Chapter 14: Mystery of the missing forms

Upon hearing this, my wife and I sat bolt upright in the couch. We were wide awake! “What do you mean? Let me see!” we both said. Dr. Bill handed us the envelope, and we carefully looked at each piece of paper. They were all from US Immigrations. Everything except the forms was here! We frantically searched around the living room to see if they had fallen somewhere, but they were nowhere to be found.

It was then that I decided to call Jamal and see if maybe he knew where they were. After a few rings, Jamal picked up.

“Hi Vinod.”

“Jamal, we can’t find the exam forms.”

“OMG, I am so sorry. I took them out of the envelope to sign them. I forgot to put them back. They are right here in my bag. I’m heading right over to drop them off”.

A few minutes later, we heard a vehicle pulling into the driveway, followed by the doorbell ringing. I opened to door to let Jamal in. We were happy to see him holding the missing forms.

He walked over to Dr. Bill to hand him the forms. As soon as he was near enough to give Dr. Bill the forms, he leaned forward, whispered something, and pointed to a spot on the forms. Dr. Bill gave Jamal a dismissive look and pointed to another spot on the forms. Jamal replied by pointing to a spot on the bottom of the forms. Dr. Bill’s face blanched.

Chapter 15: Final exams

Kavitha and I crowded around Jamal and Dr. Bill to see what was happening. I looked toward where Dr. Bill had first pointed.

“Breast Exam (NOT MANDATORY*)”

“Rectal Exam (NOT MANDATORY*)”

“Pelvic Exam (NOT MANDATORY*)”

I followed Jamal’s finger to the bottom of the page. There in small print I read:

“* If performed and documented by a physician within the last year.”

We had not noticed the small print before! We all knew that Kavitha had not had these exams performed in the last year. In fact, she had never had these exams.

It was then that I noticed two things. One, the front door had not been closed. Two, Robert and Jorge had walked through the front door unnoticed and were standing in our living room.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Jamal had been playing us when he left. He had left the exam table and supplies at our home knowing he would be coming back. Although he had been gone for over 20 minutes when we called him, he and his friends were able to show up in just a couple of minutes. He had kept the forms on purpose and had been waiting for our call! Looking down at the forms, I saw that he still had not signed them.

Jamal stood for a moment quietly as if sizing everyone up. He knew he was in control of the situation. Even though he had not mentioned it, we knew it wasn’t just a matter of him not signing the forms, but of us potentially facing perjury charges and fraud charges for attesting on a government form that we had done all the required exams when we hadn’t. By now, we realized that there was not a detail he would miss. There really was no way out of this situation other than completing all the exams on the form.

“Ok Kavitha, come with me.” said Jamal as he took Kavitha over to the exam table once again. After helping her get seated, he pulled up a rolling stool in front of her and sat down.

“Ok Kavitha, it’s final exam time. There are three exams left to do. Do you know what they are?”

Kavitha nodded.

“Ok, go ahead and tell me.”

“Breast. Rectal. Pelvic.” she managed to say, her face turning bright red.

“Very good, that’s right. Have you ever had any of these exams done before?”

She shook her head.

“Ok then, I will make sure I explain everything to you thoroughly. Dr. Bill will make sure I am doing everything correctly and not missing anything. In addition, education is a very important part of these exams. I want to make sure you are familiar with your body and know the correct terms for everything and how to take care of your health.”

Dr. Bill sat down beside Jamal but slightly behind him. It was clear who would be in charge of the examination from here on out - it was the student, not the doctor.

“We will do these exams in the order the form has them.”

By this time, I had come and stood directly behind Jamal. Robert was to my left, and Jorge was to my right. The look on their faces was one of eager anticipation.