She pointed her black pen toward the reception desk down the cross corridor to the left.

“You can leave those documents at the main waiting room desk around that corner,” Elena said.

“The morning clerk will log them at seven.”

“Thank you for your help,” my mother said.

She turned around slowly and took four steps back toward the elevator doors.

Nurse Elena turned her back to answer the soft ring of a desk phone inside the glass station.

My mother stopped near the water dispenser.