while the old man just nodded or stayed quiet. At certain points the family members conferred between themselves, not knowing what to put down when the old man didn’t respond. Soon a man in the group took the clipboard out of the daughter’s hands. The daughter stood up, raised the pen to the sky and spoke. Her voice quickly reached a ferocious crescendo. Ramo understood the words “madre de dios” and “diablo”. A nurse came quickly and managed to calm them down. The nurse also spoke Spanish, and when she was done she took most members of the family out of the waiting room, leaving only the daughter and another woman. The second woman leaned into the old man and kissed him on the forehead. The doctor, dressed in blue and with a surgeon’s hat on his head, walked into the waiting room. He took a look at the thick file in his hands and called out a name. No one replied. He called out again, this time louder. Beanie-man snorted and lifted his head, heavy from sleep. “Here,” he grunted. His eyes and mouth moved rapidly and he wiped his face with both hands like he was washing it. Pieces of tobacco stuck to his fingers and he looked at them incredulously. The doctor, old but with a smooth face and hands, had piercing blue eyes that were accentuated by his blue surgical scrubs. He pulled up a chair and sat next to Beanie-man, introduced himself, and asked Beanie-man if it was all right to ask him some questions. The questions were the same as on the pre-admission questionnaire. Do you wear lenses? Are you diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure? Have you been under general anaesthetic before? When the doctor asked him: “Do you have any metal plates, pins or screws in your body?” Beanieman sighed with annoyance, but said nothing. The doctor waited patiently for a few moments and asked him if he was all right. Beanie-man nodded. “I’ve provided the list.” He exhaled the words as if someone had tortured him for the information. “The list?” The doctor was perplexed. “So I don’t have to repeat myself. I gave it to one of the nurses.” He waved in the general direction of the nurses’ station. This time the doctor remained silent for longer. Beanie-man began reciting the list. He had screws in his left shoulder due to a broken collar bone, pins in the right elbow, plates in both knees, more metal in his jaw, hips, wrists. The doctor struggled to write all of it down. When Beanie-man stopped, the doctor kept writing. When he finished he lifted his head and looked at Beanie-man. After an uncomfortably long period staring into Beanie-man’s eyes the doctor said:
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