Chapter 26
MATCH DAY!
You know what they call the person who graduates at the bottom of their class?
Doctor!
You know what they call the man who graduates but doesn’t match?
Kane!
Match Day is the biggest day of the year. Everybody who completes their coursework graduates, but not everybody matches.
Yet I suspect my favorites will have a good day regardless. If anything, the extent to which I have to avoid them to ‘protect my peace,’ as the children say, demonstrates that.
And so, for my final clinical pearl: if Dr. Demon ever finds your pearl, beg for mercy!
THANATOS
Kane paces under the golden balloons, doing his nervous twitch where he can’t meet anyone’s eyes, adjusting and re-adjusting his sweater as he waits for the go-ahead for me to open my match day envelope.
The pavilion of my medical school bursts with anticipation, students and families crowding in like the whirr of well-oiled machines, the energy electric as we all hold our matches—and our futures—close to our steely hearts.
At other schools, they go up on stage one by one and tell everyone where they’ve matched.
At ours, we gather like kids on Christmas morning, wait for the cue amidst the foggy air and grey sky, and shred through our futures all at once to see whether we’ll have a wish come true or a four-year sentence of coal.
Our families form our second shield: Jade, Bianca, and Dr. Goodyear hover like a crescent moon around Kane, rotating in and out to assess his agitation. My mother and father should be orbiting around me, but my mother keeps sneaking peeks at Kane, telling my father he’s such a handsome young man!
My father is not so impressed.
But it’s good news; I promised them, so they’re allowed to be more relaxed. I already got the email that I matched a week ago, so I know I’ll be okay. But it didn’t tell me where I matched—I could have matched into one of my family medicine backups.
I’m so nauseous with anticipation, I feel like I’m about to hurl.
Kane looks worse.
“It’ll be fine,” I remind him, stepping up so our chests brush.
My palms meet his flushed cheeks, tilting his face down to mine. The room may be filled with people, but right here, I want him locked in on us.
“You are not allowed to run away from me,” I order.
His eyes twinkle. “More like, you are not allowed to run away from me.”
I roll my eyes. “Please.”
“You open first,” he says. “It’s your day.”
“It’s yours, too.”
He got the same email I did a week ago, saying he matched, and we both cried, knowing he wouldn’t have to go through Scramble all over again.
But like me, he’s just as apprehensive of the future, as blind as I am to where he matched.
Since he’s a year out from his school’s graduation, we agreed to bring him here and open our envelopes together.
When he told me what really happened when he didn’t match last year, I more than cried. I was so distraught I could hardly speak for days.
And then I had to apologize to Jade for being so naive and judgmental. I wouldn’t act like a normal teenager, either, if I had to carry that kind of secret burden so close to my heart.
But Kane is not allowed to react like that today. That’s why I forced him to come here, in public, both our families supporting him, me at his side.
He nuzzles his nose to mine for a second, then steps away. I lightly bend the envelope in my hands, feeling how solid it is, willing my nose not to sniffle.
It will all be okay.
Even if it’s not, he applied to an advanced program in which his first year of residency counts toward his required three years of family medicine, so he only has two years left, no matter where he matches.
I still can’t believe he hid his specialty change from me. It never mattered to me whether or not he was a surgeon. I care about Kane, not his title.
But I believe it will all work out no matter what.
Even when I’m feigning confidence so Kane won’t flip out.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts…
Jade idly sips the champagne meant for fourth years, tapping her heels.
Bianca’s bottom lip purses out, like she’s got her motivational speech ready.
Dr. Goodyear looks like he can’t wait to escape this crowd, but he’s staying for his son, and my parents are closing me protectively in from it, enclosing us in our safe little bubble.
Hyacinth and Esther are also here, somewhere, lost in the crowd, with their own family constellations supporting them.
My fingers brush the gold seal.
“Ready?” I ask Kane.
“As I’ll ever be,” he says. “Are you?”
I inhale sharply.
This is it.
This is what I’ve worked for.
This is the last, anxiety-inducing culmination of everything I’ve ever done in this tiny envelope.
“Open your envelopes!”
The crowd erupts like popcorn; the room shakes with students’ cries, overlapping and bouncing off each other.
“I matched!”
“I made it to the Ivory Tower!”
“I matched!”
“I’m going to be a pediatrician!”
“I matched!”
“I’m going to be an orthopedic surgeon!”
“I matched!”
“I’m finally going home!”
I rip the envelope open, reading through the shimmering gold font:
Congratulations Persephone!
You have matched
OB/GYN at The Hub
Kane screams at the same time I do. I turn the paper over to my parents, who start shrieking with joy.
Confetti explodes from the ceiling, showering us with rainbows of color.
“Here,” Kane says, shoving the match list into my hands.
Cornfield’s Finest has over 180 students match each year, but I only scan the list for my cluster, trying to see where my friends went.
Kane’s already bolded our favorites among the group:
Emmet Weeve: Anesthesiology at Big Apple
Aristotle ‘Ari’ Gonzalez: EM at Rural Legends
Leviathan ‘Levi’ Patel: EM at Home Base
Augustine Johns: Radiation Oncology at Sunshine City
Esther Cohen: Pediatrics at Academic Powerhouse
Alex Sweet: PM you’ll fly to me in the spring.”
He opens his mouth like he’s about to protest, but I catch his face in my hands. “It’s too late. You can’t escape me, ever. And that’s a threat. Besides, two years is not that long, and Bianca will be out of school by then, so you can meet me in The Hub as soon as your residency finishes.”
“Everyone got what they wanted,” I say, folding into him. “It’s perfect.”
It is perfect. Everything is perfect. I got everything I wanted.
I’m not sorry for anything. Everything happened as it should.
My mom and dad cry.
Bianca smiles, Dr. Goodyear is thanking God, and Jade, despite herself, is finally smiling. Maybe I’ve charmed her after all.
“Should we celebrate?” Kane asks.
I nod.
He turns around to his family. “Scatter,” he warns.
“I’ll meet you for dinner,” I tell my parents, ignoring my mom’s delighted grin as Kane tugs me into a deserted hallway, far from the noise of the crowd and the roar in my head.
“Come here,” he says, tugging me in by the waist.
His hands roam up my body, dimples growing. Whatever negative weight has been following me since I started third year… It’s gone. Vaporized. Like I was never haunted by negativity.
Whatever phantom pains plagued my mind for the last year are nowhere to be seen, vanquished to the point where I wonder whether they ever existed, annihilated by the power of positive thinking and hard work.
So I smile and fold into Kane, running my hands through his hair, pulling his head back to crush my mouth to his.
This is almost as fun as when we ran away to the courthouse last night.
Eloping is fun, but being Kane’s wife is better.
Although my parents might kill me when I tell them I’m already married…
Everything went according to plan. Kane has turned on his wicked ways, fallen head over heels in love with me, and I’ve gotten myself everything I’ve ever wanted.
And then, in the same way I embrace all my blessings, I dive back into the gates of hell with him after graduation, donning my white coat and entering through the hospital doors.