Walking home, she felt like the ground shifted beneath her. An old surgical scar? How could that be true? Childhood memories reeled through her mind, hospital visits for colds, vaccinations, the usual scrapes and fevers. Never surgery or the sterile theater he described. At least, not that she remembered.
That night, she confronted her parents again. “Are you sure? Nothing when I was little? Not even an emergency?” They looked at each other, then shook their heads more firmly than before. “No, darling. Absolutely not. You’d remember.” Their certainty rang hollow, like actors repeating lines in the wrong scene.