The Magic Meadow by Alexander Key

Author:Alexander Key
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

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They talked it over quickly. Nurse Jackson didn’t want him to go to Belleview again—for some reason she was very uneasy about it—yet she was forced to agree that it was the only thing to do. Everything in the bag was important. Aside from her extra clothes, there were matches, a flashlight, a mending kit, some packages of dried food, a set of kitchen knives, and the priceless medicines.

The others were still asleep when he stretched out on his bunk again and closed his eyes. He’d dressed in sneakers, a pair of jeans, and an old flannel shirt that had come out of Donations, and Nurse Jackson had made him eat two of the johnnycakes for breakfast. They were wonderful with the tangy molasses, and he could have eaten more, but he quickly squelched his appetite when he realized how little food there was for six people.

In spite of being rested, it seemed to take a lot more effort to get away this time, possibly because he hated so much to leave. The last thing he heard was Charlie Pill in the next bunk, for in the past few minutes Charlie had begun to mutter to himself with rising fever. Then abruptly everything faded.

He landed with a crash in the cold dark of Belleview.

Brick was too dazed for a while to comprehend what had happened. Though he remained conscious, it seemed that he kept sliding away to the edge of blackness, then pain would jerk him back—pain in his head, in his back, in his elbows. Finally the blackness receded, and the pain in his head settled down to a throbbing ache. The rest of him hurt whenever he tried to move.

Gradually it came to him that he was lying on Ward Nine’s hard cement floor. He hadn’t missed his bed, for there were no beds left in the ward—he could tell that by the vague light that came through the windows and through the open door to the corridor. He had, he reasoned finally, arrived at the exact spot where his bed had been, and from there he’d dropped to the floor.

Slowly, carefully, he forced himself to sit up. Nothing seemed to be broken—except possibly his head. That ached like fury. Then he realized this was no time to be worrying about his hurts. He had come here to find the lost bag, and he’d better get it and leave as soon as possible.

The bag wasn’t in Ward Nine. Even in the near-dark he could tell that. Since he’d been here last, twelve or more hours ago, everything in the ward had been removed except for the old clock between the windows.

He was almost certain the bag had been left near his bed. Then the men who had taken everything out must have moved it. What would they have done with it?

Brick put his hands to his throbbing head and tried to think. By this time, he remembered, all the patients in Belleview were supposed to have been carted away to the new hospital.

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