The Sweetest Hallelujah by Elaine Hussey

Author:Elaine Hussey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2013-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

IT WAS LATE WHEN Cassie woke up, a new day. She felt a sense of lightness, as if she’d been carrying a suitcase full of rocks that had suddenly flown off and landed somewhere on the road behind her.

Betty Jewel slept even later, then woke up shivering, her teeth chattering so hard she sounded like a woodpecker at the door.

Cassie jerked the covers off her bed, the thin blanket, the cheap bedspread, and tucked them around Betty Jewel. But her shivers continued.

“What can I do? Tell me what to do, Betty Jewel.”

“Turn the air conditioner off.”

Cassie fumbled with the knobs, saying words under her breath that would probably cause Queen to get her willow switch. Finally she figured it out, and the unit clattered to a stop.

Cassie sank onto the edge of the bed and pressed her hand to Betty Jewel’s forehead. “I don’t think you have a fever, but I’m no expert. Are you in pain?”

“Some. My pills are in my purse.”

Cassie got a glass of tepid water from the bathroom to wash down the pills, then rummaged in the closet for more covers. All she could find was a threadbare blanket that looked as if it wouldn’t keep a flea warm, let alone a woman with cancer slowly freezing her blood. Still, she tucked that around Betty Jewel, then sat awhile rubbing her cold hands.

“Do you need a doctor, Betty Jewel?”

“No.”

“If you lie there and die trying to be brave, I’m going to be mad as the devil.”

“I’m not dying, just freezing. Since the cancer, stress does that to me.”

“You just rest, then. I’m going to get some more blankets and something for us to eat. Wait right here.” Good Lord, where did she think Betty Jewel would go?

She tucked the thin blanket around Betty Jewel, then hurried off. By the time Cassie returned to the room with blankets and food, it was raining again and she hadn’t even thought to get an umbrella. She dashed inside and was immediately struck by what felt like a solid wall of heat.

The room was a sauna, but Betty Jewel was still shivering. With sweat turning Cassie to a puddle, she pulled the new blankets out of the shopping bag and began layering them onto Betty Jewel.

“How many’d you get?”

“Six.” Sweat dripped off Cassie’s nose and onto the white blanket that covered Betty Jewel like a snowdrift.

“I’m sorry, Cassie.”

“Hush up. I can handle it.”

Cassie sat on the end of the bed and wrapped her hands around Betty Jewel’s blanketed feet. She wished she’d bought socks, too, warm fuzzy socks that would make Betty Jewel feel cozy no matter how cold she was.

What if this was more than the chill of stress? Cassie’s chest felt flushed, and she couldn’t have said whether it was from worry or fear or the torturous heat in this mean little motel room. She couldn’t even raise a window for fear of sending Betty Jewel into another teeth-knocking chill.

Cassie went outside to fill the ice bucket.

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