Saratoga Woods 01 The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Author:Elizabeth George [George, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101590584
Google: yJbJSXk2Ns8C
Amazon: 0670012963
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

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TWENTY-THREE

What with waiting for the two different buses to Coupeville as well as the stops they made along the route, Becca had time to do all her math and English homework before she reached the hospital. She was impatient to see Derric. This made the ride tedious, but the fact that the island buses were free made up for just about anything.

The sun was shining, but the temperature was plummeting on this particular day. As Becca approached the hospital entrance, across the parking lot a bank of trees tossed some of their leaves into the wind. Winter came early to this part of the country, with frost arriving hard on the heels of the last fallen leaf.

Inside the hospital, Becca raised the volume on the AUD box to block painful whispers hanging from the ceiling like bats. At the reception desk, she learned that the sign-in list for Derric wasn’t there. “That little bit of a girl took it off somewhere with her,” were the receptionist’s words, telling Becca that Jenn McDaniels was here at the hospital, too. She didn’t want to see Jenn, but she wanted to see Derric. She was going to have to put up with one in order to make the other happen.

Jenn was sitting outside Derric’s door. Her face was screwed up into a knot, and she was copying the sign-up list neatly onto a new schedule. She said without looking up, “You’re not supposed to write anything on this except your name. Then when you come, you’re supposed to check your name off to show you were here.” At that, she looked up and saw Becca. Her face grew more knotted. Becca was grateful that the AUD box prevented her from hearing Jenn’s whispers.

Jenn said, “Why d’you keep coming here? It’s not like you really knew him or anything.”

Becca didn’t answer. Jenn had said knew instead of know and for one sick moment, Becca thought Jenn meant that the worst had happened. She said, “He’s okay, isn’t he?”

“He’s in a coma, stupid. I don’t think that means he’s okay.”

When Jenn said this, her features looked like a coiled snake, and Becca thought this was too bad because Jenn was actually a pretty girl, otherwise. But she couldn’t let herself be pretty because of rage, which rose inside her and filled her head, and Becca could feel it sweeping toward her. So she ducked into Derric’s room.

Inside the room and away from Jenn, Becca pulled the AUD box’s earphone out of her ear. She approached the bed. It was quiet in here, with only the sound of the monitor that told the doctors Derric’s heart was beating strongly. Becca had heard at school that Derric was passing all the tests that proved he was alive and well inside his head. He simply wasn’t waking up, and no one could account for that. She’d also heard that a specialist had come from Seattle, but they’d learned nothing more from him than they’d learned from anyone else.

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