While cleaning the patients’ windows as he’d promised, Franky took some time to chat with the wounded, as he knew their lives were probably quite dreary, at least for now. Dr. Mildred informed him in the past that the patients told her they really liked Franky, and that his wide eyes and kind smile brightened their days--and that made Franky happy. In the children’s ward, he put up colorful cutouts of hearts and animals in their windows to give them something interesting to look at, if they were bored with the blank white walls of the hospital. 

He was sitting next to one of the children when Dr. Mildred came in. Although Franky was sure Dr. Mildred’s friendly presence couldn’t be a negative one, her arrivals usually meant injections and incisions and other routine checks, which the children weren’t happy about. Especially when it meant their games of Hangman and Tic-Tac-Toe with Franky had to end. 

“Franky, I need your help,” Dr. Mildred said. Franky looked at the girl in the bed, who was frowning at him, holding their notebook of crayon drawings like an offering. He got up, but patted the paper and smiled at her.

“I’ll be right back,” he said.

Once the door was closed, and they were in the hallway, Dr. Mildred sighed hopelessly. “Kevin Inverness came back and he passed out before we could even get him into the operating room. His skin is bright yellow. We need to get him a kidney transplant,” she said.

“But…didn’t we just give him a new kidney?” Franky asked in disbelief.

“It failed.”

Franky followed Dr. Mildred into the operating room, where the middle-aged Inverness lay dying. Franky studied his bright yellow skin as he put his mask and gloves on. He was never allowed to do any work himself, only assist Dr. Mildred and the other surgeons as they needed, but he was still allowed to watch, and that was fun. It was upsetting to know that the poor man would have to pay for two different kidney transplants, and that the chances of him dying now were substantial--but getting to see Dr. Mildred cutting a torso open was half the reason he shadowed her in the first place. The other half was to learn about the art of body modifications so he could perform them himself in…completely legal methods.