Sisterchicks on the Loose by Gunn Robin Jones

Author:Gunn, Robin Jones [Gunn, Robin Jones]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307564450
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2009-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

Eleven

The door to Marketta’s apartment opened. A solid woman in her early seventies with short, straight, silver gray hair peered at us in astonishment.

I went down on one knee and was patting Penny’s face. “Breathe, Penny! Open your eyes! Breathe! She just passed out,” I explained. “The stairs …”

Marketta grabbed Penny under her arms and single-handedly hoisted her off the luggage. “Penny?”

Penny’s eyes opened. “Oh, hello. Are you my aunt Marketta?”

Before Penny’s aunt could respond, Penny swooned again, but Marketta had a secure hold on her.

“Take the foots,” Marketta instructed me. “We will go to the sofa.”

I was amazed at Marketta’s strength as she pulled Penny across the floor and the two of us lifted her onto a dark green sofa.

Marketta went for a glass of water. I patted Penny’s face some more and spoke with her gently at first and then with firm demands. “Look at me, Penny. That’s right. Open your eyes.”

Penny’s eyelids fluttered. “I should have only taken one,” she mumbled.

“One what?”

“Cold pill.”

“Oh, Penny, how many did you take?”

“Two. Two of the blue ones.”

“Blue ones! Penny, you were supposed to take the white ones. The blue ones are for nighttime, and you only need one of those.”

“Oh,” Penny moaned.

I turned to Marketta. “She took some medicine.”

“For sleeping?”

“Yes, for sleeping, but she thought they were for her cold.”

Marketta offered the glass of water. “She will be okay?”

“Yes, I think she’ll be okay. She fell asleep like this once on a camping trip when a wasp stung her. She took an antihistamine to keep down the swelling and fell into a deep sleep. One nighttime cold pill is enough to make a person sleep all night. She took two.”

I wasn’t sure if I was speaking too rapidly or if using words like “antihistamine” would confuse Marketta.

She turned to Penny with the sweetest expression. “Just like your mother.”

I watched with a twinge of tender surprise as Marketta leaned over, kissed Penny on the brow, and placed the back of her hand on Penny’s cheek, as if lulling a child to sleep. “Penny, Penny,” she crooned softly. “You are welcome to sleep as much as you want. You are at my home. Aunt Marketta’s home.”

“Okay,” Penny muttered without opening her eyes.

“You can give me your hello later. Sleep now.”

“Okay. You two go ahead.” Penny’s words came out in slow motion. “I’ll be right back. Don’t wait for me. Tell her about the picture, Sharon. With the fish.”

I knew she had to be okay because only Penny would be half-wittedly networking at a time like this. If she was thinking clearly enough to remember the picture of Marketta and her mom when they were girls, then Penny was fine.

Marketta covered Penny with a crocheted blanket, and we let the antihistamine-assisted slumber fairies complete their interrupted task of carrying Penny to the Land of Nod.

“I’ll bring in the luggage,” I told Marketta.

She followed me and helped lift the heavy bags, carrying them to a small room to the right of the kitchen area.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.