Free So Much to Live For by Lurlene McDaniel Page A

morning,” Dawn said. “Are the good guys winning?”
    Marlee flipped off the TV with the remote. “You came!” she said. “I’m so glad you came.” Marlee was smiling, but her face looked small and pinched, pale in the bright room. Her tiny body seemed lost on the big bed.
    “I told you I’d come.” Dawn dragged a chair beside Marlee’s bed. “Tell me what happened.”
    “I started vomiting yesterday morning and couldn’t stop. And I had this terrible stomachache.” She rubbed her tummy under the bedcovers. “Grams called my doctor, and he put me right into the hospital.”
    “Maybe it’s the flu. People can catch a flu bug in the summer. Or a leftover from camp food—at least I
think
it was food.” Dawn made a face as she said it.
    Marlee refused to smile. “They took a bunch of x-rays last night. They wouldn’t take x-rays for the flu.”
    Dawn chewed on her lower lip. “Has your doctor been in to see you yet?”
    “No. He said he had to consult with another doctor. You know how it is.”
    Dawn knew how it was. In her case, specialists consulted with specialists and decisions were made and medicines were prescribed, and no one ever asked her how she felt about any of it. At one time, there had been six doctors consulting about her treatments.
    “So is your grandmother here?”
    “Not yet. She wasn’t feeling well when we talked on the phone last night.”
    “Well, maybe she’s better this morning,” Dawn offered cheerfully.
    Marlee plucked at the sheet. “Yeah. But all this is hard on her heart and all. I wish I hadn’t gotten sick.”
    Marlee’s feistiness had gone out of her, and Dawn suddenly missed it. She rose from the chair and made a tour of the room. “I didn’t know this place had such nice rooms. You should see where they stuck me. It was barely bigger than my locker at school. And I had a roommate, too. Her name was Sandy. We were like sisters.”
    “I used to wish that I had a sister,” Marlee said shyly. “Sometimes when I was growing up, I’d get so lonely.” She gave a hapless shrug. “And so I thought it would be nice to have a sister. If I ever get married, I’m going to have a whole bunch of kids.”
    Marlee’s admission surprised Dawn. She crossed the room to stand by the metal IV apparatus. “At camp you acted like you wanted to be left alone—like you didn’t want to be around the other girls.”
    “But I
did
want to. They just really didn’t like me.”
    Dawn wanted to remind Marlee that her rudeness had driven the other girls away, but it didn’t seem like good timing. “So is that why you called me last night? Because you’re lonesome?”
    Marlee didn’t answer right away. When she did, her voice sounded hesitant. “Because you were nice to me at camp.”
    “Nice? I short-sheeted your bed, remember that?”
    “You treated me like a regular person. Nobody treats me that way.”
    “What about your friends at school?”
    “I don’t have any.”
    Dawn started to protest, but just then the door swung open and a frail, rail-thin elderly woman entered. Her hair was snowy white and pulled back into a bun. She wore a stylish navy blue suit and walked with the aid of a cane.
    “Grams,” Marlee said, brightening. “This is my friend Dawn—you know, from camp?”
    “Emily Hodges,” the older woman said while offering a tired-looking smile. Something about her expression warned Dawn that she was upset. She’d seen her own parents’ faces wearing the same look.
    “Can I go home?” Marlee asked.
    “Not yet. Dr. Davis wants to run some more tests.”
    “But I want to go home.”
    “I’m having a specialist flown in to check you over,” Grandmother Hodges told her. “She’ll be here Monday morning.”
    “But I already have a bunch of doctors.”
    “This woman is one of the best in her field.”
    “What’s she going to do?”
    “Just consult.”
    “I don’t want any more operations.”
    Grandmother Hodges leaned heavily on her cane.