Written by Elfen Sciuridae
– I don’t like Sundays –
Fernando wakes up first in the house, tired from the Saturday before. Grandma has already started on breakfast just moments before. He slowly gets up out of the bed, and silently gathering his things to take to the bathroom. He takes a very quick shower and makes it back to the room. Rachel wakes up as he walks in. She sits up and looks around as if something was amiss, and it was- Fernando was no in the bed with her. He was putting his things away as he gathered the clothes for the day.
“You woke up before me?”, Rachel asks.
“Yeah. I have a few things to do.”, Fernando tells her.
“Going to apologize to Cathy?”, Rachel asks.
“No.”, he answers.
“Oh.”, she replies. For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence in the room. “What are you going to do today?”, Rachel then asks.
“Don’t know, but when I start, it will be very specific things.”, Fernando answers.
“Want me with you?”, she asks.
“No.”, he tells her.
“Why not?”, she asks.
“You need to find yourself out there, hang out with the girls. I also don’t need a shadow with me today.”, he explains.
Rachel bows her had down, saying sadly, “OK.”
He walks over to the bed and sits next to her. “Look. Don’t be sad, we will always have time together, even time to spend having sex with you. But there are going to be days like to day where I cannot have you with me. Got that?”
“I understand.”, she said in a defeated tone.
“Now, I would like you to be with Juanita, Cathy and the neighborhood girl, get to know the place, find out where they hang out, how the school is, stuff like that.”, he continues.
She looks up at him, “I’ll do what I can.”
“Good. Now shower up. I can smell Grandma making breakfast.”, he says. He then kisses her on the forehead before leaving the room. He heads downstairs to the dining room.
[Translated from Spanish]
“You’re up early. Where’s your little sister?”, Grandma asks.
“She should be getting ready for a shower when I left her.”, he explains.
“Good.”, she said as she puts a plate of a tuna and cheese omelet with a couple of biscuits, next to it a glass of orange juice. Fernando starts to eat his meal.
“Going to anywhere special today?”, Grandma asks as she tends to the others’ meals.
“Don’t know. I’ll be trying to find my around the area. Find the library, bus stops, youth center, stuff like that.”, he explains.
“Good. Take your little sister with you so you don’t get lost.”, she almost orders him.
“Grandma… I need to do this alone!”, he complains.
“You got problems with your eyes. You should have her around you in case you get into trouble.”, Grandma explains in an authoritative tone.
“I’ll be fine.”, he tells her.
“Don’t break my orders. Rachel goes where ever you go.”, Grandma tells him.
“Its OK Grandma.”, Rachel says as she enters the dining room.
“What do you mean it will be OK?”, Grandma asks. “I don’t want my number one grandson out there alone in a town we just move into.”
“Its OK grandma. I’ll follow him around with the girls.”, Rachel explains.
“You better not…”, Fernando whispers to her in English.
“You want me to tell Grandma where you went?”, Rachel whispers back in English.
“Speak Spanish you two!”, Grandma tells them. “I want no secrets between in this house!”
They both look at her, giving her their attention.
“You don’t leave this house unless she leaves with you.”, Grandma tells her.
“Fine!”, Fernando yells at her.
“You yelling at me? You might be sick with your headaches, but that does not excuse you from a good whipping for disrespecting me.”, Grandma tells him.
Fernando puts his fork on the plate, and gets up to as if go to his room. He did not finish his meal, which was unusual at best. But anger has a way of cutting one’s appetite. He walks over to living room and picks up the phone on one of the tables.
“Come back and finish you food!”, Grandma yells at him.
“I’m not hungry!”, he tells her. Then he talks to phone in English. “Hello? It’s me. Yeah, I got a problem. I might have my little sister with me and maybe her friends. Yes, that’s not what we agreed on. Look, I’ll be there but I may not be alone… look my grandma is getting on my case about leaving alone with my… condition. Look, I’ll try. No promises however.” He then hangs up the phone.
Fernando walks over to the stairs and goes to his room. Rachel tries to follow him but Grandma stops her and points to her breakfast plate. Rachel tries to finish her breakfast as quickly as possible so she could leave and go upstairs.
Rachel walks into the room, seeing Fernando closing up his backpack and preparing his personal things. He had put on a white long sleeve shirt and black pants, though he had on his running shoes. He stands there looking at her. “Hurry up and get dressed.”, he tells her.
Rachel gathers a short skirt and a while polo shirt to put on. Then she follows up by putting on her pink trimmed ankle sox and her while canvas sneakers that were coming back into style in New York City. Doing this, she puts her foot on the edge of the bed, giving Fernando a view of her white panties underneath.
She hops off the bed and trots over to him. “I’m ready!”, she tells him.
He takes his backpack and cane before walking in to the door.
“You’re going to hold my hand?”, she asks.
“Do I have too?”, Fernando asks.
Rachel walks up to him, and stands between him and the door. “You’re up to something.”
“So I am.”, he begins to say, “And its none of your business.”
“Tell me or I may have to do something to stop you.”, Rachel tells him.
“Like what?”, Fernando tells her.
“Tell Grandma that you’re hanging out with the local gang boys.”, she tells him.
“Ha! You would have a better chance knocking me to the ground and fucking me on the floor.”, he tells her.
Rachel’s demeanor went down into a depression.
“Then I will tell her that you tricked me and left me.”, she tells him.
“So tell her.”, Fernando tells her. “And then I’ll tell her that you have not taken your stuff out of the moving box so I could do the same with my stuff. I’m still waiting on you…”
Rachel does not answer as she go sits on his bed. He walks over to her and sits next to her, putting his forehead against hers.
“Remember I told you yesterday that I have something to do. Now you can walk with me out the door, but you cant go with me. Go stay with Juanita, Cathy or those foxes down the street. OK?”, he tells her.
“Alright.”, she agrees as she remembers something from the pool, the phone call. “I’ll go with the foxes down the street.”
“Good.”, Fernando tells her. “Lets go.”
They walk out together, leaving the house and walking down the block. Once at Edna and Edward’s home, they separate. Fernando continues on his way and Rachel to the house, knocking on the door. The door opens and she is let in. Fernando takes a glance at the house and sees Rachel gone. He then checks the wind, and starts to take a running start. Once he picks up speed, he dives forward catching the air and starts flying down the block. With a few adjustments he takes it to treetop level. He’s learned a long time ago from a bird friend of his (Jonathan Livingston Seagull) that he can increase his speed with just a tiny flutter of his arms and let the momentum increase just a bit with each flutter.
Soon he can see the school and the pool to his left and arches to that direction in a high-rise turn. The school and pool will not realize that they would be buzzed bombed from above.
Mrs. Trousers was talking with her lifeguards, who were lined up in formation as she spoke to them. Missing in the line was Lucy who had called in sick. Fernando builds up some altitude before diving down at the formation, aiming at Mrs. Trousers. In his head complex computational routines are running where distance, speed, acceleration and other factors are put in for fine adjustments. He zooms past Mrs. Trousers at over forty miles an hour, causing her to lose balance and fall into the pool at the shallow end. Her lifeguards stood there with their jaws agape before helping Mrs. Trousers get out of the pool. As who saw what happened, they all sworn they saw nothing but a fast moving shadow.
Fernando manages to continue just behind the building, out of site of the pool crew. Just behind the school is the park Lucy spoke about. Fernando looks at the paths below, and finds the lake. He flies towards it, looking for the jetty Lucy spoke off, but finds none. He lands in a clearing. He checks at his watch.
“Hmmm… 9:55.”, he says to himself before looking around.
On the edge of the lake what seems to be a collapsed dock with a few large rocks at the edge. Looking around at the path, there were no benches to be found. He sits on the largest rock closest to the edge of the water facing the path. He pulls out an old Archos 6000 MP3 player from his bag that he had rebuilt to be better than before. Putting on his headphones, he turns the player on and starts playing a few tunes from a time long forgotten.
As he listens, he folds up his cane and puts it on his lap. He then puts the MP3 into his pocket. He then reaches into his bag and pulls out his Tanto blade while still in its wooden sheath and places it on his lap.
After several songs, he takes his headphones off and looks around. He sees nothing. He checks his watch. It says 10:26.
He starts to put away his MP3 player and closes his backpack. He then slings the backpack on to his back.
He sees Lucy coming up the path a few minutes later. He takes his cane and extends it, putting the tip on the ground. He keeps his hand on the handle of the cane and the other hand on the Tanto Blade. She walks right up to him, keeping her distance from him at the width of the path. She was wearing a polo shirt and a shirt skirt like Rachel was.
“OK, I’m here. Now what?”, Lucy asks.
“You tell me.”, he tells her.
“You asked me out, now you decide what happens next.”, she replies.
Fernando takes out the Tanto blade, unsheathes it and throws it into the ground.
“Was that supposed to impress me?”, Lucy asks as she walks up to the blade and pulls it out the ground. “Nice. But is it real?”
“Made in Japan. Its as real as it can get.”, he tells her. “Along with its two sisters blades, a Katana and a Wakizashi.”
“You collect swords?”, Lucy asks.
“I collect a lot of things.”, Fernando answers.
“Well, I collect balls.”, she tells him.
“I can tell by the attitude.”, he replies.
“You don’t understand.”, Lucy tries to explain herself.
“Don’t ask me if I care.”, Fernando throws at her.
“Alright I wont. Now, explain yourself.”, Lucy throws back at him.
“Explain what?”, Fernando asks.
“You know. The cane, the glasses. From what I seen, you cant be blind. You’re too good to be handicapped.”, she explains.
“I am.”, he tells her.
“But you fly. I seen you do it.”, Lucy says out loud.
“Pigeons can’t see three feet around them but they fly at highway speeds.”, Fernando explains.
“You’re not a pigeon. You’re a flying squirrel. You need your sight to fly.”, Lucy counters his argument.
“The truth is…”, Fernando starts to say, taking off his glasses but keeps his eyes closed. “I can see but I’m too light sensitive so I need my eyes protected at all times. At ninety nine percent total dark, no one can see out them, not even me.”
“Then explain how you do what you do?”, Lucy asks.
“Lots of night classes.”, he answers.
“Night classes.”, Lucy says. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t expect you to do anything.”, he says as h puts on his glasses. “But at night, my eyes don’t hurt as much and I have special glasses for the night. But in the day, at best I can see shadows and shapes. No details, no colour.”
“So, If I were to do this…”, Lucy began to say as she lifts up her skirt in front of him, “You cant see it?”
“See and tell are two very different things. I can tell that you lifted up your skirt to try to test me. And if I’m right, you were wearing white panties.”, he tells her.
“YOU CAN SEE!”, Lucy yells at him as she pulls her skirt back down.
“No, let me explain. I can see you as a shadow.”, Fernando begins as he traces her outline with his arm extended at her. “You body is here, but your skirt makes a triangle around here. When you lifted your skirt, the triangle changed to a rectangle like shape.”
“And what about my panties?!!”, Lucy demands for an answer.
“Just a lucky guess. My little sister wears nothing but white panties. I know girls tend to go for colours and patterns, but few will wear solid colours and of that the most popular is white.”, Fernando explains.
“HMPH!”, Lucy says to herself.
“I’m sure Mrs. Trousers let you see my glasses.”, he said.
“Yes, and she said that they were just regular sunglasses.”, she replies.
“Regular sunglasses as in the lenses are not prescription but the tint is. You can not get 99% black at the local drug store.”, he explains.
Fernando gets off the rock he was sitting on and takes a couple of cautious steps to Lucky, feeling the ground wit his cane. He then extends his hand outward, palm up. “Mind returning the blade?”, he asks.
“How will I know that you wont use it against me?”, Lucy asks.
Fernando takes the blade’s sheath and extends it out to her. “Put in there first.”, he answers.
Lucy takes the sheath and puts the blade in it after wiping the dirty off it between her thumb and index finger. She holds on to it for a while. “You still not answered my question.”
“Well, as soon as I take a step towards you, you can run. I don’t know this place, so I would be stumbling about trying to find my way around while you escape.”, Fernando finally answers.
“Give me a reason to trust you.”, Lucy challenges.
“You’re here for some reason. That says that you trust me somewhat.”, Fernando tells her. She takes the few remaining steps, closing the space to him. She then takes his hand and puts the sheathed blade in it. Fernando takes and reaches behind him, putting into his backpack before closing its zipper.
They stand in front of each other, being able to smell the other’s breathe. Lucy is trying hard to look through his glasses to see his eyes, failing miserably as she stresses her eyes to succeed. After a while, she tries to change the subject as to why they were there.
“Don’t you owe me an apology?”, Lucy almost demands.
“You’re the one who attacked me.”, Fernando stated.
“You yanked on my tail and threw me into the pool!”, Lucy almost shouted.
“After you threatened to hit me with a rat tail!”, Fernando kept himself from yelling.
At this point Lucy could not say a word. For a long while they just stare at each other. It is Fernando who breaks away from the confrontation.
Fernando puts his hand to his temple, bows his head down and takes a step back, “Ugh…”, he says as he takes his cane to a semi circle to feel what is behind him. He takes a couple of more steps back until he was back on the boulder he was sitting on before. “Shit, why here, why now?”, he says to himself.
“What’s wrong?”, Lucy drops her confrontational tone to a concerned one.
“Its nothing… Just a headache.”, he says.
“You going to be OK?”, Lucy says as she sat on the rock next to him. She then reaches to take his hand from his head, finding it shaking. “I think we better take you home.”, she says.
“NO!”, Fernando yells out, then clams done. “I didn’t mean to yell at you.”, he then says in a softer tone.
“Look, its OK. We need you to do something for you.”, Lucy says. “I may not like you, but I don’t want you dying out here.”
“I just need to lay down and rest for an hour, preferably in the shade. Maybe it will go away on its own.”, Fernando says.
Lucy looks around, not far from the path in front of them is a large oak tree, with a large shadow under its leaves. “There’s a large tree in front of us. You think you could make it here?”, Lucy says and then asks.
“I’m going to have to try…”, Fernando says as he got up. He steps unsure and unsteady, that Lucy got up behind him and took him by the arm to steady him.
Those many steps took some time to get there, though the distance from the rock to the tree may have been fifty feet. Fernando sits down at its base, with Lucy kneeling next to him, facing him. He lets out a sigh.
“Thanks.”, he says to her.
“Look, you stay here and I go for help.”, Lucy tells him.
“No… no help. Just need time and rest.”, he returns to her, taking her hand as she tries to get up. She kneels back down.
Lucy was getting nervous of the situation, as if she could feel his pain and knows he is deteriorating fast right in front of her.
“You always get these headaches?”, Lucy finally breaks down and starts showing her nicer side to him.
“Not… everyday, if you are asking.”, he tells her. “But… this is why I go to the doctors so much.”, he continues, “But… I don’t want to go no more.”
“If it’s something serious, you should go.”, Lucy says.
“Why?”, Fernando turns to face her. “They say they find nothing, but from what my girlfriend and I figured out, they don’t want to tell me that I have a time bomb in my head, waiting to explode.”
“A time bomb?”, Lucy asks.
“An aneurysm, a blood vessel inside my brain that swells up and causes these pains. But one day that blood vessel is going to pop and kill me when it does.”, Fernando explains. Lucy drops her jaw in hearing this.
“We need to get you to a hospital then!”, Lucy states.
“No! I saw one 2 days ago.”, Fernando stated. “Look. Lucy… I dont want you to pity or concern yourself about my condition. I just want to live a normal life as possible. Is that too much to ask?”
“So you’re saying you want me as a friend?”, Lucy asks.
“No. I just want a normal life with friends and enemies, and maybe an arch nemesis. Where you want to be is on you.”, Fernando tells her. “I know life is not guaranteed, I learned that a long time ago.”
“From your doctors?”, Lucy asks.
‘No. I had a girl friend when I was younger and she died from some blood cancer just a few years ago. After that I started getting the headaches.”, he explains.
“You miss her, don’t you.”, Lucy almost asks.
“I do. But I moved on since.”, Fernando says
“You have a girl friend?”, Lucy asks.
“Yeah.”, Fernando answers.
“The black squirrel in the white bikini?”, Lucy continues asking.
“Juanita? No, though she does have a crush on me for years that I just recently found out.”, Fernando answers. “My girlfriend is Cathy, the white one with the black bikini.”
“Oh, that would explain why she is so lovey dubby around you.”, ,Lucy says.
“Who?”, Fernando asks.
“Juanita. You said she has a crush on you, it looks like she has it really bad.”, Lucy answers.
“Is it that obvious?”, Fernando asks.
“In the few times I seen her at the pool, the girl glows when she is around you. And when you’re not around, she all gloom and withdrawn.”, Lucy answers. “I don’t know what it is that she likes about you, but you are going to need to deal with that.”
“Eh… if it were that simple.”, Fernando says to himself.
“What do you mean by that?”, Lucy asks.
In the background, “Here’s the jetty, but where are they?” “There!”, another says.
“Just that.”, Fernando stated. They surround them as the patter of running feet stop around Lucy and Fernando.
“What are you doing with my big brother?!!”, Rachel yells at Lucy as she gets in between them.
“Rachel- leave her alone!”, Fernando tries to yell at her. “She did nothing!”
“Then what are you doing with her!”, Rachel yells.
“Trying to make up for our differences!”, Fernando yells out, before grabbing the sides of his head and bending over in pain.
Rachel and the girls just stare at him, unsure what to do.
“I’ll go get an ambulance…”, Ashley say as she starts to leave the area, only to freeze in her tracks when Fernando yells at her.
“DON’T YOU DARE!!!”, Fernando yells at her. “I’ll Be Fine!”
Rachel reaches to try to take off his glasses, only to have her wrists grabbed and held just inches from his face. He squeezes them tightly unknowingly. “Fernando, you’re hurting me!”, Rachel tells him. He lets her go with a shove.
“Look… I’m going home. Lucy… I’m sorry for what happened at the pool… and everything else that… happened.”, Fernando tells her, as he pants for air.
“Fernando?”, Lucy said with a note of concern in her voice. “You’re nose is bleeding.”
Fernando wipes his nose and upper lip with his arm as he gets up. He starts to take a couple of running steps, dives into flight mode, and crashes on the floor.
FERNANDO!”, Rachel yells as she runs to his side, followed by the other girls including Lucy surrounding him. Rachel kneels by him and tries to pick his limp body up, cleaning him up on her lap as best as she could. “Wake up, Fernando!” she says to him repeatedly. A couple of girls run back to the entrance of the park as cell phones are pulled out and 911 is called.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
An ambulance and a couple of police cars arrive at the scene, the girls are questioned of possible drug use, but Rachel fills in the gaps of Fernando’s history with his headaches. He is taken to Pouncefield General Hospital Emergency. News travels fast as friends and family wait in the waiting room. Parents of the girls who were there started to come in to pick them up, but instead stay because the girls wanted to stay. Rachel has been sitting with Grandma and Jorge, crying for most of the time. She had carried Fernando’s backpack since being taken there by ambulance from the park. Jorge was not happy to be there for his own personal reasons.
The emergency surgeon walk in, his mask and rubber gloves off. He looks at the crowd that was there for just one boy.
“Family of Fernando Gutierez?”, he asks as he looks at them all,
Grandma gets up with Rachel and Jorge in tow. She walks up to the surgeon, “Eye No Speek Inglish.” He takes a double take for reality to reset itself.
“Mexican?”, the surgeon asks.
“Puertoriqueno…”, she scowls back at him. He nods as he leads them to another room. He signals for a Spanish nurse to follow them. They walk into an office.
“Nurse Ramirez, translate for me.”, the surgeon tells her.
[Dialog shortened and is from the translated dialog from Nurse Ramirez and Grandma.]
“I was a nurse in the last Rodent War. So tell me everything and don’t hold anything back.”, Grandma tells them.
“Fernando seems to be fine and stable. We are not sure why what happened. At first we thought that he being a flying squirrel that he may have crashed into a tree, as some flying squirrels tend to do. But this is not the case.”, Nurse Ramirez translates for the surgeon. “We would like to keep him for observation.”
“What happened?”, Grandma asks.
“He came in by ambulance, unconscious. We found blood in both his nose and ears but head scans with X-rays and MRIs shows no brain swelling or injury that would indicate a hemorrhage or blood vessel rupture. Even his blood pressure was normal.”, Nurse Ramirez continues.
“Just like those specialists back in New York City- they see something is wrong but they cant find what is causing his pain.”, Grandma complains. “Where’s my grandson? I want to see him.”
“He’s in the pediatric ward, under heavy sedation.”, Nurse Ramirez answers.
“I want to see my grandson… now.”, Grandma tells her sternly.
The nurse and surgeon exchange words, then the surgeon makes a call to the pediatric ward. More words are exchanged.
“You can go see him. But the children must stay here.”, Nurse Ramirez stated.
“My grandchildren all go with me.”, Grandma says.
“But what of the psychological damage of seeing him in this condition?”, Nurse Ramirez asks.
“They seem him in worse, in New York Hospitals better than this.”, Grandma tells her. “Now, take me to him before I go home and start calling lawyers.”
More words are exchanged between the surgeon and the nurse. Then the nurse says, “Follow us.”
They walk through the halls and take an elevator to the third floor. They continue down the hall, into Pediatrics Ward C and to the last room on the left, Isolation Ward 3C60. Fernando lay in the hospital bed in his underwear, covered by a hospital gown. A mask covered his muzzle to give him oxygen, an IV in his right arm and life-monitoring sensor on his left index finger. Grandma looks at the monitor screens, seeing his basic life patterns. Rachel finds a plastic bag with his clothes inside by the bed, and takes it with her.
“These are normal for him. Have me sign the papers so I can take him home.”, Grandma tells the staff.
“He needs to stay for observation.”, Nurse Ramirez tells her.
“There is nothing here you can do for him, he might as well be at home.”, Grandma tells her.
“He’s under sedation right now, and taking him home might create a reoccurrence of what happened. And without us being able to observes what happens, we wont be able to do anything for him.”, Nurse Ramirez tells her.
“You have him under sedation, yet for the condition to manifest themselves in order to be observed only happened when he is awake. So how are you going to observe anything if he is passed out on some drug? That is your mistake right there! Now disconnect him so I can take him home.”, Grandma tells her.
Nurse Ramirez can only look at her in awe for having the right answers. She exchanges words with the surgeon, then returns to speak with Grandma.
“You can take him first thing in the morning, when the sedative would have worn off by then and he wakes up.”, Nurse Ramirez tries to explain.
Grandma gives her a long and mean stare, “Alright. I give permission for him to stay over night and I will pick him up in the morning. He better be ready for release when I get here, I also don’t give this institution or its staff permission to treat him for his condition, but only to observe. Do I make myself clear?”
Nurse Ramirez exchanges a few more words with the surgeon. He walks away to retrieve some paper work as Nurse Ramirez stay. “Very Clear.”, Nurse Ramirez tells her, “the surgeon will return with some denial of treatment papers for you to sign as a release form with tomorrow’s date and time in place.”
The surgeon returns with the papers which Grandma signs. Carbon copies are torn from the originals and given to Grandma. The release date and time is set for Monday, 9AM. Grandma takes the plastic bag with Fernando’s clothes and takes them home.
As they walk through the first floor waiting room, the girls who waited with their parents get up and surround Rachel and Jorge.
“How’s he doing?”, Juanita asks before the others could.
“He’s…”, Rachel started to say before being interrupted.
“He’ll be fine. It just a stupid headache.”, Jorge interrupts.
“What do you mean its just a stupid headache?”, some of the others ask.
“RACHEL! JORGE!”, Grandma yells from the exit doorway. They break from the group and run to Grandma’s side. They leave the hospital and take a taxicab home.
The girls look at each other. “What does he mean its just a headache?”, Cynthia asks before the others could.
“Don’t listen to him. Jorge is very jealous of his older brother because Fernando is given more because he suffers from headaches.”, Cathy beings to explain. “But this? This is something more than just a headache.”
A certain chipmunk breaks away from the group and asks her mom if she could visit the boy. “I don’t know if they will let us if its family only visitations.”, the mother replies.
“Can we try?”, Lucy asks.
The mother gets up and takes her daughter to Patient Information, where they get a visitation pass for Fernando. They go upstairs to the Pediatric Ward where he was and makes it to his room.
“Is that him?”, Lucy’s mother asks.
“Yeah.”, Lucy replies.
Lucy’s mother takes a seat and sits down. Then she notices a pair of dark glasses and a folded up cane on the nightstand by the bed. “Are these his?”, Lucy’s mother asks. Lucy turns around and looks at the items in her mother’s hand.
“Yes they are, mother.”, Lucy tells her, taking the glasses from her and putting them where they belong, on his face.
“He’s blind? What were you doing in the park with a blind kid?”, her mother asks.
“He’s not really blind. He just has a condition that makes him need these things. Its hard to explain.”, Lucy tries to explain.
An older spotted brown kitten girl who was also in pajamas, into the room, rolls a white bunny girl in pajamas in with her wheel chair. “Oh, we didn’t know he had company.”, the bunny girl says.
“Who are you two? And why are you here?”, Lucy asks.
“I’m Edith, and my kitty-cat friend is Marisol.”, the bunny answer.
“Yeah, we’re the welcoming committee here.”, Marisol adds as she rolls Edith closer to the bed, “Although we were told that he may not respond due to his head injury.”
“Welcoming committee? Aren’t you to patients here?”, Lucy asks.
“Yeah, we are.”, Edith answers. “I’ve been here the longest, waiting for a bone marrow transplant, and Marisol…”
“…And I also got cancer.”, Marisol adds.
Edith gets up and checks on Fernando, looking at his life monitors and then at him. She lightly pokes him in the ear, pulling it out with dried blood on the tip. “I hope he makes it through the night.”, Edith says.
“Yeah.”, Marisol agrees.
“What do you mean by that?”, Lucy asks.
“All us kids here are free to roam the ward if we are not too sick to leave our beds. Marisol and I hang out by the doctor’s lounge, and listen in to all the information they have to say about us, and what they say about him is not good. They think he may die before morning.”, Edith says.
“Die?”. Lucy says, as a tear starts to roll down her face.
“His grandmother signed a DNR form for him.”, Edith explains.
“DNR?”, Lucy asks.
“Do Not Resuscitate.”, Marisol answers.
“Uhm… I think we should go home, dear.”, Lucy’s mom says.
“But…”, Lucy started to say.
“Lucy, we need to go home.”, as her mother got up and takes her by the wrist. She takes Lucy out of the ward, and straight home. Edith and Marisol stay behind and watch over him. A couple of other child patients join them.
When Lucy got home, she calls the others and tells them of what she was told. Soon the local Internet Chat Room fills up with everyone under the age of 15 in Pouncefield, talking about the one kid who took on Lucy and won.
– End of I don’t like Sundays –