pair of golden eyes met mine. I heard Charlotte talking; I'm sure introducing us though it wasn't necessary. This was a man I knew, had known, it felt like it was a past life coming back to haunt me. I was half way across the world and still he had found me.
"Carlisle," a whisper escaped my lips.