Free Sojourner by Maria Rachel Hooley Page A

cheeks and jaw, and I wonder how long I’ve been here.  I start to ask when the door opens, admitting a nurse.
    “Could you check her temperature?  She’s burning up.”
    “Sure,” the nurse says, pulling out a thermometer that she waves behind my ear and then glances at the reading.  Without saying anything, she consults my chart as I close my eyes.
    “Well?” I hear Jimmie ask impatiently.
    “102.5.  It’s about time for another round of Acetaminophen to help bring it down.”  I hear her set the chart down and the door opens.  “I’ll be right back with some meds for Elizabeth.  Try to keep her awake if you can.”
    A hand sets atop mine.  “You heard that, kiddo.  I need you to stay awake until the nurse gets back.”  When I don’t open my eyes, he says, “Lizzie?”
    “What?” I ask, trying to focus on his voice, not the icicles impaling me each second.  I think the shivering is worse, as though there isn’t even a sheet covering me.
    “Open your eyes.”  He strokes my hair, the same way he used to when I was a kid.
    Despite the pain in my head which is worse with the florescent lights, I force my eyelids open.  “There.  Happy?”
    “Not entirely,” he whispers, his voice tinged with pain.  “How long have I been here?”  I try to read the clock, but my eyes don’t focus very well.
    “A day.”  He starts to say more but the door opens, admitting the nurse with a couple of pills in a small plastic cup.  She walks to the other side of the bed.
    “Can you sit up?”
    “Yeah.”  I start to try, but Jimmy doesn’t wait.  He slides one hand behind my back and gently lifts so the nurse can dump the pills into my mouth.
    “Take a drink,” Jimmy says as the nurse holds the straw to my lips.  I take a deep breath and then sip the water to wash down the pills.
    “Can I sleep now?” I ask, still clinging to the sheet.
    “Yeah, you can sleep.”
    I’m reaching for the blackness, trying to find a hole to slip down when the door opens.  It’s just the nurse, I tell myself.  But the voice tells me something else.
    “How is she?”  It’s Lev.
    I turn to see him, my vision hazy.  No matter how much I blink, I can’t clear the distortions.  His face seems clear enough, but to his side, it appears a large white shape, something attached to his back?
    “Lev?” I say, my throat dry.
    He peers down at me and steps over.  I reach out to touch the whiteness, dispel it as an illusion or a trick of the light.  It’s so bright.  My hand almost reaches it, but he gathers my palm into his and squeezes it.  His blue eyes center on me, and I savor his warm skin.
    “Sleep now.  We’ll talk later.”  I want to fight the darkness trying to claim me but can’t.  The only saving grace is that I feel the same warmth through me, and I imagine him standing with me before those soldiers.  Maybe it’s just a twist of my thoughts, another cruel joke. 
    “Let the dreams take you,” he whispers, looking at me, the light radiating around his golden hair and body.  “I’ll stay close.”
    The blackness is finally reaching back to embrace me, the infinite darkness comforting like the blanket I have been denied.
    “She’s still got a nasty fever,” Jimmie says.  The voices go on, but I can’t distinguish words anymore, only sounds like bricks that pave my yellow brick road to slumber. 
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
    Morning light spills across my face, stirring me from blackness.  I blink and test for the headache I felt yesterday.  It’s gone.  So is the cold.  Starting to sit up, I feel someone touch my shoulder, keeping me from rising.
    “Not such a good idea.  Lev tells me you’re an accident waiting to happen.”
    I look over and see Celia sitting there, her hand presses against me, and it is only when I settle back she moves her hand.
    “Celia?”  I blink two or three times, not quite expecting to find her there.
    “Yep.  Welcome