Please Don't Die by Lurlene McDaniel

Author:Lurlene McDaniel [McDaniel, Lurlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77636-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2010-10-27T04:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

“CALM DOWN, PLEASE. I can’t answer any questions with all of you talking to me at once,” Mr. Holloway insisted, standing behind his desk facing Katie, Lacey, and Chelsea.

“We’re calm,” Katie said, knowing it was a lie. She glanced at the others, who with their eyes gave her permission to be the spokesperson. “We just want to know what’s happened to Amanda.”

“She didn’t collapse or anything,” Richard assured them. “But the results of her most recent blood work looked bad. I called her family, who called her doctor, and he wanted her taken over to the hospital that’s overseeing the welfare of Jenny House kids. She’ll have the best of care until her parents can get here.”

“If her parents are coming right away, then it must be pretty bad,” Katie commented.

“It’s standard procedure,” Richard said. “Once they confer with the doctors, a decision will be made as to what to do.”

“We want to go see her,” Chelsea blurted out.

“As soon as we can,” Lacey added.

“I don’t know—”

“Please.” Katie interrupted. “She’s all alone until her family arrives. I know she’s scared.”

“One of our staff is with her.”

“It’s not the same as having us. We’re her friends.”

Richard glanced from one to the other, and Katie crossed her fingers and held her breath. “It’s an hour’s drive.”

“Can’t someone from the staff take us and wait with us until her parents come?”

“They have to make flight arrangements. You could be at the hospital most of the day. I have your welfare to consider too.”

Katie felt that she and Lacey would be fine, but she was concerned about Chelsea, whose bad heart left her with little reserve energy. “Maybe we all don’t have to go,” she suggested.

“You’re not leaving me out,” Chelsea insisted. “I’ll be at a hospital, for crying out loud. What safer place?”

Richard took a deep breath and nodded. “Come on. I’ll drive the three of you and send the staffer back here. We’ll wait together until Amanda’s parents arrive.”

* * *

The hospital was part of the North Carolina university system. It was an enormous redbrick building, surrounded by asphalt parking lots that shimmered with heat waves. Once inside, Katie saw clusters of people scurrying across the busy lobby. Many were dressed in white lab coats, but most reminded her of college kids back in Ann Arbor. Thinking of home brought Josh to her mind. Because of the rush to see Amanda, she’d given him a hurried good-bye kiss before he’d driven away. He’d promised to call to check on news of Amanda.

As Katie and her friends crossed to a gleaming row of elevators, Richard explained, “Because this is a teaching hospital, there’re classrooms and several auditoriums on the lower floors. This place has some of the newest and best medical equipment around. Plenty of fine medical minds here too.”

Katie knew he was trying to assure them that Amanda was in good hands, but all she wanted was to see her friend with her own eyes. They took an elevator up to the oncology floor and followed directions given at the nurses’ station to Amanda’s room.

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