Free Guardian of the Fountain by Jennifer Bryce Page B

humiliated all over again.”
           “Aren’t you
the least bit interested in this handsome stranger?” Marla nudged Chrissie
gently.
           “Nope, too
risky.” Chrissie walked into the clinic and clocked in for the day. Deep down
inside, Brant did captivate her, but she couldn’t risk another heartbreak any
time soon if she hoped to keep any positive attitudes about love and
relationships.
           Chrissie’s
dream faded to black and into a deeper more restful sleep.

 
    * * *
      “She’s slept for two days. We need to
wake her.” Brant paced back and forth in front of the door.
    “I’ve
tried. I can only get her to sit up long enough to drink a couple of ounces of
broth.” María sounded defeated. “The only way I knew she was alive was that she
was breathing, and she talked in her sleep.”
    “The
way she ate me under the table the other night, I think she might be a bear in
hibernation.” Arturo stuffed his hands in his pockets.
    “It
isn’t winter, estúpido!” María stared at him angrily.
    “It’s
never winter here.” Arturo shook his head.
    “All right!
That’s enough. Arturo, I think you’re right.” Brant tried to diffuse the
situation. “Maybe this is her body’s way of healing.”
    “Ha!”
Arturo shouted with triumph.
    “Now,
don’t get a big head about it,” María scolded. “I’m sure it was hard enough for
him to admit you were right. I’m going to have to search all the books to see
if I can find a cure to this.”
    “In
all your years in the garden, has anyone lived through the Delphne Star
poisoning?” Brant leaned against the hall wall with his hands in his pockets.
    “No,
but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. I only know of two people purposely taking
it.” Arturo scratched his head. “One of them took a full week to die, but he
had taken the water for at least a hundred years.”
    “He’s
right. The second was poisoned and he didn’t have any water in him, and he died
instantly.” María looked in on Chrissie from the door with worry in her eyes.
“Both vials were missing, so who knows what she actually took.”
    “I’ve
read over Father Delgado’s journals a milliard times. I can’t find anything
that matches what’s going on with her.” Brant took his hands out of his pockets
in frustration.
    “Don’t
worry, Brant,” María soothed as she patted his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.
The fact that she isn’t dead now is a very good sign.”
    * * *
    Chrissie
awoke to tense voices in the hall. She hoped she could eavesdrop on more
information, but the conversation abruptly stopped just when it was getting
good.
    Who
was the third voice? Was it the Guardian?
    Three
sets of hurried footsteps left down the hall. Chrissie threw back the covers
and sat up in bed. As a nurse, she knew the easiest way to pass out was to get
out of bed too quickly, so she let her feet dangle off the edge of the bed
while she got used to the vertical position. It wasn’t more than a minute
before she got bored with the feet-dangling thing and padded her way down the
hall to the swimming-pool-sized bath.
    All
the necessities were still there—shampoo, soap, and towels. No flower
petals—that must be a touch that was purely María. She undressed quickly,
eager to get into the restorative water. This time, a warm tingle started at
her toes and inched up the rest of her body.
    This
magical water defied her medical knowledge, just as her mysterious ailment
defied even the most respected doctors back in the States. The body only had so
many ways to react to sickness, and her body had done nearly all of them. She
dove under the water to clear her head. Her skin felt like it was breathing the
water in and out as it rippled around her.
    She
swam underwater and looked at the tile mosaic on the bottom of the pool. It was
a large tiled rose. It looked strangely similar to the glass one in her
reoccurring nightmare. She hadn’t had the nightmare since