Place of Wrath and Tears by Frank Zafiro

Author:Frank Zafiro
Language: spa
Format: mobi
Published: 2020-09-23T05:34:24+00:00

1216 hrs

Jimmy was groggy, but awake enough to know that Liz was in the room. He saw her big smile, and it warmed his heart.

She’s safe, at least.

But then he blinked a few times, and Liz was crying next to him. He wanted to reach out and comfort her as her sobs grew, but he didn’t have the strength. Finally, his mother snapped at her irritably, and Lizzie’s tears subsided.

He drifted in and out for what could have been a few minutes or a few hours. He was present for short snatches of conversation, then faded away again. At one point, he recalled seeing a picture Lizzie had drawn that she held up for him to see. Had she drawn it in the room, or brought it with her?

He didn’t know.

He closed his eyes to try to remember. When he opened them again, Lizzie was curled into the chair in the corner, wrapped in a blanket. A nurse stood next to his bed, looking down at a chart. When she noticed him looking up at her, she smiled at him.

“Hi, Jimmy,” she said. “I’m Dr. Graham. How are you feeling?”

A doctor, not a nurse.

Jimmy tried to answer, but his throat was dry and his voice caught. Dr. Graham poured a glass of ice water from a pitcher near his bedside, plonked in a straw and held both for him while he sipped. The cool water washed over his tongue and down his parched throat, and seemed to radiate relief out to his arms and legs.

“Thank you,” he rasped in a small whisper.

“Are you in any pain?” the doctor asked.

Jimmy shook his head slightly. He blinked to concentrate on the conversation. The cold water had momentarily jolted him awake, but he felt like he was slowly sliding back into a cottony sleep again.

“Good,” the doctor said.

“Goo...ood,” Jimmy repeated, slipping further away.

“We’re going to keep you here for a few more days,” the doctor told him.

“Okay,” Jimmy said, or at least he tried to. Maybe he only thought it. But the doctor seemed to understand him either way.

Jimmy closed his eyes. He intended to open them again, but they stayed shut. The last thing he heard before he went under again was his mother’s voice.

“Will he get a prescription for the pain?” she asked, her tone hard.

“Of course,” the doctor said.

“What will it be?” his mother demanded. “Oxy?”

Jimmy’s heart fell, but he was asleep before he heard the answer.

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