The Someday Suitcase by Corey Ann Haydu

Author:Corey Ann Haydu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

List of Cures Danny’s Doctors Have Tried

– Antibiotics

– Two hospital stays

– IVs full of things to make his blood better

– Antihistamines

– Steroids

– Injections that Danny says don’t hurt but I think must hurt

– Going to other doctors and seeing if they can fix him

– A wheelchair

16

The sound of Danny not breathing is awful and wakes me up in the middle of the night when I sleep over on Friday night. I haven’t told him my symbiosis hypothesis yet. I think it needs further testing, so I begged and pleaded to spend the night at Danny’s, even though Mom thinks I should be trying to “get a little distance.”

I promised her I’d invite Elsa over for a sleepover next weekend. She sighed and said okay and kissed my forehead to let me know it really was okay and she’s on my side, even when it seems like she’s not.

Danny and I helped Ross make pizzas and after we researched more about Vermont and the Somerset Clinic, and I convinced him to show me pictures of the grandfather who was once sick like Danny. He didn’t let me ask his parents all about the grandfather, so there are still gaps in my research, of course.

Ms. Mendez says an ideal experiment doesn’t have any gaps, but almost no experiments are ideal.

I’m not thinking of Ms. Mendez now, though. The sounds Danny’s making are so terrible they push all the dreams and thoughts and wonderings right out of my brain. There’s only room for fear.

It’s a sputtering, trying-too-hard noise. He’s in the room next door because Helen thought if we stayed in the same room Danny might not get his rest. Listening to Danny is like listening to a storm right on the other side of the wall, so I grab my notebook from under my pillow and rush to him before anyone else wakes up and gets there.

Even worse than the sound of his tortured breathing is the color of his face—a terrible almost-purple that looks even scarier in the orange light of his nightlight (the one he made me promise to never tell anyone about). The new shade makes me freeze in the doorway. I’m not sure I can be in the same space as someone with purple skin, someone making awful wheezing sounds. For an instant, I forget he’s Danny at all. He’s only a person I want to get away from.

Then I tell myself, That’s your best friend. Do something, and my body finally listens to my mind and I run to his side.

Danny splits in the middle, his head and neck and torso rocking toward his knees, like that might help the cough come out more easily. I guess I’m getting here just in time.

I tell the fear in me to quiet down and I put my hand on his back and wonder if he’s choking on something in particular or nothing at all. I like explanations, but with Danny it’s so hard to find them. I hear Ms. Mendez in my head, telling me explanations are there, whether I have them yet or not.

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