Overlooked (Gives Light Series Book 6) by Christo Rose

Author:Christo, Rose [Christo, Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2014-11-10T23:00:00+00:00

7

Just Mary

After four days of frost and snow it felt weird to be back in Nettlebush, where the sun scalded the back of my neck and I couldn’t wear a sweater without sweating. I didn’t have much time to think about it, because the first thing I did was follow Sky to the reservation’s hospital. Paul lay in a bed in the far back wing, unconscious, his eyelids sore and red.

“We think it was a tick bite,” said Robert Has Two Enemies, scribbling illegibly on Paul’s chart.

I must’ve had eight different tick bites since I was a kid, and none of them had ever put me in the hospital. I looked at Sky. He grabbed Paul’s hand and shook it, pale face tinged sickly green with worry.

“Honey, don’t worry,” Robert said. He sounded nonchalant, but I wondered if they taught you to talk like that in nursing school. “If this is what I think it is, it’s very rarely lethal. He had a bad reaction is all.”

Nothing Robert said reassured Sky. Sky planted himself on the edge of Paul’s bed. He stared at his dad so intently I swear he didn’t blink. His knuckles went white and his lips went thin and I couldn’t see the breath passing through his chest.

“You have to get out of the room now,” Robert said. “I’m changing his IV. Sorry, kids. Hospital policy.”

Sky wouldn’t leave the room until I put my hand on his back. He drifted after me into the hallway, a confused specter. I held his hands, my thumbs running across his knuckles. There were times when Sky calmed me down just by touching me. I wished I could do the same for him.

“I just heard about your dad,” Aubrey said, racing into the hallway.

Annie and Zeke were fast on Aubrey’s heels. Zeke had a comb stuck in his hair. Annie pulled Sky out of my grasp and into her arms, possessive, maternal. I don’t think I’d ever realized that about Annie before. She knew Sky didn’t have a mother; she was trying to fill the void.

“Don’t worry!” Zeke said. “Nobody dies from tick bites! I mean, maybe babies—and old people—and deer—”

I shot him a warning look. He shut up.

“Let’s go into the waiting room,” Annie said.

We picked the waiting room at the back of the hospital, the one with the giant water cooler. Aubrey filled a plastic cup with water for Sky, but Sky wasn’t interested in drinking. We sat down, and I swallowed up Sky’s hand in mine; I pressed my arm against his, my leg against his, because maybe the closer we were, the better everything would turn out.

“I promise,” Aubrey said. “People very rarely die from winter ticks. You’re more likely to die from a freak accident. A bomb, or—”

“That’s not helping,” Annie said.

“Sorry,” Aubrey said, sheepish.

Because I was holding Sky’s hand I felt what he felt. I should have been here, and I shouldn’t have left Nettlebush, and What if I could have helped him?

“It’s not your fault,” I growled.

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.